Shadow in the Pines
Page 24
“Wait!” he stopped her as she removed the paper to reveal what she’d suspected. A tiny jeweler’s box. She looked up at him. “I should say something…” He looked totally perplexed and she had to smile. “No… just open it.”
Dani was just as confused as he looked, terrified she’d lift the lid and find an engagement ring and equally afraid that she wouldn’t – something she couldn’t explain right now if her life depended on it. What she found when she snapped open the box threw her yet another curve. Sparkling in the flickering firelight was an enormous teardrop amethyst solitaire set in a smooth yellow gold band and encircled with diamonds. Eyes wide, she looked up at him in amazement, softening at the anxiety evident on his face.
“Noah, it’s beautiful… but………” How could she ask him what it was? What it meant?
“You like it?” You’d have thought his future rested on her answer.
“Of course I…”
“Try it on! Here…” he took the box from her trembling hand and removed the ring, then slid it on the ring finger of her left hand. “Before you panic, remember that I’m no good at this. I’ve never done it before. Dani Jones, you have completely captivated me. You’re the only woman in the world I can’t imagine living without and I’d like very much to make you my wife. But if it’s too soon for you to make that kind of commitment, I understand and I’m willing to wait, but I want you to have this because I’m making that commitment to you. I’m here for you, as long as you want me or need me. I’ll stay here, I’ll live next door, I’ll fly you to the moon……………would you please say something before I make a complete and utter fool of myself?”
Dani didn’t know whether to laugh or cry so she did both, wrapping her arms so tightly around his neck he had to loosen them after a moment just to get a breath.
“I guess you like it?” he pulled back far enough to look her in the eye.
“Noah, I love it……… I love you. And I want you to stay right here…and…”
“And?” his expression was one of infinite tenderness.
Dani took a deep breath. “And I’d be honored to be your wife.”
That was all he needed to hear. In one swift movement, he scooped her up and carried her upstairs where they spent the rest of the night celebrating the holiday.
About the Author
As with most things, PJ Nunn's career started out as something else entirely. She started out in retail then moved to property management. That led to teaching high school, then serving as a counselor and liaison to the local police youth services division. She also spent five years as chairperson of the Coryell County Child Welfare Board and spent years counseling abuse victims and serving law enforcement as a trauma counselor and consultant (something she still does today). When she moved to Dallas, a family illness caused her to leave a job teaching psychology at Dallas County Community College District to become a freelance writer, but found that a few favors she was doing for friends—writing press releases and setting up book signings—was better suited to her talents and her drives.
In 1998, she founded BreakThrough Promotions, now a national public relations firm helping authors, mostly of mystery novels, publicize themselves and their work. The business is thriving. PJ lives with her husband some of their five children near Dallas, TX.
Website: http://pjnunn.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorpjnunn
Twitter: @PJNunn
Coming in 2014
January 2014 from Tidal Wave Publishing
No Such Thing as Ghosts: A Jesse Morgan Mystery - With only one really big case under her belt, Jesse’s primed for more, but unfortunately, the publicity has brought kooks out of the woodwork. Byron is busy trying to get the security end of the business established so Jesse’s left to handle the nutcases on her own.
When a call comes in to visit the owner of a local, exclusive restaurant, Jesse doesn’t know what to expect. When he tells her he’s afraid a ghost is stealing from him, she wants out and fast! She doesn’t really want to tell him he’s a nut and turn down the case outright, so she does what seems logical. She quotes an exorbitant rate, fully expecting him to turn it down. He writes her a check instead.
June 2014 from Oak Tree Press
THE PROTECTOR: A Shari Markham Mystery – Shari took leave of absence from the Dallas Police Department after she and her granddaughter Angel were in an accident during the capture of a serial killer. She returns to the job when another killer is linked to the college campus where she teaches in the law enforcement academy. It seems recent killings are somehow connected to a prostitution ring that’s discovered in the campus computer lab. FBI Special Agent Luke Stanopolis, who left Shari to go back to Washington after the accident, returns to head the investigation with an undercover sting that goes bad. Will they catch the killer and bring their undercover officer back alive?
Table of Contents
Other books by PJ Nunn:
Praise for Angel Killer:
Praise for Private Spies:
Acknowledgments
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty One
Chapter Twenty Two
Chapter Twenty Three
Chapter Twenty Four
Chapter Twenty Five
Chapter Twenty Six
About the Author