Okay. Okay. Okay. I can do this.
She tugged at the hem of her dress, then pulled at the flimsy ribbons holding up her top. With one last loud exhalation, she drove back onto the road and turned onto his street. His driveway was empty.
Shit.
She hadn’t even considered that he might not be home. She blamed her error on the sugar rush from eating all the chocolate she possibly could. He could be anywhere—fishing with Evan, or at a beach, at work. Damn it. This was supposed to be easy. Knock on his door, say her two cents, and either—Oh. My. God. Caden’s truck pulled into the driveway behind her.
She couldn’t breathe.
She watched in her side-view mirror as he stepped from the truck in his uniform, looking exactly like he had the first night they’d met. When his eyes caught hers in the rearview mirror, she felt her heart swell. Only this time the sadness in his eyes mirrored how she felt, but she couldn’t let that dissuade her from where she was heading.
His powerful legs carried him one sure step at a time toward her car. Her breathing became shallow, and when he reached for the door handle, she no longer felt like she was a woman who needed to roar.
She just felt like a woman, and that was enough.
CADEN COULDN’T BELIEVE his eyes. Bella was right there, stepping out of her car wearing—good Lord. What the hell was she wearing? Some pink polyester number that hugged her breasts and hips and appeared to be held on by two thin ribbons that tied around her neck. There was a pink satin bow at her waist, and the fabric stopped above her knees in the front and hung to her heels in the back.
“Stop looking at me like that.” She crossed her arms, and her shoulders rounded forward. She drew them back and lifted her chin.
“I’m…Bella…” Jesus, say something. “I’m sorry.”
“So am I.” Her eyes narrowed.
Shit.
“I’m going to tell you something,” she said with a serious tone. “And I’m only going to say it once.”
Caden touched her arm.
“I can’t think if you touch me.”
That made him smile, which brought a narrowing of her eyes. He stared at his hand before peeling his fingers from her skin.
“I’m sorry. But you’re here. Even if you’re annoyed with me, I’m happy you’re here.” How could he not smile? He’d missed her so much, and here she was, wearing some ridiculous outfit, angry and fucking adorable. The sound of her voice was like a new heart to a dying man.
“God, I missed your voice,” he admitted.
“You.” She poked his chest. “Hurt.” Poke. “Me.” Poke.
He grabbed her finger and pressed her palm to his chest. She tried to pull away, but he held on tight.
“Damn it, Caden.” Her voice trembled. “You hurt me. A lot.”
“I’m sorry.” He took a step closer and she peered up at him, then lowered her eyes to her hand, trapped beneath his. “I hurt me, too.”
At that, she lifted her beautiful eyes to his, and he could see her struggling to sound angry when he knew she felt as compelled to fall into his arms as he did to wrap them around her and hold her close.
“You waited too many days before you called me,” she said just above a whisper.
He shook his head. “I didn’t know if I should call.”
Her eyes narrowed again. “You should have.”
“I couldn’t be more sorry.” He wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss her, hold her, make both their pains go away, but before he could move, she spoke.
“Damn it, Caden. You’re standing there all handsome and apologetic, and…hot in that stupid sexy uniform, with that look in your eyes like you love me more than life itself, and…”
“I do,” he said.
“You…”
“I do love you more than life itself.”
She clenched her jaw and looked away, and when she turned back, her voice was determined once again. “Oh. Wait. I have…I love you, too, but damn it, I need to finish.”
He smiled. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” She bit her lower lip and furrowed her brow, as if she was trying to remember what she was saying. “You let me be strong, but you also make me weak.” She shook her head. “But you don’t really make me weak. You love me in ways that make me feel safe enough to forget I’m strong, and that scares the daylights out of me—even though I love that feeling. I’ve never had that feeling before, but you, Caden Grant...” She fisted her hands in that silly pink getup, and a second later she poked his chest again. “You.” Poke. “Are.” Poke.
He grabbed her hand again and held it tight.
She drew her brows together. “You are the man that I want to be with. I like how you make me feel, and damn it, Caden. I’m embracing it. See?” She swatted the skirt of her ridiculous dress. “I like how you take care of me. It makes me want to take care of you and Evan. But I won’t be jerked around. I won’t be treated like I’m expendable. You either take me or leave me, but there is no in between.”
He tightened his grip on her hand. “I don’t have a lot of experience with being in love or taking breaks.” His heart squeezed as her words took root, and he softened his tone. “Or realizing I was the biggest fool on earth.”
“You…” She hooked her finger into the waistband of his pants. “What?”
“I was an idiot. I blamed Evan’s hooking up with the wrong friends on my not giving him enough attention because I was so wrapped up in us that I couldn’t see straight.”
“You made a commitment to Evan, and I respect that.” She stared at his chest. He lifted her chin with his finger.
“I made a commitment to you, too, Bella. To us. I thought I needed to focus solely on Evan, but, babe, I was wrong. We need to focus on Evan. Together. I can’t be a good father when I’m spending my emotional energy missing you. I can’t sleep. I can’t eat. I can’t do a damn thing because I love you, Bella, and without you, seeing straight isn’t even an option.” He paused to let his words sink in. “I made an impulsive suggestion because Evan is...”
“Everything, as he should be,” she said softly. “I overreacted. I was selfish and I’m sorry.”
“No. You’re wrong about Evan being everything. Evan was everything until I met you. He is my son, and I love him. But the space he fills in my heart is the space that only a child can fill.” He cupped her cheeks and took a step closer, so they were thigh to thigh, as they should be. “You’re my soul mate. My lover. My friend. The woman I want to spend my life with, and maybe one day, if you want to, you’ll be the mother of our child. That side of my heart that Evan fills has room for more, but the other side of my heart? Your side? It only has room for you.”
Her eyes dampened. “Caden.”
“Let me finish, please.” He touched his forehead to hers. She sighed, and when he pressed his hands to her cheeks and lifted her face so he could look deeply into her eyes, a warm tear slid over his thumb.
“I love you, Bella. I love your strength, your loud laugh, the way you think of Evan even when you should be thinking about your work. I love the way you love your friends and your hidden adoration of all things pink. I will always love you, Bella, and I want you in our lives.”
He sealed his lips to hers, and all those empty spots that had appeared over the last few days filled with Bella.
With them.
When they drew apart, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper the size and thickness of a business card. “I wanted to give you something to show you that I’m serious about my commitment to you.”
He put the paper in her palm and folded her fingers over it; then he pressed a soft kiss to the back of her hand. Caden kissed her forehead.
“Before you open it, please tell me what you’re wearing.”
Bella looked down at her dress and her cheeks flushed. “It’s a prom dress. I bought it to wear to my high school prom, but that was before I realized that girly girls got taken advantage of.”
“
So you didn’t wear it?” He loved her so much his heart ached.
She shook her head. “I wore a black dress. But when I saw it in my closet, I remembered how you saw right through me and how you loved that side of me. And how you said to embrace it.” She lifted one shoulder in a shrug.
He kissed her again, and she melted against him.
“Maybe we should go shopping for something from this decade,” he teased.
“Maybe shopping can wait,” she said against his lips.
The sound of tires on gravel drew their lips apart.
“Bella!” Evan dropped his bike and wrapped his arms around the two of them. “You’re here. Jenna said you were in Connecticut, and I thought…” He hugged her again. “I thought you decided to take that job.”
“I missed you, too, Evan.” She ran her eyes between Evan and Caden. “How could I take a job that was so far from my favorite two men?”
He shot a look at Caden. “You’re back together?”
Caden nodded, and Evan did a fist pump. “Thank God. Please take him out of here, Bella. He’s been moping around and driving me crazy.”
“Oh, I think I can handle that,” she said with mischief in her eyes.
“Um.” Evan ran his eyes down Bella’s dress. “You might want to change your clothes first. I’m pretty sure that went out of style in the fifties.”
“Nineties,” Bella corrected him.
“Whatever.” Evan headed for the front door.
Whatever, said with a smile. Music to Caden’s ears.
Evan stopped halfway to the door and returned to Bella’s side with a serious look in his eyes. “Bella, I’m sorry for lying to you about being at the campground that day. I was afraid I’d get in trouble, and…well, I won’t lie again.”
Confusion flashed in her eyes. Caden realized he hadn’t even had a chance to tell her everything that Evan had told him yet.
“That’s okay, Evan. I’m glad you did the right thing in the end.”
“Cool. Thanks.” He headed inside.
“Thank you,” Caden said to Bella. “I have a lot to tell you, but I’m proud of him for apologizing. I never asked him to.”
“He’s an amazing kid, Caden.”
Bella unfurled her hand and read the note on the card. She fisted her hands in Caden’s shirt. “A get-out-of-jail-free card? Did you steal this from a Monopoly game?”
“No, but I copied the idea from the game, sort of.” God, he loved her.
“Don’t you ever compromise your beliefs for me. I love you for your convictions.”
He kissed her softly. “Oh, sorry. That was meant for me. In case you decide to use your fuzzy handcuffs and forget to respect our safe word.” He arched a brow and she laughed.
“Turn it over,” he whispered.
She looked down at the card.
“Read the other side.” He held his breath as she flipped over the flimsy card. He felt her heart beat harder against his chest. She looked from the card to him, then back again.
“Is…?” Her eyes welled with tears again. “Is this a joke?” She read the words again.
Marry me.
“I’ve never been more serious in my life. I love you, Bella. I knew it the moment you fell into my arms that first night. I want to be your YMCA guy. The guy who does or doesn’t fix your deck, depending on your mood. I want to wake up with you in my arms and I never, ever, want another frigging break from you. Will you marry me, Bella?”
“But…Evan?” Her lower lip trembled.
“I’m not asking you to marry Evan, but if you’re worried that he will be upset, he won’t. He was ready to clobber me for messing things up with you. I have only one stipulation.”
Her eyes widened.
“I don’t ever want to be not-a-husband with you. I want the real deal. You in a white dress, me in a monkey suit. I want you to have the wedding you secretly dreamed of.”
Tears streamed down her cheeks. “How do you know I’ve dreamed of anything like that?”
He touched her dress. “Anyone who kept a dress like this, dreams of a real wedding. Please don’t make me wait any longer for an answer.”
“Yes, Caden. I want to be your real wife, and never, ever be your not-a-wife.”
The End
Please enjoy a preview of the next
Love in Bloom novel
Seaside
Hearts
Seaside Summers, Book Two
Love in Bloom Series
Melissa Foster
Chapter One
THERE SHOULD BE a rule about drooling over construction workers, but Jenna Ward was damn glad there wasn’t. She sat on the porch of the Bookstore Restaurant, soaking up the deliciousness of the three bronzed males clad in nothing more than jeans and glistening muscles that flexed and bulged like an offering to the gods as they forced thick, sticky tar into submission. Their jeans hung low on strong hips, gripping their powerful thighs like second skins and ending in scuffed and tarred work boots. What red-blooded woman didn’t get worked up over a gorgeous shirtless man in work boots?
God help her, because she needed this distraction to take away her desire for Peter Lacroux, which went hand in hand with summers on the Cape and consumed her in the nine months they were apart. She zeroed in on one particularly handsome blond construction worker. His hair was nearly white, his jaw square and manly. She wanted to march right out to the middle of the road that split the earth between the restaurant and the beach and be manhandled into submission. Right there on the tar. Wrestled and groped until all thoughts of Pete evaporated.
“Wipe the drool from your chin, chica.” Amy Maples handed Jenna a margarita and, pointedly, a fresh napkin, as she settled into the chair across from her. “Good Lord, woman. What’s up with you this summer? I swear you’re in heat. I can practically smell your pheromones from over here.”
Jenna gulped her drink and righted her red bikini top, which was trying its damnedest to relieve itself of her enormous breasts. Even her bikini top was ready for a man. A real man. A man who craved her as much as she craved him.
Jenna reluctantly turned away from Testosterone Road and faced her best friends. The women she had spent her summers with here in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, for as long as she could remember and the women she hoped would help her through her most important summer ever.
Okay, she’d self-defined it as such, and it was probably a poor excuse for most important, but that’s how it felt. Huge. Momentous. Gargantuan. Great. Now she was thinking about other huge things…
“You’ve been here for a week, and you still haven’t told us why you’re all claws and hormones. Want to clue us in, or are we supposed to guess?” Bella Abbascia was a brazen blonde—and she, like Leanna Bray, the disorganized brunette of their bestie clan—had already found her true love. A feat Jenna only dreamed of. Ached for might be more accurate, and Bella was right; it was time to come clean.
Jenna downed the last of her drink and slapped her palms on the table.
“I don’t care what it takes; this is my summer. I’m done pussyfooting around. I want a man. A real man.” She slid her eyes to the construction workers again. Yum!She tried to convince herself to feel something more for the construction worker, but the only person her mind found yummy was Pete—and it didn’t seem to want to make room for others.
She wasn’t above faking it to pull herself through the charade. Maybe if she tried hard enough, she could talk herself into believing it.
“So, you’re going after Pete?” Leanna sipped her margarita and arched a brow. “How is that any different than every single one of the last five summers?”
“Oh no. Peter Lacroux can kiss my big, sexy ass.”
“Jenna!” Amy Maples’s eyes widened. The sweetest of the group, she was perfectly petite, with kindness that sailed from her blue eyes like a summer breeze.
“You do have a mighty fine ass, Jen,” Bella said. “But you’ve had a wicked crush on that man forever. If you’re going to fo
cus your attention on someone—” Bella bit her lower lip and shook her head as one of the construction workers wiped sweat from his brow, pecs in full, drool-inciting view. Bella raked her eyes down his sculpted abs. “Um…Okay, yeah. They’re pretty damn hot. But why throw Pete away?”
Jenna had been over this in her mind a hundred times. She locked her eyes on her glass and exhaled. “Because I’m not going to spend another summer chasing a man who doesn’t want me. And this is a tough summer for me. I have to break up with my mother, and that’s enough heartache for a few short weeks.”
“Break up with your mom? Can a person do that?” Amy glanced around the table.
“I gather she’s not taking your dad getting remarried well?” Leanna asked. “I had such high hopes when she didn’t fall apart during the divorce.”
Jenna rolled her eyes. “So did I. You’d think that two years after her divorce, she’d be able to sort of compartmentalize it all, but, girls, you have no idea.” Jenna shook her head and held up her glass, indicating to the bartender that she needed another drink. She could have gotten up and retrieved the drink herself, but Jenna wanted the diversion of the sexy waiter who would deliver it to their table. She’d take as many diversions as she could get to keep from thinking of Pete.
“She’s gone…hmm…how do I say this respectfully? She’s not gone cougar, but she’s definitely acting different. She’s dressing way too young for a fifty-seven-year-old woman, and I swear she thinks she’s my new best friend. She wants to talk about guys and sex, and what’s worse is that she suddenly wants to go dancing and to bars. I love my mom, but I don’t need to go to bars with her, and talking about sex with her? Please.”
“I was wondering what was going on when she texted you a hundred times last night.” Bella pulled her hair back and secured it with an elastic band. “She’s going through a hard time, Jenna. Give her a break. She was married for thirty-four years. That’s a long time. I’m not even married to Caden yet, and if we broke up and he married a younger chick, I’d be devastated.” Bella and Caden met last year when Bella had been busy rearranging her own life. She’d started a work-study program for the local school district, fallen in love with Caden Grant, a cop on the Cape, and now she was as close as a mother to his almost sixteen-year-old son, Evan. The Cape was a narrow stretch of land between the bay and the ocean. Bella and Caden lived on the bay side in a house that Caden had owned when they’d met, and they would be staying at Bella’s Seaside cottage on and off this summer.
Seaside Dreams (Love in Bloom: Seaside Summers, Book One) Contemporary Romance Page 28