Only You

by Fontaine, Bella

  “That’s my girl,” Luke said proudly.

  His girl.

  They’d had an amazing weekend, and he had another idea for her. She was one area of his life that he was certain of. One area that he knew he wanted.

  She was his girl, whether or not she knew it or wanted to be.

  He would make her his if it was the last thing that he did.

  “Right, I understand the questions now,” Nick stated.

  Luke looked at him and sighed. “She doesn’t like me being in the Marines. She hates it, and she’d hate it if I went back.”

  “Well that may be something to take into consideration when you make your choice.” Nick punched him in his arm playfully.

  They looked on as Natalie approached. She rushed across the lawn and up the garden path, eyes focused on him. But then she looked over and saw Nick and her eyes widened as she gave him the look Luke had seen most women give Nick when they first met him.

  It was the bright blue eyes and the distinct tattoos.

  “Hey,” Luke called out to her and whistled. “You, look back this way to me.” He turned to Nick. “And you stop looking at my girl.”

  Nick laughed. “Relax dude, you’re lucky I’m taken.”

  Natalie was laughing by the time she got up to them, and Luke stood to take her into his arms.

  Every time he saw her he found himself falling for her even more than he did even hours ago.

  * * *

  Natalie

  * * *

  She gave Luke a quick kiss to reassure him that she only had eyes for him.

  His friend had only caught her attention because of his unique look with the piercing blue eyes and spiky hair. That was all.

  The man was incredibly good looking but didn’t come close to Luke for her.

  Again it was the eyes.

  When anyone first met Luke, the first thing they would be drawn to was the soft, warm color of his eyes and the light that shined within them.

  It was welcoming and comforting, tempting and alluring all at the same time.

  “Nat, this is my friend, Nick. We served together in the Marines,” Luke introduced him.

  “Great to meet you,” Natalie said, putting out her hand to shake his.

  “And you.” Nick smiled.

  “Thank you for all that you’ve done.” She felt that she should show her gratitude.

  “No problem. I wish we could have met under better circumstances.” Nick looked from her to Luke.

  “Well, we’re all here in Chicago. Let’s fix that problem.” Luke chuckled.

  Natalie leaned into his chest, enjoying the warmth that came from him against her skin.

  Nick looked from her to him again and smiled, but this was a smile of admiration for them.

  “It would be nice to see you both at my wedding,” he said with a twinkle in his eyes, still looking at both of them. Then he focused on her. “My Mia would love you.”

  She liked how he said “My Mia.”

  “I’m sure I’d love her too.” Natalie returned the smile.

  “Cool. I’d better leave you fine people to enjoy the rest of the evening.” He nodded.

  Luke stretched out his hand and shook Nick’s.

  “Thank you, for everything,” Luke said. There was a thoughtful tone to his voice that caught Natalie’s attention.

  “No problem, Lieutenant Donovan. Make sure you consider what we discussed, especially seeing as you have much to consider.” Nick glanced down at her as he said that.

  Now she definitely wondered what they’d talked about.

  “Yes, Lieutenant Wylder. I will.” Luke laughed.

  Nick gave them a curt nod and left.

  As soon as he was out of ear shot, Natalie turned in Luke’s arms and regarded him with curiosity.

  “What did he mean?” she asked as he leaned down to kiss her. “Were you talking about me?”

  “Baby, I’m always talking about you.”

  She gazed up at him in awe, feeling her whole body blush and tingle just from his words.

  “I talk about you too.” She smiled.

  “Are you okay?” he asked with a sweet smile, his eyes never leaving hers.

  “I’m worried about Jessica. I feel like she’s in pain. I want to be there for her, but I don’t know how she’ll react towards me.”

  “She loves you, Nat. You two will be fine.”

  She wasn’t so sure about that. “She didn’t call me. I thought that maybe she would.”

  Luke shook his head. “No, she doesn’t want to see anyone. I suspect tomorrow will be different.”

  “I have to go back to her tonight. Maybe she’ll need me.” She was really worried and concerned for Jessica. No matter what tension there was, she wanted to be there at that moment when that all faded and Jessica would need those who loved her around her.

  What happened was a terrible thing.

  “She will need you, but trust me, going back tonight only wastes time. Time you could spend with me.” Luke gave her a seductive look that made the butterflies in her stomach flutter.

  “Is it bad if I want to be selfish and indulge on spending time with you?”

  “Oh no, baby, selfish is good when it comes to us.” He held her gaze for a few seconds, then took her hand and led her up the porch steps and to the bench.

  He sat down and pulled her into his lap. She placed her arms around him and ran her fingers over the fine curls at the back of his head.

  “I have a proposition for you,” he declared, meeting her gaze head on.

  “Yes,” she said.

  He raised his brows. “Is that yes, as in you’re saying yes to the fact that I have a proposition for you, or a yes as an answer?”

  “It’s an answer.” She nodded.

  “Have I just stepped straight into some alternate dimension, or possibly the twilight zone?” He straightened his shoulders.

  “I realize that I haven’t made things easy for you, and you don’t need any additional worries. So whatever you want to ask me, the answer is yes.” She figured it had to be about them trying again, and being off the break she placed on them.

  “I could want us to eat pondweed or frogs, baby.” He chuckled.

  She burst out laughing. “It better not be, Luke. I’m not eating pondweed or frogs, you crazy boy.”

  “But you said yes to whatever I want to ask you.” He nodded.

  Her face fell and she grimaced. “Yuck, Luke. I’m outta here.” She made a move to get off his lap but he held onto her.

  “Move in with me,” he suddenly said. “Natalie.”

  She stopped shuffling to gaze at him, taking note of the seriousness in his tone.

  When she joked about it the other day she was simply joking. But this question was no joke.

  “Move in?”

  “Yeah, I think your side of the bed looks a lot better with you in it. We used to come to this place nearly every day when we were kids. It feels right when you’re here with me.”

  Such sweet words. They gripped her heart, spread through her like warm honey and lifted her soul.

  “I can’t believe you want me to move in with you.”

  He nodded. “I do. Nat, I don’t have things figured out yet, but I—”

  She interrupted him with a brief kiss. “There’s no rush. I understand and I get it.” She did, and it was unfair of her to push him into a decision that he hadn’t wholeheartedly come to.

  “You do?”

  She nodded. “I was scared, but it’s stupid and selfish. It feels so ridiculous for me to even say this, but I didn’t want to fall for you because I know it would kill me if something happened to you, but then I realized that it didn’t matter how I felt, I’d be devastated either way. It’s hard for me to be in situations that I can’t control. I don’t know what to do when that happens, but I’ve never met anyone I’ve felt like this about. So Luke, if you stay, that would be amazing, but if you go, I’ll understand too. I just have to believe that
you’ll come back to me.”

  Wow, considering she didn’t really express her feelings that much, she felt she did good with that.

  That was exactly how she felt, and she was glad she was able to tell him.

  He looked at her in deep admiration, respect, and even some aspect of reverence.

  When she saw a small tear run down his cheek, her heart warmed even more.

  He reached up and cupped her face, then pressed his forehead to hers.

  “You are everything to me, Natalie. Everything,” he breathed.

  “You are mine too.”

  Chapter 19

  Natalie

  * * *

  Two months later…

  Natalie read over the reports that were sent over to her from the new business deal.

  Fast Tech wanted to merge with Global Inc., a smaller company who had a lot of really fresh up-and-coming talent. Just not the resources and money to take that talent to where they wanted to go.

  So far everything was going well with her assessment.

  “The reports all match,” Sienna smiled wide.

  Natalie looked up from her computer screen and gave her a satisfied nod. Reports matching meant they could get her seal of approval and this deal would be wrapped up by weekend.

  Sienna was a junior analyst Caleb had hired to assist Natalie. After that whole occurrence with Mokito, it was agreed that Natalie’s methods were a complete must have, but she needed assistance so that her time could be freed up for her other ideas.

  Sienna was a Stanford graduate who was eager to show off her talents and definitely didn’t miss a beat. That equaled perfect in Natalie’s eyes, so she did the report comparison and only contacted Natalie if she saw something that didn’t match.

  In the month that she’d worked for them she’d never had to contact Natalie once, and since the Mokito incident they’d had several business deals to work on. The CEO at Mokito was so grateful that they were able to stop the disaster they would have had by taking over J.J. Belmont that they didn’t stop spreading the word on how amazing Donovan Inc. was.

  Just because of that, Donovan Inc. had taken on at least six multimillion-dollar projects, which was safe to say bumped up their earnings substantially.

  The great part was that Caleb always gave Natalie the credit. He always let her know how grateful he was for her and really made sure she was happy.

  She was, finally she was happy in her career and most assuredly saw herself staying here. She’d reached the epitome of her career-related goals and felt she could tick that off her things-to-achieve list.

  “Perfect, I’ll sign that all off by this evening. Can you put all the files together?” Natalie replied.

  “Sure thing.” Sienna’s smile widened and she practically skipped out of the office back to her desk.

  Natalie took a moment to think. She’d been working all day and it was past lunch time.

  No wonder she had a slight headache. She’d leave a little early today, maybe, and probably try to drag Luke to that Italian restaurant again.

  They ate there twice last week and she wouldn’t have minded having their lasagna again tonight. It was the kind of meal that was satisfying but hard to get tired of.

  Luke would have no problem going, he’d just argue about them going to the same place practically every week when he wanted to take her to other restaurants.

  They’d had a beautiful time together. Being with him was the best choice she’d ever made. Nothing gave her more happiness than being with him. Nothing at all.

  Not even this job that was amazing.

  She figured that, while a person could be happy in their careers, being in love had a different sort of happiness that should never be denied.

  It was soul fulfilling.

  It was pure, and something that could only be described if you felt it.

  For her, it had been a journey and a learning curve that she had to see through. She still had the same fears for Luke, but she’d embraced them and dealt with them.

  Especially now that his time was running out.

  He’d been home for four months now. He had two months left until he had to make that big decision, and the poor guy was still lost in the ether on what to do.

  It was fine. She still understood and she knew he was waiting to see his time through so he could make a more holistic choice based on everything.

  They didn’t talk about it much, which was fine, too, but sometimes she wanted to.

  And the person she would have turned to wasn’t really in the talking mood these days. At least not with her.

  Jessica really took Joshua’s deceit badly.

  She still hadn’t recovered.

  She’d of course called the wedding off, had to cancel all the arrangements for the venue, flowers, catering, everything.

  And with the way people loved gossip in the circles they travelled, she’d had to evade that too.

  Natalie had heard the rumors of how Jessica had been with a criminal, and the people who’d said it weren’t saying it in a manner that was sympathetic towards her.

  It was either mocking or accusing because the Donovans were so wealthy.

  Through the success of gaining more recognition from Mokito’s praises, the company had also received a lot of slack.

  Natalie knew Jessica would have felt bad about that because of Joshua.

  Joshua was sent straight to prison and had so many crimes linked to him that there was no point singling out just the few they knew about. Apparently that had just been a drop in the well.

  Jessica hadn’t spoken much to Natalie since that day when it all kicked off and Joshua’s criminal activities were unveiled.

  Up until that point, Natalie had thought that it was strange not speaking to Jessica for so long. That was nothing, and if anyone had told her she’d go just over two months without speaking to her best friend, she would have never believed them.

  Natalie had seen Jessica twice in that time, and both times was with other people so they never got that one-to-one moment to have a serious talk about what had happened.

  Natalie called Jessica every day for the first month, but she never picked up her phone. On the last week of that month, she’d decided she’d stop if a new month began and Jessica didn’t pick up. So she did. And she didn’t go to the apartment, either, because she felt that if Jessica didn’t want to speak to her on the phone, she wouldn’t want to see her.

  If Natalie wanted to know how Jessica was, she had to ask Luke and Laura or her parents, but she never heard from her.

  She had known Jessica long enough to know that meant she blamed Natalie in some way for what had happened. It was a thought that truly saddened her.

  She shuffled in her chair and focused back on the work she was doing on her computer. She was at the end of the share reports, which she’d already gone over twice. This was just the final run through, just to be thorough.

  A small tap at her door drew her attention away from the screen.

  When she looked up and saw Jessica, her stomach clenched.

  For a moment she thought her friend was just a figment of her imagination from her missing her so much, but looking her over, Natalie realized that Jessica was indeed here.

  “Jessica,” Natalie said, unable to keep the smile and excitement out of her voice.

  “Hey, have you got a minute?” Jessica asked.

  “Of course,” Natalie replied.

  Jessica came inside and stopped by the potted miniature roses Luke had bought for the office.

  Natalie got up from behind her desk and pointed over to the sofa area.

  She’d had that put in because it was a more comfortable area to meet with clients.

  Jessica followed her and they sat opposite each other.

  “How’ve you been?” Natalie asked trying to act calm, although her heart was racing.

  She looked at Jessica and saw that she looked more like her normal self. Her hair was perfect, makeup the same, an
d she did look a little brighter.

  “I’m better,” Jessica replied.

  “That’s really good to hear,” Natalie said with a soft smile. She was glad to hear that.

  There were a few moments of silence and then they both spoke at the same time.

  “Please go first. I can wait,” Natalie offered, thinking it was better to hear what Jessica had to say since she wasn’t really sure what else to ask, other than how she was. Anything else would be small talk.

  “Thank you. I guess I should since I’m the one visiting you, and I’m the one who owes you an apology.” Jessica sighed.

  Natalie felt like all the tension she’d been carrying the last two months just released, leaving her feeling light.

  Her shoulders even slumped from it.

  “Jessica, you’ve been through a lot. You don’t owe me anything.”

  “Don’t I? Are you kidding? Please, don’t make me feel worse by acting like I wasn’t a complete bitch and a poor excuse for a friend. Because I was.” A tear ran down her cheek, which she quickly wiped away. “How long have we been friends, Natalie?”

  “Forever.” Natalie smiled.

  “It has been forever, and I actually have this distinct memory from when we were four. I remember being in the park with our moms and thinking that, as long as you were my friend, I’d always be happy. Nothing is truer.” Jessica nodded with conviction.

  Natalie pressed her lips together as emotions welled within her chest. “That means a lot to me,” she replied.

  “It doesn’t match how I’ve treated you, though. I was embarrassed that you were right about Joshua, but I felt worst that I chose to believe in him more than in what you were trying to warn me of. I felt ashamed for everything I said to you, of what I accused you of, and I just couldn’t bring myself to talk to you, until today.”

  Natalie was glad to hear it was that and not that her friend hated her or blamed her for ruining her happiness. She was so glad that she moved over to Jessica and gave her a hug.

  “Please don’t feel bad,” Natalie told her.