by Susan Hatler
Suddenly, I yanked my head up, the hairs at the back of my neck prickling. Disoriented and confused, I blinked at the dimness weeping indigo and royal purple shades along the path the bench sat on. That feeling that had woken me from my work—that undeniable feeling that someone was watching me—grew stronger.
I turned my head to see a man in a suit walking toward me. His steps were slow, but steady and I frowned. Even from a distance and in the dim light he seemed familiar, but I was still worried. I’d never stayed in the gardens this late before and I didn’t know if I was safe.
Then he broke into a small pool of light and all the air went out of my lungs.
Brian stood before me.
I shook my head, knowing I must be hallucinating. Hello, I was in Italy? The man had to be someone who looked like Brian. I gave my arm a light pinch to see if I was awake, and the pain reassured me that I was wide awake. I hadn’t fallen asleep in the gardens after all.
I stood up, clutching the sketchpad to my chest.
“Brian? Is that you?” My voice quavered as he got even closer and my eyes devoured him. The suit was wonderful and it accented every lean inch of his body. His hair was tousled and he had a tentative smile on his face.
“Where have you been?” he demanded, his tone urgent. “The art gallery said you left for home hours ago. I’ve been worried sick about you! Then I remembered you were always talking about this place and I decided to come by. I’d just about given up when I saw you sitting there.”
I gave my arm another little pinch. Never hurts to be sure. Ouch! Nope, still not dreaming. I didn’t know why Brian was here, though. Panic took hold as I considered the possibilities in a split second. “Is Wendy okay? Why would you come all the way here? How did you get a passport so fast? Wait, did you get a passport? I mean you had to have . . .” My voice trailed off from my rambling. I blinked a few times, still not able to convince myself, despite the pinches, that I was awake and not dreaming.
He let out a relieved sigh. “The passport? It cost me a small fortune to get it this quickly.”
Everything in me screamed at me to run to him, to throw myself into his arms and tell him how much I loved him. But I was still hurt and worse, I was too confused by his sudden appearance to be able to make sense of the fact that he was there at all.
“Why are you here?” I asked.
He shuffled his feet. A butterfly zoomed down and lit on the top of his head. His eyes crossed then rolled upward. I pressed a hand to my mouth to keep from laughing aloud. The butterfly perched there, seeming unaware that it was on top of a human head and not a flower.
Brian chuckled. “Um, a little help?”
I moved toward him and blew a gentle breath at the butterfly. It took flight and that solved his problem, but it added to mine because now I was so close to him that I could feel the warmth spilling off his body and smell the delicious scent that was all him. That smell made my heart beat way too fast, as did just being near him.
“What am I doing here? I already told you, sweetheart. I can’t do long distance.”
The edges of the sketchbook pressed into my chest as I nodded. “I know.”
“I really can’t. I know it works for some people, but it would never work for me.”
He’d come all the way to Italy to tell me that? Frustrated and with my wounds spilling fresh misery along my nerve endings, I bit out, “Yeah, I understand.”
He held up a finger. “Oh, I did what you asked. I checked to see if there had been a blue moon the night Wendy threw that party and I first kissed you. There wasn’t a blue moon.”
I gaped at him. “What do you mean? I checked myself.”
“Well, you must’ve been flustered when you checked because there’s a blue moon on that date all right, but not until next year.”
Not until next year? I suddenly recalled it all. How I’d been trying not to be rude while Janine and Olivia talked about the Avocado Rose class and how I’d been in such a hurry. . .
I’d read the day right but the year wrong. Oh, embarrassment.
My heart sank. Why had he brought up my silly mistake? So I’d know that we weren’t supposed to be together forever? “Well, thanks for coming to tell me you didn’t dump me because of the legend.”
“If you’ll recall, I never dumped you. I didn’t come here to tell you that, either. I came because I think Grandma didn’t tell us that she was the girl in the legend because she said once she was sure the legend was the cause of a lot of folks thinking they were in love when they weren’t, and a lot more thinking their love was doomed when it really wasn’t. She thought the legend made it too easy to give up. I think she was right about that.”
Now I was really confused. “I don’t understand, Brian.”
He took a breath so deep it lifted his broad chest. He blurted out, “I hired Janine to be the General Manager of the Inn at Blue Moon Bay.”
I shook my head just in case a butterfly or a bee or something had flown in there and was messing with my hearing. “You did what?”
“I hired Janine to run the inn.”
There was definitely nothing wrong with my hearing then. “What? Why?”
He brushed his hands across his too-long hair, ruffling it and mussing it. He looked so adorable I wanted to grab him and hug him, but I still didn’t know where I stood. “Because I can’t run the inn while I’m living here.”
Or maybe there was something wrong with my hearing. “I’m sorry, did I hear you right? Did you say while you’re living here? As in living here in Florence? But you said that you never wanted to leave Blue Moon Bay and the inn.”
He let his hands fall to his sides. “No, I never want to leave you, Megan. Not ever. I had to look up that legend because I was scared we were doomed. After I read it, I remembered what Grandma had said about that legend. That’s when I figured out what she meant about me never really letting go and loving someone. I want love like that and the only way I can do that is to let go of the inn. For a year, anyway. I can do that . . . for you, for us. Janine will take good care of it until we get home again.”
My hand crept up to my mouth. Tears ran down my cheeks unheeded. “Until we get home again? Do you mean it? You’re going to stay here until my year’s over?”
“If you’ll have me,” he said.
If I’d have him? Was he nuts? I didn’t want anything else! I flew into his arms then and hugged him so tightly that the sketchbook banged against his back. He laughed and hugged me back and we stood there in the velvety soft darkness with the scent of a million flowers rising all around us and my cheek pressed into his chest so tightly I could hear the reassuring and ever so steady thump and beat of his heart below that gorgeous suit he wore.
Tears blurred my vision. “Why are you wearing a suit?”
He stepped back. “Well, I wanted to look good for the occasion.”
I laughed. “Brian, you could have shown up in jeans and a t-shirt and I would have been just as happy to see you.”
He nodded. “But it wouldn’t have had the same effect.”
I straightened his lapels. “It is really nice and it looks really good on you, too.”
“Megan . . .”
“Did you buy it in Blue Moon Bay?”
“Megan . . .” His hands caught mine.
“Please tell me you didn’t make that long flight in a suit. You’d be so uncomfortable—”
“Megan!”
I heard the urgency in his voice. “What?”
“I wore the suit so I could do this.” He fumbled in his pocket, pulled out a delicate little black box, and held it on his palm. My hands flew to my mouth and a small cry of joy escaped as he opened the box to reveal a lovely ring with a single diamond set mid-center.
He dropped down on his knee. “Megan Wallace, will you marry me?”
“Yes!” I leapt forward just as he decided to stand up. My enthusiastic leap almost landed both of us on the path and it took a lot of quick grabbing at air and shuff
ling around to keep us both on our feet. His arms went around me for a moment and then he took my hand, sliding the ring onto my finger as I watched, overwhelmed by the sheer magic of the moment.
He gathered me close again. His mouth came down on mine. That kiss sent my senses reeling, making me forget everything but the feel of his mouth and the warmth and strength of his body where it met mine. I kissed him back, while my heart pounded out a fierce and wonderful rhythm that rang in my ears.
We kissed for a long time, a very long time. Everything that had gone wrong between us was forgotten. When Brian finally broke the kiss off, he picked me up and twirled me around until I was shrieking with laughter.
My sketchbook, which I still held but had completely forgotten all about, fell to the ground with a little thump. Brian set me down gently. My feet settled on the path but my heart still floated free high above it as he bent and picked up that sketchbook. My breath sucked in as he looked down at the sketch. I moved closer so I could see it too. I’d sketched him, standing before the inn with the sea rising high near the shores and the finger of land the plaque rested on.
He looked at me, a question in his eyes. I took the sketchbook and held it. He asked, “You were sketching me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I missed you. It’s always been you that inspired me.”
Brian smiled. “It’s always been you, too.”
The butterflies took flight all around us and the night blooms opened, showing their sweet faces to us and the low-lying moon. I looked up, wondering if Aunt Bea knew this would happen, if this was why she’d insisted that I come here—to where magic and love could happen in the gardens, if I would just let the butterflies and the flowers show me the way.
They had shown me the way.
“Thanks, Aunt Bea,” I said, as Brian took my hand and led me down the path to the garden’s exit, and to our new life together.
The End
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If you enjoyed spending time
with these characters,
be sure to read Harper’s story in:
The Christmas Cabin
(Blue Moon Bay, 5)
About the Author
SUSAN HATLER is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author, who writes humorous and emotional women’s fiction and young adult novels. Many of Susan’s books have been translated into German, Spanish, French, and Italian. A natural optimist, she believes life is amazing, people are fascinating, and imagination is endless. She loves spending time with her characters and hopes you do, too.
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Titles by Susan Hatler
Do-Over Date Series
Million Dollar Date
The Double Date Disaster
The Date Next Door
Date to the Rescue
Fashionably Date
Once Upon a Date
Destination Date
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The Wedding Whisperer Series
The Wedding Charm
The Wedding Catch
My Wedding Date
The Wedding Bet
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Blue Moon Bay Series
The Second Chance Inn
The Sisterhood Promise
The Wishing Star
The Friendly Cottage
The Christmas Cabin
The Oopsie Island
The Wedding Boutique
The Holiday Shoppe
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Better Date than Never Series
Love at First Date
Truth or Date
My Last Blind Date
Save the Date
A Twist of Date
License to Date
Driven to Date
Up to Date
Déjà Date
Date and Dash
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Christmas Mountain Romance Series
The Christmas Compromise
‘Twas the Kiss Before Christmas
A Sugar Plum Christmas
Fake Husband for Christmas
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Treasured Dreams Series
An Unexpected Date
An Unexpected Kiss
An Unexpected Love
An Unexpected Proposal
An Unexpected Wedding
An Unexpected Joy
An Unexpected Baby
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Young Adult Novels
See Me
The Crush Dilemma
Shaken (Mind Reader Series, 1)
Linked (Mind Reader Series, 2)
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