Finding Love
Page 12
“What about me?” Melissa complained. “I’m the one that forced you to the ER that day. You should be thanking me.”
“Thanks, Melissa. You’re a great friend. The best there is. And because of that, I’m going to tell you a little secret.”
“What’s that?”
“You’re going to have to wait until tomorrow to know. But it’s still a secret.”
“That’s mean,” Melissa said, laughing. “Give me a hint.”
“I’m hoping not to be single much longer. There. Better?”
“You think Erik is going to ask you to marry him?” Melissa asked, jumping in excitement, her coffee spilling over her hand.
“We’ll see.” That was all Sheldon was saying.
***
“This is nice,” Erik said later that night. It’d been over a month since she’d told him she loved him. Since she let herself just start to feel rather than think it all out. Or block it out.
“A woman can’t be romantic too?”
“Of course she can.”
She lit the candles she’d placed on her dining room table. She never ate in here. Ever. But she cooked him a nice dinner and she got candles and had music playing in the background. He always brought out all the romance, but it was her turn. She wrote about it enough, why not actually experience it?
“Good. I’ve got fresh crab and some steaks to grill. I even picked up a mixed berry pie.”
“You didn’t make me one?” he asked, tweaking her hair.
“Pies aren’t my thing. I can handle cookies or brownies, but nothing more complicated than that.” She wasn’t going to tell him she actually tried to make the pie, but it looked so horrible she threw it out. It could be her secret.
“It’s the thought that counts.”
“I also have something sexy for you later tonight.”
“Really?” he asked, his eyes lighting up.
She couldn’t believe how wrong she’d been about him. That this was always part of his personality and that maybe her books just gave him some ideas more than made him actually do things.
He was forever bringing home things he knew she’d enjoy. Finding fun things for them to do on his day off. Even watching a movie now and again. When she wanted to just relax, he did too. It’s like they knew each other so well that words didn’t need to be spoken. He’d even given her some ideas for the book she was working on.
She’d never thought a connection like that actually existed and she was glad to be so wrong.
When dinner was done, she brought out dessert. On top of each piece of pie was a generous scoop of ice cream. His had a little chocolate heart that she’d had made special at the candy store.
She placed the pie in front of him. “How come only I have a chocolate heart? Where’s yours?” he asked.
“Because yours has a message on it. Turn it around.”
He did and his jaw dropped. “Are you serious?”
Her heart sunk to the floor. Not how she’d thought he’d respond. Was she so wrong? Was it only in her head? Had she put herself out there like that for nothing?
“Well, yeah. I mean, do you know me to joke about something like that?”
“Yes.”
Her tense shoulders drooped. She should have known better. She should have waited. “I’m not joking though. Yes, I joke, but I wasn’t joking about this.”
“No,” he said standing up and yanking her into his arms. “Yes to your question. Yes, I’ll marry you.”
“Oh,” she said, her eyes filling with tears. “Really? You have no clue how long I tried to figure out how to do this.”
“I bet,” he said. “Because we know none of your heroines ever proposed in your books.”
“No. They didn’t. But this isn’t a book. This isn’t a story. This is us. And this is our life. Our future.”
Epilogue
Erik and Sheldon walked out of his house together two months later. Both of them dressed and ready to go. To make their way to Melissa and Bryan, Erik’s brother, waiting with the judge under an arch of flowers.
She had no father to give her away, no brother or other men in her life. Rather than ask her mother to do it, she and Erik decided to walk down together. He’d said he’d waited long enough, so there was no need to wait at the altar.
The sun was setting and people were sitting in his yard on white chairs. The weather was cooperating. She couldn’t have written it any better if she tried. Everything was bright, everything was sparkly, and love was blooming all over the place.
It wasn’t a big crowd. Just his parents and some other relatives. A few of his friends and work colleagues along with some of her friends, her mother and her biological father, Brett Turner.
Her mother had indeed reached out to him. He hadn’t been shocked to learn he had a child at all. In fact, he’d suspected it when he’d heard she was pregnant, but since she’d never come forward, he just assumed it wasn’t his.
Surprisingly enough, her parents were actually dating now. It seemed her mother always had a thing for Brett and it was part of the reason she sought him out that night. When he came back to her a week later and said he wanted to work it out with his wife, she’d been even more devastated.
Sheldon still wasn’t sure how she felt about everything. That she knew who her father really was. That her mother was dating. Nothing was making sense in her life other than her relationship with Erik and that was all she was going to focus on. There was time yet to figure the future out with her parents.
If there even was going to be one.
But right now, she was looking forward to her wedding day.
“You look beautiful,” Erik said to her, his eyes roaming over her white dress. Not a fancy wedding gown exactly, but fancier than she’d ever owned. She wasn’t into big and frilly, but she wanted to be able to look back at pictures and know she gave him something good to gaze at that day. She was guessing the gown with lace trim around the bodice was enough.
Simple and sweet and more her style. Kind of adorable.
She’d never seen him in a suit and wasn’t prepared for it when he walked out of his bedroom ready to go. If there hadn’t been people milling around the backyard, she might have yanked him back in and undressed him.
“You’re looking pretty hot yourself there, Dr. McHunky.”
He laughed. “That is completely cliché.”
“It is. Sorry, but that’s what I was calling you after we met.”
“You never said it to me.”
“Nope. Just Melissa. She called you Dr. McHotty, but hunky was better.”
“So I guess you’re going to be Mrs. McHunky,” he said smiling at her.
She laughed. “Nah. I’ll just settle for Mrs. McMann.”
They walked the rest of the way and came to stand in front of the judge for their brief exchanging of the vows.
She was in a hurry to party and head off to their honeymoon in Paris. The city of love.
Because she’d finally found it.
Not in a book.
Not in her head.
But in her life.
The End!
Want to read more of the Love Collection? Melissa Mahoney has her own story in Beach Love!!
Secret Love:
Vin Steele has always been in control. Always been a leader. Failing at what he always did was a bitter pill for him to swallow, sending him into an isolation…of sorts. A new life and a new career, trying to find the person he lost.
Piper Fielding spent her life putting on a good face. Looking for the positive in the light of all the negative in her world. When a threat forces her to face the ugliness she always avoided, she finds herself running to the only person she can trust. Her sexy neighbor that has mystery and complications written all over him.
True Love:
Shattered dreams vs a new beginning. Can they help each other heal?
Jared Hawk thought he had it all. Until he didn’t. Until a bomb exploded bringing a building down
around him and his unit, leaving him less than the man he was. Broken and disabled, he needed to figure out a new plan of action hoping to find a glimmer of the happiness he’d had before.
Shelby McDonald wanted a fresh start. A new life. She didn’t expect to be a single mother—a widow—at just twenty-three. She was strong enough to start over once, she could do it again. She had to. She had no choice. It may not have been the life she envisioned, but she’d be damned if anything was going to hold her back…including the sexy Navy Lieutenant trying to find his way again.
Finding Love:
What happens when a hopeless romantic falls for a cynical romance writer?
Sheldon Case spends her days writing about romance and love. Only she doesn’t believe in it herself. Happy ever after…nah. It only exists in books and movies.
Dr. Erik McMann had the love of his life...or so he thought. Until he found out it really didn’t exist like he imagined. Like he always dreamed. But now he wants to try again, and when he meets Sheldon, he decides she’s the one. If only he could convince her that what she’s believed her whole life is false.
Beach Love
A reformed playboy. A woman looking for love. What happens when trust becomes an issue?
If you looked up privileged in the dictionary, you’d see a picture of Dr. Connor Landers, trust fund playboy extraordinaire. He loved having that title, but the real reason he was that way was something very few people knew. Then reality was shoved in his face and he had to make a choice.
Melissa Mahoney was looking for love in all the wrong places. How hard could it be to find someone to trust? Someone to give her what she’d been dreaming of? She takes a risk and puts her heart in Connor’s hands, but will he just end up shattering it like she’d been fearful of all along?
The Road Series-See where it all started!!
Lucas and Brooke’s Story- Road to Recovery
Jack and Cori’s Story – Road to Redemption
Mac and Beth’s Story- Road to Reality
Ryan and Kaitlin’s Story- Road to Reason
The All Series
William and Isabel’s Story — All for Love
Ben and Presley’s Story – All or Nothing
Phil and Sophia’s Story – All of Me
Alec and Brynn’s Story – All the Way
Sean and Carly’s Story — All I Want
Drew and Jordyn’s Story— All My Love
Finn and Olivia’s Story—All About You
The Lake Placid Series
Nick Buchanan and Mallory Denning – Second Chance
Max Hamilton and Quinn Baker – Give Me A Chance
Caleb Ryder and Celeste McGuire – Our Chance
Cole McGuire and Rene Buchanan – Take A Chance
Zach Monroe and Amber Deacon- Deserve A Chance
Trevor Miles and Riley Hamilton – Last Chance
The Fierce Five Series
Brody Fierce and Aimee Reed - Brody
Aiden Fierce and Nic Moretti- Aiden
Mason Fierce and Jessica Corning- Mason
Love Collection
Vin Steele and Piper Fielding – Secret Love
Jared Hawk and Shelby McDonald – True Love
Erik McMann and Sheldon Case – Finding Love
Connor Landers and Melissa Mahoney- Beach Love
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