Hunting the Bachelor (HoliDATE Series Book 3)

by Heather Young-Nichols

  Not all the memories were good ones.

  I tore open the envelope and skimmed the card. While everything he wrote was very sweet, I was tiring of this game. I wanted to see what this all was leading to.

  “Where to next?” Bailey asked, squinting into the sun. The day was warm enough but we were already at midafternoon with the time we spent eating, waiting for out food, and talking on the pier.

  “Hmmm… I’m thinking the beach. Where we have the kickoff bonfire. It mentions our first kiss and that’s where it was. Assuming we’re thinking the same.”

  “I’m sure you are. You two share a brain don’t you?”

  I snorted. “I wish. Then I’d know what the hell he’s doing here.”

  “Where’s the fun in that?”

  We took the time to walk down to the beach since it wasn’t far. Bailey looped her arm through mine as we stumbled through the sand, laughing the entire way.

  “You know they aren’t killjoys, right?” I asked because the comment had nagged at me for some reason.

  She sighed. “Yeah. Of course I know. But I think it’ll be hard to get them to take the time off to go somewhere.”

  I nodded because that wasn’t something I could disagree with. “They work like they’re making up for something.”

  “They are.”

  She wasn’t wrong. Sal, Gio, and Gemma pushed themselves like no one else our age. Always trying to work away their guilt.

  His telltale envelope was jammed between two logs and he was damn lucky it didn’t blow away. Before I opened it, I pulled Bailey with me down the beach. We didn’t need to talk. I wanted to enjoy the spring air before the beaches became crammed with tourists.

  Finally, we came back and she demanded I open the envelope.

  I scrunched my eyebrows in confusion. “It just says Dinner. At Gramps,” I said.

  “Yeah. But we were already doing that,” she countered.

  “I know.”

  “Well is there some memory that has to do with dinner at Gramps’?”

  I shook my head. “Not that I can recall. There was that one with you and Nick but other than that nothing stands out. Holidays? We’ve eaten there other times but again, nothing stands out.”

  “What the fuck is wrong with him?” she asked as we got back to my car. “We were going there anyway. We could’ve done something fun today.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “This wasn’t fun?”

  She scrunched her face up to the side and narrowed her eyes. “I guess this was fun.”

  “We haven’t really had much time just the two of us. Maybe that’s what he wanted us to have.” No idea where the idea came from but Gio knew how important it was for Bailey and me to spent time together when we could. The two of us got back into my car. I glanced down at the time and said, “We’re going to be early.” I pulled away from the curb and turned down the next street to head to Gramps’.

  “Good. Maybe he thought we were too dumb to figure out these clues.” She used air quotes around clues.

  I laughed but didn’t think that was it. “I doubt that.”

  “Maybe he wants us there early on purpose?” she asked next.

  I nodded. “That’s probably a better guess.”

  Still, I wanted an answer as to why.

  Chapter Six

  Bailey and I got to Gramps’ before five, still having not figured out what the hell the last card was talking about. How could there be a memory that Gio had but I didn’t. Clearly he meant for me to meet him at dinner but I had no idea what to look for once I got there. The next clue, so to speak? Finally an explanation as to what he was up to? Even if he didn’t offer that up, I’d force it out of him.

  Whatever it was, I’d eat dinner with the family first. Deal with Gio after.

  I put the car in park before it came to complete stop, jerking both Bailey and I against the seat. She made a choking sound then laughed.

  “Damn, B,” she said. But she sure as hell didn’t need to elaborate.

  “Look, I’m hungry.” That tone wasn’t really meant for her. I inadvertently let my irritation over chasing Gio’s memories all over town but not having any answers seep into my words to her. I shouldn’t even have been irritated then. All those memories of Gio and me brought us to where we were today. So it wasn’t the chase. It was not knowing where it led. “Let’s eat then I’m going to corner him to force him to tell me what the hell is going on today.”

  Bailey giggled beside me but opened the door at the same time. “Solid plan, Bianca. I’ll eavesdrop from nearby.”

  When we went into the house through the kitchen I expected to find Mom inside finishing up some last-minute things for dinner. That was how it usually happened. She’d demand that Bailey and I get our asses in gear to help her out. Yet, the room was empty. There wasn’t anything left to be done.

  “Mom,” I called out.

  “Dining room,” she called back. “Waiting for you.”

  “Waiting for me?” I muttered as we made our way to the table. “We’re early.” Everyone had themselves arranged around it. Everyone except Gio. “We’re actually early,” I repeated so they’d hear it this time. “Why’s everyone already sitting?” I glanced around again. “And where’s Gio. He can’t be working. Romano’s is closed now.”

  “He’s not working,” Mom said. Then she looked from me down to the table and back to me. I blinked a bunch, waiting for her to say something, anything, about why my family was acting as if they’d been taken over by a group of body snatchers. Until finally I glanced down at the table where she’d repeatedly been looking.

  Sitting in the middle of an empty place was a red velvet box, open with a beautiful round pink diamond, morganite I think it was called, sitting in the middle of a rose gold band dotted with smaller pink stones. It almost looked like an engagement ring if anyone in the family was getting engaged.

  “What… the fuck?” Bailey said under her breath, bringing my attention over to her right in time to see Sal grab her by the wrist and yank her into the chair next to him. She for sure was as confused as me.

  It was one of only two empty seats. This one on the end where Dad or Gramps would normally sit and the other kitty corner to it.

  “What’s going on?” I asked no one in particular. Mom had a little smile on her face but slowly lifted one finger to point behind me. This whole thing was weird and confusing.

  I spun around. Gio was being me, leaning against the wall between the kitchen and dining room, arms crossed over his chest. His gaze heated me all the way from there and he looked at me with suck tenderness I almost forgot I wanted to demand answers from him.

  I used my tongue to wet my bottom lip as I tried to get a read on him.

  “What is this?” I asked though at this point he had me suspecting. We closed the gap between us at the same time so that I stood right before him. “Gio?”

  At first he didn’t say anything which began to worry me. Why would he have done all of this to stand there and say nothing? Did he change his mind about whatever was happening? Gio could be skittish when it came to our relationship but I thought we were past all that.

  “Gio,” I said with a bit more demand.

  He cleared his throat but kept his gaze decidedly on me. “I wanted to remind you of some of the good memories we’ve had in Harbor Point.”

  I allowed a small smile to appear. “We have had some great ones.”

  “And some bad ones.”

  “I don’t care about those,” I said quickly then reached out to lay my hand on his arm. One day I’d get him to let all of that guilt go. To realize that none of that mattered to me and shouldn’t matter to him.

  “I do,” he said quietly. “But I’d also like to spend the rest of my life replacing any of the bad with only the good.”

  My mom sniffled from behind me but I didn’t dare look. Not even a glance. I wanted Gio to finish what he had to say because I wanted him to ask the question so that I could answer it.
/>   “You want to do this here?” I asked quietly, covertly pointing behind me to indicate the audience watching us.

  “Yes,” he said in a normal tone, as if he didn’t care who heard us. “You’re not the only one I want to reassure that I’d never hurt you again. They need to know it as much as you do.”

  Now I did glance back at the others, all intently watching us with different emotions on their faces. Mom trying not to cry. Dad with a tight jaw but something soft around his eyes. Gramps, a satisfied smile much like Sal, and Bailey with narrowed eyes on him. As if she was deciding whether to trust him or not. Though she’d made that decision months ago. Cash smiled as well while Gemma had a hand clasped a hand over her mouth but I thought for sure the crinkle around her eyes meant she, too, was smiling.

  “I love you, Bianca,” he said. His hands rested on my shoulders then slid up the sides of my neck so that his thumbs could brush along my jaw the way he knew I loved. “I want to spend our lives together.”

  “We do that now,” I whispered.

  He shook his head. “It’s not the same thing. I love what we have. I love being with you. But I want to have those things while being married to you.”

  “You don’t have anything to prove to me, Gio.” I swallowed hard because the tenderness with which he looked at me would be the thing to bring me to tears.

  “I have everything to prove to you. And I will. But say you’ll marry me so that I can prove it to you as your husband.”

  “Are you sure?”

  He smiled and I think even chuckled a little. I’d guess he probably didn’t think he’d have to justify his proposal and that wasn’t what I was intending to make him do. I wanted to be sure that he understood I didn’t need this from him. I wanted it but only if he truly wanted it, too.

  “I’ve never been more sure of anything, Bianca. You changed my life. Gave me a life I never thought possible and you accepted my fucked-up family while doing it.”

  Sal snorted from the table and I had to bite my cheek to keep from smiling. His family was my family.

  “Marry me, Bianca.”

  Everything he’d done today was pretty unlike Gio. Which showed exactly how much he wanted this. I didn’t need him to marry me to spend the rest of my life with him but at the same time, I knew, given his background, exactly what this meant to him. And how much it meant to me that he wanted this life with me.

  “Of course I’ll marry you, Gio. Of course I will.”

  He reached his arms out and scooped me up into them so quickly that I hadn’t even seen him move. He held me against him tightly as I wrapped my arms around his neck. My feet barely brushed the floor. Then he kissed me. Kissed me like he’d been waiting his whole life to do it. He’d never kissed me like that in front of my parents and as he took my breath from me, I forgot that they were even there. Neither of us cared that we had an audience.

  Finally he set me back down onto the floor, much too soon in my opinion. Without a word he walked over to the table, grabbed the ring box, and came back. My chest rose and fell quickly when he plucked the ring out and slid it onto my finger.

  In conversation over the last year, I’d mentioned that I didn’t love diamonds because of the way they were mined. Now, thinking back, it dawned on me that this could’ve been why the subject came up. He’d been planning this for a while and wanted to get a feel for my taste in jewelry. With it in place, Gio leaned down to kiss me again. This time softly and probably more appropriately than before.

  We each took a deep breath before turning to face the group together. Our families had done an excellent job of making us feel as if we were alone for a few beautiful moments.

  And they exploded in a round of congratulations as they all popped up from the table to come hug us. When my dad wrapped his arms around me he whispered in my ear. “I still have those kitchen shears.”

  It was a reference to something he’d said when Gio and I first got back together. He’d told me that if Gio ever hurt me again, he’d cut Gio’s balls off. Dad didn’t like seeing me anything less than happy and Gio had destroyed me back then. While it’d taken a while, he’d come to actually like Gio. Trust him even.

  “I don’t think they’ll be necessary. But hang onto them anyway,” I said back and patted his shoulder.

  Then we all settled back down around the table for the dinner we’d actually come for.

  “Every one of you knew?” I asked once they’d quieted down. Almost everyone began to nod or say something to confirm that they too had known.

  “I didn’t,” Bailey said raising her hand right away.

  “Seriously?” I asked. I would’ve thought he’d want her opinion on the ring. Bailey knew me better than everyone. The fact that Gio likely picked this perfect thing out on his own made it even more special to me.

  “I swear.”

  “I couldn’t tell her,” Gio explained before I could ask. “She’d tell you right away.”

  I glanced over to Bailey who shrugged and said, “I mean… he’s not wrong. I would’ve called you right away and tried to get you out of town to avoid this mess.”

  “This mess?” Gio asked with a laugh behind his words.

  “Get me out of… Aren’t you the one,” I began, “That just today talked about that one,” I pointed at Sal, “As a dad.”

  “What?” Sal snapped which made all of us laugh. “What the fuck did she just say?”

  “Calm down.” Bailey patted his hand. “It was all hypothetical.”

  He blew out a rough breath. “You can’t scare a man like that.”

  “I can,” she said back. “And now that I see how you’ll react, I will.”

  Bailey and I giggled until she reached her hand out in silent demand for mine. She wanted to see my ring. I placed mine in hers and she looked it over carefully before dropping it.

  “That really looks like something Bianca would pick out for herself,” Bailey said to Gio. “It’s almost like you know her.”

  He nodded while chuckling. “Maybe a little.”

  We finished dinner and much to my delight, my mother didn’t begin to obsess about a wedding. She actually played the whole thing pretty cool. Gio and I honestly hadn’t discussed getting married, other than knowing we would one day do it, so I had no idea what kind of wedding he’d want. Though I expected he’d want whatever I wanted and some big thing wasn’t on my radar. Though I had no idea what I really wanted either.

  Didn’t matter. We had as much time as we decided to take..

  Chapter Seven

  We left Gramps’ and returned home later that night after saying goodbye to my parents. They had a late flight back to Michigan because my dad had to work on Monday. Mostly, though, I wanted some time with my fiancé. Man, that was weird to say.

  As soon as we got inside our house, Gio locked the door then leaned back onto it and watched me. Like a predator watching it’s pray waiting to devour. I didn’t mind being his prey. Honestly, I loved the idea of his still wanting me so much.

  “Before we get into what that look on your face says you want to get into, I want to make sure you understand… I don’t need anything else from you than what we have now. There was no pressure for more. Not from me. I love you and I love us the way we are.”

  “I know,” he said with a nod. “This actually wasn’t about what you need.” Yet almost everything he did was about me and what he thought he should be doing for me. “Surprisingly, this is about what I need.”

  I’d never heard those words from Gio’s mouth, I didn’t think I had anyway. He never focused on himself.

  “What you need?”

  He stalked slowly toward me. Not stopping until he was close enough to cup my cheeks and stroke his thumbs across my jaw. “I need you.”

  “You have me,” I said quietly.

  “I also need you to know that I’m not going anywhere. You and me… we’re forever and I want to be your husband. I want it so badly I can taste it.”

  I raised an
eyebrow at his choice of words but was also satisfied that he asked me to marry him because he truly wanted to not because he thought I expected him to. Or that others expected him to. “Taste it, huh?”

  The corner of his mouth turned up and he lunged.

  We wouldn’t be making it up to the bedroom.

  We pushed and pulled until we were both naked on the couch and Gio had his head between my legs working his magic on my body. Kissing and licking and lightly biting my skin, all done with reverence and love. For as big a guy as Gio was, he was also surprisingly gently with me. Even when I might sometimes want him to use a firmer hand.

  I’d asked him about that once and he said he couldn’t do it. He wouldn’t do anything that might hurt me and even after doing my best to convince him he’d never hurt me, still he refused. I didn’t want him to bruise me or smack me around just hold me tighter. That he said, he could manage to do. Yet there was still a gentleness behind everything he did.

  I was slightly worried something would change in the way he made love to me now that we were going to marry. With Gio, it could go either way. He could’ve panicked and changed not for the better.

  But that didn’t happen. Now it was like… it meant even more to him.

  We laid on the couch afterward, me wrapped in his arms, and I could truly stay that way forever.

  “Have I mentioned how much I love you?” I asked him into the stillness of the night.

  “I don’t think you have.”

  I gave a big stretch and yawned then said, “Well, remind me to tell you in the morning. I’m too tired right now.”

  Gio chuckled quietly beside me, shaking my body with his.

  This was exactly where we each wanted to be.

  About Steamy Sensations Holiday Love

  10 Authors. 10 Holidays. 10 Steamy Romances.

  Ten romance authors bring you a sexy story to fire up your holiday. Each author has their own series in 2019 with one thing in common—Holidays!