My eyes don’t leave her silhouette. “Nothing compares.”
She turns to find me looking at her, and her eyes narrow as a grin grows on her face. “Such a charmer.” Emery’s hand lifts to cup my cheek. I’m fucking weak when she does it because her eyes tell me everything. It doesn’t matter where we are or what we’re doing, she’s happy to be with me.
God, I love this woman.
Her brown eyes pop open as she gasps. “Let’s get the paddleboards before Drew steals them!” Emery limps away as fast as she can. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love that limp. The nerves in her foot haven’t fully regained function, and she still struggles with quite a bit of pain, but my girl is a fighter. She’s grateful for every day she wakes.
“Sounds good, smokey. I’ll meet you down there in a second, okay?” I chuckle as she rolls her eyes at the nickname that stuck. Her dad loves it, and I love pissing her off to see her nose scrunch in annoyance.
Emery leaves the room, and I take a deep breath to calm my nerves before frantically searching the luggage to make sure the ring is still here, only breathing a sigh of relief once it’s in my hand.
“Mason!” I hear Emery shout from downstairs.
“Coming!” I yell back, shoving the ring in my pocket. Racing down the stairs, I see Emery trying to sign with my dad, and I chuckle. My dad has the biggest smile, pride beaming, because she’s making such an effort. Luckily, she’s talking as she signs so he can understand her.
He looks at me. “She needs a new teacher,” he signs.
“Awe, man. What did I say?” Emery’s face turns defeated.
I chuckle and wrap my arms around her once I’m within arm’s reach. “Something about putting the jelly in the doghouse. I think.”
The shake of her chest makes me laugh with her. “Well, that’s not embarrassing or anything.”
“You’re an angel for trying so hard.”
Emery looks up at me with a crooked grin. “I love you.”
“I love you,” I say before kissing her forehead.
“Dad is unloading the boards. I don’t know where Drew is, so now is our opportunity,” Emery says as she rubs her hands together, wobbling off to change into her swimsuit.
Both mine and Emery’s mom approach me with anticipation in their eyes. “Are you nervous?”
I smile back at them, so fucking happy our families clicked as fast as me and Emery did. “I could shit bricks right now if I’m being honest,” I say with a confident smile, but my mom smacks my arm.
“Language, boy.”
“Sorry! Sorry.” I grimace, rubbing my shoulder.
“Sup, bro,” Tristan says as he enters the room and hits my arm. His eyes are already searching for a certain blonde no one can seem to find.
“Why is everyone hitting me? And no, I haven’t seen her.”
“Seen who?”
“Don’t play coy. You’re the furthest thing from an innocent man,” I tell him.
“Hopefully, she likes bad boys then.” Tris wiggles his eyebrows, and I chuckle.
“Good luck with that, bud. You’re definitely going to need it,” I tell him as I pat his shoulder before walking away to find my girl. Just as I round the corner of the kitchen into the foyer where the staircase is, Emery wobbles down the stairs in a white cover-up that barely conceals the black bikini I know is underneath. I lick my lips.
“You’re doing it again,” she says, and I hear the smile in her voice.
“I can’t help it. You look delicious.”
Emery chuckles as I pull her into my arms and nip her neck with my teeth. “You’re going to get chapped lips if you keep it up.”
“Worth it,” I mumble into her soft skin.
“Come on. Go get changed. I want to get out on the water.” Just as she says it, I whip my shirt off over my head and smile, already in my swim trunks.
Emery chuckles and grabs my hand as we speed out the door, grabbing the paddleboards in the front yard on the way to the lake. Emery wanted to invite my family along to Tahoe the moment it was brought up after she got out of the hospital. Her parents were thrilled, and Tristan was more than eager to gawk over Drew.
“Love, make sure you let me know if you get too tired.”
Emery rolls her eyes. “I know, I know. I can sit and lay on this thing, which is what I plan on doing once we get to the middle of the lake. I’m not out here to exercise, boo.”
My cheeks ache from smiling so much. “Leisure boarding. Got it.” The ring in my back pocket is burning a hole through my shorts. If it falls in the lake, I will flip tables. I grab Em’s board and get both of ours set up, helping her on so she can steady herself without hurting her feet, and I follow suit once she’s settled.
Emery sets her phone on her board as it plays Paradise by Bazzi. “Don’t start laughing at me! You know you’re just jealous that you wish you had these moves,” Emery yells back at me as she tries to dance while paddling.
“Trust me, love. I’ll never laugh about you shaking your ass in front of me in that bikini,” I say, and Emery’s head falls back in laughter as the sun glows around her frame.
I’ve never seen a more beautiful sight in my life.
Twenty minutes later, we made it to the middle of the lake, and we strap our boards together and lay on them, our skin soaking in the sunset. Fingers intertwined; our feet graze the water. I keep feeling my back pocket, making sure it’s still there, and this time when I feel the diamond, my heart rate triples and nerves overtake my body. I clear my throat three times and wipe the sweat beading on my forehead about five times in two minutes.
Emery squeezes my hand. “You okay over there?”
“Huh? Yeah. I’m great. Why wouldn’t I be?” I say it way too fast, and she looks at me with a lifted brow.
I chuckle nervously, and that makes her sit up, resting on her elbow. “What’s going on with you?” When she gets a better look at me, she gets worried. “What’s going on, Mase? Are you okay? You don’t look so good.”
Beads of sweat fall down my forehead. “Yeah. I uh. I’m great. Hopefully, number two.”
She barks out a laugh. “What?”
I sit up on my board, crossing my legs, and she does the same. I clear my throat. “Something happened to me when I first saw you in that ER. My heart chipped off a piece of itself for you, even though you weren’t mine to give it to. Something happened to me when I realized it was you that chased me out of Mezzo’s. My heart chipped off a piece of itself for you, even though yours was still broken. Something happened to me when you sat next to me in the diner. My heart chipped off another piece, but that time it was hoping and praying it might get a piece of yours in return.”
Emery’s hand slowly covers her mouth as I lean to the side and pull the ring out of my pocket, grabbing her left hand. Scared to hell I’m going to drop it in the lake, I squeeze it tight in my other hand.
“Something happened to me when I watched you sit on my couch in my home. No one would ever fill that spot like you could, and that’s when my heart threw itself out of my chest and waited until it could be in your hands. Emery, Derek was your number one—your first great love, and that won’t ever change, and I don’t want it to.” I clear my throat as I open my palm and take the ring between my thumb and forefinger.
Emery’s eyes grow huge, and her jaw drops open. “Oh shit.”
Her cursing eases my nerves, but only slightly because it’s so funny to hear her swear. “You’re the best part of my days and the sweetest part of my nights. You’ll always be my number one, Emery Jean, but I’m asking if I can be your number two, your second chance. Will you marry me?”
Emery nods frantically, covering her mouth as she laughs in shock. “Yes, yes. A thousand times, yes!”
I laugh as I put the ring on her finger, and the moment it’s on, she lunges at me for a hug, completely forgetting we’re on the paddleboards and knocking us both into the water. We’re both coughing up water when we break the surface, but once
she makes sure the ring is still on her finger, we laugh, and her arms wrap around my neck. I have one arm on the paddleboard to keep us afloat, but I use my other hand to grab the back of her head and kiss her.
“Is this real?” Her eyes find mine, love and happiness shining from them.
I slowly nod, moving the hair from her face. “Yeah, love. It is.”
She kisses me once more before she looks behind me with her hand waving in the air, yelling at the top of her lungs. I turn to see our entire family at the shore jumping, yelling, and hugging, excitement filling the shore. My head falls back in laughter before finding her eyes again, giving her another kiss.
As we paddle back, I watch my fiancé, feeling like the luckiest bastard on the planet, knowing that everything that matters in life is standing five feet in front of me.
Take care of our girl.
I whisper back. “I will. Until my last breath.”
the end beginning
I’m beyond grateful every day that I have the privilege to sit down and create these stories. I’m even more grateful that you took the time to read my words. So, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
This book will forever hold a huge piece of my heart. Emery is me to the core. Drew is a mix of my two sisters. Her mom and dad are mine. From the sisterly banter, mom’s consistent and unwavering loyalty, and dad’s every ‘kiddo’, I bled this book and I know at the end of the day, I made this the best I could. I hope you love them as much as I do.
Nicole. Once again, you will probably have a permanent spot in my thank you’s. Thank you for pushing me to step out of my comfort zone and push this book out there. For your brilliant mind and rewording the sentences I can’t seem to get right. Thank you for being an amazing friend. Love you, Em!
Annie. Thank you. You are an incredible proofreader and you saved this book from so many little mistakes. Thank you for loving my characters. You and Nicole are my dream team.
E. For putting up with my incessant nagging and for helping my horrendous blurbs, making me laugh until I cry. You’re my rock. Thank you for pushing me.
You. I didn’t realize how much you inspired this book until I was knee deep in memories with that song on. Thank you for the part you played. I’ll always be grateful for the spot you hold in my life. Thank you for coming back. The memories. All of it.
Emery and Drew. It feels weird to thank them, but writing this book was therapy during one of the hardest seasons of my life. Drew’s book is going to gut me. It’s going to be ripping open basically every wound I have and stitching them back up. But I couldn’t imagine doing it any other way, or with any other characters.
My readers. Whether you made it to the end or not-thank you. You give life to my work and give me a chance at an opportunity that’s become a dream of mine. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I go by Karlee. I was born and raised in Michigan, but now live in Southern California. I’m horrible at “About Me’s,” so bear with me. ;) I’ve loved reading for as long as I can remember. When I picked up A Bend in the Road by Nicholas Sparks in sixth grade, that was the moment romance hooked me for life. I never realized how much writing played a role in my life until 2019. I’ve always had a hard time verbally communicating my feelings, and I remember my mom telling me to write them down. Occasionally I would. But as I grew older, that was the only way I could truly express how I felt without feeling overwhelmed.
When I moved to California, I worked at a gym and met the most beautiful soul, Trini. Our friendship was instant–we clicked. Unfortunately, Trini had Stage 4 Colon Cancer and was taken from us way too soon. No matter how much you think you’re prepared for something like this, when it finally happens, it's catastrophic and devastating.
Trini inspired my very first book, Sooner Than You Think. The idea came to me shortly after she passed, but the idea of writing a book was daunting. Self-doubt set in, and I never even tried. Fast forward to May of 2019. After twenty-seven years of never really knowing what my purpose was, what I should do, or what I was meant for, I sat on my bed after putting my son to sleep, feeling lost. My eyes kept looking at my computer until I grabbed it, opened Word, and thought, “let’s just see what happens.”
Well, in my first year I published three books and let me tell you, I love doing this. This is it. I’ve found my passion and I love connecting with you readers. I’ve met the most amazing people throughout this journey, and I’ve never been so glad I pushed fear away and took the leap.
I will always keep writing.
Even if.
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