“Excuse me, I’m trying to kick your ass here. There’s no challenge when you just sit down.” She kicks my foot. “Stop laughing and get up so I can properly pummel you.” She re-aims the arrow. “If you don’t get up, you forfeit and I win the dishwasher war.”
That just makes me laugh harder.
“Seriously, what the hell are you laughing at?”
“Us. You. Me. Our craziness.” Still laughing, I wipe a tear from my eye. “After months and months of killing myself trying to come up with the perfect moment—some elaborate, manufactured scenario that would be as perfect as you are—everything was an epic fail, and now I get it. I was going about it all wrong.” As I reach into my pocket, she pulls the arrow back. “Settle down there, Hunger Games. It’s not a weapon. I promise.”
She scoffs. “I’ve heard that one before.” Clearly not trusting me, she stays at the ready.
I pull the small box out of my pocket and open it. “For the last few months, I’ve been trying to figure out the most extravagant way to propose, and everything I put together felt wrong. I couldn’t figure it out, but now I get it. That’s not who we are. Nothing about us has ever been grandiose and over the top. Our whole relationship has been stolen moments and secret getaways where all we had was each other. I don’t need some crazy scheme to prove to you that we’re meant to be together.” I gesture at the evidence of our battle around us. “Who else on the planet thinks it’s perfectly sane to have a NERF/marshmallow war to settle a feud about cleaning out the dishwasher? Only you! And it’s the way I know, with one hundred percent certainty, that we are perfect for each other.”
I shift, get up on one knee, and look her in the eye. “Arianna, you are my spark. Without you, I’m nothing but a heap of fractured pieces, and no matter how hard I try, everything I do falls short because without you, it’s all meaningless. But with you in my life, everything comes together. You make me whole. The world only makes sense if you’re in it with me. You inspire me to be the best version of myself for you because you deserve nothing less. Will you marry me and give me the honor of waking up each morning with another opportunity to bring to your life the unconditional love and support that you’ve shown me?”
She releases the string, and the NERF arrow hits me in the center of the forehead. She drops the bow. “Oh my God. I’m so sorry.”
Chuckling, I shake my head. “You just had to get one more shot off, huh?”
“Would you expect anything less?” she jokes as she crouches and rubs the spot on my forehead where the arrow hit. “I’m just kidding. I swear I didn’t mean to do that. My fingers slipped. I was just so stunned. This is the last thing in the world I expected you to say. I-I—” Her cheeks turn pink as she fumbles for words. Tears well up in her eyes as her bottom lip trembles. For once in her life, Ari looks as if she’s lost for words.
The arrow misfire sort of killed the moment, so I lead her back to my question. “I’ve known you my whole life, and somehow, every day you do something that makes me fall a little further in love with you. Marry me so I can spend the rest of my life falling in love with you.”
“Yes. Yes. A million times yes!” Throwing her arms around my neck, she kisses me.
I pull her close, wishing we could stay in this moment forever. It’s taken us so long to get to this point, and we’ve had to travel a long road filled with more heartache than I thought either of us could endure. Having her in my arms, knowing she’s mine forever—I want to savor every second. From a fight that turned into an innocent kiss all those years ago to where we are now, constantly teetering on that line between love and hate, sometimes I’m amazed we made it. But then I look at her and realize there is no ending that doesn’t include us together. It’s just not possible. She’s mine. Call it destiny. Call it fate. Call it kismet. She’s mine, and that’s all there is to it.
Epilogue
Chase
“I can’t believe you bailed on dinner last night,” Charlie complains as she pulls bagels out of the bag from Izzy’s. “I’m a little insulted we got bumped from going-away dinner to ‘Hey, can you bring us breakfast before you take us to the airport?’”
I pull out some plates and set them on the center island. “Sorry we had to cancel at the last minute—we were a little preoccupied last night. We never even had dinner ourselves, and there’s nothing in the house. Hence the need for delivery.”
She roots through the cabinets until she finds the bagel slicer. “You’re going to be gone for a full month. The baby will be here any day after you get back. This was my last chance to carry on a conversation with you like a sane person. From what the other moms say, from here on out, all I’m going to talk about is poop, sleep, and sore nipples.”
I pull a bottle of orange juice from the bags Charlie brought. “You can leave me out of those conversations,” I mutter as I pour four glasses of juice.
Charlie points at me. “There will be extra nipple talk just to gross you out. That’s your punishment for blowing me off.”
“Why are we talking about nipples?” Ari asks as she joins us in the kitchen.
After giving her a quick kiss, I wrap my arms around her waist. “Charlie’s pissed at us.”
Spencer grabs a bagel and puts it through the slicer. “It’s totally fine. She was asleep when you texted that you couldn’t make it, and she fell back asleep twenty seconds later.”
Charlie elbows him in the gut. “Traitor.”
“Well,” Ari says, “we were a little busy.” She leans against the center island, putting her hand on display and waiting for Charlie to notice.
Charlie just keeps on spreading cream cheese, not paying attention at all. “Doing what? And don’t say packing, because I saw Chase carrying laundry upstairs when I got here. I know he just packed two seconds ago.” Using her knife as a pointer, she finally looks at Ari and stops. Dropping the container of cream cheese in her hand, she screams then starts jumping up and down. “You did it! You finally did it! I was starting to think it would never happen.” Charlie almost slips on the splattered cream cheese as she tries to hug Ari.
Over breakfast, Ari and I fill them in on the proposal, and by the end, Charlie’s in tears.
“Only you two would find NERF warfare romantic, but it’s so perfect.” She glances at me as she takes a bite of her bagel. “Were you nervous?”
“I wasn’t necessarily nervous about her saying no,” I reply. “But based on the way every other proposal plan has worked out, I half expected an earthquake or for her to fall, hit her head, and get amnesia or something.”
“Or break up with you,” Spencer retorts.
“Seriously,” Charlie mutters.
Scowling, Ari clucks her tongue. “We weren’t that bad.” She takes my hand. “It took us a little while, but we got it right in the long run.”
“Oh, Spence, check and see who won,” Charlie says as she wipes the everything bagel crumbs from her mouth with a napkin.
“Won what?” Ari asks as she lays a slice of tomato on her bagel.
Spencer pulls out his phone. “The pool. It’s ridiculously high now. We’ve got everyone from the president of the players’ union to the mailman in on this thing.” He looks at the screen and toggles through.
“I don’t even know why I’m surprised,” I mutter.
“No way,” Spencer says in disbelief. “No freaking way.”
Charlie snatches the phone from his hand. “What?” She looks at the screen then looks back at him. “No way! Is this even possible?”
“Someone want to clue us in here?” Ari demands.
Spencer clears his throat. “Apparently the winner of the pool is Aiden. We started the pool that night in the Bahamas. He picked a few days.” Spencer looks down, visibly emotional. “I just forgot he picked one this far out. You two sure took your sweet-ass time.”
Charlie kicks me under the table. “See, he wasn’t trying to stop you in Hawaii. He was just trying to delay you so he could win. Typical Aiden. Even
from beyond the grave, he has to win.”
Ari picks up Spencer’s phone and clicks on the link showing the email from Aiden. “He picked ten days, all of them totally random. This is just crazy.” With tears in her eyes, she puts her hand on my cheek. “Well done, Brennan. Best proposal ever.”
“Now all we have to do is plan the wedding,” Charlie says with a huge grin. “This is going to be epic!”
Chase and Ari have finally found their happily ever after!
You’re cordially invited to
Chase and Ari’s wedding in:
Love To Love You
A Wedding Novella
Coming December 16, 2016
Acknowledgements
The journey from Chase and Ari being a flash of an idea while driving to the epic NERF gun proposal has been long one, with more twists and turns than the story itself. It is not a journey I traveled alone. I am so lucky to have so many people in my corner supporting me. Without you, I’m not sure Chase and Ari would have ever come to print.
Kimberly- You’re the greatest writing partner ever. You always drop everything to help me work through a problem. You read everything I shove at you even when you have kids screaming for your attention. You may live four hours away, but you are just a part of my everyday life as my family! Thank you for being the most amazing support system and I can only hope I show you the love you have shown me.
Cassie- The Karma points you earned on this book!!! Despite the fact I completely hijacked your calendar for two months while I got this beast of a book in some semblance of order, you still did everything you could to help me put out a book I think we can both be proud of. There aren’t enough words in the English language to express how thankful I am for you. Not only because you are the editor extraordinaire, but because you’re constantly teaching me things that improve my craft, because you get my crazy, dark, twisted sense of humor, and because you’re just a delightful person. Working with you is one of the highlights of writing.
Linda—My partner in crime. I would quite honestly be lost without you. You keep me on point when I’ve lost my way, you make me breathe when I forget to, you help me find the calm when I think all is lost. These books would never have seen the light out day without your help. I love you, I thank you, and I appreciate each and everything you do every single day.
Mandela- You’ve been listening to me talk about these characters for a year. So much of their story came together as we sat by the pool watching the kids. Thank you not only for your ideas but for listening to me ramble on and on about my books! I love you forever!
Jenn- I think you are the only person on the planet that may love my characters as much as I do. Your passion for them helps guide me and keep me on track. I know that under your watchful eye, I’ll never misstep because you’d have my head if I didn’t treat my stories with the integrity the characters deserve. You have been such a rock, through cover drama, writer’s block, and career anxiety. I am so lucky to have you in my life.
Candace- My dear, I knew from the moment we first chatted that we would be fast friends and your help and support and handholding, was one of the few things that got me through the crazy months before release! One of my favorite parts of this book is the proposal and the idea came to me from our conversations. I adore you and will never be able to thank you enough!
Keri--When you first read Chase and Ari and said, “There’s something about these two…” It gave me so much confidence. Thank you for reading them and for your honesty and love!
My betas! Oh, how I love you. When I hit send on Love To Hate You, I thought my heart was going to beat out of my chest. I took this story on an unexpected path, and that kind of risk is so scary. As soon as you read it and loved it and saw my vision for these characters, my heart settled and I could finally breathe again. Melissa, Cora, Trish, Kiki, Argie, Elizabeth and Joe. Your love of my characters gave me the confidence to carry on. THANK YOU for not only your time, but for your honesty. I’m so lucky to have people I can trust with my story, and that I can trust will tell me if it sucks!
Claudia- You gave me so many things to think about and your advice helped me elevate this book to a higher level. I know it wasn’t your favorite read but you gave me so much insight into what readers may think and way I could make them understand the characters better.
Jennifer Wolfel– You have such an eye! Your thoughts, insight and perspective were so crucial! You have such an eye for finding key elements that may have been over looked but really make a huge difference.
Tiffany Coop, thank you for all of your amazing teasers and photoshop tutorials. I’ll get that damn program one day! You have been there for me at the last minute so many times and I can only hope to repay the favor!!
Bloggers—I have never felt so much blogger love as I have with this series. Between cover crisis and Amazon sabotage, I never would have made it through any of that without the support of all the wonderful bloggers.
Special thanks to Lisa from Three Girls and Their Books. Thank you for your patience while I finished book 2 and for all the love and support you’ve shown me.
Jaime and Dena from Fiction Fan Girls. I remember the first day you started the Facebook group and I loved being there as a reader and I’m so flattered for all the love and support you’ve always shown me as an author. Dena, I simply adore chatting with you as you read. You just warm my heart! Even when you’re cursing me! Jaime, thank you for giving me your name. I promised you crazy and I hope I delivered.
Jesey and Roxie- #CHARIANNA FOREVER!!! So much Schmexy love! Thank you for loving my characters. Thank you for seeing them for who they are, and appreciating their journey. As an author, I try to write complex characters, and when someone sees and understands that complexity, it is like hitting a grand slam to win the World Series. THANK YOU!!!
I know there are a million blogs out there and I thank you all. The indie reading community is spectacular and I have never felt anything but love and encouragement and I thank you! Special love to Talk Nerdy To Me, Cocktails and Books, Romance Ever After, E-Reading After Midnight, and the countless other blogs that make my world go round!!!
NONE of this would be possible without the support from my family. My mother, the strongest person I know. Not only have you supported my crazy venture in every way possible, but had it not been for your love of Lifetime movies and serial killer stories, I probably would never have developed my twisted ways of thinking. My father introduced me to sports and without the love for the game he instilled in me, I don’t think I could have ever understood Chase and Ari to the degree I do.
Writing has gone from a side project, to a full time job, to a full time job with extra overtime. We joke that the laptop is going to permanently fuse to my lap. The only way I can be so committed to my work is because my husband and son (and dogs) are so patient, understanding and supportive. My son is my biggest and most vocal cheerleader and his enthusiasm and excitement keep me going.
Thank you all for coming with me on this journey!! I know it was rough and raw and probably not what anyone was expecting, but I hope you enjoyed the ride.
xoxo
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