by Gail Sattler
* * *
Cory held his breath, hoping that in the confines of the cab of his truck, she couldn’t hear his heart pounding. Since she’d said she loved him, he didn’t think she should be taking so long to respond. Unless the answer was one he didn’t want to hear.
Suddenly the reason for her not replying hit him like a sack of rocks.
They were inside a vehicle. The day her first boyfriend asked her to marry him, he’d taken her to his vehicle and attempted to rape her.
Cory dropped her hands and moved back, toward the driver’s door. He didn’t know whether he should tell her not to be afraid or to actually say the words that he wasn’t going to attack her.
Her eyes widened as he hit the door with a thud, then welled up with tears. “You are so sweet. I’m not afraid of you. That’s not what I was thinking.” She jerked her head toward the front of the truck, to the boy who had walked past. Cory hadn’t thought about him, nor had he actually looked at the young man.
Not only was he looking at them, he was standing with his phone poised, ready to take a picture of them, presumably when he kissed her again.
As soon as Daphne saw that he saw the guy with the phone, she motioned her head to the rear of the truck. Rather than turn his head, he looked in the mirror to see a second young man standing just behind his door with his arms spread akimbo in the air.
Daphne grinned. “I think they’re waiting for a photo bomb. You know how teens are. Is this the way you want to remember the day you proposed, and the day I said I’d marry you?”
Cory grinned back. “If that’s a yes, then yes. I do.”
“Yes. That’s a yes. Let’s give them a photo they’ll never forget.”
Instead of embracing her, Cory leaned toward her. In the same way, she leaned toward him. When their lips met he raised one hand in the air and gave the photographer a thumbs-up.
As he did so, he couldn’t help but smile, breaking their kiss. With their lips still touching, he kept smiling. “I’m going to ask him to send me a copy of that.”
Daphne pushed herself back to a seated position. “And you know what? I want to send a copy to Rick. Right now.”
Cory’s smile dropped. Rick. “Do you think this will be a problem for him?”
Daphne shook her head. “I hope not. He’ll come around. He just wants to protect me. But he’ll find other ways to keep himself busy.”
“Speaking of busy, we need to get that photo and get moving. We have a delivery to make and then we have plans to make.”
Daphne smiled. “Yes, we do.”
He gave her a quick peck on the cheek before dashing out of the truck to ask for a copy of that very special photo.
It only took a few minutes for the young man to send it to him, and he was back in the truck. Instead of starting the engine, he opened the photo on his phone and held it up for Daphne.
“I’m going to keep this with me and look at it whenever I get stuck doing desk duty.”
“Not me.”
His heart sank.
She took the phone from his hand and wrapped her other hand around his fingers. “Because I’m going to print it and frame it, and put it on my desk at work to keep forever.” She leaned forward and kissed him again. “Right next to that picture of the bird with the red tummy.”
“I like that.”
“And one more thing. When we get our own house, I want to have his and hers bird feeders.”
He couldn’t help but smile; he thought his heart was going to burst.
As he looked one last time at the picture before he drove away, he noticed that she was wearing the same dress she’d worn to Brad and Kayla’s wedding, where he’d been the best man. The day they’d arranged for their first date.
Now she wasn’t just going to be dating the best man.
She was marrying him.
* * * * *
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ISBN-13: 9781460380086
Dating the Best Man
Copyright © 2015 by Gail Sattler
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereinafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Love Inspired Books, 233 Broadway, New York, NY 10279 U.S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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