One Year Later
THE DANG JULY heat was making for an uncomfortable evening. The thermometer read a humid eighty-three degrees, and we were supposed to get thunderstorms later.
Where the heck was the AC when you needed it?
I fanned myself, flapping the front of my top and trying to rid myself of the stickiness along my back. It was probably a good time to take a shower since Cy would be home from work soon. I was just about to hit the bathroom when Boones and Sadie started barking. The shower would have to wait. I made sure everything was set for our first dinner together—well, our first dinner together since I officially moved in, anyway.
Working at trying to find our way back to one another proved to be harder than expected. Due to our newfound trust issues, we hit a roadblock. For me, loving Cy came easy; it was my concern over the fact that he left me without giving me a chance to explain that proved the hurdle for me to get over. I didn’t trust that he wouldn’t find another reason to walk away. If things got hard would he walk away like he did then, or would he stick it out and be my rock? With some time, we learned more of what each other needed and worked most of it out. Now, one year later, I unpacked the last of my things and had a place I truly called home.
“Blue?” I heard Cy call my name from the back porch, which was odd. I followed the sound and was met by a delicious, sexy as sin deputy. “Damn, Deputy Davis, aren’t you one hot— ”
He pulled me by the back of my neck, forcefully crashing into my lips. His tongue did some naughty things while his semi-hard cock did others to my belly. I giggled as he pulled his mouth away. “What was that for?”
“Because I can. And now, every night when I get home, I get to greet my girl just like that.”
“Hmm, good answer, Sherriff.”
He reached behind me and swatted my butt. “Not yet, baby. One day I’ll get to wear that badge and put Pete out of a damn job,” he said with a chuckle. Swooping down for a fast kiss, he grabbed my hand. “Come on, I wanna show you somethin’.”
Hand in hand we walked down to the river to where Cy had his truck parked. The driver’s side door was open, and Gary Allan played on the radio.
“What’s going on?” I asked, eyeing the set up.
He led me to the back of the truck where he had the tailgate down and sitting on it was two beer bottles with matching blue ribbons tied to them. My curiosity grew, and I watched him carefully as he toed off his shoes. Now both of us were barefoot listening to Gary Allan singing “The One.”
Cy looked at me so lovingly, took my hand, and wrapped the other around my waist. “Dance with me.”
Cy held me close as we danced small steps in the cool grass while he softly sang the words close to my ear. “Listen to the words, Blue. Really listen.”
I did as he asked and really listened. I listened with my ears and my heart as he slowly danced me around in circles. My lids closed and deep in my heart I truly felt the love he tried so hard to prove to me.
The song ended, and Cy pulled back a bit, looking me straight in the eyes. “Are you sure Blue? Are you sure I’m the one?”
“Without a doubt.”
Cy’s smile spread from his lips all the way up to his eyes, matching mine. Releasing me from his embrace, he moved to grab the two bottles from the tailgate and handed one to me.
“Because I love you.” He clinked the neck of his bottle to mine in a toast. As our bottles touched, I heard another clink and looked down at the bottle. My heart took a pause, and my eyes caught on the glint of metal hanging from the blue ribbon.
“Cy,” I whispered.
“Blue, it took us a while to get here.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Opening his eyes, he continued, “I don’t just want you in my bed. I want you to be my wife.”
He slowly sank down on bended knee and looked up at me before taking my left hand in his. “Natalie ‘Blue’ Brentwood, would you do me the honor of being my wife?”
I stared at him with awe, love, passion, and everything in between. He was asking me for my forever. I nodded with an overflow of happy tears falling. Cy stood and dropped his beer bottle at his side so he could take my bottle from my hands. I watched as he untied the blue ribbon that held the prettiest emerald-cut diamond ring I had ever seen. He dropped the ribbon and held the ring up to me, pinched between his thumb and index fingers.
“I would love nothing more than to be your wife. Yes, Cy.” I nodded, not even trying to hide the fact that I was a giggling blubbering mess. “Yes!”
“Oh thank fuck.” He sighed and lifted me off the ground, twirling me in his arms. “She said YES!”
THE END
Thank you for reading Waiting on Faith. This book took a lot out of me and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it.
Before publishing my first book, The Beauty of Grace, little did I know all that the book world entailed. This truly is a team effort and I am grateful for the people who’ve helped me thus far.
Thank you to my family for their continued support and patience, I know I drive each of you crazy hiding behind my computer.
To Stephanie, thank you for being my voice of reason, for all your help and patience through my picky craziness and for being my biggest support system. You truly are the best friend a girl could ever have.
To John B., thank you for your expert knowledge when information of the male gender was required.
John P., Thank you for your awesome graphic design talents and my gorgeous cover. You knocked Waiting on Faith out of the park.
To my betas, Suzanne, Lea, and Tiffany thank you for your honest opinions, enjoying my stories and helping me to see when and where I could use some improvements.
Heather, I’m so glad we stumbled upon each other. Your friendship, support and honest advice is greatly appreciated.
Anna, thank you for your friendship and allowing me to ask my million and one questions on all this book world technical stuff. You’ve helped me keep my sanity when I would have rather thrown things across the room. Lol
Ena and Amanda with Enticing Journey Book Promotions, thank you for getting my books out to the book community.
To all the bloggers that support indie / self-published authors, a great BIG thank you. It would be near impossible to get our books out without your help.
Bree with Vivid Words Editing, thank you for proofreading and being the polish on my book.
Stacey with Champagne Formats, thank you for making the interior of my book look as good as the outside.
A very special thank you to my editor Ashley, I am beyond words with the work and time you put into editing Waiting on Faith. Thank you for going above and beyond, it’s appreciated more than you know.
At an adolescent age Nicole took a strong liking to reading and even had a pipe dream of writing her own book.
Life and growing up had put reading on the far end back burner, but her dream recently came true with her debut novel The Beauty of Grace, the first book in the She’s Beautiful Series.
A hopeless romantic, she has a love for romance novels which she credits her late mother passing on to her and now an even stronger love to write her own stories.
She’d love to hear from you. Please visit any of her social media sites:
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facebook.com/n.richard.books
Goodreads:
goodreads.com/nr_books
Amazon:
amazon.com/author/nicolerichard
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Books by Nicole Richard
SHE’S BEAUTIFUL SERIES
The Beauty of Grace—Book One
Waiting on Faith—Book Two
Coming Soon
Reclaiming Us—Book Three
Waiting on Faith (She's Beautiful Series Book 2) Page 26