“No,” he said, pulling a small velvet box from the pocket of his sweatpants. “My life is here with you. And it always will be. All these years, I’ve been searching for something. I thought I would find it in the arms of a woman or in the approval of my father, but it never felt right once I got it. It turns out I had to forget about everything else to be able to see what I was looking for. I found it in you. You’re my everything and I’m not going anywhere, Willow. Not without you.”
Finn got down onto one knee in the grass and opened up the box to display the ring he’d chosen for her. “I love you just as you are, Willow Bates. And I hope that you can accept me as I am. I’m flawed. I’m complicated. But I love you so much, I couldn’t stay away even knowing you might never want to speak to me again. I hope that you’ll accept this ring and me along with it, to be my wife. There’s nothing more in this life I want than to hear you say yes.”
* * *
Willow had woken up this morning like she did most every morning. She anticipated a quiet day of writing and finally putting away the patio furniture since the season was long over. She was making a list for a trip to the mainland to get some new groceries. That was the highlight of her week. Or so she thought.
She had never expected to see Finn Steele again. And she certainly hadn’t expected to be proposed to today. If she had, maybe she would’ve put on a nicer shirt or something. She looked down at the box Finn was holding out to her and couldn’t believe the radical turn her day had taken. If she didn’t know about his family and how much they were worth, she might think he was proposing with costume jewelry. It was that big and that shiny. Her mind was arguing with itself that there was no way the ring he was holding was real, but it had to be. The center stone was a bright yellow pear cut and easily six or seven carats. It was set in platinum with a thin split band that looked far too fragile to hold a stone that large.
“Is that—is that a yellow sapphire or something?” she asked. It was obviously not what he wanted to hear in response to his important question, but in the moment, she was so overwhelmed, she didn’t know what to say.
Finn shook his head and stood up. He plucked the ring from the box and took her hand. He slipped it onto her finger, where it fit perfectly. It made her petite finger look even smaller with the giant stone. “It’s referred to as a vivid canary diamond. They’re very rare, especially in this size and quality. I actually had to buy the stone in an auction at Sotheby’s in London, then I had someone from Harley’s security agency fly over to England and escort it back to me. I had our family jeweler set it in a ring for you.”
She couldn’t stop staring at it. Partially because it was beautiful and partially because the significance of the moment had stolen the words from her lips. This couldn’t be really happening. It looked like it should belong to Elizabeth Taylor or the Queen of England. Not on the hand of little, old, insignificant Willow Bates. “I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a yellow diamond before.”
“There aren’t many, at least as many as bright in color or as internally flawless as yours. This stone is one in a million, easily. But so are you. You’re my sunlight in the darkness. And I thought that there wasn’t anything more ideal for you than a perfect bright yellow diamond.”
“You certainly know how to apologize to a girl,” Willow said as she fought the gathering of tears in her eyes. A yellow diamond was so perfect; he was right. And for reasons he didn’t even know. It was like a drop of liquid sunshine on her hand. She hadn’t thought Finn was that sentimental, but she was wrong. He’d obviously gone to a lot of trouble and expense to get this for her.
“I wanted you to know how sincere I was. I came out here with this ring and the boat, selling everything, so you would know I mean it when I say that I love you and I want to be with you. Whether or not you say yes, I had to come out here and try to make things right between us. I can’t bear to think that you might hate me, even if you don’t love me.”
Willow shook her head and looked up at Finn. She couldn’t let him self-flagellate any longer. “I could never hate you. I was hurt, but that was because I loved you so much. More than anything, I was angry with myself for falling for you when I knew that this relationship was destined to fail eventually. The odds were against us from the start, but I couldn’t stop myself.”
Finn visibly flinched at her words. “Do you still believe that? That we’re destined to fail?”
“I think that the billionaire playboy and the reclusive mystery writer were never meant to be. But you and me, as we are now, I think we might have a chance.”
“Does that mean you’ll marry me?” he pressed.
Willow still hadn’t given him an answer. She wanted to say yes. She wanted to scream it so loud that Doc could hear it from his property. But before she could, she had a question to ask Finn. “You said that you loved me just as I was, Finn. Did you really mean that?”
He clasped her hands in his and squeezed them tightly. “Of course I did.”
“Even though we can never have a family of our own?”
Finn frowned at her. “Starting a family of my own is not something I’ve given much thought to. In fact, I’ve spent most of my life trying to prevent it. I never imagined that I would fall in love and want to get married. Until I met you. You’re my family, Willow. And if it’s just the two of us—”
Shadow nosed in between them at that moment and howled at being ignored for so long.
Finn gave him a pat on the head and a good scratch. “Pardon me, the three of us—then that’s all the family I need.”
“It doesn’t bother you that I can’t have your children? Please be honest with me because I don’t want this to become something that comes between us later.”
“If we wanted to add children to our lives, we could always adopt babies or foster as many of them as you’d like. Families take lots of different shapes and DNA isn’t that important in the end. I love Morgan just as much now as I did when I thought she was my biological sister. And I love Jade even though she spent most of her life apart from us. That’s not what’s important.
“And even if it were,” he continued, “I’m having my chance to have children. My daughter with Kat will be born before year’s end. I don’t know that I deserve to have the role of a father in her life, but I’d like to try. I’m already sharing her with my brother and Kat, and I think we’d all be happy to include you, too. Then she can have two dads and two moms that love and adore her. I think little Beatrice might be the luckiest girl in the whole world.”
Willow had just been proposed to, and yet she’d never heard sweeter words than she had now. No matter what, she and Finn would be a family. And with his daughter, not only would she never have to feel like he was sacrificing his chance for children to be with her, but she would get a chance to be a mother. She’d never imagined that would happen for her. Or that any of this would happen for her. She took a big sigh of relief and looked up at him with a smile so big, it almost hurt. “I don’t know about that,” she said. “I think I might be the luckiest girl in the world.”
Finn grinned and the elusive dimple in his cheek beckoned to her. She hoped that Beatrice would have that same dimple so she could kiss the baby’s sweet cheeks just like her daddy’s.
“That would make sense, because I’m the luckiest guy on the planet. Well, almost. Any other reasons why you think we shouldn’t get married and be happy forever?” he asked.
Willow smiled and reached up to touch Finn’s cheek with her hand, which was graced with a sparkling yellow diamond. “No. I think we’ve covered everything, so I’ll put an end to the torture. I absolutely will marry you, Finn Steele.”
With a loud whoop, Finn scooped Willow into his arms and lifted her off the ground to kiss her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and clung to him. Not just so she wouldn’t fall, but because she never wanted to let him go. She’d done it once and she wasn�
��t sure she could ever do it again.
Setting her back down on the ground, Finn looked at her with a wicked glint in his eye. “So, do you want to see our new boat?”
Willow grinned. “I absolutely do.”
He took her by the hand and led her back down to the dock with Shadow jogging by their side. The closer she got, the more beautiful she realized it was. This was no boat. This was a fifty-foot Azimut yacht. The navy-and-white vessel tied to her dock was as sparkling and beautiful as the ring on her hand. She had always wanted something so she didn’t have to depend on the ferry, but this was more than just a boat to get supplies. They could live on it. Travel the world on it.
He helped her on board and they climbed up to the sun terrace. “It can sleep eight, which is a little much, but it’s the smallest one they make in this class. I could’ve custom ordered one, but I didn’t want to wait any longer than I had to to cross the channel and get over here.”
All she could do was shake her head. “It’s beautiful. Perfect. Have you named her yet?”
“As a matter of fact, I have. They applied the name to the boat yesterday after I bought her. She’s called My Sunshine.”
Willow paused for a moment and looked at her new fiancé. Then she looked down at her ring. “What made you choose that?” He couldn’t possibly know. Who would’ve told him?
Finn turned back to Willow and grinned. “I named my ship after my girl. That’s a long-standing yachting tradition, isn’t it, Sunshine?”
Willow’s jaw dropped. “Who told you?”
“Well, after my sister mentioned that you wrote your books as S. W. Bates, I did a little digging.”
“Oh, no,” Willow said, squeezing her eyes shut.
“You knew everything about me almost as I learned about myself, but you...you were keeping secrets, love. When you said your parents were hippies, you didn’t tell me everything. Rainbow Blossom and Sunshine Willow Bates,” he announced with a smirk.
So he knew her full name. Her real name. “I haven’t gone by Sunny since I left the commune. When we moved and I started public school, I told people to call me Willow. I just don’t tell anyone because—” she looked at him and the amused expression on his face “—because of that!”
Finn scooped her into his arms and held her until she stopped squirming in irritation. “I promise it will be our little secret. And besides, your name will be changing soon anyway, Mrs. Steele.”
“Willow Steele,” she said, trying out the name. “I think I like it.”
He tipped her chin up and captured her lips in a kiss. “I think I love it.”
Epilogue
“Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas!” Finn shouted as he opened the front door of the Steele family mansion and stepped inside. He had a mountain of wrapped gifts in his arms and Willow by his side as they made their way into the foyer.
“We’re back here, Finn dear,” he heard his mother call out.
“Be prepared for the decorations to be over-the-top,” he whispered to Willow as they walked through the main hall. Near the grand staircase was a small forest of trees with lights, silver-and-gold ornaments and a blanket of faux snow around their bases. Garland ran up each side of the staircase railing, and the scent of fresh pine and apple cider lingered throughout the house. “Mother loves Christmas.”
“The tree-lined drive of twinkle lights and snowflake projections would’ve tipped me off even if the wreaths on each window and the garland wrapped around each column didn’t.”
Finn looked at his mother’s handiwork with a new appreciation this year. He looked at everything with new eyes this year. His second chance at life had done that. As had Willow. And of course, his daughter. Christmas took on a whole new meaning with children in the house.
As they entered the family room, they were greeted by the twelve-foot-tall Christmas tree dripping in heirloom ornaments that sparkled in the light of the fireplace roaring nearby. As usual, the mantle was covered in garland and ribbons with stockings hanging there for everyone in the family. Thankfully, it was a large fireplace, as this year there were three new additions to the collection: one for Kat, one for Willow and one for tiny, three-day-old Beatrice.
Speaking of Beatrice, the Queen Bea was holding court in her grandmother’s arms. Patricia was beaming as she held her granddaughter. Kat was resting in a nearby chair with her feet up and Sawyer hovering at her side in case she needed anything. The rest of the family was gathered around, looking at the new baby with grins on their faces and hot toddies in their hands. Beatrice, for her part, was unimpressed by it all and fast asleep.
Finn settled the presents with the others at the base of the tree. When he turned, Lena was waiting to offer them both a festive holiday beverage. “Merry Christmas, Lena,” he said, leaning in to give her a hug. “You’re looking radiant tonight, as always.”
The woman’s cheeks blushed bright red at his compliment. “You quit that, you old flirt. You’re a father now, and soon to be a married man.”
“I can still appreciate a lovely lady when I see one,” he said with a wink.
He and Willow had settled into the couch together and he was just about to grab one of Lena’s famous white chocolate–peppermint cookies when his father stood up.
“Now that everyone is here, I’d like to make a toast,” Trevor said. Everyone quieted and held their glasses in anticipation. “This family has been through a lot the last few years. It’s difficult sometimes to look back and think about those hard times, but then I always remember what amazing things have come from it. Without Jade being kidnapped, we never would’ve had Morgan in our lives. Or Jade’s husband, Harley. We may have had our home bombed, but we came out of it with our new son-in-law, River, and the amazing charity in Dawn’s memory.
“Finn brought Kat and our beautiful granddaughter, Beatrice, into our lives. And now, in nearly losing him for good, we gained his lovely fiancée, Willow. In many ways, despite him living on the other side of the country now, we also got Finn back, too. I never could’ve imagined how our family would grow and change so quickly, and for that I’m grateful.”
“Now if we can just marry off Tom!” Sawyer interjected from the corner.
Their oldest brother squirmed uncomfortably in the corner. “I’m working on it,” he said. “I’ve been seeing a new girl lately and I’m pretty sure she might be the one. I knew the moment she was introduced to me at a party.”
“What’s her name?” Morgan asked.
“Becky. I thought that was appropriate.”
Trevor laughed. “We’ve needed a Becky to complete my Mark Twain collection,” he noted. “I look forward to meeting her. But in the meantime, to all of you, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and a happy, exciting New Year ahead.”
“Cheers!” a few folks yelled out and glasses clinked together around the room.
Finn smiled and hugged his fiancée to his side. He knew that no matter what the future held for him, he would face it happily with Willow. He placed a kiss on the top of her head and raised his glass again.
“To Beatrice’s first Christmas!”
* * *
Enjoy all the stories in Andrea Laurence’s
Switched miniseries:
From Mistake to Millions
From Riches to Redemption
From Seduction to Secrets
Promises from a Playboy
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Trapped with the Texan
by Joanne Rock
One
Earbuds in place, Valencia Donovan cranked up the volume of her music while she rocked out discreetly in the parking lot of the Texas Cattleman’s Club. Seated in the driver’s seat of her late-model pickup truck, she sang along to her personal playlist labeled “Game Time Hype,” even though her appointment within the walls of the prestigious, members-only club was no game.
Fiery girl-power anthems weren’t anything she’d normally listen to at home or while working at her ranch. But as a dedicated overachiever, Valencia appreciated the ferocity of the lyrics before she had to give an important business pitch. She might be well beyond the age of her high school basketball days when she’d first started the playlist, but she wasn’t about to mess with her winning streak now. Not when she really, really needed an investment from Lorenzo Cortez-Williams to expand her horse rescue operation.
Closing her eyes, she pumped her fist and let the final strains of the song flow over her while she visualized her success.
Slam. Dunk.
Smiling, she turned off the music once her energy fired to life. And yes, maybe she glanced around the parking lot just a smidge self-consciously to see if anyone noticed her antics. But she’d parked in the farthest corner of the lot. Now, tossing the earbuds aside, she slid out of the truck and locked the doors behind her. She paused long enough to check her reflection in the side mirror, smoothing down a few curls that had sprouted in the humidity.
Her pre-meeting routine might be on the corny side, but the outfit she wore was conservative enough. A navy blue sheath dress with a matching jacket and nude sling-back pumps. She wasn’t a member of the TCC herself, but she knew how the other half lived. Her adoptive family had raised her to be comfortable in this world, and Valencia had shaken off the dirt of her roots a long time ago. Her unhappy early childhood did not define her.
Promises from a Playboy--A secret billionaire with amnesia romance Page 15