Gamble on Engagement

by Rachel Astor

  But, as it often does, life had a different plan for me.

  A ‘driver going in the complete wrong direction and totally getting us lost’ kind of plan.

  Cripes.

  I tried to tell him where to turn, but he just would not listen. It was like he was direction dyslexic or something. Every time I said to turn right, he’d go left. When I said north, he’d make his way east. We’d made it all the way to the fanciest part of town, which, believe me, was a long way away from my apartment.

  “Please, just listen to me,” I begged. “If you would just go back the way we…”

  And then he stopped. Right in front of the cutest little motel I’d ever seen. It was like a real life dollhouse, even including pink trim like you’d see in a magazine.

  After the day I’d had, I almost wanted to go in there and ask for the most comfortable bed they had. Of course, I was certainly in no position financially to do that, so I sighed instead. “Can you please just take me home?”

  “I’m sorry Miss McMaster, but we’ve reached the destination I was instructed to bring you to.”

  “Well, then, there must be some mistake,” I said.

  But the driver tilted his head in the direction of a little stairwell on the side of the building, toward a handmade sign that simply said, “Josie,” and had an arrow pointing up the stairs.

  And I couldn’t help but wonder what in the hell I was in for next.

  ~ 20 ~

  It took every ounce of energy I had left to make my way out of the car and to the stairs. I honestly just wanted to sit down right there and cry, thinking that if this was Mattie’s idea of a sick joke, I was going to pummel the shit out of him the first chance I got.

  I stepped up onto the stairs, slowly making my way up, which seemed pretty weird actually, since I couldn’t see a door at the top of the staircase, or anything up there for that matter. As I neared the top, the staircase actually wrapped around the back of the building.

  One more flight to go.

  I’d made my way to the roof, which might not have been the best decision on the part of whoever was setting me up. Rooftops could equal disaster. Who knew, if I didn’t end up throwing myself off it, I could not be responsible for my actions and someone else may even go overboard.

  Maybe I was just being dramatic.

  I stepped out onto the roof, a large brick wall on my left, blocking my view, and nothing but a very long drop to the ground below on my right. I took another step, and another, finally rounding the wall and seeing…

  …Jake?

  The roof was set up like a tropical garden with large plants and flowers everywhere, lit up with a million tiny candles flickering in the moonlight. And then there was Jake, dressed in a tuxedo.

  He was a sight for sore eyes.

  “Jake?” I finally found the word.

  “Hey Jose,” he said, and smiled that smile I fell in love with.

  Suddenly, I wasn’t quite as tired anymore. “Jake? What are you doing?”

  I saw then that some of the candles were set up like a pathway and I took a step down the makeshift aisle without really realizing it.

  Then I took another. “I thought you were never going to talk to me again.”

  He shook his head gently. “I would never do that.”

  “I’ve been trying to call you.”

  He nodded now, looking down. “I know.”

  “I thought you hated me.”

  “I know that too… now,” he said. “I mean, I didn’t think you’d think I would just never talk to you again.”

  I shrugged. “I did think that though.”

  “I am so sorry. I just kept thinking about how I wanted this all to be a surprise.”

  “All what to be a surprise?” I asked, my curiosity reaching new heights.

  “This,” he said, gesturing around him.

  “But what about the tabloids? I thought you were mad at me about the tabloids. And Leo.”

  He put his hands in his pockets and looked at his feet. “I was, for a few days I really was. Tearing the shit out of my trailer at work, being generally pissy to anyone who dared walk in my path.”

  “Really?” I mean, not that I condoned it or anything, but it wasn’t unpleasant knowing I had that effect on him.

  “And then it finally hit me. Well, after the director threatened to fire me if I didn’t straighten up. I figured I should think about why I was really so upset. I mean, I’ve certainly been in relationships that didn’t work before, so why was I such a mess? And then I realized… I was jealous. I wanted to be the one that you did all that fun stuff with. I wanted to be by your side instead of on some stupid movie set. I mean, I love my job, but it can get really, really lonely sometimes. And that’s when it hit me. You’re the one Josie. And I don’t want to spend another minute without you.”

  He stepped back and I thought this was when I would wake up from the dream. Something was about to go wrong.

  But then he dug into his pocket, pulled out a tiny box, and knelt down on one knee…

  …and that’s approximately the same time as I lost consciousness.

  ~~~

  I yelled one word when I came to.

  “Yes!”

  I totally didn’t even know what had happened, but even as I’d passed out, I knew what my answer would be. Of course I wanted to marry Jake.

  I also didn’t know if it was Mattie or Jennifer squealing when I came to. It was a very feminine sounding scream. But it could have been either one.

  They both came rushing up and knelt down beside me, chattering away.

  “Oh my God, I thought we were going to miss it,” Jennifer said, as if her mouth were in a race.

  “Well if you would learn how to chase a car properly, we wouldn’t have been so rushed,” Mattie added.

  Only Jake looked at all concerned for my wellbeing. “Jesus Josie, are you okay? I didn’t mean to…”

  “It’s okay,” I jumped in. “I can’t even tell you how okay it is.” Tears welled up in my eyes and my smile almost hurt my face.

  Until I realized that I’d passed out before Jake had even said anything. I mean, he’d reached in his pocket and pulled out a small box, but what if… oh God, what if he was just giving me a key to his apartment like how they always seemed to fool the heroine in movies? My stomach clenched.

  “Oh God,” I whispered, “unless…” I panicked, looking around for the box.

  The box would tell me everything.

  And there it was, still in Jake’s hand.

  Closed.

  Oh God. I slowly started sitting up.

  “Um, unless I am mistaken about what might be in that box,” I said, cringing that this might be my most monumental blunder yet.

  Jake looked confused for a second, and looked at the box as if he was noticing it for the first time.

  But Mattie and Jennifer were practically bouncing with excitement so maybe… just maybe…

  “Oh uh, no. Don’t worry, you’re not, I mean… I am…” He took a deep breath. I’d never seen him so nervous. “This is exactly what you think it is.”

  He pulled on the lid of the box, so slowly it was like I was on a game show and they were about to announce if I’d won a million dollars or not, except… it was time for a commercial break.

  But then, miraculously, it really was like I had just won a million dollars. No wait, it was so much better than that. Because inside that beautiful leather box was something so sparkly and perfect that the tears came so fast I hardly had a second to look at it. I wiped them away fast, staring into the most beautiful (and huge!) emerald cut solitaire diamond I had ever seen.

  It was so beautiful that I almost didn’t notice the smoke and the strange burning smell.

  “Does anybody smell that?” I said, looking around.

  Mattie’s eyes suddenly grew wide, like, deer in the headlights wide. And the worst part was, he was staring right at my head.

  And that was around the same time that I
started to feel something very warm at the back of my head.

  I mean, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. I was McMaster the Disaster after all. Why wouldn’t I faint and light my hair on fire the first time I get proposed to?

  There was a flurry of activity while my three favorite people in the world pounded on my head, knocking me back down to the ground and pretty much smothering me.

  Mattie topped it off by throwing a pitcher of water—that just so happened to be sitting right there on the table—over my head. How very convenient.

  “Mattie!” I screamed, the coldness slipping down the back of my neck.

  I could only imagine what I looked like, an entire day on a plane, then drenched like a drowned rat.

  Pretty.

  “Well sorry for trying to save your life,” he said, sarcastic as ever.

  But I couldn’t even be that mad, since Jake was still holding out the ring.

  “Um… so Josie McMaster… will you marry me?” he asked.

  Maybe it was how tired I was, or maybe it was just pure relief that I hadn’t completely screwed up my life yet again, but I didn’t even try to stop the tears now. “Of course,” I said, not even caring how much my mascara must be running—it already had to be everywhere from the water anyway. “Of course I’ll marry you.”

  And Jake started crying… just a little, too.

  ~ EPILOGUE ~

  Two months of engaged bliss later…

  I stepped out the back door of Jake’s cabin, into the giant yard filled with flowers and trees, which led up to the lake. Our lake. The lake where we’d had our very first date.

  Life was perfect.

  “Oh no you didn’t!” Mattie said, screeching through the silence and putting up a talk-to-the-hand gesture, the other hand on his hip.

  “Oh yes. Yes, I very much did,” my mother said, widening her sensible high-heeled stance, putting both hands on her hips.

  Of course, perfection always did have a way of cracking into a million little pieces, didn’t it?

  I honestly don’t even know how it happened, but somehow, Mattie and my mother were both under the impression that they would be the one to plan my wedding. I mean, I may have sort of not told them otherwise when they’d each come to me with plans galore, enthusiastically suggesting exactly how my big day should be, but I swear, I’d never promised anything.

  It would be okay, I’d thought at the time, everyone would lose interest soon enough and I could just plan the whole thing myself, right?

  But as I stood, watching them square off against each other over wedding cake albums, I knew, somewhere deep in my soul, that things were not going to end well.

  And all I could think was… dear God, what have I done?

  Stay tuned for more of Josie’s adventures in the next installment of the McMaster the Disaster series.

  Book 3, The Wedding Wager, coming this winter.

  And if you missed the first installment of McMaster the Disaster:

  Bridesmaid Lotto (a McMaster the Disaster novel)

  Josephine McMaster is pretty and smart, but very much a klutzy mess. Finally, at 26, she may have actually lost the dreaded ‘McMaster the Disaster’ nickname that has followed her around her whole life.

  Josie’s quite content to be single, much to her mother’s disappointment. So when a bizarre contest is announced where a socialite is holding a lottery to pick her bridesmaids (and rake in a little extra cash), she can’t roll her eyes fast enough, even if it does mean meeting Jake Hall, her one and only movie star crush. Obviously, Josie doesn’t enter the bridesmaid lottery, so you can imagine her surprise when her picture pops up among the winners, thanks to Mom. With a little prodding—okay bribing—Josie agrees to participate.

  The wedding turns into the event of the year, and Josie finds herself in the middle of a paparazzi feeding frenzy, which gets even crazier after Jake Hall takes a special interest in her.

  Can Josie handle the pressure in the spotlight? Is it possible she might really have a chance with Jake Hall? And if she’s busy worrying about all that, how in the heck is she going to keep ‘McMaster the Disaster’ from showing up in front of the entire world?

  More books by Rachel Astor:

  ~ Contemporary Romance ~

  Payback’s a Witch

  Nelle Peterson has finally found Mr. Right. He’s handsome, smart, and successful. In fact, she’s amazed he’s still available.

  But shortly after her new relationship begins, things start to go wrong. Really wrong. Nelle doesn’t really believe in fate, or fairy tales, or magic, but when her boyfriend lets it slip that his ex used to be really into witchcraft, it all starts to fall into place.

  Will Nelle be able to get past her logical ways and protect herself? Can she keep her boyfriend from falling back under the ex’s spell? And now that it's Nelle's turn to learn the ways of witchcraft, what will happen when she tries to conjure up a little revenge of her own?

  ~ Young Adult Paranormal ~

  Haunt (a Sisterhood of Murder novel)

  Three strangers end up at the same place at the same time. So what’s the problem? Well, the corpse for one.

  Years of unexplained blackouts have made Sophie tough, at least as far as anyone knows. She’s tried to stop her ritual cutting after the blackouts, but with the pain comes too much control and clarity.

  Ashlyn’s years of avoiding society have made her timid, afraid to let anyone in. For as long as she can remember, her dreams reenact the lives of each person who comes in physical contact with her. Not the best situation for making friends. Her only release is purging her pain into her artwork.

  Libi’s only concern is her social status… until now. She always thought the stories about her old Granny Matilda who claimed to see ghosts were completely insane, or at least Granny must have been. Guess the joke’s on Libi now that she’s turned sixteen.

  The trio has little in common, except one thing. Each girl knows what it’s like to live with secrets. Will they be able to get it together and figure out what drew them to the abandoned warehouse, not to mention solve the little problem of the body they’ve found? Or perhaps even more important, will finding each other finally make them feel like they have a place to belong?

  Table of Contents

  Gamble on Engagement

  Midpoint