by Rachel Lacey
“Dad…” Her voice came out more like a croak.
“It’s true,” he told her earnestly. “It troubled me over the years that you seemed to meander between jobs without any real idea of where you were headed, but I can see you’ve found your calling now. If you guys want to keep your bed and breakfast business going after you leave here, you have my full support.”
“Thank you. That really means a lot.” Her heart felt like a piece that had been torn for longer than she could remember had just mended itself.
“Now when do I get to meet Theo?”
“Um, right now if you want,” she said, catching Theo’s eye as he walked across the ballroom and waving him over.
Theo approached with a smile she recognized from their weekend in London—the one he wore when he greeted donors at the Langdon charity event.
She tucked her hand around his elbow. “Theo, I’d like you to meet my dad, Tom Davenport. Dad, this is Theo Langdon.”
“The Earl of Highcastle,” her father said, extending his right hand. “It’s a pleasure.”
“The pleasure’s all mine, sir,” Theo told him, shaking her father’s hand.
Elle zoned out a bit while Theo and her dad got to know each other, still tripping over the things her father had said. Everything tonight seemed impossibly better than she’d been expecting. She wasn’t sure whether she should be waiting for the other shoe to drop.
After a minute, her father excused himself to find Delilah. Elle turned to Theo, eager to feel his lips on hers to ground herself in this amazing moment.
“Could I steal you away for a few minutes?” he asked as he laced his fingers through hers, bringing them to his mouth.
“Of course,” she answered automatically. She’d follow him anywhere, but the look in his eyes told her this was important.
“Let’s take a walk through the garden,” he suggested.
“Okay.” This might explain the intensity about him tonight. It was time. They were finally going to have the big conversation he’d been putting off ever since she told him she loved him. Oh God, after everything else tonight, she wasn’t sure she was ready for whatever he was going to say.
Theo led them down a quiet path, away from the other party guests who’d come outside. The night was warm, the sky clear overhead. Perfect weather. A gentle breeze rustled the air, carrying with it a mixture of floral scents from the blooms flowering around them.
“I took this place for granted, growing up here,” he said as they walked, something contemplative in his tone. “You helped me see it through fresh eyes and made me realize how long it had been since anyone really appreciated Rosemont Castle, anyone other than my grandfather, that is. I thought I could fix that by selling to the Greenbaughs. I was giving the castle a new family to love it.”
She squeezed his fingers. “And I’m sure they will.”
“I backed out of the sale a few days ago, while I was in London. I’m keeping Rosemont Castle in the family. Permanently.”
She stopped in her tracks, stumbling over her own feet. “You…you’re not selling?”
“I’m not selling.” He turned to face her.
“I…I don’t know what to say.” Her heart was beating so fast, and tears welled in her eyes. She was afraid to look at him, afraid of what she might see—or what she might not see—reflected back at her. Her gaze drifted to the fountain behind him. How had they ended up standing in front of it?
“You can stay, if that’s what you still want. All of you. You can keep running your inn and your Fairy Tails program. I hope you will.”
“Okay.” She nodded through the tears blurring her vision. “But—”
“An interesting business opportunity came up recently for Langdon Fine Furnishings,” he said, and her head was spinning, because what did his business opportunity have to do with her staying here in the castle, while he moved home to London? It was everything—and nothing—that she’d wanted, all at the same time.
“That’s great,” she managed.
“I’m getting to a point, I promise.” He took her hands and squeezed. “A very important point.”
“Okay.”
“We’re expanding our furniture business into the American market, and I’m going to oversee the new operation,” he said slowly, watching her carefully for her reaction. “I had a long chat with my uncle and the rest of the board, and while they’re not perfectly happy about it, they’re not going to fight me on staying here in America, at least primarily. I’ll be splitting my time between here and London.”
“You…you’re staying?” She shook her head, because surely this couldn’t be happening. After months of reiterating that he couldn’t stay, that he had to return to London… “I don’t understand.”
“Rosemont Castle will be my home, but I’ll travel back and forth between here and London quite a bit to fulfill my duties as the earl. You don’t mind sharing me, do you?”
“Um, no.” Tears were streaming down her face now, because she was staying, and Theo was staying, and was this even real? She wasn’t entirely sure.
“Of course, you’re always welcome to join me when I travel to London. I’d love the company, and you seemed to like it there too.”
She nodded, blinking up at him.
“Remember that thing you told me last week, in the middle of the night?” He gripped her hands, his expression turned even more earnest, maybe even nervous. “Can you tell me again? Please?”
She sucked in a breath, filling her lungs with the scent of gardenias and roses and lilacs, and then she blew it out, raising her eyes to meet his. Here goes nothing… “I love you.”
“I love you too.” He dipped his head, brushing his lips against hers. “I’m sorry I didn’t say it back that night.”
“It’s okay…oh my God, Theo.” She went up on her toes, pressing her forehead to his. “You did a lot of thinking while you were in London.”
“I did. I realized I was trying so hard to do what was expected of me that I’d lost sight of myself. I’m used to thinking about life in black and white, but you’ve made me see all the beautiful colors in between, and Elle, I can’t imagine a life—or even a day—without you in it. This past week in London was dreadfully gray.”
“That’s a really beautiful thing to say,” she whispered, her throat too swollen with tears to find her voice.
“Well, I’m not quite finished yet. There’s one more thing I need to ask.”
Her head spun, and her heart might burst from all the joy swelling inside it. From the first moment she’d walked into Rosemont Castle, she’d felt oddly, inexplicably at home. This place—and this man—had spoken to her on a soul deep level from the moment they’d met.
“Elle Davenport,” he began, and suddenly he was pulling something out of his pocket, and he’d dropped to one knee, and Elle dropped right down beside him, her own knees having turned to the consistency of pudding. He laughed, steadying her with his left hand as he held up a ring in his right. “I love you more than I knew it was possible to love someone, and I would love nothing more than to have you by my side for the rest of my life. Would you do me the incredible honor of agreeing to be my wife?”
“Yes.” The word was out of her mouth almost before he’d finished speaking, and then their arms were around each other, and they were kissing, swaying on their knees on the cobblestone path in front of the fountain where Theo’s grandparents had renewed their vows thirty years before. Talk about romantic…
“It was my grandmother’s,” Theo said as he slid the ring onto her finger. “Alistair had it designed especially for her. You’re a lot like Rose. I think she and my grandfather would be so honored for you to have this and to live here in the house that they built to honor their love for each other.”
“It’s so perfect. I don’t know what to say.” She stared down at the ring on her finger. The large center diamond was flanked on each side by smaller stones, set into a gold band that had been carved to look like the st
em and leaves of a flower, with the gemstones as its bloom.
A rose.
“Oh, Theo…”
He kissed her again, helping her to her feet and stooping to brush the dirt and leaves from her dress.
She remembered the night she and her friends had looked down at Theo as he stood in front of this fountain, searching for the missing jewels, and something made her look up. Sure enough, Ruby and Megan were silhouetted in the window of the tower room, watching and waving excitedly.
“I’m going to kill them,” she breathed against his neck, too ridiculously happy and overwhelmed to put any heat into her words.
“Nah, let them live. Besides, you’re going to need their help keeping your program running here at the castle.”
“I can’t believe it.” She looked at him, and then back down at the ring on her finger. “It all feels like something out of a fairytale.”
“Believe it,” he said, his voice low and scratchy, rich with promise. “This is the start of our very own happily ever after.”
Dear Reader,
* * *
I hope you enjoyed If the Shoe Fits! Want to visit Theo, Elle, Megan, and Ruby at Rosemont Castle again? Don’t miss my Risking It All / Almost Royal Christmas crossover novella, My Gift is You, which releases on November 6th. The first chapter is included as a bonus at the end of this book.
Sign up for my newsletter for exclusive news and giveaways and receive a free copy of my award-winning novella, Only You, just for subscribing. If you enjoy chatting about books, I’d love for you to join my reader group on Facebook. It’s a great place for us to stay in touch, and I often ask for help naming upcoming characters and pets plus lots of other fun reader group exclusives.
Hope to see you there!
Rachel Lacey
Acknowledgments
Thank you so much to my agent, Sarah Younger, for all your help and guidance with this book. You truly helped shape If the Shoe Fits from start to finish! Thank you to my always amazing critique partner, Annie Rains, for your invaluable advice, and to April Hunt for inspiring “the Elusive Earl” and the “Earl of Lure.”
A special shout-out to Caroline Brooks for naming rescue dog Remington, and to Liam for naming Darcy the pug and Cameo the cat. The other rescue dogs and cats in If the Shoe Fits are inspired by real-life animals at local shelters who’ve all gone on to find their forever homes (both in real life and on the page!)
A huge thank you to everyone in my reader group and to all the readers, bloggers, and reviewers who’ve supported me along the way. Love you all!
xoxo
Rachel
Also by Rachel Lacey
Rock Star Duet
Unwritten
Encore
* * *
The Stranded Series
Crash and Burn
* * *
The Risking It All Series
Rock with You
Run to You
Crazy for You
Can’t Forget You
My Gift is You
* * *
The Love to the Rescue Series
Unleashed
For Keeps
Ever After
Only You
My Gift is You Chapter 1
The bird flashed across Mandy Carson’s windshield in a whoosh of brown feathers, followed by the tiniest of thumps. She stomped on the brake. “Shit!”
“You okay?” Her best friend Emma’s voice drifted from the speakers, filling the interior of the car.
Mandy’s headlights illuminated snowflakes drifting through the darkness ahead, swallowed in all directions by the impenetrable forest of the Smoky Mountains. She rolled her SUV to the side of the road. “I think I just hit a bird.”
“I bet it ducked out of the way at the last minute,” Emma said. “They usually do.”
“I heard a thump,” Mandy said. Her chest felt like the mystery bird was fluttering against her ribcage. She pressed a hand against it in an attempt to squelch the sensation. “It was big too, like a hawk. I’m going to go check. I’ll call you back later, okay?”
“Keep me on the line,” Emma said. “I don’t like the idea of you walking around on mountain roads at night. I need to know you make it safely back to your car.”
Mandy’s lips twitched. “You sound like such a mom.”
“Guilty as charged.” As if on cue, a sleepy baby sound echoed over the line. “Hurry up and check so you can get moving again before someone hits you too.”
“Okay, okay.” Mandy punched her hazard lights, and the night around her began to pulse with their on-again off-again yellowish glow. “I’ll be right back.”
“Don’t say that.” Emma’s voice rose. “Whenever someone says they’ll be right back in a horror film, they get killed.”
Mandy snorted with laughter. “This isn’t a horror film. It’s Christmas Eve, and I’m on a lonely mountain road all by myself. I’ll be right back.”
She stepped out of her SUV and looked both ways. Around her, the night was still and quiet, punctuated only by the breeze whispering through the trees on either side of the road. Snow flurries drifted through the air, dissolving as they reached the asphalt. There was no sign of the bird, but maybe that was a good thing. If it wasn’t lying in the middle of the road, it must have flown away.
Cautiously, she walked down the road, peering into the trees as well as she could in the dark. Nothing. Well, hopefully the bird hadn’t been too badly hurt then. Or maybe she hadn’t hit it at all. Maybe the thump had been a figment of her imagination or something on Emma’s end of the phone conversation.
Relief loosened in her gut as she walked back to the SUV. No harm. No foul. Instead of going straight home, maybe she’d stop at Rowdy’s for a couple of beers on the way. Maybe she’d meet a man there to keep her company tonight, someone as lonely as she was on this night when the rest of her friends were home with their families. Maybe he’d even stick around long enough to be her date for her friends’ New Year’s Eve wedding next weekend.
On second thought, any man out drinking alone on Christmas Eve might be too desperate for her taste. She was probably better off having a party for one at home with a bottle of wine, a hot bath, and her vibrator.
What was that tapping noise?
It sounded like it was coming from her engine, but this car was brand new—thank you very much—because she could afford things like a reliable car now that she and Emma had gone into business together. Last year, they’d become joint owners of Artful Blooms Landscape Design, a dream come true for both of them. And there was no reason for her shiny new car to be making strange noises out here tonight.
She rounded the front of the SUV, and a startled yelp escaped her throat. The hawk—it was definitely a hawk—was tangled up in the car’s grill, its beak snapping angrily at the plastic entrapping it. “Holy shit,” she whispered, dropping to her knees on the asphalt. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry.”
Mandy might be a lot of things, but a bird-killer she was not. This one was still alive, though, its body somehow wedged into the space where the grill met the body of the car so that only its reddish-brown head protruded, beady black eyes fixed on her, beak snapping angrily.
What the hell should she do now? She couldn’t exactly reach in there and try to free it. That beak looked sharp enough to do serious damage, even if she put on her leather gloves first. Mandy’s heart felt about like the poor bird looked, beating recklessly against the confinement of her ribcage. Rising on shaky legs, she walked around to the driver’s side door and climbed inside. “You still there, Em?”
“I’m here. Did you find the bird?”
“I…it’s stuck in the grill of the car.”
“What?” Emma exclaimed, and another sleepy baby sound carried over the line.
“It’s alive. It’s probably hurt. Jesus Christ, I don’t know what to do.”
“I do,” Emma said suddenly. “I actually know the perfect guy to call.”
“Who?” M
andy asked, drumming her fingers restlessly against the steering wheel. The night around her pulsed to the rhythm of her hazard lights like she was in some kind weird dream or having a bad trip.
“He was one of my Tinder dates last year,” Emma said with a slight giggle. “He works at that wildlife rehab place outside Haven.”
“Perfect,” Mandy said. “What’s his name?”
“Calvin Rocha.”
Everything seemed to slow inside her before speeding to a frantic pace. “Cal? You went on a Tinder date with Cal?”
“Um, you know Cal?” Emma asked hesitantly.
Oh, Mandy knew him all right. They’d first met in kindergarten, and on that one fateful night when they were sixteen, she’d known him in every sense of the word. “We went to school together.”
“I had no idea.” Emma sounded thoughtful. “Makes sense though. I never really knew the kids from Elderwood.” She’d gone to the public school, while Mandy and Cal had endured the special hell that was Elderwood Academy, the best—and most uptight—education you could buy out here in the Smoky Mountains.
Mandy had nearly gotten herself thrown out at least a dozen times. She’d done her best to scandalize every member of the staff. Except that one night…
“Do you have his number then?” Emma asked.
“What? No.” Mandy tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I haven’t talked to him since high school.”
“I may still have it. Want me to call him for you? Where are you?”
“I’m on Route 78 about a mile past the Christmas tree farm.”
“Let me see if I can track him down for you. I’ll text you back, okay?”
“Thanks. I appreciate it.” Mandy ended the call and sat there in her darkened car. The driver’s door was still open, letting the chill of the night seep inside, further dampening her Christmas spirit. At this point, she couldn’t have much less holiday cheer. When her parents first told her they’d decided to go on a Mediterranean cruise for the holidays, she been almost relieved. This was a hard time of year for all of them. Sometimes they tried to ignore Becky’s absence, and sometimes they just tried to ignore Christmas itself.