Page 132 of Dr. Bad Boy

“Storm’s coming,” she says lazily, pointing to the horizon.

“We should head back in.”

“Mmm.” She reaches for her book. “One more chapter.”

We’re fifteen feet from our verandah. I close my eyes and wait for the storm to get closer.

Violet snuggles closer, rolling from her cushion onto mine, and I wrap my arm around her.

“Read to me,” I murmur, and she does, her careful, precise, beautiful voice telling me a story about a medical examiner and a forensic anthropologist who used to be lovers, a decade earlier, now forced to work together by the federal government.

The story’s good, but the voice is better. The voice is everything. There’s a storm bearing down on us and I’m going to ask this woman to marry me any minute, but right now all I want is to listen to her read to me from her book.

She trails off and I can feel her attention shifting from the book to me. “Are you asleep?” she whispers.

“No.” I smile but don’t open my eyes. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Thunder rumbles in the near distance, and she sighs. “Let’s head in.”

She rolls away from me, and as she’s gathering her towel, I snatch the dental floss container from our bag. The internet has an answer for everything, apparently. The inside spool is exactly the right size to hold a ring, and this particular brand pops open like a ring box. I press on the sides, snapping the release, and spin the platinum band onto my pinky before she notices.

Dumping the plastic container back into the bag, I make a fist to keep the ring hidden and stand up.

She steps out onto the beach first, then I follow.

“Forever, by the way,” I say.

She turns around. “Pardon.”

As if on command, the sky cracks with thunder again. I drop to one knee and hold out the ring. “I love you forever.”

“Max…” She drops our beach bag in the sand and steps closer, her eyes as big as saucers.

My heart thumps hard against my ribcage. “You are goodness and you are light. You make me happy, and that’s no simple task. When I am with you, I…smile. All the time. You’re smart and funny and saucy and sweet. I want to spend the rest of my—” Another rumble of thunder, closer now, interrupts me. I don’t stop for long. “The rest of my life makingyouhappy and keeping that smile on your gorgeous face. I want to marry you, Violet Roberts. I want to be your husband and your love, forever. Will you marry me?”

“Only you would propose in a thunderstorm,” she whispers, falling to her knees in front of me. The first rain drops hit us as she takes the ring and nods. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”

I take her hand, making sure that ring goes right where I want it to be, before I drive my hands into her hair and hold her still for a long, hungry kiss.

“We’re going to get hit by lightning,” she whispers when I let her up for air.

“We’ve still got a minute or two.” I kiss her again, then stand and lift her into my arms. She buries her face in my neck as the rain picks up, but I don’t care. In a few long strides, we’re back in our villa, leaving the storm behind us.

51

Violet

Hannah isthe only person who notices the massive rock on my left hand when I return to work, and I promise to tell her all about my engagement after lunch.

Before lunch, I have a meeting with William Novak, one of the firm’s senior partners, and the man who technically holds Max’s account.

Gail arrives ten minutes early, causing Derrick to do two sail-bys past my office door in the hopes of figuring out why a prominent Ottawa employment attorney is sitting across from me, chatting about the Caribbean.

“Next time you have to go Aruba,” she says. “Or the British Virgin Isles.”

“Noted.” I practice my confident, winning smile that’s a total sham.

She lowers her voice. “No matter what, you will be fine.”

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