What if she wasn’t good? What if she didn’t compare to other women?
“Can I ask you something?” she said.
“Sure.”
“And be totally honest… Are you at all worried that I won’t live up to your standards? I mean, you have a lot more experience than I do…” she said looking down and blushing at the question.
“Shelby, I am not worried at all. I want to be with you, and if you are even slightly as good at other stuff as you are at kissing, then I might have a hard time keeping up with you,” he whispered in her ear.
“Cookies are decorated!” Elena yelled from the kitchen. “Can we eat them now?”
Shelby hung her head in defeat as she chuckled at the kids’ ability to interrupt romance.
“Eat all you want!” Brian yelled while holding his hand over Shelby’s mouth.
Chapter 8
Two years had finally passed since the four nursing school friends had gotten together for their fifteenth reunion. As Shelby made her way up the sidewalk in front of the hotel, she wondered what had become of her three friends. Did they find love?
As she entered the restaurant, she could already see Ashley, Claire and Emma sitting at a table waving her over. She smiled and waved at them as she approached the table. The first thing she noticed was Ashley’s very pregnant belly.
“Oh, my God! You’re pregnant!” Shelby exclaimed as she touched Ashley’s swollen midsection before hugging her. “I guess we know your story has a happy ending!”
As the women sat down and shared their personal stories, each one had a smile planted on her face the whole time. Shelby could not believe how lucky and blessed they had all been in their journeys over the last two years.
“I missed talking to you ladies. I so wanted to call you all up and tell you about Parker,” Ashley said. “He is amazing. You all have to come up and stay with us sometime.”
“We would love to,” Shelby said. “Brian and the kids would love to do a little fishing in the mountains.”
“Claire, I am so glad your house is back to normal from the tornado. That must have been terrifying,” Emma said.
“It was. But, you know I can’t be sorry it happened. That’s how I found my Jack,” she said swooning.
“You know, Claire, I am shocked you ended up with a contractor since you were so obsessed with Hollywood,” Emma said taking a sip of her wine.
“Well, I eventually learned that Hollywood was not all it was cracked up to be,” Claire said with a smile.
“Well, I have some news too,” Emma said with a smile.
“Really? What?” Claire asked.
“Gaven and I got engaged last Friday! We are getting married in four months!” she said holding out her left hand to reveal a large diamond ring.
“Em! Congratulations!” Shelby said.
“I am so excited for you!” Ashley said grinning from ear to ear.
As the women chatted more over dinner, each of them talked about how the last two years had been. None of their relationships had been easy, and some of their circumstances to find love had been hard. There were kids involved in some cases which made it tougher to commit to someone new.
“Okay, so I think we should each go around the table and say what we have learned in our two year journey. I’ll start,” Ashley said. “I learned that living in safety was keeping me walled off from experiencing something amazing. After all, how amazing can life be if you do the same things over and over and expect different results?”
“Very true,” Shelby said. “Okay, my turn… I learned living in the past was causing me to give up my future. I adored Kenny when I was young, and we will always be good friends, but people change. I never had a chance to turn into who I was supposed to be without Kenny. Once that happened, I realized that he was no longer the lifelong partner I needed. Your turn, Em…”
“Well, I learned I needed to give up on what I thought was best and trust that the right person would come into my life. I’ve also had to work on trusting again. Henry almost killed trust for me, and I had to work hard to keep from punishing Gaven for Henry’s misdeeds. Claire?”
“I feel like we are in therapy,” Claire said laughing.
“We kind of are…” Ashley pointed out.
“Okay, I learned things are never what they seem. While Hollywood had all of the glitz and glamor, it was a facade. What I saw there, and what I thought was there, really wasn’t. When Jack appeared, I started to learn how to see reality again. I had to learn to find the good in everyday things and not worry so much about material stuff.”
Two hours passed as the women continued to talk and reminisce. They vowed that they would get together at least twice a year from now on, and they would email and Facebook and call as much as possible. Rekindling their own relationships with each other had given each of them the courage to find the loves that they deserved.
THE END
Afterword
Thank you so much for buying and reading THE REUNION: Shelby's Chance Meeting novella! This story is the third in "The Starting Over Series." Since word of mouth is so critical to readers and authors alike, I would really appreciate it if you'd pop back to Amazon and leave a review of this story. It will only take a minute or two, but you opinion is priceless.
REVIEW THE REUNION: SHELBY'S CHANCE MEETING
Other Books In This Series:
Book #1: Emma - http://www.amazon.com/The-Reunion-Vacation-Starting-ebook/dp/B009SRIGX4
Book #2: Ashley - http://www.amazon.com/The-Reunion-Mountain-Starting-ebook/dp/B009WX20PE
Book #3: Claire - http://www.amazon.com/The-Reunion-Rebuilding-Contract-ebook/dp/B00A4E5W7I
About the Author
According to her family Angelina Rose was a sweet child … maybe a little shy. She often spent a lot of time making up stories rather than running around and playing outside with her brother and sister. She won several writing competitions and used the prizes to help her single mother pay the bills.
Like Emma, Claire, Shelby and Ashley, Angelina Rose is a Nurse. At a recent reunion of her graduating class she could not help but notice how the same girls would group together and laugh, chat and even shed some tears over their lives since graduating. Many of the girls had divorced … so Angelina thought "what if a group of the nurses came up with a plan to meet in two years and have a new love story to share?" Then this first story in the series was born!
Angelina lives in the mountains with her husband, her two poodles and two bombay cats.
Contact Information
Website:
http://AngelinaRoseRomance.com
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/AngelinaRoseRomanceAuthor
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/RoseRomanceBook
Copyright Information
All rights reserved. No part of this may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the Author.
The Reunion: Shelby's Chance Meeting (Starting Over Series) Page 4
