by Lisa Childs
Panting for breath, she collapsed onto his chest. He stroked his hand over her back, which was slick with sweat. Then he cupped the back of her head in his palm, like he always did.
“So what were you saying yes to?” he asked. He turned them both onto their sides so they faced each other on the tangled sheets.
“When?” she asked coyly and peered up at him through her lashes. “I think I just said yes a few times.”
He grinned. But then his tone turned serious as he said, “Before I nearly walked out of here, you said yes. I thought you were saying yes that you could never forgive me. But that wasn’t it at all. What was it?”
She smiled. “Ask me again.”
His blue eyes brightened with hope and with love. He rolled out of the bed and knelt beside it. And after fishing something from the pocket of his jeans, he asked, “Will you make me the happiest man alive and marry me?”
“Yes,” she said.
He slid the ring on her finger. It fit a little more snugly than it had the first time he’d proposed. But she’d been younger then; she hadn’t had a child yet, his child. “Is it too tight?” he asked anxiously.
She shook her head. “No. It fits perfectly. I won’t need to take it off again anyway.” Because they both knew, there was no way they were breaking this engagement. They loved each other too much to ever be apart again.
He breathed a sigh of relief. “I was so worried that you wouldn’t be able to forgive me.”
“I worried about the same,” she admitted.
“You have no reason to worry,” he assured her. “I will do anything to make you happy. Are you sure you want this ring? I can buy you another—one that has only happy memories attached to it.”
She stared down at the big diamond and shook her head. She would never forget how he had initially proposed to her with this ring—on the playground where they’d met, where he’d saved her the first time. “The happy memories are all I remember,” she assured him. “I don’t want another ring. I just want you.”
He was all she had ever needed—until he’d given her their daughter. Now she had more than she’d ever expected from life. She had everything.
“I’ll even quit the Payne Protection Agency and move back here if you want,” he offered.
She gasped in horror more than relief. “Absolutely not.” She hadn’t asked for proof, but he’d just given it—he really loved her if he was willing to sacrifice so much for her. Too much. “You love your job and you love your friends. Maisy and I will move to River City.”
He grinned wider than she’d ever seen him. “You’ll love it,” he promised her. “The Payne family is amazing. You’ll be embraced and accepted and appreciated.”
She knew that he’d found in the Paynes the family he’d always wanted. She couldn’t wait to meet all of them.
“What about my grandfather?” he asked. “You didn’t want to leave him.”
“We won’t,” she said. “We’ll bring him with us.”
Cole snorted. “How will we get him to move?”
She smiled. “We’ll use his weapon against him. Manipulation.”
“You’ll manipulate him?”
“Not me,” she said.
And she knew the old man wouldn’t stand a chance.
*
Nikki studied her fiancé’s face. His skin was pale, even paler than his sister Emilia’s translucent skin. His pale blond hair had been washed but still had a faint reddish tinge from the blood that had stained it. He’d needed stitches.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured to him as they sat side by side in the back of the small private plane.
He turned toward her. “You’re sorry?” he asked. “You were right. I needed stitches and I do have a concussion.” He flinched as he said it, as if his own voice was about to shatter his skull.
“I’m sorry for what I put you through all the time, with me being a bodyguard,” she said. “Now I know what it feels like to worry.”
He squeezed her hand and offered her his endearing lopsided grin. “You’re not changing jobs, though,” he told her. “And neither am I. It’s okay that we worry about each other.” He gestured at Dane sitting in the front of the cockpit with Manny who was flying the plane. “It’s what we all put each other through. It doesn’t change how we feel about each other or our jobs.”
She squeezed his hand back. “No, it just makes us appreciate each other more,” she agreed. “It makes me want to get married even sooner.”
Lars touched his head. “Man, I must have gotten hit harder than I thought. I think you just said you don’t want to wait to get married.”
“I don’t,” she said, then she leaned forward and spoke to Manny in the cockpit. “Can you reroute this flight to Vegas?”
Lars gasped. “Vegas?”
She nodded. “I can’t wait to be your wife.” No one was more shocked than she was to hear those words coming out of her mouth. She’d vowed once to never get married—despite or maybe because her mother, the wedding planner, had probably had Nikki’s wedding planned since the day she was born.
Manny turned back toward them, which had Dane anxiously gripping the dash. “Hey, watch where you’re going!” the nervous flyer protested.
Manny chuckled. “We’re fine. I have eyes in the back of my head.”
“So use those eyes to look at Nikki and Lars,” Dane advised him.
Manny turned back toward the windshield, but then he had to shout his question to them. “You really want me to put this down in Vegas?”
Lars, with his sexy half grin, turned toward Nikki. And regret slammed through her. “Do you really want to do this?” he asked.
“Marry you? Absolutely,” she said. But she couldn’t deny her mother those plans, not when the woman had sacrificed so much for all of them. Always. She sighed.
Lars’s grin widened as he squeezed her hand again. “We have all the time in the world to get married,” he assured her. “Nothing’s going to happen to either one of us. You’re too tough and my head is like a cement block.”
A giggle slipped through her lips. Damn Lars. He was the only man who ever made her do something ridiculously girly—like giggle and feel like more of a woman than she’d ever felt. “True,” she agreed. Loving him only made her tougher. “We’ll be fine.”
“So no Vegas,” Manny said.
“No.” They would go home to River City and wait for the elaborate wedding Nikki’s mother had planned for her for so many years.
“You’re thinking about Cole now,” Lars said, as attuned to her as ever.
“Do you think he’ll come back to River City?” she asked.
Dane whirled around in his seat. “You think he’d stay here?”
“He’s not leaving Shawna again,” Manny said.
“But will she take him back?” Dane asked.
Nikki nodded. “Yes, she will. But I’m not sure she can leave the life she built here. I’m not sure she can leave Xavier.”
“She won’t,” Lars agreed.
So they could lose their friend. He might quit the agency and move back home. Except he’d said the Bentler mansion had never been home for him.
Nikki knew, though, that home wasn’t a place; it was a person. Cole had two people now: Shawna and Maisy. With his grandfather, he actually had three.
Nikki worried that they as a team were about to lose their person. She squeezed Lars’s hand, knowing how much it would bother him after everything his unit had endured together.
He grinned again, but it was obviously forced. He was worried, too.
“We left a man behind,” Manny murmured.
It would bother him the most if they lost Cole. The two of them were the closest, even shared an apartment. Manny’s life was changing now, too.
Nikki couldn’t help but think that this assignment had changed them all. Nothing would ever be the same.
Epilogue
Church bells pealed out, announcing that the wedding was about to begin
. It was time. Cole caught Manny’s arm before he could leave the groom’s dressing room. “Hey,” he said. “Let me fix your tie.” His fingers shook a little as he fumbled with the black bow. It didn’t have to be perfect—he knew that.
But Lars’s and Dane’s ties were crisp and straight, like Cooper’s. Cole had no idea what his looked like. Thankfully Manny hadn’t tied it for him. Xavier had, his fingers steady and nimble despite his age. But Manny was Cole’s best man, so he wanted him to look nice.
And maybe he needed just another minute…
“Nervous?” Manny asked him, then he held his breath as if dealing with some nerves of his own. Or maybe Cole had pulled the tie too tight.
Cole shook his head and clarified, “Anxious.” He was eager and excited to begin his new life with his new family.
Manny’s tie was as straight as it was going to get, so Cole turned and headed for the door. He and his groomsmen walked to the front of the church to stand before the altar. He stayed next to the minister while each of his guys took turns walking halfway down the aisle, with its white runner, to meet a bridesmaid and escort her to the front.
Shawna hadn’t been in River City long, but just as he’d known she would, she’d fallen in love with the city and especially with the people. His friends were now her friends and family as well, so she’d included all the women in her wedding party.
Cooper escorted his gorgeous blonde wife Tanya to the front; Dane escorted the ethereal Emilia; Lars, Nikki; and Manny escorted his supermodel fiancée, Teddie. While she was beautiful, Teddie was very down to earth, so much so that she and Shawna had instantly become best friends.
Cole smiled as he watched Manny escort the red-haired beauty toward the front. Manny’s dream girl was soon to become his wife. He’d pushed back his wedding plans and so had Lars and Dane in order to let Cole have the first opening at Penny Payne Lynch’s white wedding chapel. They all knew, like he did, that this wedding was six years overdue.
Manny and Teddie reluctantly parted at the front. As Manny stepped behind him, he squeezed Cole’s shoulder. He couldn’t have been a better friend or best man.
But Cole was about to marry his best friend. He focused on the back of the church, but the next person down the aisle wasn’t the bride. She wore a small white dress though and was a perfect miniature of her perfect mother.
Maisy skipped down the aisle, scattering rose petals from the basket she carried. Before she took her place on the bride’s side of the aisle, she hurled herself at Cole. He caught her up in his arms and swung her around, and he felt pure joy.
She was so special, this little girl, this little piece of him mixed in with so much Shawna. She kissed his cheek before murmuring, “Put me down, Daddy. Mommy’s about to come down the aisle.”
Everyone chuckled as Cole did as he was told. They knew how he was totally twisted around his daughter’s little finger. He didn’t mind, though. He loved it—because he loved her so much. Maisy skipped the couple of steps across the aisle to slip her hand into Teddie’s and lean against her. Just as her mother had become fast friends with the former supermodel, the little girl had fallen for her, too, and vice versa. Teddie was like an aunt to her.
The music stopped for a dramatic pause before it changed to the bridal march. Cole returned his focus to the back of the church where Shawna stood at the end of the white runner, her hand on Xavier’s arm. It was only appropriate that the old man give away the bride since he’d been so instrumental in reuniting them.
To repay the favor, Cole had had Nikki help him track down the woman Xavier claimed was the love of his life. Fortunately, Edith was still alive and as active and vibrant and sharp as Xavier. Much to Xavier’s relief, she had never blamed him for her husband’s death. She had also never remarried. She sat now in the front pew, waiting for him to join her.
Despite his age, he walked quickly. Maybe he was anxious to join Edith. Maybe he was anxious to bring Shawna to the altar—to Cole.
As they neared him, Cole focused only on her. A wispy veil covered her face but only for a couple more seconds. After she and Xavier stopped in front of him, the old man lifted her veil and kissed her cheek.
Then the minister asked, “Who gives this woman to be married to this man?”
Three voices replied. Xavier, Shawna and Maisy said in perfect unison, “We do.”
Everyone laughed. But Cole blinked back tears. It meant a lot that Shawna could give herself to him after how he’d hurt her. But all that pain was in their past. As for their future… It was beyond happy.
Xavier had moved to River City, as well. He hadn’t been able to tell Maisy no when she’d sweetly asked him. Cole wasn’t the only one twisted around her little finger. Fortunately, she was too much like her mother—too pure of heart to ever become spoiled like Cole’s uncles and cousins.
Maisy wasn’t the only one the old man was trying to spoil, though. Xavier had already given Cole and Shawna a wedding present—of a vast estate. The house was so big that there was plenty of room for him to live with them. There was so much property that Cole had already convinced Manny and Teddie to build a house on it, as well. He was pretty sure that Lars and Dane would build their homes there, too.
His family—his real family—would always be close to him. Xavier had left the rest of his family in California to fight over the house and the company. At the moment, Tiffani was in charge of the business. He predicted that was unlikely to change; she was tougher than he’d realized. She was also here for the wedding, sitting in the front row on the other side of Edith.
When Xavier went to sit with them, Cole, unwilling to wait for the end of the ceremony, stepped forward and pressed his lips to Shawna’s. She looked so beautiful in her lace gown with her black hair swept up on top of her head.
“Daddy,” Maisy called out in a loud whisper. “You’re supposed to wait till the end to kiss Mommy.”
But he’d already waited too long for his best friend—his soul mate—to become his wife. He kissed her again before stepping back.
He was flustered, like Shawna, but they made it through the ceremony. And at the end, when they were pronounced husband and wife, they turned and ran hand in hand from the church—ready and anxious to start spending the rest of their lives together.
*
Don’t forget the previous titles in the series:
The Bounty Hunter’s Baby Surprise
In the Bodyguard’s Arms
Nanny Bodyguard
Beauty and the Bodyguard
Bodyguard’s Baby Surprise
Bodyguard Daddy
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Trained to Protect
by Linda O. Johnston
Chapter 1
Elissa Yorian stepped through the door into the Chance Coffee Shop and looked around.
This was her first time in Chance, California, and she was eager to see how this meeting turned out. If things went well, she could land a part-time job teaching people to train and work with therapy dogs. And giving lessons at a really renowned facility. Therapy work was something she loved, and she’d been doing it for a long time.
This place appeared like nearly any chain shop that specialized in coffee drinks, with a counter where patrons could place their orders and a long glass-fronted display case with food inside. It was noisy with conversations from the many people sitting at small tables, a busy place, which wasn’t surprising since it was nearly lunchtime. Elissa had planned her drive well from her home in San Luis Obispo—sometimes referred to as SLO. It had taken her nearly forty-five minutes to get here, with traffic, as she’d assumed.
Depending on the schedule of classes she’d hold, her commute wouldn’t be especially fun if she landed this job, but her commitment would only be part-time.
And it would be worth it.
She remained at the doorway, searching through the crowd. She knew from the Chance K-9 Ranch website and other online resources what Amber Belott looked like. That didn’t mean she would recognize her, though, in all the faces of people sitting at tables, talking, sipping their drinks and munching on pastries and sandwiches in this place filled with the aroma of coffee.
No, she would rely on what Amber had told her in their telephone conversation yesterday. For one thing, she’d watch for a woman in a Chance K-9 Ranch T-shirt. Amber owned the ranch along with her mother and, from all Elissa had read online about the noted dog training facility, was the one in charge.
And her? She had dressed up as if this was a job interview—which it was. She hadn’t overdone it but had put on a knee-length gray dress and black jacket, not to mention higher heels than she ever wore on a work day at the hospital where she was a nurse.
