by Jamie Canosa
The decision hadn’t been quite so simple for Allie. She spent the better part of two years sitting in the Career Development Office, talking with counselors about her options and pouring over job placement guides. In the end, Youth Advocate just felt right. They had a special division focusing solely on homeless and displaced youth. Allie couldn’t help remembering everyone she’d met out on the streets: Thrash, Skunk, Ace, Mikey, Jay, Em, and all the others. So many kids with nowhere else to go. No other options.
She thought about the way things had turned out for her and wondered if any of them had been so lucky. She hoped so, but knew the odds weren’t good. Some people had the odds stacked against them right from the very beginning and needed a little help to push them in a better direction. Everyone deserved a chance and maybe, just maybe, she’d be able to pay forward the chances she’d been given. It seemed only fair, after all.
Her POC came into view and Allie nearly tripped over her feet. Parked beside it was the best sight in the whole world. It wasn’t so much the equally crappy blue pickup that got her pulse racing, but the sexy as sin boy—man—lounging up against it. Feet crossed at the ankles and hands pillowed behind his head, he had his face tilted back into the sunlight.
Dean Ritter. Still—after nearly ten years together—the only guy who could make her feel like a girlie girl—butterflies, tingles, heart palpitations and all. It didn’t help that he was wearing his shirt completely unbuttoned, allowing an unrestricted view of his muscled chest, glistening with sweat, and her absolute favorite pair of jeans that hung so low on his hips they looked in danger of falling off. Not that she would have complained if they did. Her eyes wandered over his flawless set of six-pack abs, which trailed down into a perfect V at his waist, before disappearing behind the wide silver buckle of his belt.
Mmm . . . yummy.
Allie, discreetly—she hoped—wiped at her mouth in an attempt to make sure she hadn’t actually drooled, as her gaze swept back up to meet his. He was grinning. Dammit. He liked nothing more than to catch her staring. Something he caught her doing more often then she liked to admit. But hell, who could blame a girl?
“What are you doing here? You don’t have classes today. I thought you had to work.”
“Took the day off.” Dean unfolded his body slowly and stood to greet her.
“Why?”
“You’ll see. Get in the truck.”
“Dean, I drove myself—” His fingers dropped across her lips, followed quickly by his mouth. He planted a firm, yet far-too-quick kiss on her, stealing away any argument she had coming, before pulling back.
“Get your ass in the damn truck, Allie, or I’ll deposit it there myself.”
“I can’t. I’ve got shit to do.”
“It’ll have to wait.”
“Dean—”
“Al.” Crap, she knew that tone. It had gone straight from bossy to ‘no matter what the hell comes out of your mouth next, you will not win this argument’. And, when he used that tone, she never did.
In an effort to move whatever the hell this was along and save as much time as possible, Allie threw her hands up in defeat. With an exaggerated sigh, she hauled herself up and reached for the buckle as Dean slammed her door shut, mumbling something about ‘making his life difficult’. She snapped the belt into place just as he climbed up beside her.
“So, where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
Sure, she made his life difficult.
Allie relaxed into the seat, not really caring where they were headed as he pulled from the lot, hung a right and headed for the edge of town. The sun beating through the windshield felt great on her bare skin. It had been a long ass winter, but spring had finally arrived. She could have sworn she could actually feel her bones and muscles thawing from the inside out.
Dean stayed quiet the entire drive, allowing the strains of music flowing from his crackly speakers to fill the silence, but his hand did drift over to Allie’s thigh, where it lingered. When they pulled off of a deserted road onto what looked like a gravel turn-around, she still had absolutely no idea what he was thinking.
“Okay. Where are we?”
“You’ll see.”
Allie rolled her eyes, but Dean only grinned at her.
“Dean, seriously, I have homework to—”
“Out of the truck, darlin’.”
Allie crossed her arms and glared back at him. No way she was getting out of the damn truck until she got some answers. They were in the middle of fucking nowhere, for crying out loud.
Evidently, Dean disagreed. His grin blossomed into a full blown smile. The kind that could make her willingly walk across hot coals, so if he’d asked again she would have given in. He didn’t. Instead, he climbed out of the truck, strolled around to her side, threw open the door, and in one smooth move unfastened her belt, scooped her up, and threw her over his shoulder.
“Dean!” Allie screeched and pounded on his back, all of which only served to make him laugh harder. “Put me down, dammit! Dean!”
He was still laughing when he dropped her to her feet in front of the truck. Hard. She would have gone all the way to the ground if he hadn’t caught her around the waist. His smile danced with mischief and dammit if she didn’t immediately forgive him. She’d do anything to put that look on his face. Even allow herself to be man-handled like a sack of freaking potatoes.
“Now, are you coming, or am I going to have to carry you the whole way up?”
“Up where?”
“You’ll see.”
Ack! Infuriating! And if his grin was any indicator, he damn well knew it. What she knew was that if she didn’t agree to go peaceably, he really would carry her. The whole way. That was not about to happen.
“Let’s go,” she huffed and headed for the woods.
There was nothing else around, so it was either a hike in the woods—who the hell knew why—or hitchhiking down a deserted road. She took a guess and knew she was right when Dean slung his back pack over his shoulder and started following her, still laughing quietly. It probably would have pissed her off if she didn’t like the sound so much.
When they reached the tree line, Dean took the lead since, obviously, Allie had no idea where they were going. She just hoped like hell it wasn’t too far. She had flip-flops on her feet. Not exactly hiking gear. Dean didn’t seem overly concerned, though, and he noticed shit like that, so she wasn’t, either.
Fifteen minutes later, she was starting to regret her decision not to make Dean carry her. The trek hadn’t been all that far, but the entire thing had been up hill. Allie wasn’t exactly an exercise fiend and she’d put on some weight in college. Not a lot, but she cleared a hundred pounds now. Still scrawny by normal standards, but it was a big improvement from where she had been. Mary’s cookin’ could do that to a girl.
“Here we are.”
When Allie broke through the trees behind Dean she came to a dead stop. They were in a clearing maybe a hundred feet wide. Sun flooded the entire area as long blades of grass danced lazily in the breeze. And, at the far end of the clearing was a no-shit waterfall. It wasn’t Niagara Falls or anything, but still. It was a friggin’ waterfall, with rainbows glistening at the bottom where the water sprayed over rocks before flowing along the creek and back into the woods and all. Holy crap. It was freaking paradise. How on earth did Dean ever find this place?
When her gaze came back to him, he was standing in the middle of the clearing. His eyes weren’t on the beauty that surrounded them, though. They were only for her and it made Allie melt like chocolate in that sun shimmering off his dark hair. It blew softly in the breeze and when a lock fell across his forehead, her breath literally caught in her chest. Probably somewhere behind her rapidly swelling heart.
Christ, he was beautiful. All rough and muscled, but at the same time soft and gentle. And, best of all, he was all hers. Finally. It had been a long, hard road to get to where they were at. But, for this one moment alone, it wa
s all worth it.
“Get your ass over here.” Dean’s command cut through the moment she was having and Allie realized she’d been staring. Again. Dammit.
She did as she was told and made her way over to Dean, continuing to take in their surroundings as he unfolded a blanket from his backpack and laid it out. As soon as she was close enough, he snagged her hand and pulled her down beside him.
The sun was scorching, but the gentle mist from the fall was enough to keep the worst of the heat in check.
“So, I’ve been thinking.”
Uh-oh. Dean and thinking usually spelled trouble.
“About?”
“About you.”
“Oh, yeah?” Allie reclined on her elbows behind her and arched her back, shutting her eyes as the sunlight caught her face. “And what have you come up with?”
“Well . . . you’ve been a Ritter for a while now. . .”
Allie smiled, she liked the sound of that.
Her whole life she’d dreamed of being a part of that family, and for the past four years she’d been living the dream.
“I was thinking . . .”
The light shifted and the burning red against her eyelids turned to black. Allie peeked open her eyes to find Dean closer than before. He was kneeling right at her side, staring down with such warmth that it demanded her full attention.
As Allie pushed up to sitting, Dean scooted back to give her room, at the same time reaching into his bag. What he came out with made her heart stop.
“It’s time to make it official.” A small black velvet box was nestled in his palm. When he cracked the lid, the sun glinted off of the beautiful stone inside and Allie gasped. “Allison Porter, you have been a part—the best part—of my life for as long as I can remember. Even when everything was working against us, I knew I couldn’t live without you. When I thought—” Tears formed in his eyes, but he blinked them back. “When I thought I’d lost you, those were the worst moments of my life. I couldn’t breathe. Because you’re my air, Allie. I can’t breathe without you. I love you more than anything in this whole world. I always have and I always will. Allison, it’s time to leave all of this Porter shit behind, once and for all. It’s past time I made you a Ritter. Marry me.”
Allie watched through blurry vision as Dean plucked the ring from the box and slid it on her finger. Then, she laughed. She hadn’t even said ‘yes’ yet. But then again, he hadn’t actually asked. He’d told her to marry him.
The man could don bossy like a costume, but she didn’t care. She didn’t care about anything other than the unfamiliar weight on her ring finger, the beautiful man beside her, and what it all meant. The tears that were clogging her eyes over flowed.
“Yes!” Who cares if it wasn’t a damn question? That was still her answer. A resounding . . . “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!”
She launched herself at Dean, flinging her arms around his neck and colliding hard enough to knock him back on his ass. Laughing, he lowered them the rest of the way to the blanket and then rolled until Allie found herself lying on her back with her heart hovering above her. His warm eyes turned scorching in an instant.
“You have no idea what you’ve just agreed to, darlin’.” The words rumbled through his chest, sending tiny shivers up and down her spine.
“I think I have a pretty good idea.”
Dean chuckled and those shivers turned to tremors and headed south. “You’re all mine now.”
Mmm . . . she really liked the sound of that. Though, in truth, she’d always been his.
~The End~
Acknowledgments
Okay, short and sweet.
Thanks to Juli Caldwell for her amazing editing services and making me look smarter than I actually am.
Thanks to Regina Wamba for brining Allie and Dean to life with that stunning cover.
As always, thanks to the hubs for being ‘the bomb diggity’. (His words.)
And, the little ducks (AKA the kiddos) for rocking my socks and playing so nicely together even in the summer, so this mama can get her work done and stay on schedule.
Last, but definitely not least, a big THANK YOU to all of you readers. Your support means the world to me.
Jamie Canosa is a full time author of YA literature, which she absolutely loves. When she’s not writing or spending time with her family, she can usually be found with her nose in a book. She currently resides in Ravena, NY with her wonderful husband and three crazy kids . . . plus the dog, the bird and the rabbit.
Learn more about Jamie at:
http://jamiecanosa.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJamieCanosa