Finding the Right Girl (A Nice GUY to Love spin-off)

by Violet Duke

  “There’s a note, too! Openit, openit!” buzzed Jilly in one long excited breath.

  Puzzled, Tessa flipped open the note taped to the back. The note was in Brian’s handwriting…or at least it looked like his handwriting but it was actually legible.

  It’s hair dye chalk. Skylar told me about it. I went searching for the safest one on the market and checked with the nurses. They said this one is perfectly safe for Jilly to use. This way, both of you can color your hair neon green for the day.

  I also included a disposable camera as well…just in case you want to start collecting memories again. Figured a photo of you and Jilly w/ your green hair might go great with the one of you and your sister w/ your pink hair.

  I really hope you do want to start collecting memories again, sweetheart, because I want to start collecting a lifetime of them with you.

  I miss you.

  “Do you like the surprise?” asked Jilly.

  Tessa wiped a wayward tear from her eye. “Very much, Jilly.”

  “Yaaay! Then you’ll LOVE all the others!” she squealed, pointing over at the window seat behind the TV cabinet. Her voice dropped to a reverent whisper. “Can we play with them later?”

  Tessa turned around and just stared in shock at the sight before her. It looked like a convention of 80’s cartoon characters. An Inspector Gadget lunchbox, a whole bunch of stuffed Care Bears and Smurfs, a Jem and the Holograms dvd set, a Rainbow Bright coloring book, and the complete SilverHawks and ThunderCats action figure sets.

  Good lord, she was in love with that man.

  “Brian brought all that for me?”

  Jilly nodded vigorously. “He came every day this week with a present for you.” Then a scolding look passed over her face. “He was not happy when you weren’t here. I think you made him sad, Tessa.”

  Ouch. Leave it to a six-year old to put her in her place. “Yes, I think I did, too. Do you think he’ll forgive me?”

  Jilly sat and thought about that seriously for a moment. “I think if you go over and apologize right now and give him a big hug maybe he’ll forgive you.”

  Sometimes the classics really were the best.

  The ‘maybe’ did have her a little worried though.

  She leaned over and gave Jilly a loving peck on the forehead. “You are a genius. We’ll color our hair green this weekend, okay? And take some pictures?”

  “Okay,” agreed Jilly cheerfully. “Remember,” she reemphasized as Tessa was leaving, “a BIG hug now.”

  As she rushed out of the care home, Tessa pulled out her phone and dialed Brian’s house number.

  Answering machine.

  Damn it.

  His cell phone seemed to be ringing through though.

  “Where the hell have you been, woman?”

  Tears sprang into her eyes. Happy tears. It was the alpha growl, the love and worry she could hear in his voice, and the way he never said her name with a question mark when she called. Definitely happy tears.

  “Hello to you, too.”

  “So does this phone call mean you’re done running?” he asked gruffly.

  “I didn’t run!” she argued back hotly.

  Really, she didn’t.

  “Where are you now?”

  “I was headed over to see you, actually.”

  “Good,” came the rough reply. “Then I won’t have to let the air out of your tires.”

  Doing a double take, Tessa looked up and saw Brian with his arms crossed, leaning against her car.

  She shoved her phone in her bag and launched herself in his arms. “I’ve missed you.”

  His arms were steel bands around her. “Then you shouldn’t have run,” he grumbled against her hair, a low ragged exhale of relief following soon after.

  “I didn’t run!” she maintained pushing back to stand her ground. “I…hid.”

  A world of difference.

  “You shouldn’t have been hiding from me either, Tessa. When are you going to get it into your stubborn little head that I want you. All of you—quirky habits, too-independent-for-your-own-good tendencies, HD gene and all. I’ve been giving you time, waiting for you to come to me. But you know what? Screw that. You’re coming home with me. Home. With me. That’s where your home is. Not that apartment. Not where ever you’ve been for the last few days.”

  He took in a deep breath and cupped her cheek. “I know you’re scared and I am too. But if Huntington’s is going to steal your memories, well then we’ll just make its job that much harder and longer by filling our lives with more memories than it can take. Green hair, ATV trips, you name it, we’ll collect it as memories. Together.”

  She stared at him and said softly, “That could be the most romantic thing you’ve ever said to me.”

  “Really? How about I do one better…”

  Dragging her back into his arms, he said gruffly, “Marry me. Be by my side to watch Skylar graduate from high school, and college, and whatever else she decides to do. Be by my side so she’ll be inspired to go out and fall in love. But mostly, be by my side, so I can be by yours too. Marry me, Tessa Daniels.”

  Heart swelling to double capacity, she whispered, “Okay, you’re right, you win. That was better.”

  “You don’t have to rush on answering, sweetheart. I’m not going anywhere. But one thing I do want to give you a heads-up on is that your mother knows because I called her this week, not to ask your hand, but to tell her I was damn well taking your hand in marriage.”

  Later, she’d probably laugh, but right now, she was just stunned. “You called my mother?”

  And the still not addressed GIANT question—you want to marry me?

  “Yes. I had Jay find her number for me. I’d intended to call her to tell her off. To tell her exactly what I thought about her. But instead, I ended up telling her exactly what I thought about you. How much I loved you. And how, I intended to relentlessly bug you until you agreed to marry me.”

  Her heart leapt up to her throat. “So how did it go?”

  “I think her answering machine was very moved,” he replied roughly. “I must have called her a hundred times and the woman never once picked up her phone.”

  “Yeah, she does that sometimes. Which is why I usually call her on her landline.”

  “I tried that, but her landline was disconnected.”

  “Right. That’s because she moved. Or so I discovered when I flew out there this past week.”

  This time it was Brian’s turn to be stunned. “You went to go see your mother?”

  “Yes. That’s why I was gone for those few days. She wasn’t at the address I had. Surprise, surprise, she sort of forgot to tell me she moved again. So I had to stay an extra few days to find her. I wasn’t leaving without seeing her.” She shrugged. “And of course, it wasn’t one of those movie endings. When I did manage to find her, she was on her way to work and literally had only five minutes for me.”

  She felt her heart do a double-thump when Brian all but growled over that.

  “It was okay though because five minutes was all I needed. I told her that I wanted her to see me in person. See that the daughter who’d begun dying in her mind the day the gene tests came back grew up to be a strong, happy woman. A woman who is living with HD and helping others with it. A woman not afraid to love and be loved. A woman who deserves to have a happily ever after where she gets to look forward to the future instead of spend her life dreading it.”

  Blinding pride took over Brian’s expression.

  “I left her two photos—the one of me, with my dad and Willow, along with the photo of you, me, and Skylar from our ATV trip. And I also gave her my phone number, laminated, and on a magnet…which I stuck on her fridge. So if she doesn’t call, it’s not because she doesn’t have my number anymore.”

  Despite his obvious disgust with the woman, his expression help hope…for Tessa.

  Tessa shook her head. “She ushered me out of her apartment a minute later saying she’d be late for work. An
d that was the end of that reunion.”

  “Honey, I’m so sorry.”

  “I’m not. She is who she is, and I became who I am despite that.”

  He nodded and pulled her into his arms. “And despite her, you’re going to become something she never was.”

  She tilted her face up to his. “What’s that?”

  “A good mom,” he said softly, untucking a small gift bag from the cargo pocket of his jeans. “I’ve had this as your homecoming gift from the day I figured it all out.”

  Puzzled, she looked in the bag and gasped when she saw the baby onesies in it. “How’d you know?”

  “I didn’t know for sure. I guessed. I thought of the one thing that would make you run—”

  “I didn’t run!” she growled. “The day of the picnic, I’d stopped at the doctor’s to make sure I didn’t have a contagious bug. With Jilly and everyone else in the care home, we always need to be careful of that. He called me during the picnic to tell me the results of my blood test.”

  “And then you—”

  She poked him viciously in the stomach. “I didn’t run! I told you, I was hiding!”

  “Meaning you were trying to hide the pregnancy from me?”

  “What?! No! I spent the time setting up a trust with my father’s life insurance money and then seeing prenatal genetic specialists to find out about the prenatal HD gene test. This way, when I told you, there wouldn’t be any financial obligations for you to worry about, and I’d have all the info on the HD gene testing for you as well. That way, if you didn’t…”

  She couldn’t finish the sentence. And it was probably a good thing because something akin to shocked violence crossed his face.

  “You thought I wouldn’t want our child?!” he roared.

  “No! I just… I have the HD gene—that means our child will have the same 50-50 chance too. I just wanted to do everything I could so you could walk away if you wanted to, and have all the gene info ready for you if you only wanted to walk away…in certain conditions,” she finished lamely.

  With him just glaring at her, likely counting to ten silently, she rambled on, “You can know before agreeing to be a part of the pregnancy. There are two prenatal genetic tests; the one that’s later in the pregnancy is a little safer but—”

  “Don’t do the testing.” His voice had finally calmed and his eyes had warmed with empathy, and proud-papa excitement.

  Could be because she was shaking like crazy at the moment, sheer and naked hope being as potent as adrenaline when it’s rushing through your veins.

  “But—”

  “Sweetheart, really. Don’t do it. We don’t need the added danger to you or the baby.”

  “But don’t you want to know? I mean with me, and Skylar…”

  “Tessa, it wouldn’t matter what the prenatal gene test said. At least not to me.” His frame stiffened. “Are you thinking of terminating the pregnancy if it were positive?”

  Horrified, she gasped in outrage. “Of course not!” She glared at him. “Would you still want to marry me if it were positive?”

  He tugged her in close and growled against her lips. “Of course I would.”

  She smiled and relaxed. “So we’re really doing this?”

  “Yes. Now take a better look at your present. I think they’re friggin’ cute as hell and I’ve been holding on to them for days, dying to see your face when you saw them.”

  Her heart just melted into a puddle of goo.

  She opened the bag and broke out into a huge grin as she pulled out the little novelty onesies he’d bought. “He-Man and She-Ra?” she chuckled.

  “Yes. I know we won’t know what the sex of the baby is for months but I wanted to get both just in case. We can return the other or give it Abby and Connor for their kid if the gender is right.”

  She bit her lip to hide the gigantic smile that was trying to break free. “Actually, it might be a good idea to keep both. Just in case we’re having a boy and a girl.”

  At the slow shock blooming across his grin, she confirmed. “Because we’re having twins.”

  EPILOGUE

  “YOU READY TO GO on our honeymoon, sweetheart?”

  Tessa giggled. “Did you see the look on everyone’s faces when we told them what we were doing for our honeymoon night?”

  “Yes,” Brian chuckled. “And it was awesome.”

  He helped his gorgeous wife with her barely showing baby bump into the SUV. Meanwhile, the small group of their closest friends and family were waving and blowing bubbles.

  “Oh! Did you remember to get the CD back?”

  Precious thing. “Honey, I keep telling you, I’ve made over dozens of copies.” And backed up the file in over ten places.

  When she just kept right on looking at him, he replied, “And yes, I remembered to get the CD back.”

  She smiled.

  He’d wanted Tessa to have something truly special for their wedding day so he’d taken all of Willow’s compositions and tracked down her old piano teacher, who’d been happy to play and record each and every one. Tessa hadn’t heard the music in decades but something in her heart remembered it. So when it came on through the speakers as the processional music for her walk down the aisle, she’d burst into tears.

  But happy tears, she’d later reassured him when he nearly had a heart attack and went racing up the aisle to get to her.

  “I know you made copies, Brian. And I’m not being weird. This copy is from our wedding day. So I want to keep it as one of our keepsake memories from the ceremony. Of something my amazing husband did for me, and my sister.”

  He beamed.

  With his wife tucked into the passenger seat, he went around to the driver’s seat.

  And waited.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Tessa.

  He checked his watch and opened the glove compartment, counting down...3, 2, 1.

  Her phone chirped.

  Smiling, she grabbed for the phone and went to her calendar.

  He knew exactly what she’d find:

  Happy Wedding Day

  Where we’ll go: Our Honeymoon

  What we’ll do: Pitch your first tent in the yard…clothing optional

  She burst out laughing, and the sound hit him square in the heart like it always did.

  “Exactly how many of these calendar entries have you put in my phone?”

  “Just the one,” he said as he finally started up the car. “Because I intend to give you the rest of the reminders of how much I love you in person every day for the rest of our lives.”

  -- THE END --

  Excerpt from REBEL

  By

  New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author

  Joan Swan

  Available Summer 2014

  All the Renegades were back, shrinking the trailer to the size of a thimble. Rubi could have choked on the testosterone thickening the air. But she was distracted.

  Wes stood at the center of the room, the neoprene suit pulled off his shoulders, hanging low on his hips. She stopped short and slapped an open hand over her heart for the second time in fifteen minutes.

  Her fantasies hadn’t come close to the real deal, standing only six feet away. His denim blue eyes shone with residual excitement from that crazy-ass stunt. With his hands planted at his hips, his muscled pecs and biceps glistened with sweat. The fine line of golden hair low on his abdomen disappeared between his belly button and the waistband of whatever he wore beneath the neoprene. And every sexy muscle stood out in a relief of hills, planes and valleys.

  He was freaking carved.

  “Praise the gods of Olympus,” she murmured, an ache developing deep at the center of her body.

  He grinned, and his eyes twinkled with flirtation and heat.

  He also had more ink than the simple tire treads circling his left bicep and the stylized checkered flag flowing down his right calf. He had something covering his right shoulder, too.

  “Is that…” she started, nar
rowing her eyes at the image, taking in the detail, the definition of shadow, the sheer artistic beauty of it, “a Terminator tatt?”

  “Not exactly, but the same principle.” Wes’s gaze darted to his shoulder. “You like it?”

  “What’s a Terminator tatt?” Lexi asked.

  Her friend’s voice pulled Rubi’s gaze from Wes. She frowned at Lexi, crouched on the floor behind him.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Fitting this…” --she huffed a breath as she struggled with something behind his back-- “to Wes.”

  Lexi stepped out from behind him, her hand running along a strip of metal against his thigh Rubi hadn’t noticed, then lowered to her knees in front of Wes and repeated the move with deep concentration.

  Rubi had seen her friend do this hundreds of times over the years while fitting wedding gowns or measuring for alterations. But today, something about witnessing it, while imagining herself in Lexi’s place for a totally different reason, made the ache in Rubi’s body spread lower.

  She lifted her brows, grinning. “Might want to get off your knees before Jax comes in, Lex.”

  Wes’s smile grew lopsided. “I’m totally down with you taking her place, Russo.”

  “Great idea,” Lexi said glancing over her shoulder at Rubi. “Can you come hold this so I can get a better look at the back?”

  An absurd chuckle floated from her throat. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

  “What’s the problem?” Wes challenged with that cocky grin. “Afraid you might like it?”

  Irritation burned the back of her neck. The man knew she had a competitive streak. “I know what you’re doing, Lawson.”

  One golden brow rose.

  “Rubi,” Lexi said, “we’re not getting out of here until this is done.”

  “Fine.” When she sauntered forward holding Wes’s taunting gaze, Lexi stepped behind him. Rubi let the heat she used at the club slide into her grin. Maybe showing him a little more of her dark side would give him second thoughts about that earlier request for a date. “I guess it will be my undiluted pleasure…whether I want it or not.”