by Leigh Duncan
“That’s not a promise I can make, David,” she said. “Besides, you and I both know the partners will never trust me again. My career here is finished.”
David’s eyes widened. “That’s not the decision I expected. Are you sure?”
“Quite. I’ll, uh, I’ll stop back in one day next week to handle the paperwork and clear out my desk. But my decision is final.”
The determination in her voice gave her former boss no choice. After wishing her well, he strode swiftly down the corridor. Charlie exhaled as David turned a corner and moved out of sight.
“Well, that’s over,” she said to herself while she waited for the expected tears. When they didn’t come, she tilted her head to one side. Leaving W&B hadn’t been nearly as traumatic as she’d thought it would be. And with that thought, she returned to the one place she wanted to be, at the side of the man she loved.
“You have options,” Josh said a little while later as they climbed into the backseat of a limo that had apparently been idling at the curb for several hours. He gave the driver instructions to drive, just drive. Then, with a twist of a button, he closed the privacy screen. “That friend of mine at Shell?” he said, settling in beside her. “He has an opening in Houston, if you’re interested.”
Charlie’s lips parted to allow a small gasp. Maybe red clay and long-handled hoes weren’t in her future after all. The fingers she’d folded tightly in her lap relaxed. “You spoke to him about me? When?” she asked.
“On the ride here this morning,” he answered, as if lining up a job for a friend took no more effort than snapping his fingers.
“But we’d broken up.” She squinted up at him.
“We weren’t speaking, but I was still looking out for you. I always will.” He paused for a moment. Then, his voice turning tentative, he asked, “So, do you want to move to Houston?”
What she really wanted was to be wherever Josh was, but she had a lot of decisions to make. Slowing things down, she hedged. “I don’t know. I think I need a little time to process.”
“Take all the time you need,” he agreed. “But as long as you’re thinking things over, I have a little something else I’d like you to consider.”
Beside her, Josh stretched his legs a tad too far. His shoes brushed the minibar, and glassware rattled. She smiled, wondering why he was nervous when she was the one who’d walked away from all she’d worked so hard to achieve. She searched his features. Her breath caught in her throat at the emotion she saw swimming in his dark eyes.
“Oh?” She couldn’t move. She couldn’t breathe.
“Yeah.” He wrapped one arm around her and pulled her close. “Charlotte Oak,” he said, “you’ve caught me in your web. I’d be the happiest man alive if you’d agree to spend the rest of your life with me.”
“The rest of my life?” Stunned, she stared up at him while her heart turned cartwheels in her chest. Hardly daring to believe what she was hearing, she whispered, “Are you asking what I think you’re asking?”
“Marriage, the future, children—I want it all. With you, if you’ll have me.”
Horns honked in the distance, but Charlie’s gaze never wavered. “I love you, Josh McLean.”
“I love you, too,” Josh answered, sliding closer. Reaching into his pants pocket, he held out a sparkling diamond. “This ring belonged to my grandmother. I’d be honored if you’d wear it until we can go shopping together.”
Charlie held out trembling fingers and watched as Josh slipped the simple solitaire onto her finger. Warmth spread from the gold band all the way to her heart. “It’s perfect, Josh,” she exclaimed.
“So, that’s a yes. You’ll marry me?”
“Yes,” she said, laughing, her heart brimming over with love. “Yes. Yes.” She smiled deeply at a new thought. “We should get married in Barefoot Bay. What do you think about a wedding at Casa Blanca?”
Josh snapped his fingers. “I have it on good authority that the Rockrose is available. Let’s head there now. I don’t want to wait. Do you?”
“Not a minute longer.” Charlie snuggled into Josh’s embrace with a sigh filled with longing and happiness while the driver steered toward Mimosa Key and the rest of their lives…together.
Epilogue
Charity Grambling shielded her eyes against the sun’s rays. Her heart skipped a beat as, at the far end of the Super Min’s parking lot, a crane slowly lowered the Shell Oil sign into place. Behind her, workmen swarmed the roof over the gas pumps, ripping off Favor Oil’s faded purple trim and replacing it with the familiar yellow and red. Unprepared for a sudden rush of nostalgia, Charity fanned herself. It wouldn’t do for anyone to realize that, beneath her crusty exterior lay a gooey, marshmallow center.
“Are you seeing this?” Her sister’s voice rose above the noisy crane’s engine.
Turning, Charity watched traffic on the main drag stop to let Patience Vail amble across the road from the Four Way where she’d been visiting with her daughter Grace. Charity surrepticiously wiped her eyes before calling out, “What do you think I’m standing out here in this heat for, Patti? My health?”
“I can’t believe Josh really did all this.” Reaching her side, Patti paused to catch her breath. “You’re gonna owe that boy big time.”
“You can wipe that smug smile off your face. I don’t owe him a thing. If anything, he owes me.” Charity brandished the phone she pulled from the pocket of the worn khaki pants that hung loose on her hips. “Have you seen the latest pictures Charlie sent?”
On the screen, their nephew and his bride of six months carted baskets overflowing with grapes through a vineyard in the south of France. Charity thumbed to the next picture, one of the newlyweds arm-in-arm. She tapped a blood-red fingernail against the blonde’s glowing face. “I knew that girl was right for Josh from the first time we spoke on the phone. Did you know she demanded he sign a pre-nup? She didn’t want there to ever be any doubt about the reason she married him.”
“Must be nice to be young and so much in love,” Patti said wistfully. “What an unlikely pair, though. Who would have thought they’d ever get together.”
“Heck.” Charity shoved the phone back into her pocket. “All they needed was a push in the right direction.”
Patti’s elbow nudged her ribs. A pair of eyes so much like her sister’s narrowed. “You didn’t set them up, did you?”
Charity linked her arm with Patti’s plumper one. “It might be fall, but it’s still too hot to be standing around here. Let’s get in out of this heat, and I’ll tell you all about it.”
Their heads bent together, the sisters of the Super Min headed inside where, over cups of strong, black coffee, no one in Barefoot Bay was safe from their schemes.
* * *
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Acknowledgments
Behind every book is an amazing team.
Many thanks to:
Cover design: Lou Harper, Harper by Design
Interior formatting: Author E.M.S.
Copyedits: Joyce Lamb
Proofs: Marlene Engle, Book Mama
About the Author
Leigh Duncan is the award-winning author of ten novels, including The Growing Season which is being released as a three-part serial in the spring of 2016. An Amazon best-selling author of Harlequin American Romance and a National Readers’ Choice Award winner, Leigh has been nominated for the prestigious RT Book Reviewes Reviewers’ Choice and Booksellers’ Best Awards. She lives on Central Florida’s East Coast where she writes contemporary romance and women’s fiction with a dash of Southern sass. Leigh loves to stay in touch with readers through social media:
Website * Twitter * Facebook
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