by Alexa Davis
"Who what?" I asked in a quiet voice.
"Who love you!" she cried. "I thought I had my best friend back in my life, and now you're talking about moving on to a new place and new people. And what about Linc? Have you thought about him at all?"
"I have,” I said. I wanted to tell Bix about what he'd said, but I was afraid that if I did, she'd tell me exactly what I didn't want to hear.
"That man loves you, Liv," she said. "It's so obvious that he's head over heels in love with you, and yet you dart around doing your usual thing and ignoring the facts! How can you be such a diligent reporter and such a negligent human being?"
"Wow, that's harsh, even for you," I said as I looked away.
"I'm sorry, Liv, but sometimes the truth hurts," she muttered into her teacup.
"Bix, I don't know what it means to stay," I blurted out. "I've been on the move for so long that I don't know how to stay anywhere. It's not comfortable and I get itchy to be somewhere else. I have to go or I feel trapped. I don't know how to stop, and I don't know if I want to."
"Well, admitting you have a problem is the first step towards solving it," she said as she leaned over and pulled a pen and pad of paper off the counter and handed it to me. "Make a list of the reasons you should stay and the reasons you should go, then we'll compare the two and see which one makes more logical sense."
"Bix, this isn't a list-making process," I smiled. "But thank you for trying to come up with a solution to the problem."
"Then how are you going to make the decision, Liv?"
I set my cup in its saucer and stood up. Bix rose out of her chair and stood facing me with a grim look. "How are you going to decide, Liv?" she repeated.
"I love you, Bix," I said as I hugged her tightly. "But I think I already have."
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Epilogue
"By the powers vested in me by the District of Columbia, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride!" the judge said as the room erupted in shouts and cheers. I turned slightly to look over Mo's shoulder and saw Linc looking at me with a warm smile as Brant pulled his new bride to him and kissed her deeply.
It had been a rough couple of months as they'd straightened out the new contract with the Chinese manufacturers and I knew that Linc had been feeling the strain of traveling so much. Brant had been with him as the negotiated the terms and signed the final contracts, so the wedding planning had been left up to Mo and she'd enlisted me as backup.
She and I had spent many afternoons shopping for a dress and I'd finally begged Bix to come with us. It was no accident that she had dragged us to Murphy's Bridal and had Mo try on dress after dress as Bix examined each one and finally declared a dove gray Armani the one. And looking at Mo standing next to Brant, who'd been decked out in a custom-fitted Gucci suit, I knew that Bix had been right. They made a lovely couple and they were madly in love.
I looked back across the room and saw Linc coming toward me through the crowd of people who were pushing forward to wish the couple the best. His smile was one that I recognized as the one he wore when he had something important to tell me.
I'd first seen it the afternoon he'd declared his intentions at the reflecting pool, and it had taken months of effort on my part to coax it out again after I'd walked away saying I'd needed time to think. My talk with Bix had made me rethink my need to run, but it had been several days before I'd been able to tell Linc what I was feeling.
First, I had to go to Frank and accept his job offer. It was a tough conversation, but I'd negotiated the right to be able to take on additional international work so that I could satisfy my need to be on the move. Frank had been wounded by my initial reticence because he'd had to fight a battle with the paper's owner to keep me, but in the end, we patched things up when I agreed to stay.
Making peace with Linc had proved more difficult. When I'd walked away from him at the reflecting pool, he'd assumed that that was it, so he'd rebuilt his own defenses. When I'd shown up at his office to tell him that I was staying in Washington, he responded in typical wounded male fashion and simply nodded. It had taken me pulling out the stops in the feminine wiles department – and a little bit of daytime office sex – to heal the wound and give him a reason to believe me.
"That was a beautiful ceremony," I said, smiling up into his warm blue eyes. He was wearing a suit that matched Brant's and it highlighted his broad shoulders and chest. I had the sudden urge to pull him into the judge's private chambers.
"It was, wasn't it?" he said as he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close and whispered, "You look lovely, Liv."
"You clean up pretty good yourself, Redding." I smiled as he kissed me.
"I've been thinking," he said as he brushed a stray strand of hair away from my face.
"That's dangerous," I grinned.
"I'm serious, Liv," he said as he brushed his fingers along my jaw and then bent to kiss along the path. "I've been thinking about a lot of things, and I want us to make some plans."
"Okay, what kind?" I asked. "I don't think Frank is going to give me a lot of vacation time yet, but if we could combine it with one of my assignments, I could probably swing a foreign trip."
"Well, I was thinking of something a little more permanent," he said as he caressed my cheek.
"I'm not packing up and moving again, Redding!" I quickly protested and then noticed that my voice carried out into the now quiet room. I turned to see the wedding guests all staring at Linc and I, then turned back and found him down on one knee in front of me holding up a small box.
"I'm thinking more along the lines of you agreeing to marry me, Olivia," he said with a wide smile as he offered up the ring. "Will you marry me, Olivia Moore? Will you be my wife?"
"I'm sorry, what?" I shook my head to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.
"I told you this is what would happen," came a voice out of the crowd.
"Will you marry me, Olivia Moore?" Linc repeated patiently. "Will you spend the rest of your life annoying me, frustrating me, and letting me love you more than anyone has ever or will ever love you?"
"Well, now you're talking!" I smiled as I leaned down and kissed his lips. "Yes, Lincoln Redding, I'll marry you."
The whole room erupted in cheers as Linc stood and slipped the exquisite ring on my finger before pulling me into his arms and kissed me deeply. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back as I whispered, "I love you, Lincoln Redding."
"I love you, too, Olivia Moore," he smiled as he held me close and kissed me again.
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From the Author
I hope you enjoy the entire The Hot Gamer. If you want to get an email as soon as my next book is published then click here. I’ll also include you in all the giveaways I do automatically.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 Alexa Davis