by Tawna Fenske
It really did, much to his surprise. Who knew being Uncle Tony could be so much fun? He’d loved meeting her nieces and nephews, bouncing kids on his knees as he got to know Kayla’s family.
She slid her arms around his waist, narrowly missing the bulge in his jacket pocket. Tony swallowed, nervous all of a sudden. He’d been planning this for weeks, but the reality felt much more intense.
As he held Kayla close, a sense of peace rippled through him. Across the room, his teammates kept grinning like idiots. Willa strolled over to Grady and slid her arm through his, then stretched up on tiptoe to kiss her husband. Grady smiled and flashed Tony a thumbs-up.
You got this, he mouthed, and Tony grinned.
He did have it. He had everything he’d ever wanted and never thought he’d get.
Drawing back, he took Kayla’s hands in his and smiled. “I’ve been wanting to ask you something.”
“What’s that?”
He took a deep breath and fished the bottle out of his jacket. “The Emerald 1865 Straight American Whiskey. This is the one, right?”
She took it from him with a curious look. “I thought we agreed we both won the bet.”
“Exactly.” He cleared his throat. “I got this to share. You said it’s your dad’s favorite?”
“Yes, but—”
He set the bottle on a bistro table and reached for her hand. “Since I’m not gonna do that outdated, misogynistic thing where I ask your father’s permission to marry you, I thought we could bring that when we show up to share the news.”
“The new— Oh my God.”
She gasped as he dropped to one knee and opened the jewelry box. A princess-cut emerald blinked between two diamonds, flickering in the gallery lights.
“Tony.” Her eyes began to glitter as they met his. “Is this really happening?”
“Yep.” His grin felt shaky, but his mom caught his eye and smiled from across the room, and his confidence surged. “I mean, that’s assuming you think I’m proposing and not offering a shoeshine.”
She touched the ring, making the stone flash with light. “It’s beautiful. Exactly what I always imagined.”
“I took notes,” he admitted a little sheepishly. “Every time you talked about emeralds or pointed out jewelry in stores, I paid attention. I wrote it all down so I’d get it right when the time came.”
He’d also talked to her friends, who’d pointed him in the right direction. Now that he’d learned what it felt like to learn and grow and commit himself to getting it right, he’d vowed to bring that habit to every aspect of their life together.
“I love it so much.” She touched the ring again and smiled. “And I love you.”
“I love you, too.” He cleared his throat, sensing he’d better get down to business with all eyes on them.
“Kayla Gladney,” he began. “You are the love of my life. You put up with my dickhead moments and my bad jokes and my corny T-shirts. More importantly, you make me the best possible version of myself. Will you be my wife?”
He held out the box, pretty sure he’d gotten some of that wording wrong, even though he’d rehearsed a dozen times in front of the mirror.
But Kayla’s face filled with joy as she swiped away tears with the heels of her hands. “Yes! Of course, yes.”
A wave of relief washed through him. They’d talked about marriage, and he’d had a hunch she’d say yes. Still, he’d felt nervous proposing to the woman of his dreams. Every day he pinched himself, marveling that he’d finally found what he’d wished for but never dreamed he’d get.
“Should I get up now?” he asked, glancing around the room. “I’m not sure how this is supposed to work.”
“Me, neither.” She laughed and held out her left hand. “I think you’re supposed to stand up and put the ring on my finger?”
“Right. Good plan.” He got to his feet, slipping the ring from its box. As he slid it onto her finger, he breathed another sigh of relief. “Perfect fit.”
“Just like us,” she said, laughing as she held up her finger to catch the light.
“Nah, we’ll never be perfect,” he said. “And I’m okay with that.”
“Oh yeah?” She slung her arms around his neck, arching against him as their audience began to clap. “Why’s that?”
“Because it means we’ll get to do the self-improvement thing together until we die.”
Kayla laughed, tipping her head back as he held her tight. “Sounds like a plan.”
“Yeah, it does. The very best kind.”
Then he kissed her, bursting with joy and gratitude and every shred of hope he’d bottled up forever—every bit of it shooting from his pores like glitter confetti. “I love you, Kayla.”
“I love you, too. So much.”
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Acknowledgments
While this book isn’t packed with as many smokejumper details as its predecessor, The Two-Date Rule, I’m still wildly grateful to the crews at the Redmond Air Center in Redmond, Oregon for educating me about the lives and careers of smokejumpers. Thank you to Bill Selby, Sam Johnson, and Tony Selznick for sharing your time and your stories. Any fudging of facts or creative play with the details of the smokejumping world are totally on me.
“Thank you” is not enough to express my appreciation to the community at One Mom’s Battle for sharing your stories of psychological and emotional abuse at the hands of a narcissist. If any of my readers see themselves in Tony’s family experiences, I urge you to join the Facebook page for One Mom’s Battle and to begin seeking safe spaces for learning about gaslighting and abuse. Please, don’t wait. You have value, you have worth, and YOU MATTER, regardless what some jackwad may be telling you.
A million thanks to my street team, Fenske’s Frisky Posse, for your creative feedback and your enthusiasm for helping me name all 2,987,430 of Tony’s ex-girlfriends.
Big thanks to Valerie Warren (er, no relation to Tony?) for pointing me in the direction of The Emerald 1865 from Ransom Spirits. I lift a glass (or twelve) in your honor.
Thank you to Wonder Assistant Meah Cukrov for keeping my head screwed on mostly straight. I appreciate you! Thank you also to my readers, whether this is your first Tawna Fenske novel or you’ve read all 35+ of my romantic comedies. I’m so grateful for your support.
Hugs and huge thank yous to my longtime agent Michelle Wolfson of Wolfson Literary. I don’t know where I’d be without you, but it would probably smell bad and have no mail service for royalty checks. Thanks for everything you’ve done, and continue to do, for my career and my sanity.
So much love and gratitude to the entire Entangled Publishing Team, especially Liz Pelletier and Heather Howland who saw where I was trying to go with this story and found magical ways to get me there more efficiently and poetically. Thanks also to the entire Entangled team for your tireless work on all my books. Kudos and awkward butt-pats to Jessica Turner, Heather Riccio, Curtis Svehlak, Lydia Sharp, Hannah Lindsey, Riki Cleveland, Meredith Johnson, Katie Clapsadl, Bree Archer, Elizabeth Turner Stokes, and anyone else on the Entangled team who I might have inadvertently forgotten here. Love you guys!
Huge, gooey gobs of thanks and love to my family for all your support and laughter. Dixie and David; Russ and Carlie and Paxton; Cedar and Violet—you guys are my rocks.
And thank you to Craig Zagurski for being my tireless champion, my favorite dining companion, my naked muse, and the guy who never complains when I put my cold feet on you at night. I love you endlessly, hot stuff.
About the Author
When Tawna Fenske finished her English Lit degree at twenty-two, she celebrated by filling a giant trash bag full of romance novels and dragging it everywhere until she’d read them all. Now she’s a RITA(R) Award finalist and USA Today bestselling author who writes humorous fiction,
risqué romance, and heartwarming love stories with a quirky twist. She lives in Bend, Oregon, with her husband, step-kids, and a menagerie of ill-behaved pets, where she loves hiking, stand-up paddleboarding, and inventing excuses to sip wine on her back porch. She can peel a banana with her toes and loses an average of twenty pairs of eyeglasses per year.
Don’t miss the Where There’s Smoke series…
The Two-Date Rule
Also by Tawna Fenske…
Marine for Hire
Fiancee for Hire
Best Man for Hire
Protector for Hire
Eat, Play, Lust
The Fix Up
The Hang Up
The Hook Up
The List
The Test
The Last
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