Love Me Like I Love You

by Willow Winters

  After a few days, I’d finally won the argument. He moved in, and we’d been living together since. I was happier than I’d ever been in my life, which is why what I had to tell him this evening scared me. I didn’t want anything to disrupt this state of bliss we’d been living in.

  I heard the keys in the lock and the front door open and close a few seconds later. I took a deep breath and walked around the island and into the living room to greet Billy.

  He stopped short as his eyes landed on me, a big smile slowly curling up his lips. My body relaxed at the sight of him and the happiness written all over his face.

  “Never gonna get sick of coming home to this,” he said, eating up the last few feet between us. He pulled me into his arms, kissing me good and hard on the lips before moving on to my neck. He pulled back slightly, a question in his eyes, a furrow on his brow. “Do I smell something actually cooking and not burning?”

  I rolled my eyes, swatting at his chest as I wiggled out of his embrace to walk back to the kitchen. “Smart ass,” I playfully retorted.

  He chuckled, following behind me. “I guess that means Adele’s been here.”

  “Hey! What makes you think I didn’t do this all by myself?”

  His head tilted to the side.

  “Okay. Fine. She may have helped a little.”

  “She should’ve stayed and had dinner with us. I haven’t seen your parents since brunch last week,” he said, popping a tomato from the salad into his mouth.

  I smacked his hand as he reached for another. “What were you, raised in a barn?”

  “For the most part, yeah,” he grinned wide, making me pause for a moment, truly second guessing what I was about to tell him.

  BILLY

  Hannah’s hand paused as she stirred the sauce in the pot. It was only an instant, and most men probably wouldn’t have caught the small flash of worry in her eyes. Something was up with my girl. I knew that the second I walked into our home and smelled dinner. She hadn’t attempted to cook for me since that night she burned spaghetti at my old apartment in Billingsley.

  Whatever it was, I could tell she was nervous about telling me. I stepped behind her at the stove, snaking my arm around her waist as I kissed her shoulder. “I love you, Hannah, you know that, right?”

  I felt her body relax, her head falling back and lolling a little to the side as she looked up at me. “I know. I love you too, Billy. So much.”

  “Good. Then tell me what’s going on?”

  She straightened, squirming free so she could dish up our plates. “Let’s eat first. Then I have a surprise for you.”

  I sat back in my chair, my belly full, my heart happy.

  “That was delicious, Han. Thank you.” I picked up my glass of wine, finishing it off, while noticing she hadn’t even touched hers. She’d barely eaten any of her food, for that matter.

  “You feeling okay?” I asked, reaching for her hand as she used her fork to scoot her food around her plate with the other.

  She nodded, setting her fork down. I squeezed her hand in support as she picked up her glass of water and took a drink.

  “I have a surprise for you. Something to tell you…”

  “Whatever it is, Hannah, you can tell me.”

  Looking straight at me with a nervous smile on her face she finally spit it out. “I have a new job offer.”

  My shoulders relaxed with her words, a tension in them I hadn’t noticed lifting. I’d known she hadn’t been happy with her current job for a while, but she’d been determined to stick it out for a year. That year was now nearly up.

  “That’s great, babe. I hadn’t realized you were already looking. What is it? Are you going to accept?”

  She cleared her throat, her eyes falling from mine back to her plate. “That’s the thing…I’m not sure. I want to, because it’s a great opportunity. It’s just…”

  I could hear the worry in her voice and knew immediately what had her all worked up. The job wasn’t in Seattle. She’d told me before she may have to move for a job elsewhere. Shifting forward to the edge of my seat to get closer to her, I lifted her chin to look at me. “Hannah, wherever it is we’ll make it happen. You don’t have to worry. I’m not tied to Seattle. The only thing I’m tied to is you.”

  And that was the damn truth. I’d chase after Hannah wherever her job took her. She was my dream come true. The best thing to ever happen to me.

  The somberness in her expression slowly lifted with her smile. “That’s good. Because it’s an offer I’m not sure I could refuse… How would you feel about living in a small town in the middle of Nowhere, Texas? I hear the service is terrible, and the people are nosy as hell, but they have one of the best burgers you’ll ever have the pleasure of putting in your mouth.”

  I chuckled, shaking my head. I pulled her from her chair and into my lap. “I’d say that sounds like a damn fine place to be. And I really like your kind of surprises.”

  “That’s good,” she said with another big smile. “Because I have another one for you. A big one that I’m hoping you’ll like even more.”

  She nibbled at her bottom lip, hesitating to deliver the next surprise she had in store for me.

  “I’m on pins and needles here, blondie.”

  With a deep breath she said the last two words I expected to hear: “I’m pregnant.”

  Epilogue

  BILLY

  If you’d have told me a year ago that everything I’d dreamed of happening would come true, I would’ve said you were out of your damn mind. Dreams didn’t come true for me, something always came along to dash them no matter how badly I wanted them, or how hard I fought for them.

  Today, I was no longer that man. I believed things happened for a reason, even if you don’t understand it at the time. Dreams are always changing. And the ones you work for and achieve are the ones I believe are truly meant to be your path in life.

  Looking over at the woman sitting beside me in my truck, I knew she was the one. I probably knew it from the first moment I laid eyes on her. I pulled the vehicle to a stop near the river. A few hundred yards away would be where Tucker’s construction company would be breaking ground on our new house in the morning.

  Hannah rubbed her palm over the tiny baby bump below her dress, her skin glowing, her big hazel eyes full of peace. She’d been happier here than I ever expected when we first moved to Billingsley a few months earlier.

  She’d taken the offer Lottie had given her. Turned out Hannah wasn’t the only one pregnant. Lottie and Tucker were expecting one of their own, and Lottie had asked Hannah to be part owner of the shop. She needed someone she could trust to help her run things, so she wasn’t working as much. Knowing Hannah was the person she trusted most and deserved it the most, she’d made the offer for Hannah to buy in and be a fifty-fifty partner. The idea of the store in Billingsley had after all been Hannah’s.

  “What are we doing here?” she asked.

  I’d told her we were going out for dinner tonight to celebrate my Little League team’s first win. Turned out, I found a new calling while living in Seattle. I hadn’t realized how much satisfaction I’d get out of coaching the next generation of baseball players. As soon as we returned to Billingsley, I signed up as a volunteer coach.

  “I have a surprise for you.”

  “Of course, you do.” She chuckled.

  I grinned, jumping out of the truck. I jogged to the other side and helped her out. Taking her hand in mine, I walked us closer to the river, where I had Leighton and Aaron help set up a little picnic on a blanket for us. Her head fell against my shoulder as we walked, her one free hand always caressing our baby.

  When she first told me the news that night in Seattle, I’d thought I heard her wrong. I knew we hadn’t been using protection, but she’d been on the pill. Turned out the antibiotics she took for a little bacterial infection she’d had made them temporarily ineffective.

  It didn’t matter. I’d always planned on having kids with her s
omeday. It just came a little sooner than expected, and I was more than fucking thrilled at the idea of her carrying my child. Boy or girl, I didn’t care, because I planned to have more than one with her.

  “What’s that?” she asked as I helped her to a sitting position on the ground. Her eyes were looking curiously at a box wrapped up perfectly with a bow and her name on it.

  “That’s part of the surprise.”

  “Can I open it now?”

  I chuckled, taking a seat beside her. “I don’t know. I was thinking about having you wait awhile before allowing you to.”

  “You know I’m not that patient, right?”

  “Yeah.” I kissed her head. “I know. Let’s hope our child doesn’t get that from you.”

  She gave my side a light jab with her elbow as I pulled her into me. “Sometimes, I wonder why I put up with you, cowboy.”

  “I figure it has to do with my culinary skills. You’d starve otherwise.”

  “I managed just fine for years without you.”

  “Managed? Sure. But you weren’t living until you met me, and you weren’t pregnant, with late-night cravings, in the middle of nowhere.”

  “You sure have an ego on you, lately.”

  “How could I not when I have you on my arm? Plus, I’m hoping you’ll want to put up with me for even longer after you open that box.”

  “Does that mean I can open it now?”

  “Sure.” I shrugged.

  She picked it up, tearing through the paper and flipping open the lid. She tossed out a few pieces of the surrounding tissue paper to reveal her surprise. She lifted the baseball from the box, her eyes flooding as she rotated it around in her hand to read the words I’d written on it for her.

  Will you marry me, slugger?

  Her hand went to her mouth as she held back her tears. She looked up at me where I’d shifted to one knee, a ring in my hand.

  “Hannah, that first night I met you I knew there was something different about you, something that would change my life forever. You were never a one-night stand for me. You were once in a lifetime. I’m pretty sure that’s why I felt the way I did when you let those three words slip. Because deep down, I think my heart fell in love with you the moment I laid my eyes on you… So, please tell me you’ll make one more dream come true for this small-town cowboy.”

  Her head bobbing, tears streaming, she flew into my arms, tackling me to the ground. Her lips were all over me as I rolled her to the side, pulling back slightly. “Is that a yes?”

  “No.” She shook her head. "It’s a hell yes, cowboy.”

  I took a brief moment to stare at her, committing to my memory the way this beautiful, glowing woman looked while promising to spend her life with me. Then, leaning in again, I kissed her the way I planned to every day for as long as I lived.

  THE END

  Thank you for reading! 100% of the profits from this anthology will be given to the Live A Thousand Lives charity.

  This charity donates audio players - equipped with hundreds of hours of classic stories - to low-to-no mobility patients in nursing facilities and hospitals.

  The Live A Thousand Lives Project has been fueled by prolific Romance writers and unabashed book lovers who appreciate that audiobooks boost mental health, improve memory and stimulate the brain in ways that mirror reading printed text.

  WAYS TO HELP:

  You can donate by clicking here!

  Or you can purchase an audio device for yourself - a Brilliant Blue Classic or a Red Hot Romance Device (with over $200 worth of audios from multiple bestselling authors) by clicking here!

  For every ONE player purchased, Live A Thousand Lives is able to donate TWO Brilliant Blue Classics.

  Want to learn more about Wes and the one that got away? Click here to get Taming Wes!

  BLACKWOOD SERIES

  Billionaires and Rock Stars

  A REASON TO STAY

  THE ONLY ONE

  A REASON TO LEAVE

  FOREVER YOURS

  MADE SERIES

  Romantic Suspense

  HONOR

  BURDEN

  SALVATION

  BILLINGSLEY SERIES

  Small Town Second Chance

  REDEEMING LOTTIE

  CHASING HANNAH

  TAMING WES

  TEMPTING TIM

  ROPING MELANIE

  STARRY FALLS SERIES

  Small Town Romance

  IN THE WAKE OF YOU

  Read my series starters for free:

  LAUNCHING INTO LOVE

  About the Author

  Learn more about Melissa Ellen by visiting her website and subscribing for monthly updates in her newsletter!

  Website:

  www.melissaellenwrites.com

  Contact me through any of the ways below:

  Email me:

  melissa@melissaellenwrites.com

  Come Hang Out With Me!

  Follow Me on Bookbub

  Find Me on Facebook

  Stalk me on Instagram

  Join my Reader Group on Facebook

  Become a VIP Reader

  One Call Away

  By Emily Goodwin

  To my girls. I love you to the moon and back.

  Playlist

  Unsteady- X Ambassador

  Never Say Never- The Gray

  Mad World- Gary Jules

  Say Something- A Great Big World

  Let Her Go- Passenger

  Breathe Me- Jasmine Thompson

  Never Let Me Go- Florence + The Machine

  Trust- Christina Perri

  Say You Won’t Let go- James Arthur

  Cosmic Love- Florence + The Machine

  Back to You- Alex & Sierra

  Even My Dad Does Sometimes- Ed Sherran

  Life of the Party- Shawn Mendez

  One Call Away- Charlie Puth

  Chapter 1

  Sierra

  Then…

  My phone clatters to the ground, and the smiling faces of Hermione and Luna stare up at me from the back of my Harry Potter phone case. I exhale, and as the breath leaves me, so does part of my soul. I close my eyes, refusing to process what I just heard.

  Time stops, yet everything is swirling around me at a dizzying rate. Panic rises in my chest, and my knees threaten to buckle. A strangled sob escapes my lips and I pitch forward, catching myself on the counter. Tears burn behind my closed eyelids, and I’m struggling to breathe.

  “Sierra? Are you all right?” Mrs. Williams’ voice comes from behind me, sounding miles away as if it’s echoing through a dark and harrowing tunnel. She’s only a few yards to my right, putting a new shipment of children's books away on a display. “Sierra?” she calls again and the floorboards of this little, old bookstore creak beneath her feet. “Honey, what’s wrong?” There’s a bit of panic in her voice, but she does her best to hide it.

  “Jake,” I whisper, and the tears start to fall. “Jake…”

  Mrs. Williams picks up my phone. There’s a fresh crack down the middle, but I don’t care right now. It’s just a phone. It can be replaced. She carefully puts it to her ear and says something, and then listens to what the liar on the other end has to say.

  I want to swat the phone out of her hand. I want it to fall and break into a million pieces on the cold, hard ground. Because none of it is true.

  It can’t be true.

  Jake can’t leave me.

  The blood drains from Mrs. Williams’ face. She nods as she talks, then lowers the phone. “Sierra,” she says softly, voice full of pity. Her hand lands on my back and if I weren’t frozen still, I’d jerk away. I don’t need sympathy. Because that means something is wrong. That means something bad happened.

  And nothing did.

  Things are good.

  I’m good.

  Jake’s good.

  We’re good.

  “I’ll drive you to the hospital.”

  The panic is back and everything inside me aches. I need to be there. Now. “Th
e store,” I start, brain going into survival mode. It’s only me and Mrs. Williams running this place, and we have our first customer of the morning in right now, shyly flipping through a dirty romance novel.

  “The store can wait,” Mrs. Williams says gently. “We won’t miss too many sales anyway.” She gives me a small smile, eyebrows pinched together with worry. “Come on, honey, grab your purse.”

  I blink and realize that tears are streaming down my face like rain. I can’t make them stop. My chest tightens when I turn, and all I can do to keep from coming apart is to focus on putting one foot in front of the other. I make it into the little room in the back and take my purse from the hook. There’s no air conditioning back here, and the humidity is high today, normal for late spring in Mississippi. The world spirals around me and the liar’s words echo through my head.

  There was an accident.

  I’m sorry.

  We’ve done all that we can do.

  There’s not much time left.

  Hurry if you want to say goodbye.

  “Sierra?” Mrs. Williams calls. I can hear her keys jingling in rhythm with her limp as she hurries to the back. The weather makes her bad hip hurt. “Come on, honey.”