Love Me Tomorrow

by Kathryn Kelly

  “Ok, then, let me help you.”

  Her eyes widened. “Help me? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “I’ll help you with your writing.”

  Once again - had he grown horns? Apparently the man, however, good intentioned he was, did not understand - well, he didn’t understand much.

  “You can’t. First of all, writing is a solitary pursuit. We already talked about this And second, I only have two weeks to finish it.”

  “Two weeks? I didn’t think we’d get married that soon”

  Was that a look of panic on his face? “When were you thinking we’d do it then?” she asked, just to see how he would react.

  “I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it.”

  “What have you thought about?’

  “I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

  “What about things like where will we live?”

  “In a house.”

  “Where? Dallas or Hanover?”

  “I don’t know.

  “That doesn’t seem very practical.” When had she become the practical one? She’d struggled with it. He should, too. She needed to know what he was willing to do.

  “Alley,” he said, taking her hand. “I don’t care where we live. We can live in the desert of New Mexico for all I care. If that’s what it takes for you to be with me. I just want you.”

  She shook her head. “We need to talk about this.”

  “Of course. We can talk all you want.”

  “Not now. I’m on a deadline.”

  “Ok. When?”

  “Two weeks. I need to two weeks.”

  “Ok,” he said, taking a step back and crossing his arms. “I’ll wait.”

  She felt a bubble of panic in her throat. “You can’t just wait.”

  “Ok,” he said. “What do you want me to do?”

  Alley thought. She thought about her book and her deadline. She thought about Justin and how good it had felt to see him. How good it felt to be with him now. She thought about how much she did not want him to leave. She thought about how he had read through some of her story and had had a perspective that had helped her see things differently.

  Then he smiled.

  And her heart stumbled. He was here. Now. She couldn’t just send him away. He wanted to marry her.

  Marriage.

  She needed to sit down. Then she remembered. She was sitting down.

  She felt a little weak.

  “Are you all right?” he asked.

  She was eye level with him now. Her arms wrapped around his neck and his arm had her safely tucked against him. “You really want to marry me?”

  He laughed, a laugh of relief and joy. “I’ve always wanted to marry you.”

  “Always. Since when?”

  “Since you were about thirteen years old.”

  She looked at him strangely.

  “I was only fifteen. And you were the cutest thing I’d ever seen.”

  She smiled.

  And she knew.

  This was the most important thing in her life.

  The end.

  Epilogue

  Winston took Allora’s hand and pulled her toward him. She came against him and he ran his hand along her hair and down her cheek. Her lips parted in invitation. He smiled, his eyes full of his love for her. They were bound together now - forged forever in time and beyond. Nothing would ever come between them.

  She would follow him anywhere.

  Alley sat at the dining room table and stared at the box Fed Ex had just dropped off at the front porch. She had been waiting - watching and listening for the truck. From past experience, she knew he wouldn’t ring the doorbell.

  It was so hard to wait. She wanted to tear into it. Yet, she wanted to savor it, to delay the suspense. Then, finally, after what seemed like an interminable fifteen minutes, he emerged from the basement and leading Spot’s mother toward the front door – the mother of Spot, the cat.

  Seeing her sitting there, the box in front of her, he winked and held up his index finger in a symbol that said, give me just one minute.

  She smiled. She knew, he too, had been anticipating the box’s arrival.

  “Now how many times a day do I put the drops in Spot’s ears?” she asked, seemingly reluctant to leave.

  Justin was doing a good job of hiding his impatience. “Three times,” he said. “I wrote it on there for you.”

  “Ok, very good. I really appreciate it,” she said.

  He held the door open for her and she continued to talk as she made her way out the door. “How it that lovely wife of yours?”

  “She is just great.”

  “How much longer?”

  “Only two more months,” he said. “She just can’t wait.”

  “The first one is always the best.”

  “So I’ve heard. I’ll call you tomorrow and check on Spot,” he said.

  “Ok, Dear, I’m sure she’ll be just fine now.”

  After she settled Spot in the car and allowed Justin to close the car door, Justin was at Alley’s side in two seconds.

  “You waited,” he said.

  “Of course.”

  “Ok, are you ready?” he asked. “We’ve been waiting for this for months.”

  She glanced at him, biting her lower lip. “I’m a little nervous. I knew someone whose cover had a girl with three arms.”

  “I’m sure it’s wonderful,” he said, kissing the tip of her nose.

  “I just want it to be right.” She picked up the box cutter that she had waiting and carefully cut the tape. Then, taking a deep breathe, she opened the flaps.

  There, carefully wrapped in plastic, were the copies of her graphic novel. There on the cover was a perfect depiction of Allora, the wind blowing her long black hair behind her, her sword lifted high with both hands in front of her. One Prada-clad foot firmly holding down an evil looking wolf. And there on the back cover was Alley’s picture.

  “I was so much thinner.”

  “You were,” Justin agreed.

  Alley smiled and felt a tear slide down her cheek as she fanned the pages with her words and her drawings.

  “See,” Justin said, proudly, “it’s just wonderful.” He reached down and caressed her swollen abdomen. “Just like our baby will be.”

  Their eyes locked. Hers tearful with all the love she felt for him welling up inside her.

  “I love you, Alley Cat.”

  “I know,” she said.

  And she knew she had managed to have it all.

  But more than anything else, she had Justin and that just made everything else even better.

  If you enjoyed Love Me Tomorrow, you might enjoy my Cupid’s Kiss Series. Keep reading for an excerpt from Falling Again.

  About the Author

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  Also by Kathryn Kelly

  Time Travel Romance

  Twist of Fate

  When the Stars Align

  Once in a Blue Moon

  Once Upon a Christmas

  Sweet and Wholesome Contemporary Romance

  Begin Again

  Love Again

  Falling Again

  Just Pretend

  Just Maybe

  Just Because

  Sweet and Wholesome Contemporary Romance

  A Very Merry Christmas Gift

  Pretend You’ll Stay

  Love Me Tomorrow

  Historical Romance

  Love Always

  Beyond Enemy Lines

  Hearts Under Siege

  Hearts Under Fire

  Fated Mates Romance

  Riley’s Mate

  Aiden’s Mate

  Brayden’s Mate

  Falling Again Excerpt

  Falling Again - Chapter 1

  Chapter
1

  At the moment, Danielle Worthington was having a hard time believing in true love, much less happily ever after.

  After unclipping the camera from the tripod, she adjusted the camera’s shutter speed and photographed the models in front of her. The models were posing as a happy couple. They wore jeans and t-shirts to portray a casual, relaxed look, and stood in front of an historic wooden house with a white picket fence at Sam Houston Park. They were depicting the American Dream.

  Their smiles looked true and their affection genuine, but Avery and Jacob could barely stand the sight of each other.

  Jacob put his arm around Avery and pulled her close. They gazed at each other, their faces only inches apart. Danielle went up the stairs and stood on the other side of them. She took more photos. They were such a cute couple.

  “I’ve got enough casual,” Danielle said. “Go get dressed up, guys.”

  As Jacob and Avery turned away from each other, their smiles turned to scowls. At least they were professional enough to pretend to like each other during the shoots.

  Danielle glanced at her phone. She had two hours to get back to her office in time to meet her father for lunch. A wave of anxiety swept over her in anticipation of that meeting.

  She took a deep breath and swallowed the nausea. Her father loved her no matter what. Right?

  He’d always been there for her. There was no reason why he wouldn’t be there for her now.

  Avery and Jacob were back within minutes. Avery was now wearing a red party dress, and Jacob was wearing a black tux.

  They made such a beautiful couple.

  Danielle’s heart did a little summersault as an image of that night flashed through her mind. The night that she had worn a floor-length red dress, and Joey had worn a black suit. Danielle had felt like a princess that night. She’d thought they were in a fairy tale.

  The fairy tale hadn’t collapsed at midnight, but at six a.m. the next morning. That girl, whatever her name was, had been surprised that Joey wasn’t alone. In fact, that was the only satisfaction that Danielle took from the whole fiasco.

  Now she saw her relationship with Joey for what it had been all along: a sham, just like Avery and Jacob. She’d fallen for an illusion.

  Never again.

  After taking several more photos, she could tell that they were getting tired, and she needed to rest too.

  Walking back to the parking lot, she enjoyed the warmth of the Houston sun. She’d lived here for six weeks now, but already she had found that she liked the friendliness of the people and the warmth of the weather.

  A Los Angeles native, Houston wouldn’t have been her first choice. She had an affinity for New York, though she’d only visited there once with her stepmother, Savannah, whose love for the big city had been contagious.

  Nonetheless, Danielle was content with Houston.

  Except for one small detail.

  When she got to the parking lot, she had to call an Uber. Houston was definitely a driving town, and Danielle would be content if she never had to drive.

  After the Uber driver picked her up, she noticed an American flag decal on his rearview mirror. Seeing it was like taking an instant punch to the gut.

  Her ex-boyfriend, ex of five weeks and four days, was in the Air Force, stationed here in Houston. They’d been on-again-off-again for several years. When he’d suggested she move to Houston, she’d thought they were moving forward. Together.

  Unfortunately, she’d been moving forward alone. Danielle had subsequently implemented a self-imposed dating moratorium. It hadn’t been hard to do since she was in a strange town and knew absolutely no one other than coworkers. And since they all worked independently, she really didn’t know them either.

  She’d found a furnished apartment to rent, a job, and left home for the first time.

  Okay, she admitted to herself that there were other factors involved. One, her mother had just gotten married a second time, this time to her high school sweetheart, so moving out of the house was long overdue. And second, Houston put her a little closer to her father, who lived in Alabama and had a charter flight company in Fort Worth.

  Though she hadn’t seen him in nearly two months, he was flying down today to take her to lunch for her birthday. Today, she would tell him that she and Joey had broken up, and she was living alone in Houston. And again, the thought made her queasy. Odd. She’d never been nervous about seeing her father before.

  Maybe she’d picked up a virus.

  Falling Again - Chapter 2

  Samuel Johnson was not a shopper by nature. In fact, he considered himself a man of very minimal needs: basic clothing, an iPhone and iPad, a uniform for work, and a reliable truck. Oh, and an airplane. In fact, the airplane was first on his list, but it was such a basic thing, he rarely even thought about it. Sort of like air.

  As a result, standing in the Apple store in Highland Shopping Center trying to decide whether to buy an iMac, a MacBook, a MacBook Air, or a MacBook Pro had him so completely out of his element, that he couldn’t process.

  Get her a good Apple computer and put it on the company credit card. What the boss requested, the boss got.

  Especially when the boss was Noah Worthington of Skye Travels. The man who was paying him for two weeks before he even started work to give him time to relocate from Houston to Dallas.

  The store wasn’t busy this morning, and Tom, one of the blue-shirted employees, stood patiently waiting while Samuel considered his options.

  “Do you have any questions?” Tom asked.

  Samuel nodded. “Which one should I get?”

  Tom laughed. “What do you need it for?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “No problem,” Tom assured him.

  “It’s not for me. It’s for… my boss’s daughter.”

  “Ah.” Tom’s eyes widened knowingly. “What kind of work does she do?”

  “I have absolutely no clue.”

  “Oh boy.”

  “Yeah. Oh boy indeed.” He knew her name and the fact that her father was a pilot and owner of Skye Travels, so she couldn’t be very old. “I know today’s her birthday.”

  “Well, if she works at a desk, you should probably go with the iMac. If she travels, you can’t go wrong with any of the notebooks.”

  “Her father’s a pilot.”

  “Too bad it’s not for him.” Tom scratched his chin. “Can you ask him?”

  Samuel glanced at his watch. “Not likely. He should be in the air.”

  “I don’t suppose you could ask her?”

  Samuel shook his head. “Not even a chance. It’s a surprise.”

  “We have a fourteen-day return policy.”

  A ray of hope opened up, and it was as though the weight of the world fell from Samuel’s shoulders. “Which one is more expensive?”

  “The MacBook Pro.”

  Samuel tapped the keys on the notebook computer. But the images on the MacBook Pro drew his attention. “I like that one,” he said more to himself than to Tom.

  “It’s a great computer. It just came out.”

  Samuel glanced at his watch. Always go with your gut. He knew not to overthink things. Go with your first reaction unless you have compelling evidence not to. The wisdom drilled into him as a pilot never failed to spill over into other parts of his life. Besides, if he didn’t make a decision and get moving, he was going to be late.

  Want to keep reading? Grab your copy on Amazon:

  Falling Again