Jasmine looked up and saw an entire wall of white shiplap, which was her favorite. Two chunky wooden beams ran across the ceiling and a black industrial fan hung in the center. The furniture was homey, but modern. It was the perfect blend of modern farmhouse. It reminded her of one of the dream pictures she had on her Pinterest page.
“Through here is the kitchen.”
She followed behind him into the kitchen and was shocked at what she saw. All of the finishes and stainless steel appliances were the ones that she’d picked out when Kitty asked her what her dream kitchen would be, months ago. Even down to the exact hand drawn Spanish tile backsplash.
“Leo…what…how…why…” Jasmine felt like she couldn’t breathe.
He held up his finger. “You agreed. Not a word until I finish the tour.”
Her only response was a resigned sigh.
When she didn’t argue back, she could tell he thought he’d won by throwing her commitment back in her face. She could see it in his eyes. Little did he know, Jasmine was fiercely independent and would have no problem returning the key to Leo when this was all said and done.
Oblivious to her determination, Leo continued giving her the tour. “Here is the master bedroom.”
She walked in and saw a king sized bed, a walk in closet, and a barn door that led to her dream bathroom, complete with a soaker tub. When she walked over and got a closer look, she realized it wasn’t just any run-of-the-mill soaker tub. This was the soaker tub. The one that she’d been dreaming about for years. It was a mermaid, free standing soaker tub that she’d told Meg she wanted when they’d been watching Flip or Flop.
Not wanting to show how much she wanted this bathroom, she turned to Leo and held out her hand, silently prompting him to take the lead.
Off the bathroom was a door that led outside. She started to turn the knob, but Leo stopped her by standing in front of it, still carrying the car seat.
“We have more to see inside.” He motioned for her to go back out the way they’d come.
She followed his silent direction and when she got into the hall, he walked in front of her and opened the door at the end of the hall.
“And this is the nursery.”
The nursery? He’d decorated the nursery?
When she walked into the room, it was literally like her Pinterest page had come to life.
Everything from the landscape mural on the far wall complete with magical fairies, to the cushioned rocker, crib, changing table, even down to the blocks and books that decorated the shelves.
She’d thought she’d been overwhelmed before, but this was too much. Like a dam bursting, tears began pouring down her face.
“Hey.” She heard Leo’s calming voice behind her. “It’s okay. There’s no pressure for you to like it. I was just taking a shot here, it’s not your fault if I missed it.”
Great, now he thought she was crying because he felt he’d somehow missed the mark.
Not knowing what else to do, she turned and threw her arms around his waist, burying her head against his chest. He gently set the baby carrier down and wrapped his arms around her.
“It’s okay.” He said over and over again, holding her tightly against him.
All Jasmine could do was nod as tears fell down her cheeks.
After a few minutes of sobbing, she started to pull herself together. “Sorry, this is just… It’s so beautiful, thank you so much. This is just a lot to take in.”
“Um.” He looked a little sheepish. “Well, then I hate to tell you this, but there’s more.”
“I don’t think I can take more.” Jasmine shook her head back and forth.
“Just one more thing.” He smiled as he got on one knee.
Her hand flew over her mouth. She’d spent so many nights dreaming of this moment since she broke things off with Leo. She couldn’t believe it was actually happening.
“I love you, Jasmine. And this house is yours with no strings. But I’d love to live here with you. I’d love to raise a family with you.
“I’ve been everywhere and seen the world. Now, I only want to see it through your eyes. You always see the best in everyone. It doesn’t matter who they are, whether it’s the seniors in your dance class, or people at the clinic. You see people for who they are. You accept everyone for exactly who they are in that moment, without an ounce of judgment. You never take anything personally. You love completely and unconditionally.
“I don’t want to go on adventures because they wouldn’t mean anything without you by my side. You are my adventure. Allie is my adventure. And I hope that I can be yours.” He pulled a ring out of his pocket. “Jasmine Bell, will you marry me?”
“Yes. Yes. Yes,” she repeated over and over until he stood and kissed her.
Her arms flew around his neck and she lost herself in the feeling of his lips against hers. She would have happily stayed in that moment, kissing him like that forever, but she heard something that made her break the kiss.
She pulled back from him and heard it again. “Is that a dog barking?”
“Okay, I lied, there might be one more surprise.”
He lifted her hand, slid the ring on it then held it, picking up Allie’s carrier with the other. He led her through the house to the accordion glass doors that lined the entire back wall of the house. When they stepped outside she saw Nan, Meg, Cam, Leah, Lance, Doc, Kitty, Bea and her husband, Angie, and some of the students from her ballroom dance class, including Grandpa J, all gathered around the pond. And in the middle of the group was a golden retriever puppy with a bow on it.
“You got me a dog?!” Jasmine cried.
“I got us a dog.”
She crouched down and the puppy came barreling toward her. “What’s her name?”
“It’s a he,” Leo corrected her. “And I was thinking we could name him Noah.”
“Noah.” Jasmine picked the puppy up in her arms and he covered her face in kisses. “I love it.”
“Well,” Nan shouted. “Did she say yes?”
Leo lifted her ring-clad hand in the air like he was declaring a winner in a boxing match as he proclaimed. “She said yes!”
Whistles and cheers erupted from the crowd. Noah got nervous and peed down her shirt at the same time Allie got scared and woke up crying. She and Leo just looked at each other and started laughing. This was the life she’d always wanted, it was messy, it was loud, it was perfect.
THE END
Crossroads Spinoff Series
If you enjoyed the Crossroads series, be sure to check out our spinoff series
Whisper Lake & Wishing Well, Texas
Whisper of Love
Book 1 of Whisper Lake Series
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Chapter 1
“Are you looking at porn!?”
“What?!” KJ’s brow furrowed as his eyes remained glued to the device he was clutching in his hands. “No!”
The grunts and groans Allison Walsh had heard from the hall that had sent her to where no man dared to go—a teenage boy’s bedroom—were silenced now. Thanks to the homemade blackout curtains her nephew had put up a few months ago, the room was dark even though it was four in the afternoon. The only thing she could see through the small crack in the door was her nephew’s face illuminated by the screen of his iPad.
“Give it to me.” Ali did her best to sound authoritative as she shouldered the door pushing it open slowly. The task was made difficult due to an enormous pile of laundry halting its path. After putting her back into it, she managed to budge the blockade enough for her to finally squeeze inside.
The first thing to hit her was the overwhelming, pungent smell—a combination of dirty socks, rotten food, and the distinctive funk of teen-boy aroma—that was so thick she was choking on it. Lifting her hand to cover her mouth, she instantly regretted that she’d let the room checks slip over the last few months.
That’s not the only thing you’ve let slip, her inner—somewhat judgmental—voice chimed in.
She shook off that truth and forged ahead into the funk cloud, expertly navigating the minefield of dirty laundry, pizza boxes and general debris that covered his floor. When she reached the bed, she snatched her nephew’s iPad out of his hands.
“Hey! What are you doing!?” he shouted angrily.
Making sure you’re not watching porn. Her eyes quickly glanced at the screen and relief swept her when she saw there were no naked bodies. “You’ll get it back when your room is clean and the yard is mowed.”
Her nephew shot up to a seated position and extended his hand in an entitled belligerent manor. “You can’t take that, I need it for schoolwork.”
Shit. Ali’s mind raced as she searched her nephew’s light green irises for any hint of deception.
Was he lying?
Was he telling the truth?
She had no idea.
A year and a half in as his legal guardian, she’d yet to develop any kind of parental radar skills. Her bullshit meter was either broken or non-existent. She was officially in over her head and since he and his twin brother had only just entered the dreaded teen years, she was afraid the worst was yet to come.
Trying to get a clue as to whether KJ actually needed the device for scholastic reasons, she looked down again to see if she could figure out what he’d been watching. It didn’t take much detective work since the YouTube video was still playing. It was an MMA fight that she’d seen at least a dozen times, which for her was a dozen times too many.
“This is not schoolwork.”
“Yes, it is! It’s for my essay.”
“What essay?”
“The essay I have to write on who my hero is.”
No. Not that. Not him.
Of course she knew that her nephew looked up to the man that he was named after. Kade Jameson McKnight, the twins’ godfather, was an MMA fighter who got more press for his extra-curricular behavior than he did for his profession. He’d been the reigning Bad Boy of MMA for nearly ten years, which was not an easy title to gain much less hold. That line of work didn’t normally attract choir boys. To stand out as trouble in it was quite a feat.
She didn’t want to discourage KJ from doing the assignment, as getting him to do any homework at all was like pulling teeth, but she wanted to guide him in a different direction so she suggested, “Why don’t you write it on—”
“You can’t tell me who to do my project on. I already emailed Uncle Kade the questions!” His anger was palpable as he grabbed the iPad from her hand.
“He’s not your uncle.” She knew that she was being petty but it was better than what she’d wanted to say which was, He’s not your uncle, he’s an asshole who showed up at your dad’s funeral drunk with a stripper, got in a fight with the caterer, and then when he found out that he was as legally responsible for both of you as I was, disappeared, leaving me to raise you and your brother alone.”
Considering the alternative…petty wasn’t so bad.
Ali knew that she wouldn’t get anything accomplished by arguing with her nephew and if she didn’t start dinner now she wouldn’t have it done before he left for jiu-jitsu, so she decided a strategic retreat was the best move.
If there was one thing she’d learned over the past eighteen months, it was to pick her battles. As much as she wished her nephew being rude was one of the fights she could take on, it wasn’t. Vandalizing property, getting in fights in school, drinking, stealing—all of which he’d done—were much higher on her list of priorities than a bad attitude. At this point she just wanted to get him to eighteen alive and without a juvenile record, which the way he was going seemed almost impossible.
“Clean your room,” she instructed as she made her way back through the mess, even though she knew it was pointless.
Before she’d even made it out into the hall, he yelled, “Shut the door!”
She did.
And then she leaned back against it as tears formed in her eyes. She and KJ used to be so close. They’d had a secret handshake and shared inside jokes. She used to be the person he’d come to with any problems he had. Now, their relationship was combative and distant. She’d been told, by more than one person, kids take out their anger on the person they feel the safest with. If that was the case, KJ must feel really safe with her.
She sniffed as she took in a deep breath and tried to pull herself together. It was becoming glaringly obvious that she was doing a horrible job raising the twins and she was letting down her hero, her brother Patrick.
Growing up, neither of them knew who their father, or fathers, were. Their mother was an alcoholic who’d been in and out of jail for DUIs multiple times before she’d wrapped her car around a pole and died. Ali was twelve at the time and Patrick was eighteen. He’d petitioned the court and with the help of some influential members in the Whisper Lake community, he was able to gain custody of his sister. She’d only had to spend a year in foster care, but it had been a nightmare. She wasn’t sure she would’ve survived if she’d had to be there until she’d turned eighteen.
So, three years later when Patrick’s girlfriend took off and left him and their twins before their first birthday, Ali had been more than happy to step up and help take care of the boys. Patrick didn’t like to ask for help, but she pitched in any way she could.
She’d loved being an aunt. She was a kickass aunt. She could’ve won awards for her aunting.
When she turned eighteen and her brother had asked her to be the twin’s legal guardian if anything should happen to him she hadn’t hesitated, but she’d never thought she’d be called on to actually do it. When he’d told her that he would also be leaving her their grandfather’s house and business Whisper Lake Rentals, she’d said great, never in a million years thinking either would come to pass.
In her eyes, her brother was invincible. He was larger than life. He was her hero. But she found out that brain aneurisms didn’t care about any of that.
It had been eighteen months, three days, and seven hours since her brother’s tragic and sudden death. She missed him so much her body physically ached. Her grief often caused flu-like symptoms that seemed so real she’d been to see Dr. Williams on several occasions, only to be told that she needed rest, which she interpreted as him telling her, “It’s in your head.”
Ali felt so lost, so scared, and so alone without Patrick in this world.
She closed her eyes and tried to hear his voice, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t. For as long as she could remember, whenever she was scared or nervous, or overwhelmed, he’d look her straight in the eye and say, “You got this.” Whether it was being afraid to fall asleep because she was having nightmares, facing a bully at school, or even being taken away by a social worker after being told her mother was dead, all her brother had to do was lock eyes with her and say, “You got this” and she believed him.
Whenever Patrick said that phrase she was instantly infused with confidence. Whatever she was facing suddenly wasn’t as terrifying. For the first few months after his death, all she’d had to do was close her eyes and she could see and hear him saying those three magic words. Lately, though, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t.
The dryer buzzed loudly downstairs and she pushed off the wall, wiped her tear-stained cheeks, and put one foot in front of the other, just like she’d been doing for the past year and a half.
As she started down the stairs, she saw her other nephew, Patrick Benjamin Walsh Jr. sitting at the kitchen table reading The Lord of the Rings.
When the twins were born, Patrick named his first born after himself and when KJ showed up ten minutes later he named him after his best friend Kade. The boys were called Ricky and KJ so as not to confuse them with Patrick and Kade version 1.0.
Ricky had always taken after Patrick and had grown to be the spitting image of him with his huge hazel eyes and light brown hair. Every day he looked more and more like his dad. Luckily, he had his dad’s temperament as well. He was calm, hardworking, alw
ays ready to help if anyone needed him, and a frequent flyer on the honor roll.
In a strange, and in her opinion cruel, twist of fate, KJ had taken after his namesake as well. From his dark hair and green eyes to his rebellious attitude; his affinity for all things sports-related and total lack of interest in school.
The two of them reminded Ali so much of her brother and Kade at their age. Tears started to threaten her eyes again, but she sniffed them back.
“Hey, Ricky!” she greeted him sounding as chipper and upbeat as she could.
“Hey,” he answered, his focus still on his book.
She grabbed a pair of KJ’s shoes that had been left in the middle of the kitchen floor. She couldn’t count the number of times she’d asked him to clean up after himself, especially his shoes since his size thirteens were a serious tripping hazard, but it was like talking to a brick wall. She set them in a cubby off of the mudroom and saw Ricky’s science project sitting on the folding card table.
“Wow, this looks great!” she exclaimed.
Ricky had been working so hard on his project for weeks. He’d hypothesized the best designs for skyscrapers, drawn up blueprints, and then built mini-models out of Legos.
“Thanks.”
His monotone response didn’t surprise her. He didn’t get happy…or upset about much of anything.
She ruffled his hair as she passed by him on her way to start dinner. “How does Hamburger Helper sound?”
“Fine,” his answer was flat and automatic.
She was pretty sure she could’ve asked how cauliflower and cabbage sounded and his answer would’ve been the same.
It might seem in a side-by-side comparison that Ricky sitting in the well-lit kitchen, reading a book and being polite was more well-adjusted than KJ holed up in a dark, dingy, room staring at a screen, and being disrespectful, but out of the two boys she wasn’t sure which one worried her most.
At least KJ expressed himself, even if it wasn’t in a healthy or productive way. Ricky held everything in. He was quiet, did his homework, helped her at the rental shop, and always did his chores without being asked.
Just One Touch - Leo & Jasmine (Crossroads Book 16) Page 26
