Unplanned Love

by Sharon C. Cooper

  It was almost midnight, and they had just returned to the hotel. Between touring the city for much of the day and then attending a Broadway show, her energy was wiped. Yet, she couldn’t shut off her brain. Thoughts ran rampant through her mind, bouncing from one idea or thought to another.

  Liam. Her thoughts for the last two days had mostly centered around him. Mainly because these had been some of the best days that she’d had in years. Could they really return home and continue seeing each other? Or would their day-to-day lives get in the way? Actually, it wasn’t his life that she was concerned about. It was hers.

  She vowed that she could put their relationship first and not let her work consume every waking day, but could she really? Liam told her the other night that she could have it all. Him, her career, and a family. However, Charlee worried that she’d goof it up and lose him for good.

  “I want this to work more than anything,” she mumbled to herself. “I can, no, I will put our relationship first.”

  Charlee sat up. Her gaze darted to the bathroom door as it opened, and Liam stepped out. His hand was on his tie-knot, moving it side to side until it loosened and he pulled it over his head. Laying it on the dresser, he started undoing the buttons on his light-blue dress shirt.

  He was such a handsome man. She could look at him all day. It didn’t matter what he was doing, he snagged her attention without even trying.

  “You haven’t said much since we left the show,” he said, studying her. “What’s wrong? You okay?”

  She stood and walked to him. “I was thinking.”

  “Oh, boy.” He shook his head and removed his shirt, leaving him in a white T-shirt. “Every time you start with, I was thinking, I get nervous.”

  Charlee laughed and punched him in the arm. “Be quiet. I’m serious.”

  “Okay. Okay, I’m listening. What’s going on in that beautiful head of yours?”

  “I love you.”

  He didn’t respond. Only stood there looking at her as if waiting for her to say something else.

  She wanted that to sink in before she continued. Before she could say anything else, Liam wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her against his body. Then his lips touched hers in a slow, soul-stirring kiss.

  “I love you too, sweetheart.” He rested his forehead against hers. “What I feel for you…” He stopped speaking and shook his head as if strangled by emotion.

  Charlee understood. The love she had for this man was a bit overwhelming. In a good way.

  “What I feel for you,” Liam cupped her face, “is like nothing I’ve ever experienced with anyone. It’s like I can breathe better when you’re with me. Like…everything is brighter with you around. I know I keep saying it, but baby… I. Have. Missed. You.”

  “Aw, Liam.” Charlee bit her bottom lip, fighting to hold back a sob. “That’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me. You have no idea how much that means to me, and I feel the same about you.”

  One of his rare smiles appeared, and his whole face lit up. “I think I know. We have a chance to get it right this time.”

  “That’s what I was thinking. Actually, I was thinking about something else, too.” She eased out of his hold and sucked in a long breath before releasing it slowly to get her nerves under control.

  Liam shoved his hands into the front pockets of his suit pants. The smile covering his mouth only moments ago—gone.

  She needed to just say what was on her mind before he assumed what she had to say was something bad. It wasn’t. Maybe a little crazy, but not bad.

  “Will you marry me?” she blurted, glad the words found their way to the surface.

  Liam’s brows shot up, and he opened his mouth to speak. Then closed it looking a little shell-shocked.

  “Since I love you, and you love me, why not get married? We want the same things. We want to be together for a lifetime. We want a family. We’re in love. We’re both committed to making our relationship work.”

  The words flew from her mouth so fast, Charlee wasn’t sure if she was making sense.

  “And we have a person who will marry us at a moment’s notice. I love you more than anything, and I want you to be my husband. I want you to spend the rest of your life with me. Marry me.”

  After a long hesitation, he said, “When do you want to get married?”

  She gave a slight shrug. “I’m free tomorrow. How about you?”

  Liam chuckled. “You know this is crazy, right?”

  “I know, but life is short. There are no guarantees. Besides, you agreed to go along with whatever I wanted to do while we’re here. I say we elope.”

  “And I say…I can’t wait to marry you.”

  His words hit her like a two-by-four against the head. Charlee screamed. Leaped into his arms and kissed him hard. Even though she had asked, she didn’t actually think he’d say yes.

  “But, there’s only one problem with your plan,” Liam said when he set her on her feet. “I don’t have a ring for you.”

  “Um, about that.”

  She hurried back to the bed where she had left her purse and dumped the contents in order to get to the inside zipper. She pulled out the small, velvet pouch that she’d been carrying around with her for almost two years.

  “Will this work?”

  Liam stared at the three-carat princess cut diamond ring then looked at her, and then back at the ring. “You kept it?”

  “Of course, I kept it. Did you think I would pawn it or something? When you didn’t take it back, I had planned to be buried with it.”

  That night Liam broke up with her, Charlee thought she would never recover. The first few weeks he wouldn’t even accept her calls. He wouldn’t let her apologize for ruining their relationship. Eventually, he answered one of her calls, and she asked that they meet so that she could give back the ring. He didn’t want it.

  Now here they were, back together and possibly getting married.

  Fate.

  No matter how she looked at it, Charlee knew their chance meeting in New York, was fate taking over.

  “So, will you marry me?” she asked again.

  He took the ring from her fingers and studied it before meeting her gaze. “Yeah, I’ll marry you. Anytime. Anywhere.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “Married?” Jerry and Rayne yelled in unison, their eyes wide and mouths hanging open.

  “How?”

  “When?”

  They both talked at once, shooting out one question after another while Charlee and Liam stood on their front stoop.

  “Can we at least come in?” Liam asked, giving Charlee an I told you so look.

  He had been adamant about telling his family and her father at the same time during the next Jenkins’ family brunch, which was that coming Sunday.

  Charlee wasn’t like him. When she was excited about something, she wanted to shout it out to the universe. Liam, on the other hand, could take a secret to his grave and think nothing of it.

  That morning, Josie married them in Central Park. The area where they had their picnic had been the perfect spot with the fountain and the lake as their backdrop. Just thinking about how remarkable the fifteen-minute ceremony was made Charlee’s heart sing.

  We’re married. The words kept playing around in her head for the last eight hours. They had picked up the marriage license the morning after she had proposed, but had to wait twenty-four hours before they could get married. Which meant they were married only hours before their plane took off for Cincinnati.

  “We should let your asses stay out there,” Jerry said, and Rayne elbowed him.

  They expected everyone to be surprised, especially since they hadn’t been dating. Yet, Charlee thought they would get a different reception from their best friends.

  “Come in,” Rayne said, moving away from the door. “The kids are asleep. We can talk in the family room.”

  Charlee and Liam followed her into the large room. There was comfortable furniture and a b
ig screen television, as well as a few toys in a nearby corner of the space.

  They sat on the sofa next to Rayne while Jerry sat in his recliner.

  “Okay, tell us everything,” Rayne said.

  “Not everything,” Jerry added with a frown. “I just want to know why you had to just up and get married when you weren’t even dating.”

  “There’s not much to tell. We hooked up in New York, toured the city, ate a lot and got married,” Liam said, scowling at Jerry as if he wanted to punch him.

  Charlee wasn’t sure what silent conversation they were having, but something was transpiring between them.

  “What else you want to know?” Liam growled.

  Charlee’s heart sunk. They were supposed to be celebrating, not defending themselves. “Why are you mad?” she asked Jerry.

  He had always treated her like a sister and was the main one telling her that Liam was still in love with her. She wasn’t sure where this animosity she was feeling was coming from.

  “I’m not mad!” he said, then huffed out a breath. “I’m shocked. One minute, you guys are glaring at each other, the next—”

  “I’ve never glared at Liam,” Charlee interrupted, then looked at her husband. He covered her hand with his and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

  “Yeah, but too bad the blockhead sitting next to you can’t say the same thing.” Jerry leaned forward, his elbows on his thighs as he looked from her to Liam. “There is no doubt in my mind that you two love each other, but marriage is serious. You can’t just…just up and do something like that without knowing what you’re getting into. There’s a lot to take into consideration.”

  “Says the person who vowed never to get married,” Liam said, an angry bite in his tone. “Man, we are grown ass people. We don’t give a sh—”

  “Okay, you know what? Let’s tone it down a notch,” Rayne said. “Better yet, Jerry, why don’t you and Liam take your issues downstairs, and Charlee and I can talk up here.”

  The moment they were gone, Charlee shot out of her seat and paced the length of the room. “I at least thought you would be happy for us. You know how much I love him.”

  “I know. I also know that you do things on a whim all the time and don’t consider consequences until after the fact. I’m afraid that come tomorrow, you guys might have a change of heart.”

  “Rayne, we are crazy about each other. This is not just a whim. This is about love.”

  “Love is one thing, but marriage is a whole different beast. It’s not something to take lightly.”

  “I thought you loved being married.”

  “I adore being married, and I would walk through fire for my husband. He’s my everything, and more than I could have ever wished for.”

  “Then what’s the problem? That’s exactly how I feel about Liam. I’ve loved him for over two years, from the first date we went on. I knew then that he was special and that I had struck gold in meeting him. And I know he loves me. Running into each other in New York was like fate giving us that push we needed to see this relationship through.”

  “I’m like Jerry. I know how much you two love each other, but you guys had some real issues in your relationship before. There’s no way that could’ve been resolved in only a few days.”

  Charlee huffed out a breath and dropped down on the sofa, folding her arms across her chest. She knew marriage wasn’t easy. Nothing in life was easy. Yet, she was confident that they’d made the right decision. They were adults, knew each other better than anyone, and were both determined to make their marriage work, and that’s what she explained to Rayne.

  This was supposed to be one of the happiest days of her life. She finally married the man who held her heart. Never would she have thought that she’d have to defend her decision to her best friend.

  Suddenly, Charlee wanted to run downstairs, grab Liam and head back to New York where they could do whatever the heck they wanted and not have to answer or defend themselves to anyone.

  “Did you marry Liam to get the CEO position?”

  Charlee gasped. “Of course not!” she bit out, surprised and disappointed at her friend’s accusatory tone.

  Sure, she had joked about finding a husband in order to get the job, but never intended on doing anything like that.

  “For your information, the CEO position hasn’t crossed my mind since running into him in New York.”

  “And that brings me to another point. You have worked so hard to get where you are in the company. Your career is everything to you, and those are your words, not mine. If you struggled to juggle your relationship and your job before when you guys were together, what makes you think it’s going to be any easier now? You’ll have more responsibilities if your father slides you into that position.”

  “I’m not worried about that. I’m already planning to do more delegating. If that doesn’t work, I’ll quit before I let work come between Liam and me again! Can’t you just be happy for me?” Charlee sobbed, unsure why she was getting emotional. Rarely did she care what others thought, but this wasn’t just anyone. This was Rayne, her best friend who was more like a sister.

  Charlee swiped at a rogue tear that slid down her cheek.

  “Aw, honey. Don’t cry. Of course, I’m happy for you, and I can’t wait to hear the details.” Rayne pulled her in for a hug. “I only want the best for you and Liam, and I don’t want either of you to get hurt again.”

  “We won’t.”

  “Yeah, you say that now.” Rayne slowly released her and got up to grab a few tissues from a nearby Kleenex box and handed them to Charlee. “But what if—”

  “We won’t get hurt. We love each other too much for that to happen. We’re going to make it this time and have an amazing life together. You’ll see.”

  *

  “I can’t wrap my brain around the two of you getting married after only hanging out a few days. It doesn’t make sense,” Jerry said, as he leaned over the pool table. He knocked the five ball into the side pocket and the seven into the right corner pocket. He had always been the best at pool out of all of their cousins.

  “It doesn’t have to make sense to you.” Liam set up to take his shot after Jerry missed. “What Charlee and I do is no one’s damn business.”

  “You know she’s like a sister to me, and I think she’s good for you. Getting married all of a sudden isn’t like you. The man who plans everything meticulously. Nah, I’m not buying that you married her on a whim. Were you drunk?”

  “No.”

  “Were you guys secretly dating before you went to New York?

  “No.”

  “Is she pregnant?”

  Liam glared at him. “No!”

  “Then what happened? Why the rush? Why not date a few months? Hell, even a few weeks would’ve been better than a couple of days.”

  Liam missed his next shot after making two.

  His cousin was right. He wasn’t the type to go off course, drive outside of the lines, or do something like getting married on impulse. There were moments he still couldn’t believe he went through with Charlee’s idea. Normally, he was the logical one. The one who reeled her back in when she got ahead of herself. Not this time. This time the idea seemed…perfect. From the moment they said, I do, he didn’t have any regrets. No second thoughts. No desire to get their marriage annulled. Hell, he would marry her all over again if he had to.

  “You know what? If it were left up to me, I would have told you and Rayne about our marriage along with the rest of the family on Sunday,” he finally said, irritated by the conversation.

  Jerry chuckled, and then missed his next shot. “In the words of Martina, I can’t wait for Sunday brunch. The shit is definitely going to fly. You gon’ drop some mess like that on your parents…in front of everyone? Oh man, and don’t get me started on Kingslee. He’s probably going to pull out his shotgun.”

  That was probably the only thing Liam regretted. He wasn’t a traditional guy. He hadn’t asked Charlee’s father fo
r her hand in marriage the first time and wouldn’t have done it this time had they not eloped. However, with Charlee being an only child and only daughter, Kingslee would’ve wanted to walk her down the aisle.

  Maybe they’d have a small ceremony in the near future if Charlee wanted.

  Jerry leaned on the edge of the pool table. “You’re going to have a lot of explaining to do.”

  “Like I said. What we do is nobody’s business.” Liam took his shot and made it. He set up for the next one but stopped and straightened. “Oh, and the next time you upset my wife the way you did upstairs, I’m going to beat your ass.”

  Jerry stared at him for a moment, then burst out laughing, bumping the pool table and knocking the balls all around. Once he finally sobered, he wiped at his eyes with the heel of his hand.

  “Man, you’re a trip. A few weeks ago, you’d pitch a fit if I said her name in your presence. Now, you’re referring to her as your wife.”

  “I’m serious, Jay. You can talk crazy to me, but I don’t want you upsetting her, especially not about this. She’s happy, and I plan to keep her that way.”

  Jerry nodded. “Okay, messed that up. You guys just caught me off guard, but I gotta ask. Why’d you decide to get married on the fly like that?”

  Visions of Charlee flashed through Liam’s mind. Her laugh. Her hypnotic eyes. That smile that made him want to smile. Her vibrant personality that could light up a room without her speaking a word. All that played around in his head. Yet, it was the way she made him feel that had him prepared to do anything for her.

  “Because she’s the one,” he finally said. “I knew it two years ago when I asked her to marry me, and I know it now. She’s the one for me, and this time I went for it.”

  Silence filled the room. Liam knew Jerry understood exactly how he felt. He’d gone through similar emotions and unexplained actions once he realized Rayne was the one for him. Now Liam knew without a doubt that the so-called Jenkins’ men myth wasn’t a myth at all. When they found the woman for them, they just knew, and to hell with common sense.