“How’s everything on that end? Is Mariana feeling better?” In her daily text updates, she said that Mariana had gone to school. That had surprised him, but he wanted to make sure Cameron wasn’t whitewashing her illness so he wouldn’t worried.
“Miraculous recovery. It’s almost like she wasn’t even sick.”
Her laugh echoed through the phone. Was the joke on him? He didn’t care at the moment because hearing her voice made him miss her even more.
“Daddy!” Mariana skidded into the picture and grabbed for the phone, Lizzie right behind her. “I miss you, Daddy,” and “Hi, Alex,” echoed through the phone as the girls pressed their heads together to fit in the picture.
“Hey, girls. I miss you, too. Are you behaving for Cameron?”
“Yes, Daddy. Guess what happened at school today?”
Mariana proceeded to fill him in on her science project and how she’d finished second in her class in the spelling bee. She sounded happy. And perfectly healthy. Did chicken pox clear up that fast? He didn’t think so.
Lizzie was in the middle of a story about something that happened in lunch yesterday when Cameron’s head popped into the frame behind the two of them.
“Okay, that’s enough, girls. Alex doesn’t have much time, so how about we save some of the stories for when he gets back?”
“All right. Bye, Daddy. Love you.” Mariana blew kisses and Lizzie waved before the girls handed the phone back to Cameron.
“Dinner in thirty minutes,” Cameron yelled as Lizzie and Mariana scurried out of the room.
He loved talking to the kids. Both of them. He had to find a way to fix his relationship with Cameron. He’d found everything he ever wanted in a wife. He just had to convince her. “It sounds like everything’s going okay there.”
“Yeah, it is.” She settled into one of the kitchen chairs but didn’t say anything else right away, her lips pressed into a straight line. “You look tired.”
He chuckled. She could say that again. Eighteen-hour days. Very little sleep. He loved it… and he couldn’t wait to be done with it.
“I’m sorry. That was rude.”
“Don’t be. I am tired. We’ve been putting long hours in here. I want to finish up as soon as possible so I can come home. No sense wasting any time while I’m gone.”
“You’ve clearly been busy, if what’s been happening around here is any indication.”
“What’s been happening?” He feigned ignorance, but he couldn’t hold back the smirk. His buddies had been updating him via email.
“Well, my lawn has been mowed, dinner’s been delivered, my oil’s been changed, and there is a beautiful bouquet of flowers on my bedside table. Of course, the door is closed or Boomer would be having a field day.”
He smiled. “Oh, that. It was nothing. I just called in a few favors. I wanted you to know I was thinking about you every minute I was gone.”
Her gaze softened. “I don’t know how to thank you.”
“No thanks are necessary. I wanted to ask you something, though.” He paused and scanned behind him. Corporal Hatch had slipped his headphones on and was leaning into the computer screen. Enough of a semblance of privacy for Alex to ask the question burning in his heart. “I sensed when I dropped Mariana off that you were feeling better about my trip. And in your emails, I guess, I’m just wondering if you’re willing to give me, give us, another chance.”
Her expression remained neutral, but she didn’t reject him outright. That was a good start.
“Being away from you and the girls convinced me of something I already knew… I need you in my life. In my daughter’s life. You healed a hole in my heart that I thought would always be broken.”
“Oh, Alex.” Tears pooled in her eyes. “I’ve missed you, too. I guess after Josh I just wondered if I was the reason he didn’t hang around.”
“Josh is a jerk. That’s not about you, that’s about him. Please, just tell me you’ll think about it?”
She nodded. “We can talk more when you get home.”
That was good enough for now. He hesitated. Should he tell her? He wanted to. This wasn’t ideal. If he had his choice, she’d be in his arms, but he couldn’t wait another minute. “One more thing… I love you.”
She sucked in a breath and her eyes widened. “Really? I, uh—”
“You don’t have to say anything back. I just wanted you to know, before I got off this call, that I love you and I’ll do whatever it takes for us to be together.” He clicked off the phone before she could respond.
All right, this was going to be okay.
Chapter Thirteen
Cameron paced the floor. Alex had texted when he’d landed at Andrews and given an ETA of ninety minutes. It had now been—Cameron checked her phone—eighty-eight minutes. Two minutes before he was officially late.
Her heart had been racing since she’d got his text. No, it had been racing since he’d told her he loved her. While he was halfway around the world. She’d wanted to say it back to him, had the words on the tip of her tongue, but something had stopped her. Besides him hanging up, that is.
It would be better to have this conversation in person. To be able to hold his hand and look into his eyes when she declared her love. It would be only the second time she’d ever done it, and this time, it was forever. She felt it deep down inside. She might have issues with Alex’s assignments, but those were her issues, not his.
Knock. Knock.
She flung the door open and threw herself into Alex’s arms. “You’re home.”
He dropped his bag and wrapped his arms around her, lifting her completely off her feet. His head lowered and he pressed his lips to hers. She kissed him back, pouring everything she felt into that embrace.
He finally pulled away, both of them breathing ragged, but he didn’t put her down. He carried her into the house, kicked the door closed behind him, and didn’t stop until he deposited her on the couch. “That was quite the welcome.”
“I missed you. And I’m so happy that you’re back.”
“Cameron, I—”
She held up her hand. She’d thought about this. She needed to say it, and he needed to hear it. She scanned the hall. Good, the girls were tucked away in Lizzie’s room, watching a video on her iPad. Nothing like bribing the girls to get a few minutes alone. “I want to apologize to you.”
“No, you—”
“Please. This is important for me to say.”
He sat back, mouth shut, but he didn’t let go of her hand. His thumb whispered over her knuckles, and the touch soothed her raw nerves.
“I was wrong to let fear dominate my life. There is so much I want to do, so much I want to see. I realized how much I could be missing out on if I can’t get past the fear and embrace the life, and the opportunities, in front of me.”
His face brightened but he didn’t say anything. Like he sensed that this was important. It was. This might be the most important conversation they’d had.
“I’m so sorry for how I reacted when you told me about your trip. I shouldn’t have put that extra pressure on you when you already had so much to worry about … including a daughter who wasn’t really sick.”
“Not sick?”
Mariana faking sick was just the most recent in a long line of tricks from the girls to shove her and Alex together. It was hard to be mad at them when they were right. “The girls continued their scheming, even after we started going out. They decided if Mariana was sick, then you wouldn’t go on your trip, and we would get back together.”
“That little stinker. We should find a way to channel their energy into something productive.”
Cameron smiled. “I think getting us together was productive, don’t you?”
“I do.”
“Okay. That’s done. Where were we?”
“I was thanking you for taking such good care of my daughter while I was gone. I know it was an imposition—"
She held up her hand as she remembered where the
conversation left off. She was about to tell Alex she loved him. “I love Mariana, and …” Shoot. This was a lot harder than she expected. But she knew for certain that Alex was different than Josh. And their outcome would be different. “I love you, too.”
His brows shot up. “Really?”
A rattle echoed from the kitchen. Boomer was tucked away in his crate so she didn’t have anything to worry about. “Yes, really.”
“Wanna know what I figured out this week?” He gazed at her with an anxious look on his face.
“What did you figure out?”
He took both her hands again. “I don’t want to be without you. Without you and Lizzie. When you said you didn’t want anyone like Josh, I got scared that I’d lost you. I panicked. Storming out of here was the wrong thing for me to do, but I didn’t know how to fix it.”
There was another rattle from the kitchen. She chose to ignore it. “You weren’t wrong to end the argument until I’d had time to think it over. I was overreacting to an irrational fear that I was reflecting on you.”
“If you were afraid, it was something I should have listened to instead of avoiding the conversation. Because it was valid. Josh was, is, a jerk for leaving you. For running around climbing Everest—”
“Annapurna.”
“Wherever. For thinking that’s where he should be. He should be here. But he’s not, and I am. And I’m not letting you go. I love you too much.”
She’d never get tired of hearing those words. “Say it again.”
“Say what again?”
She grinned. Now he was toying with her. “What you just said.”
He brought his finger to his lips and pursed them.
She waited… and then waited some more. “Ale—”
“I love you!” He practically screamed it and she smacked her hands over his mouth. He whispered around her fingers. “I love you, Cameron. I love Lizzie. I even love Boomer.”
The clinking of metal on metal grew louder. But she wasn’t about to check on the dog. She and Alex had exciting things to share, so she nodded at him to continue.
“Of course, I love you. How could I not? I think I started falling in love with you that first day when you whipped into the school parking lot all frazzled. I saw how you loved Lizzie. Even when you were frustrated with her. You know the girls cooked up missing the bus that first day so we would meet, don’t you?”
She shook her head. “Those girls.”
Alex dropped to his knees. More precisely, one knee. He fumbled with something in his pocket and pulled out a tiny box.
Her heart started racing and her hands shook, but she didn’t say anything.
“I had to make one stop before I came over here.” He flipped open the lid to reveal a stunning solitaire diamond on a platinum band. “If you don’t like it, we can pick out another one, but this one reminded me of you and it just called to—”
She pressed a finger against his lips. She’d never seen him quite so undone. “Is there something you wanted to ask me?”
He grinned. “Oh, yeah. Will you marry—”
A huge crash had her turning toward the kitchen just as Boomer bounded into the room. When he spotted Alex on his knee, he leapt.
Alex went down, Boomer on top of him. “—me?”
She wouldn’t let a little thing like her dog ruin this almost perfect moment. She grabbed at Boomer’s collar and pulled him off Alex. “Yes! Yes! I’ll marry you!”
Two little girl squeals echoed around the corner then they rushed in and dragged Boomer down the hall with them.
“I guess they approve.” Alex scrambled to his knees and picked up the ring box where it had flown when Boomer struck. He pulled out the ring and slipped it onto her third finger.
She held up her hand, admiring the sparkling stone. It was a perfect fit—like their family. “So do I.”
* * *
Lizzie and Mariana scrambled down the hall, their hands covering their mouths. It wasn’t like Mom and Alex hadn’t already heard them. But the grownups needed privacy for all the kissing stuff.
Mariana followed Lizzie into her room and they leapt on the bed and buried their faces in the covers.
“We did it! Now we’re going to be sisters for real.” Lizzie threw her arms around Mariana, the tears she’d been holding in for what felt like years streaming down her cheeks.
Epilogue
Lizzie linked her arm with Mariana’s, and together, they stepped onto the white runner that covered the aisle to where Alex waited for them with the preacher. Finally, after waiting for what felt like for-ev-er, Mom was marrying Alex. And Mariana would be her sister. She’d had lots of friends before who felt like sisters, but there was something different about Mariana.
Then they had the idea to get their parents together. Mom had been really frustrated when Lizzie missed the bus that day, but she’d noticed Mariana’s dad, and that was what they’d wanted.
It hadn’t been easy. Introducing their parents hadn’t been enough because they were stubborn. She and Mariana had to keep inventing ways for them to get together.
But it all worked out, because here she was, stepping up next to her new dad, waiting for Mom to walk down the aisle.
And then the music changed, and Mom and Grandma stepped onto the white fabric. Lizzie whispered in Mariana’s ear. “Look at how pretty Mom is.”
Mariana whispered back. “I can’t believe she’s going to be my mom.”
“And your dad will be my dad.”
Alex lowered his head between the two of them and put his fingers to his lips. But he was smiling. And as soon as he looked at Mom, his smile changed. There were tears in his eyes.
He really loved Mom. That was good. She needed someone in her life that would love her. Lizzie was going to grow up one day, and then what would Mom do?
Lizzie shifted from one foot to the other while the preacher said a bunch of words. She tried to listen, but she just wanted to get to the part where Mom said I do and she knew for sure that Alex was her dad.
“Alex, do you take Cameron to be your lawfully wedded wife…” The preacher’s words faded out after that. Lizzie stared at Alex until he said, “I do.”
She let out a breath and turned to Mom.
“Cameron, do you take Alex to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to—”
“I do.”
Everyone laughed. Mom hadn’t even let the preacher finish. Maybe she was as excited to get married as Lizzie was for this to be a done deal. Nah. There was no way Mom was more excited than Lizzie was.
Lizzie was all ready for the preacher to tell them to kiss when Mom and Alex bent down to her and Mariana.
Mom said something first. “Mariana, this ring signifies that I’ll love you like my own daughter but also that I will honor your real mother and never let you forget her.”
Mom slid a ring with a light blue stone on Mariana’s right hand.
Lizzie was still looking at Mariana’s ring when Alex put his hand on hers. “Lizzie, this ring signifies that I’ll love you like my own daughter but also that I will honor your real father and never let you forget him.”
Tears sprang to Lizzie’s eyes. She hadn’t known Mom and Alex were going to do this. He slipped a ring that matched Mariana’s onto her finger and then squeezed her hand. She couldn’t wait anymore. She threw her arms around his neck and squeezed.
The people in the church laughed as Alex lifted her off her feet and hugged her back. He lowered her to the floor and whispered in her ear. “I love you, Lizzie. Just let me finish marrying your mom, okay?”
She nodded.
A few minutes later, the preacher said the words and Alex pulled Mom into his arms and kissed her. Mariana threw her arms around Lizzie and they hugged and cried. They were finally a family.
* * *
Lizzie hadn’t realized that weddings were followed by parties. It was so fun. Mom and Alex had told her and Mariana that each of them could invite a friend to hang out with them
after the wedding. There was food and cake and even some dancing.
“Thanks for inviting me to the wedding.” Lizzie’s friend Skylah stared around the room with her eyes wide. She was new in Lizzie’s English class. Lizzie had been assigned as her buddy to help her get used to Clara Barton Elementary. Lizzie loved to listen to her talk. Skylah was from Australia and said words like mum for mom and brekky for breakfast. It was way cool.
But Skylah didn’t have a dad. She had been adopted two years ago and her new mom brought her to the U.S. last month. They were only supposed to live in St. Judith until summer break, but Lizzie hoped Skylah wouldn’t have to go back to Australia. She really liked her.
Mariana leaned in from the other side of Skylah. “Wasn’t it great? It took a ton of work for Lizzie and me to get them to meet each other, much less fall in love. We can help your mom find someone, too.”
Skylah frowned. “I don’t know. My mum’s already going out with this guy. If she marries Noah, she won’t have time for me anymore.”
“No way,” Lizzie said. “Don’t you want a dad?” She had been wanting one since forever… and now she had one.
“My dad back in Australia was really mean to me.” Skylah’s gaze hit the floor.
Marianna and Lizzie looked at each other, and together, they leaned in and hugged Skylah. Lizzie squeezed her new friend extra tight. “Not all dads are bad. If you want Noah to be your dad, just ask us how. We’re experts now. Let me tell you what we did.” Lizzie and Mariana put their heads together with Skylah and shared all of their tricks to make their parents fall in love.
If it hadn’t been for them, the grownups would never know what to do.
* * *
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What’s Next?
Read the prologue of MOMMY LOVES THE IT Guy, book 3 of Mommy’s Little Matchmakers…
Mommy Loves The Military Man (Mommy's Little Matchmakers Book 2) Page 11
