by Holly Rayner
“Wow, you have it bad,” Francesca commented. “You are so in love.”
“There’s nothing bad about that,” Kelsie replied saucily.
“True.” Francesca took a drink of beer.
“Don’t worry. It’ll happen to you,” Kelsie said, looping her arm through Francesca’s.
“I know it will. I’m not worried. Until the right guy shows up, I’m working on myself.”
“That’s awesome,” Kelsie said.
“Oh! I forgot to tell you.” Francesca’s eyes went wide and she slapped her forehead. “We got so busy today that I totally forgot this.”
“What? Tell me,” Kelsie demanded.
“This morning, on my way to the grocery store, I drove past Spencer’s and saw a moving truck.”
“You did?”
Over the last year, Kelsie had run into Spencer several times, sometimes alone and sometimes with Masoud. It was just to be expected in a small town. At first, the interactions had been somewhat hostile, but as time went on and it became clearer that Kelsie and Masoud were a long-term deal, Spencer had started ignoring the both of them all together. Whenever they passed on the street, he acted like Masoud and Kelsie weren’t even there, which was just fine by Kelsie.
“So he’s moving?” she asked.
“It’s already done,” Francesca said. “I talked to the movers, and they said they were taking the last of Spencer’s stuff over to Hillson. So then I asked around the store, and it turns out he’s moved there because there’s more work.”
“Wow.” Kelsie shook her head. “He’s finally gone.”
“Good riddance.”
They finished up their beers and ran in and out of the house, refilling the coolers and the salsa bowls as everyone chatted and laughed. From what Kelsie could tell, the party had been a success.
As the sun set, and the guys in charge of the fireworks headed out into the field to shoot them off, Masoud wrapped his arm around Kelsie’s shoulders.
“What do you think?” he asked. “Is this going to become a tradition?”
“Which part?” Kelsie teased.
“The party... and you and me together.”
Kelsie smiled up at her boyfriend. “How about all of that?”
“That was the answer I hoped for,” Masoud said, lowering his face for a kiss.
“Guess what?” Kelsie asked.
“Mmm...” Masoud scrunched his face up. “I don’t know. What?”
“Spencer moved to another town, according to Francesca.”
Masoud’s eyebrows rose. “You don’t say.”
“Talk about a happy ending.”
“Actually...” Masoud took a step away from Kelsie. “It’s not over yet.”
“Huh?”
Masoud nodded at someone over her shoulder, and Kelsie turned around to see Phil hurrying around the corner of the farmhouse.
“Masoud? What’s going on?”
“Come with me.”
Taking Kelsie’s hand, Masoud led her in the direction of the side yard.
“We’ll miss the fireworks,” she protested.
“This will only take a moment,” Masoud argued.
“What’s so important about it, though?” Kelsie looked over her shoulder as he tugged her along. As it turned out, they weren’t going far.
Beside the farmhouse, in the space between their two houses, Leila and Cowboy sat.
“Good,” Phil told them. “Stay.”
“What’s going on?” Kelsie asked.
A second later, she noticed the signs hanging from the dogs’ necks. Cowboy’s said ‘marry me?’ and Leila’s said ‘Will you’.
Kelsie’s jaw dropped. “Wait. Hold on. What’s going on?”
“They’re switched around,” Masoud said. “Leila, here. Sit over here.”
Masoud ran over to the dogs and attempted to get them in the right order while Kelsie laughed.
“I know what the message is, Masoud,” Kelsie said.
Finally giving up his coaxing of the dogs, Masoud stood.
“Sorry.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I wanted it to be perfect.”
Kelsie stepped close to him. The light was fading, but that did nothing to diminish the deep appreciation in Masoud’s eyes.
“I love you, Kelsie,” he said.
“I love you,” she whispered back, her heart hammering in her chest. “You really want to marry me?”
Masoud laughed. “Why would I not?”
“This just seems too good to be true,” she whispered in awe. “You. Me. All of this.”
She swept her hand around her, gesturing at the houses and the wide, open land. A little over a year before, Masoud had come with plans to take it all away. Back then, Kelsie had thought he was nothing more than a cute new neighbor. She’d had no clue he would change her life forever.
“It’s our life,” Masoud said. “And I want to make it official. I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
Pulling a small box from his pocket, Masoud got down on one knee and opened the box. Even in twilight, the diamond ring sparkled.
“Kelsie Mack, will you marry me?” Masoud asked.
“Do it!” someone shouted, and Kelsie looked over to see Francesca standing near the house.
She wasn’t alone, either. Nearly the whole party had gathered to watch the proposal. Kelsie had been so focused on Masoud that she hadn’t noticed everyone else congregating.
“I think the town is behind me on this,” Masoud said with a smile.
“Yeah, well they like you,” Kelsie answered.
“You still haven’t answered my question. Will you marry me?”
“Yes,” Kelsie said, tears filling her eyes. “Of course I’ll marry you!”
A grin spreading across his face, Masoud took Kelsie’s hand and slipped the ring onto it. It fit perfectly, and Kelsie held it up to inspect it closer. As she did so, the first firework of the night exploded in the sky. Everyone cheered, and Masoud pulled Kelsie in for a kiss.
Wrapping her arms around his neck, she pushed onto the tips of her toes to kiss him deeper. Boom after boom sounded as the fireworks kept coming. The townspeople cheered, and Kelsie pulled back from the kiss to look at Masoud.
“Wow,” she breathed. “Just...wow.”
Masoud stroked her cheek. “Are you happy?”
Slipping her arm around his waist, Kelsie laid her head against his shoulder. Together, they turned to watch the fireworks.
“I don’t think I could ever be happier,” she answered.
The End
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Seduced by the Sheikh Doctor
Time for a tease!
Up next I’ve included the first few chapters of another book in my Small Town Sheikhs series, Seduced by the Sheikh Doctor
Happy reading!
Copyright 2018 by Holly Rayner
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part by any means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the explicit written permission of the author.
All characters depicted in this fictional work are consenting adults, of at least eighteen years of age. Any resemblance to persons living or deceased, particular businesses, events, or exact locations are entirely coincidental.
Chapter 1
Paige
The cool air of early Washington spring nibbled at Paige’s nose, but she paid it no mind. All her focus and attention were on the small backpack in her hands, as she went over its contents one last time. Everything had to be there. Nothing could be missing. She just needed to be sure.
“Mom, I’m gonna be late! Hurry up!”
Normally, Paige might rebuke her son for that tone. She’d raised him better than tha
t, and at nine years old, he was usually a patient, kind, quiet boy. But this was no ordinary morning, and instead, she just muttered under her breath that she was trying to concentrate.
Everything was there. Of course it was. She’d packed it the day before and she’d rechecked it before they’d left the house this morning, but she couldn’t help the final check. It gave her one more precious moment with her son, before he left her for three whole days.
She could hear her mother’s voice in her head, laughingly calling her a helicopter mom, but she didn’t care. For nine years, Dylan had been her whole world. It had been just the two of them since the day he was born. She wouldn’t apologize for holding him close as he grew.
“Mommm, come on!”
But, of course, there’s always a time to let go.
“Okay, I think that’s everything,” she said, zipping up the backpack and holding it up. The young boy turned while she threaded his arms through the straps, cherishing the simple familiarity of the routine with a sentimentality as though he were going to be gone three months rather than three days.
“Now, you remember what I told you about calling me if you have any problems at all?”
“Yes, Mom.”
“And you have my number?”
“It’s on my phone, Mom.”
She resisted the urge to check to be sure the cheap cellphone she’d gotten him for emergencies was tucked away in the inside pocket of his backpack. She knew it was. She’d just seen it, for crying out loud!
She turned him around so that she could see his face, even as he strained his neck to look at where his fellow students were already boarding the bus.
“Okay, and you have your Aunt Hayley’s address written down, right? She lives there in Seattle. If worst comes to worst and you don’t have your phone, you can always get to her, you understand? Find a police officer, give them her address, and we’ll work it out from there.”
“Mommm, I knoooow.”
Of course he did. He was a smart kid, and a trip like this—venturing out into the wide world—was well overdue. He’d have a good time, she felt sure of it, even as she hated to see him go. But she had to, so she gave his arms one final, affectionate pat.
“Okay, then, go get on the bus with your friends! And don’t forget to have fun!”
It always came almost as a surprise to Paige how quickly Dylan could get his little arms around her neck, and how tightly his little muscles could hold her. And even after nine long years of single motherhood, the love she felt swell in her heart when he did so still caught her off guard.
“I will, Mom. Love you!”
“I love you, too, kiddo,” she said, doing her best not to cry. She would not be the mother who cried at the field trip drop-off.
And, just like that, she was watching his back as he ran off towards the bus. She sniffled a little. Sniffles didn’t count.
She could hear the background mumble of the other moms and dads commiserating with each other. No one approached her. That was the thing about always being in a hurry—eventually, people grew to expect that you couldn’t stay and talk and they didn’t try to get you to do so. And if there was one thing that had defined her life for the last nine years more than anything else, it was having too much to do and too little time to do it in.
Of course, that was all under the assumption that she had Dylan with her. As she got into her depressingly quiet car, she began to realize just how empty the next three days would be without him.
But that was all right. She’d planned for this. Over the last nine years, she’d gotten good at finding a way to plan ahead for everything. Her life didn’t really work unless she had it all planned out. And this even included how she would avoid facing the cold, empty house that she would be left with, now that Dylan was off on his three-day adventure.
Paige was going to have a date. An actual, real date, with dinner and wine and everything. It would the first one she’d ever been on, she realized with a start as she pulled out of the parking lot. Since Kyle, Dylan’s father, had left her pregnant and alone at nineteen, she had never gotten into the dating scene. She’d decided early on that Dylan would just be enough for her, at least for the foreseeable future.
But tonight, maybe all that was going to change. Paige felt her heartbeat rise at the thought.
She’d gotten serious with screening her potential online dates, and had been careful to weed out anyone that might not be worth the precious time she was giving him. The dating site she’d signed up for was the best reviewed one she could find, and she’d very carefully examined each of the matches as they’d come in. She’d been picky—too picky, her sister Hayley had said, on one of their phone calls—but she was glad of that pickiness, now. The man she had selected to be the first real first date of her adult life was just the sort of man she had been looking for, and she was excited to meet him.
Her mind idly went over the details of what she would wear as she maneuvered her car towards her daily destination. She wasn’t sure how she was going to focus on waitressing at the Coffee Cup in between worrying about Dylan and distracting herself with anticipation of her date tonight, but she would have to try. Money was tight. It always was.
As she walked in the front door of Stockton’s best (and only) locally-sourced, semi-gourmet, quick and friendly diner, she was distracted by a buzzing in her pocket. So much so, that she nearly ran into Alvin, head chef extraordinaire.
“Sorry, Alvin!” she said, stepping out of the way of the threshold to avoid any further collisions, even though there was no one else scheduled to work this early on a day in their least busy season.
“Don’t you worry your pretty little head about it, doll,” he said. And, in spite of the stressfulness of the day, and as much as she already missed Dylan, she smiled.
Alvin didn’t normally talk like that—like a character from a black and white movie—but he seemed to have a way of knowing when she could use a smile, and pulled the character out then. Maybe it was because she’d known the old man since she was a little girl that he could tell that a day was challenging, even just from the slightest run-in. But whatever the reason, she was grateful for it. It calmed her a bit, in the midst of the chaos.
But that was all undone when she saw that the buzzing she had felt was a notification from the dating app. Her heart leapt in her chest, which she took as a good sign that this date tonight was not, in fact, going to be a waste of time.
But her heart sank just as fast when she tapped through and saw the actual contents of the message.
“Gotta take a raincheck on tonight! Things at work are crazy. Still excited to meet you!”
Yeah, sure he was. So excited that he was putting her off to some undefined time in the future on the day of their first meeting. Those exclamation points aren’t fooling anyone, bud.
She tried to let the bitterness fade. She knew that, ordinarily, if she hadn’t just seen her son off into an uncertain world, she would think more charitably of him, and she did her best to be that person. Maybe it was a legitimate excuse, she granted. Maybe he meant it.
Still, it was a disappointment, and Paige regretted letting her hopes get raised as high as she had allowed them to get. And, more than anything, she regretted that her perfectly planned avoidance of her lonely, quiet house had fallen to pieces.
It was going to be a long, long three days.
Chapter 2
Kehlan
Kehlan was scowling. He knew this. He had a tendency to scowl when he was concentrating, and always had. Right now, the subject of his scowl— and his intense concentration—was a chart that he’d taken with him from the hospital.
Theoretically, he was supposed to be taking a break from hospital duties and tending to patients for the next several days. As of twenty minutes ago, he was supposed to be giving his complete, undivided attention to the conference which he would be attending in Washington, and which he was currently on his way to. But as he had been walking out the doors of th
e hospital, he hadn’t been able to resist turning back and darting back towards his office so that he could download an electronic copy of this particular patient file onto his tablet.
There was something bothering him about this this one, and he couldn’t figure out what it was. Her symptoms seemed to be consistent with a disease that was unheard of in a woman her age, but with so much information missing, it was hard to be sure. She was a member of one of the tribes that lived in the far east of the country, and while she had been an Al-Derran citizen her whole life, and all Al-Derran citizens had a right to free healthcare, this was her first trip into the hospital in her life.
As he thought about it, he felt a look of satisfied realization replacing the scowl on his face. This was what he loved about medicine—the puzzle, all wrapped up in helping those in need. Because, no matter what, no matter the level of wealth or influence, everyone who walked into his hospital with a problem was a person in need.
He picked up his phone, called the hospital, and spoke with the doctor who would be managing his patients.
“She’s older than she told us,” he said, to the confusion of the other man. “Much older. When you’ve finished treating her, you should get the secret to her skincare routine; you’ll make a fortune.”
“Kehlan, aren’t you on your way to the conference?”
Kehlan rolled his eyes.
“Yes, Hakim.”
“We talked about this, Kehlan.”
There was something nice about the way Hakim hassled him. It had always made him feel as though he was just a normal doctor working at the hospital, and that there was no difference in the way he was seen by the other doctors because of his family’s position.
