The Tycoon's Perfect Match
Page 13
He handed her the flowers that she’d thought he’d brought for her father and knelt before her.
Her heart was pounding so loudly in her chest, she was sure that a nurse would come by and tell her to be quiet.
“This isn’t exactly the most romantic place to ask you something important, but I can’t wait another minute.”
He slipped a cigar box out of his backpack.
It was the treasure chest that she’d made him when she was nine! It had lost some of its glitter and a few pennies had come off the sides, but to her it looked better than ever. She couldn’t believe he had kept it all these years.
“Marigold Sherwood, I love you. Will you marry me and make me the happiest man in Hawk’s Lake?”
He opened the cigar box and took out a ring—a tiny glass “diamond” ring with an adjustable metal band. He’d gotten it out of a gumball machine at Clancy’s store when he was fourteen, and had given it to her.
“I thought I lost this in the lake.”
“You did. I found it and forgot to give it back to you,” Brian said.
As they had a thousand times over the years, her eyes immediately went to her ring finger. “That’s the ring I’ve been looking for—waiting for—forever.”
“I’ll exchange it for a real one,” he said. “Just say you love me and will marry me and live with me in Sherwood Lodge.”
Hot, happy tears trailed a path down her cheeks. “Oh, Brian! Yes! Yes, I’ll marry you!”
He slipped the ring onto her finger. There it was—the most spectacular ring she’d ever had. The one that had meant the most to her, and always would.
Brian raised his hand as if he was taking an oath, his eyes twinkling in merriment. “Pirate’s promise that you’ll marry me, and we’ll live happily ever after in Hawk’s Lake?”
She raised her hand and stifled a laugh. “Pirate’s promise.”
She pulled him to his feet, and they hugged each other. And when they kissed, they both knew they’d found their way home.
Epilogue
Two years later
It was a beautiful day for a family picnic, Brian thought, turning the sweet corn on the grill.
Melanie’s daughter, Angie, was making sand pies on the beach with her father in front of Sherwood-Hawkins Lodge. Ed Hawkins was talking to Barb and Tom Sherwood and Grandma Rose as they all sipped lemonade and sat in white Adirondack chairs by the lake.
Jack and his latest girlfriend were out on the speedboat, pulling Kyle on a tube behind it.
Mari and Melanie were bringing salads out of the Lodge and setting them on the picnic table.
Brian could smell the scent of fresh lumber on the breeze, and he looked at the skeleton of the large addition he was constructing on the right side of their cottage. There would be an office for him, as well as a studio and office for Mari. Together they would run the Sherwood Foundation, a philanthropic and charitable organization, funded by the sale of Sherwood Enterprises to family friends. When she wasn’t working for the fund, Mari was busy crafting her beautiful pottery, which often sold out at area gift shops.
Barbara and Tom had decided to do some traveling. No doubt, they would spend a lot of time in Hawk’s Lake, just as soon as he and Mari made their big announcement at the bonfire tonight.
Grandma Rose would certainly spend a lot of time in Hawk’s Lake, too, whenever she wasn’t at her condo in Florida.
They were all more than welcome at the cottage. Mari and he certainly could use their help in about seven and a half months.
Mari must have sensed he was thinking about her because her gaze met Brian’s. She pointed to her stomach, where she carried their twin daughters.
Brian held up two fingers, and they both grinned.
Surrounded by everyone he loved, Brian knew that his life was perfect. After all, Mari had always been his perfect match.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-3447-9
THE TYCOON’S PERFECT MATCH
Copyright © 2009 by Christine Wenger
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