LOL #3 Romantic Comedy Anthology

by Anthology

  And it was love.

  She wanted all of it, all he had to give. So she said, “Love me.”

  And he did.

  Later, much later, Hannah woke up with Liam spooned against her back, his arms wrapped around her and his face pressed against the back of her neck, his deep, even breaths brushing against her skin.

  She decided that she would gladly spend eternity like this. Her sprained ankle was almost forgotten and she didn’t want to move, didn’t want to think, didn’t want to focus on what came next. She had been thoroughly loved, practically driven out of her mind with pleasure, and no matter what Liam had made a point of saying, she was going to enjoy this dream-like state for a little while longer.

  Because eventually she was going to have to think about how colossally stupid she’d just been.

  This whole thing was, well, transformative, that’s what it was, and there was no going back to just friends after this. If his arms weren’t still around her, she might have started crying already.

  She couldn’t lose him. She just couldn’t. And she didn’t trust herself enough to keep him.

  “It’s going to be ok.” Liam’s voice rumbled against her neck. He always seemed to know what she was thinking.

  Glad she wasn’t facing him, she said, “I don’t think you realize what we’ve done.”

  He laughed. “Oh, I think I have an idea.”

  “Stop.” She couldn’t joke right now, not when she was ready to throw up.

  “Stop what? Enjoying this? Enjoying you?”

  “Yes. No. I don’t know!” And she didn’t. She just knew she was scared. “How could you change everything between us, just like that—in an instant?”

  “I told you, I couldn’t be patient anymore.”

  He had said that, but Hannah didn’t understand. Liam was always patient. It was one of the things she loved best about him. He had once sat with her at his kitchen table one day not too long after she had arrived in Bliss Harbor. She’d just found out that her ex-husband had already remarried, even though the ink on their divorce was barely dry. Liam had waited literally hours while she fiddled with her wine glass, silent tears tracking down her face as she tried to find the right words to express the grief she felt, the overwhelming guilt, and the relief that still felt like a betrayal. Liam had never rushed her, never indicated he had anywhere else he wanted to be other than right next to her, ready to listen if she wanted to talk.

  She wanted him to say something now, anything, to take away the ball of fear in her stomach at the thought of losing him. She said, her voice sounding brittle even to her ears. “I don’t understand. What were you being patient about?”

  “You. Us. This.” He placed a gentle kiss against the back of her neck. “We’ve been falling in love for three years, Hannah. I’d say that’s a record.”

  Chapter Five

  We’ve been falling in love for three years.

  The words reverberated through her. Stunned, Hannah flipped over to face him. “I think you need to work on your counting skills. You kissed me, told me you loved me, and rocked my world in bed, all in the space of a couple hours. I count one night, not three years.” She scooted up toward the headboard, making sure to hike the sheet as she did so in order to keep all the necessary bits covered, and she put some inches between their bodies. His warm skin, firm muscles, and tender gaze were total thought stealers, and she needed to focus.

  Liam propped his head on his arm on the pillow and smiled ruefully. “I didn’t look at you tonight and suddenly realize I’m in love with you. You asked how I could change everything between us in an instant, but falling in love with you wasn’t just one instant—it was a million. A million instances of…” He ran a hand through his wildly messed up hair, as if searching for the right words. Liam wasn’t one to make long speeches usually. He continued, “Of the way you always make sure to brush your hand against my shoulder as you walk by me, as if you’re reassuring yourself that I’m there. And the way I hear some crazy story at work and think that I can’t wait to get home to you to tell you about it. And even just the way I always think of you and home together.”

  She searched his eyes; he was smiling slightly, but the look in his eyes was serious. “And?” She couldn’t help it—she wanted to hear more. She needed to hear more. For the last month, she’d thought she was alone in this. But maybe she never had been.

  His smile widened at her prompt. “And the way you wait and go running with me at night even though you like the mornings best for that. And the way I dread summer, unlike every other person in this town, because I know you’ll be so busy running this place then that I’ll hardly get to see you.”

  It was like he was opening her eyes to all the things that had been right in front of her the whole time, every day stuff that was there but slightly blurry, just waiting for her to bring it all into focus and realize what exactly it was she was looking at. And last month she had. But maybe it had been waiting for her long before that.

  Maybe her own patience had run out last month.

  And only the fear kept her from voicing her feelings.

  Ignoring that thought for the moment, she said, “And?”

  Ok, so she was pretty obvious. But when a hunky guy she’s in love with starts telling her all the reasons he noticed they’re in love, it’s ok to savor the elaboration, right?

  And had Liam moved a couple inches closer? Or had she?

  He said, “And the way you include me in every part of your life, the way you need me in your life just like I need you in mine.” He leaned in closer to her, a wicked glint in his eyes. “And the way you devoured me with your eyes when I was wearing that towel and then pretended I couldn’t tell you’re hot for my body.”

  Hannah gasped. He had been teasing her that whole time. She ripped the pillow out from under his head and—softly, she didn’t want to injure him—whacked him with it. “You knew! How did you know?

  “I’m a detective, Hannah. I detect things. That’s what I do all day. And it was very easy to detect at that moment that you wanted to launch yourself at me and have your way with my half-naked body.” Liam grinned, sounding far too pleased with himself and the situation.

  Hannah covered her face with her hands and groaned. “I can’t believe you didn’t say anything,” she mumbled.

  “Well, I was trying to wait until you were ready to say something about what’s been on your mind lately.” He pulled her hands away from her face and snuck a quick kiss. “But the way you were looking at me tonight…my plans to talk with you first disappeared pretty quickly.”

  Burned into cinders, judging by the blazing hot look he sent her way now.

  In light of these revelations, Hannah thought about their conversation from earlier. She’d been right; there had been double-meaning to it all. “But you had fun with me first—”

  “And then we both had more fun. Yes.” The next kiss was deeper, longer, and left her breathless.

  She still managed, “So you were planning to talk?”

  Liam chuckled, a self-conscious note echoing through it. “Of course. I didn’t plan on going caveman on you and dragging you up to bed before we talked.”

  “What did you want to talk about?”

  “How about the fact that you’d been avoiding me lately?”

  Oh, that.

  “I wasn’t avoiding you, exactly. I’ve just been really busy here at the B&B…” At his look, she laughed. “Oh ok. I was totally avoiding you.”

  “But why?” He looked down, not meeting her eyes as he ran a hand up and down her arm. Like he was soothing her.

  Or himself.

  For the first time, it occurred to Hannah that she might have hurt him by distancing herself from him. It was an awful realization. Hurting him was the last thing she ever wanted to do. She had just panicked when she realized she’d gone and fallen in love with her best friend, and she’d been running scared since. Swallowing past the lump in her throat, she admitted, “I was scare
d.”

  His gaze shot to hers, pierced right through her, left her feeling naked. But never unsafe. He said, “Of what?”

  “Well…” Hannah hesitated. Liam had already said it more than once, but it still felt like the final step. Like the final piece that would change everything between them for good. As if sex with her best friend hadn’t done that already. She was being so silly. Hannah took a deep breath and said, “I realized I was in love with you and I thought if we were around each other too much, you’d see it. And then everything would change.”

  “But everything had already changed,” Liam said, echoing her thoughts from earlier.

  “Yeah, but I was scared to lose you.”

  “You’ll never lose me.”

  “How do you know that?” Hannah rushed into speech before he could answer. “I’m not successful at relationships. My first marriage failed, and I didn’t even realize it was happening until it was too late. By that point, Peter didn’t even want to spend enough time with me to work on our marriage.”

  Liam had heard this all before, but it felt different now. He was listening as a lover, not as a friend, and Hannah felt compelled to point this out again, to push him toward the knowledge of why their own relationship would probably fail.

  Because she might not see it coming in time.

  “You can’t take that blame all on yourself and you can’t base everything on the past. But…I don’t have any guarantees in life. I wish I did. I only have things I’m certain of.”

  Hannah stilled. That wasn’t language Liam used lightly. She knew, more than anyone, that Liam’s own first marriage to a needy, drama prone woman had been years filled with chaos and uncertainty before he realized he couldn’t protect his ex-wife from the uncertainty because she actually thrived on it. In the time that Hannah had known Liam, whenever he talked about certainty, about the things he was sure of, it was usually with a reverent tone. Wanting to find her own certainty in all of this, she asked, “What are you certain of this time?”

  “I’m certain of you. No matter what happens, I’ll always be certain of you.”

  Hannah kissed him then. He had faith in her even when she didn’t have faith in herself. Maybe her mistake all along was thinking that people went from being friends to being lovers.

  When really, people could be friends and lovers.

  Feeling hope and happiness and love for this man flow through her, Hannah kissed him more—kissed him on the mouth, on the chin, on the cheek. She kissed him all over, whispering between kisses. Or maybe she was whispering with kisses—kisses that said I’m sorry, kisses that said I need you, kisses that said I love you. Liam seemed to understand—and really, didn’t he always understand her?—because he kissed her back, over and over, and ran his large, warm hands up and down her back, into her hair, tender and caring all the while.

  Pulling back for a moment, she said, “Promise you’ll have patience with me if—when—I have moments of doubt.”

  “Always.” He never hesitated.

  But Hannah felt compelled to clarify. “I mean, doubts about myself. Never doubts about you or the way I feel about you.”

  “Ok, well I say we spend the next couple of days, or however long we’re stuck here during this blizzard, with me convincing you why you should never doubt yourself again.” Liam grinned. “I like to think that this will be a program of positive reinforcement. Luckily for you and your sprained ankle, if I’m doing it right, there won’t be any reason to leave this bed for it.”

  Hannah laughed. She slid her arms around his neck and entwined her legs with his. Wanting him to hear it, Hannah said, “I loved you before I realized it, I’m so in love with you now I can barely think straight sometimes, and I will always, always love you.”

  And apparently that was quite the positive reinforcement for Liam, because they didn’t leave the bed at all that night.

  Early the next morning, the wind was still howling, the white wall of snow was still swirling outside the window, and Hannah and Liam were still in her bed, sated after a long night of loving. The power had gone out at one point, and the generator kicked on, meaning the thermostat automatically lowered the temperature indoors from somewhat drafty to downright chilly.

  But with the heat Hannah and Liam generated between the sheets, they hadn’t even noticed the cold.

  Liam was currently settled on his back in bed, Hannah tucked against his side. Her head was on his shoulder and she was drawing small, aimless patterns on his chest with her fingertips when she realized she forgot to ask Liam something important last night.

  “When did you first realize you were in love with me?”

  Liam was quiet for a moment. “It was in September. I got sick, which I rarely do, and I was acting like a jerk about it.” He had been—snapping and growling at everyone. Except her. “But you brought me soup. Carrot soup.”

  “Um. I hate to tell you this, but if you fell in love with me because of that pot of soup…well…Winnie made that soup,” Hannah teased.

  He laughed. “Yeah, but you told her what to make.”

  “I’m still not following how that has anything to do with, well, anything.”

  “I realized then that I had told you at some point about how I don’t like chicken soup and when I was kid, my mom made me carrot soup when I got sick,” he said. “I finally understood that you knew everything about me—that I’d told you everything about me. And in that moment, I couldn’t imagine ever wanting another woman to know me like you do.”

  Warmth filled her stomach. It wasn’t possible to love this man more than she already did. It was perfect. He was perfect. Except…

  “Speaking of other women, if you knew you were in love with me for that long, why did you go on that date last month?” Hannah tried not to sound as disgruntled as she felt about that.

  Liam mumbled something into her hair.

  “What was that?”

  “Um, that was a dumb idea…” Liam stopped, squinting at her. “You see, I was pretty sure you were in love with me, you just didn’t realize it yet. And for the most part I told myself to be patient and wait until you were ready—you know, when you gave me a sign or something. Like licking your lips when you saw me in a towel.” Liam winked, and Hannah couldn’t help but giggle.

  No arguing with the truth there!

  Liam continued, “Anyways, my patience was running out, and I was ready to just tell you that I loved you and you loved me and couldn’t we get to planning our future already, but I let, uh, someone persuade me that subtly was the name of the game.”

  “And parading yourself under my nose with another woman was subtle?” Hannah asked incredulously.

  Liam winced. “The person I took the advice from is not exactly known for their subtly.”

  Hannah thought about it for a moment…“Winnie!”

  That matchmaking rat.

  “Winnie made the case that if you saw me with another woman, it would jolt you out of your complacency and we’d be in business.” Liam paused. “I’m not proud I actually did that.”

  “I’m going to take it as proof of how much you care. Or something. And I’m going to forget about it as soon as I possibly can,” Hannah said. “Wait a second. It’s just hitting me—you really were desperate enough to take advice from Winnie?”

  “Yeah,” Liam said, sounding glum.

  Hannah laughed and kissed him. “Now that is proof of how much you care.”

  “Mmmm. Promise to keep me warm this winter with those kisses of yours and I’m sure I can scrounge up even more proof for you.”

  Hannah laughed harder, but said, “Warm winter kisses. I like the sound of that.”

  So did Liam.

  Author’s Note - Juliet Spenser

  Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed Warm Winter Kisses, which is part of my Bliss Harbor series. If you’d like to read more—and I really hope you do!—you can pick up Winnie’s and Brian’s story, Wherever You Are, to see the fun that ensues wh
en Winnie heads back to her hometown to stop a wedding and Brian is busy watching her back. And her hips. And her…well, you get the idea. One click and you can get the whole book!

  Click here to buy Bliss Harbor #1, Wherever You Are.

  Make sure to sign up for my mailing list and be the first to know the minute the next Bliss Harbor book is out! Click here for my mailing list.

  http://smarturl.it/newslol3

  Or join Club Bliss, my reader group on Facebook, where you can get exclusive sneak peeks, receive advance review copies of my books, find out about sales, participate in giveaways, and chat with other Bliss Harbor fans. To enter Club Bliss, click here and then make sure to click join.

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  Juliet Spenser

  www.julietspenser.com

  Love and Elephants

  Mimi Strong

  A jaded businessman who doesn’t believe in love crosses paths with a witch or two.

  DESCRIPTION: Carter’s sister keeps trying to set him up. She means well, but he’s just not interested in silly things like dating or falling in love. But when the wrong woman shows up at his blind date, and identities are confused, something magic might happen.

  GENRE: Paranormal Love Story or Magical Realism, 11,000 words or approximately 45 pages.

  HEAT LEVEL: Sweet, with some cheeky text messages, but mild language and no explicit scenes.

  Turn the page to begin reading Love and Elephants by Mimi Strong, or click here to return to this anthology’s Table of Contents.

  Love and Elephants

  Mimi Strong

  1.

  Carter was a rich jerk who didn’t believe in silly things like falling in love, or so he told people.

  His sister, Carmen, didn’t believe a word of it. She’d seen his joy when he came over for dinner, arms open wide for his niece and nephew to pile into his embrace. She saw how much he’d fallen for the little ones, so it broke her heart to think he’d never have any of his own. First things first, though, he needed to fall in love with a woman.