Page 95 of Right With You
A relieved laugh tripped out of me. “Good. Me, too.” I swallowed, then clarified. “I’m in love with you, too. And I want to keep going.”
He reached for me, sliding a hand into my hair. “Good. Because I’m only holding this ring for safekeeping. Unless you’d prefer something else, but otherwise, barring a major change, I intend to give it back to you.”
I bit my lip, but my smile broke through anyway. “You have another fake engagement up your sleeve?”
He moved so quickly, I hardly realized what was happening until I was on my back, and he was leaning over me, his lips brushing mine before he said, “Not fake.”
“I guess we’ll see,” I said, grinning like a madwoman.
Did I want to be engaged to Luc? Right now, no. Honestly, no, because we’d hardly dated. But we’d also been through a kind of trial by fire, and he was the man I wanted. I knew this. He was obviously open to dating, and eventually, marriage.
In some other woman’s story, maybe she’d turn her fake engagement into a real one without stopping the progress, but he knew, and I knew, this was whatweneeded.
“I’m right with you,mon amour. We’re right with each other. We’ll get there. And now I need only hear what it is you wantnow.”
He dipped his head, touching his forehead to mine in a soft, sweet gesture that made my heart absolutely fly.
“You, Luc. Just you.”
* * *
EPILOGUE
Elise
Six Months Later
Iflipped the sign toClosedand sank back against the cool glass. The temperature had dropped with the October weather, and business was suddenly booming. Between theAlmabtrieband Harvest festival, the film fest coming up, and excitement for ski season brewing, Silvertonians and tourists alike were straight up gobbling down the donuts.
Thank goodness.
The exhaustion was real, but I felt only gratitude and joy. With Luc’s insistence, I’d cut down my virtual assistant job to part-time this fall and soon, I’d whittle down to even less. I might even quit. It still made me nervous, but I had a safety net.
And no, the net wasn’t my millionaire boyfriend. He’d kept the part of the business he’d bought from Callum, but I’d been slowly paying him back. Assuming the ski season did even seventy percent of what it did last year, I would pay him back in full by the end of January. I’d had the same plan with Callum… if he’d only let me.
Happily, I didn’t need to think about him since he’d been in jail since kidnapping me. The best part was how shocked he was at the sentencing. He’d gotten the best lawyer he could buy and still ended up with six years in jail. His many pleas that he’d been coerced or bribed by Bernard and Cynthia de Valois had fallen on deaf ears. They’d been sentenced in federal courts for some reason, but they both got some jail time and then they’d be on house arrest… sorry not sorry.
The only person I felt for was Odette, but she’d been emailing and she and her partner were delighted to be free of her parents and their delusions for her future. They were planning to come visit this winter and do some skiing.
A knock on the door in the kitchen pulled me from my mental wanderings and I hustled through to the space I loved, then opened the back door.
“Um, hi.” My friends were standing outside the door in a weird little semicircle, each bundled up in jackets to ward away the winter chill and holding flowers.
“Your tenacity,” Nikki said, then handed me two gorgeous bright pink roses, the same shade as my little Glazed mascot logo.
“Your heart,” Winnie said, giving me another pair of perfect pink roses.
Jo beamed and held out her two matching flowers. “Your love for your friends.”
I sucked in a breath, not entirely sure what was happening, but feeling… something big was afoot.
“Your empathy,” Catherine said, smiling as she added her stems to my growing collection.
Jess grinned. “Your grit.” She pressed two flowers into my growing bouquet and patted my shaking hands.
Liz gave the opposite of spy face as she beamed, handing me two more bright pink blooms. “Your resilience, and I’m sorry but I have to add, your donuts.”
Everyone laughed and smiled. My heart felt like it might grow too big for my body, so filled up already.
