by Laney Powell
“I do not,” I said, laughing.
“You do. And that’s even before we get to the kitchen! Anyway, I was wondering where I’d fit, and you went and built us another house. On the perfect spot,” she added.
“You don’t mind that it’s not in Boulder?”
“It’s so close, and this is so gorgeous,” Mallory looked around. The color was high in her cheeks and her eyes were sparkling as she looked up at me.
“Come and see it,” I said.
I led her around, showing her how I’d set things up, assuring her she’d be able to change things around. Then I pulled out a bottle of champagne I had in the fridge. “Only one glass for you,” I said, popping the cork.
Mallory laughed. “It really did ruin that wedding for us,” she said.
“Not really. Just delayed things. I liked you from the first time that we danced,” I said.
“I liked you too, which scared the hell out of me.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because you’re you,” she said. “Or rather, you were the Sebastian Colton I went to school with.” Mallory smiled to let me know she saw that guy as someone from the past. She sat at the small table, waiting for me to pour the champagne.
That guy was from the past. My life had changed for the better when I’d taken her hand and asked her to dance. It just took me a little while to figure that out. The spark had been real. Now to test it, see how strong it was. My heart beat faster.
“Fair point.” I handed her a flute and sat down across from her. “Oh, there’s one more thing,” I said.
“What?”
“This comes with the house.” I set a box down on the table between us. “If you want it.”
Her mouth fell open, and her hand came up, covering it. Her eyes flew to me. “Is this…”
“Open it,” I said.
It felt like slow motion as she reached over to take the box. I could see that her fingers were trembling as she opened it. As Mallory saw what was in it, tears fell down her face on both of her cheeks.
“Well?” I asked. “Will you marry me? Please?”
“Yes!” She said.
I took the box from her and put the ring on her finger. She was mine. All mine. A fierce sense of possession came over me as I grabbed her to me, pulling her into my lap.
Forever. She was mine forever.
She pulled away from me.
“What?” I asked.
“Let’s go christen the bed.”
This couldn’t be any more perfect. Our house, our bed, my girl, my ring on her finger. It didn’t get any better than this. We’d have at least one more wedding in our future that we’d have to be a part of. I couldn’t wait.
Mallory
After I’d said yes, things went by at an amazing pace. I called Talia, Cara, and Leslie the next morning, and all three of them nearly broke my eardrums with screaming.
Between them and a couple of my Spar Island girls, the wedding was planned in no time. Sebastian didn’t want to wait. “I’m not giving you any chances to get away,” he said.
“Like I want to,” I replied, kissing him.
“Can we make it happen in September?” He asked.
It was early June. He was insane. “Maybe,” I said. I’m insane, too, I thought.
He kissed me now, with only a couple of weeks to go before the wedding, and grabbed his keys, headed off for work. “Great. Tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.”
My friend Serena, who I’d been asking to come out and see me, finally agreed to come and stay. She also offered to help. “I really need to get out of here, Mal,” she confided.
“Great, because I really need some damn help,” I said.
She and Sebastian got along like a house on fire. As a chef and a pastry chef, they could talk shop until I gave up pretending to be interested and walked away. It was great seeing him taking the time to get to know her. The Spar Island girls, of which Serena was one, would always be an important part of my life.
We were married in the park next to our tiny house mansion, with the trees and the cliff and all the beauty of Colorado in the background. We had the reception in our front yard, as it were. Caden, Jasper, the assistant chef, and Serena cooked. Sebastian’s staff from the restaurant took on being servers, and bartenders, and anything we needed. They’d closed down Apicus for the day.
All our friends from school were there. Our families. A lot of my Spar Island girls were there, with all the plus ones I’d noted popping up over the last year. The sun was shining, it wasn’t too hot—which is sometimes tricky in Colorado in the fall—and it was perfect.
As the reception wound down, Sebastian came over to where I was talking with some of my friends from work.
“Hey, babe, I need you for a bit.”
“OK,” I said.
He took my hand and led me away from the party to a souped up golf cart. “Your chariot, my lady,” he said, bowing over my hand as he helped me into the passenger side.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see,” he said, a smile turning up the corners of his lips.
Sebastian
I drove across the bridges in the park, and up the trail through another park to the top of the mesa across from where we lived. The sun was just beginning to set. Where the trail ended, I stopped, and came around to help Mallory and her dress out of the cart.
“We have a little walk,” I told her, taking her arm in mine. My heart was beating, and I felt a little breathless, unmanly as it was to think it. The last time I’d surprised her, she’d gotten a new house. Well, and a fiancé. I hoped that this would live up to the hype.
We made it to the top of the mesa. When I looked down, I could see our house across the creek, and the reception that was still going on.
“This is beautiful,” Mallory said.
“It is,” I spoke softly because everything was quiet and peaceful out here, and I didn’t want to disturb that.
I faced her, taking a deep breath. “I wanted to do this, just you and me. We’ve been through some tough times, and I know that you were worried when we moved in together. But now I’ve finally got you right where I want you, and I am honestly the happiest man alive.”
She laughed and then pulled my head down so she could kiss me. In her touch, I could feel her love. I pulled away from her and took her hands in mine. I’d practiced this in the mirror a couple of hundred times after Mallory left for work between the moment she said yes to the most recent time she’d said yes, a couple of hours ago. It still didn’t sound right, but it was too late now. I’d gotten her all the way up here. Time to man up and do it.
“I promise you, Mallory Colton, that I will always be your partner, your teammate, the guy who has your back. I promise to be honest, to not pretend things are OK when they aren’t, to talk even without you pushing me,” I stopped, laughing at the face she made at me.
Had she not pushed me early on, we wouldn’t be here. We both knew it.
“You saved me, saved me from shit I didn’t even know I needed to be saved from. You’re my best friend, the woman I love, and I am yours, for the rest of our lives.” I brought her hands to my lips and kissed them.
Her eyes shone in the fading sunlight as she looked at me. Tears sparkled as they slid down her cheeks.
“I love you,” she whispered.
“I love you, too,” I said. I wrapped my arms around her.
The sun set on the first most perfect day of the rest of my life.
Something old
Something new
Will you say “I do”?
Sixteen best-selling Flirt Club authors are headed down the aisle with a new collection of steamy, sweet stories!
You won’t want to miss any of these!
Always a Bridesmaid by Dee Ellis
At Last By Tessa Blake
Fake Plus One by Arlo Arrow
Garters & Groomsmen by Kim Loraine
Kiss the Bride by Amelia Wilde
&
nbsp; My Wedding Knight by Alexis Adaire
Something Blue by Fiona Starr
Something Borrowed by Tracy Lorraine
The Bridal Auction by Vivian Ward
The Worst Man by Rebecca Norinne
Three Weddings & Forever by Laney Powell
Wanderlust Wedding by Rebecca Gallo
Wedded and Finally Bedded by Olivia Hawthorne
Wedded Miss by Angel Devlin
Wedding Wishes by Dori Lavelle
With This Ring by Alexx Andria
Flirt Club is your home for flirty, dirty, romance collaborations from all of your favorite best-selling romance authors.
We’re excited to give our readers exactly what they want on a monthly (or more!) basis.
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The Spar Island Girls
This story, along with the others that I’ve done with this amazing group of authors, is part of a series of my own called the Spar Island Girls. This is a group of girls that grew up in Bristol, Rhode Island. Off of the city, there’s a little set of islands that are always shifting—there’s more of them exposed at low tide. They’re more land spits in Mt. Bay than islands. But people like to go out there and hang out for the day, and that’s what my Spar Island girls do.
Their parents were all friends growing up, and they would take their boats out and go hang out for the day. Even though most of the girls have moved away, they have never forgotten those friendships.
And there you have it—the Spar Island Girls. Look for them as me and my author besties keep bringing you our delicious collaborations!
Meet Casey in His Naughty Nurse. Part of The Halloween Honeys stories. (Spar Island #1)
Head to a holiday dinner with Nadia in Hot Apple Pie. Part of the Second Helpings Short Stories. (Spar Island #2)
Follow Cate in Naughty or Nice. Part of the Santa’s Coming Short Stories. (Spar Island #3)
Find the start of something new with Annalise in Snow Job. Part of the Resolution Pact Short Stories. (Spar Island #4)
Look for Nat’s grand scheme in Dear Shy Guy. Part of the Matchmaker Series (Spar Island #5)
Follow Jyn as she finds what she never knew she wanted in Forever Mine. Part of the Ireland Forever Short Stories. (Spar Island #6)
Meet Harper, who is going to find all that she dreams of in Mr. Black. Part of the Mr. Billionaire Short Stories. (Spar Island #7)
Go on a wild adventure with Lyssa in Spring Break Delish. Part of the Spring Breakers Short Stories (Spar Island #8)
Meet Elspeth as she takes charge of her destiny in His Buttercup. Part of the May Flowers Series. (Spar Island #9)
Follow Mallory as she learns all is not what she thinks in Three Weddings and Forever. Part of the Wedding Season Series. (Spar Island #10)
See how Serena mends a broken heart and life in Spar Island #11…
There are more coming! Look for them each month!
Xoxo
Laney
I'm a Midwestern lady, living life in the Rocky Mountains. I adore strong men with hearts of gold (even if that gold may be a bit imperfect) and that's what drives me to write the stories about them. The longer I do the romance gig, the more firefighter calendar pics I seems to collect. That's normal, right?
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The Spar Island Girls
His Naughty Nurse (The Halloween Honeys)
Hot Apple Pie (Second Helpings Short Story)
Naughty or Nice (Santa’s Coming Short Story)
Snow Job (Resolution Pact Short Story)
Dear Shy Guy (The Matchmaker Series)
Forever Mine (Ireland Forever Short Story)
Mr. Black (A Mr. Billionaire Short Story)
Spring Break Delight (A Spring Break Short Story)
His Buttercup (The May Flower Series)
Three Weddings and Forever (The Wedding Season Series)
Affair With The Billionaire
Episode One
Episode Two
Episode Three
Episode Four
Episode Five