In the great room, the mood was vibrant and celebratory, but Nolan knew he couldn’t relax and celebrate until he had the answers he sought. During a lull in conversation with a group of his old high school buddies, Nolan tucked Raina closer to his side and drew her away to a quiet alcove he’d spied.
“Tired of the party already?” Raina teased.
Her cheeks were still softly flushed and her blue eyes sparkled, but he sensed that she was nervous. Possibly even as nervous as he was.
He smiled in response—it was now or never. “Actually, I was wondering what you thought of my Christmas gift.”
The smile on Raina’s face froze for a moment, before disappearing altogether and Nolan felt his hopes for the future slide inexorably out of his grasp. She reached into her small purse and pulled out the gift he’d left for her under the tree. His stomach dipped as he realized she hadn’t even unwrapped it.
Raina looked up at him and he braced himself for the rejection he was sure was coming his way.
“I...” She stopped and chewed at her lower lip for a moment before continuing. “I didn’t want to unwrap it without you there. You mentioned intentions in your letter. I need to know exactly what those are, Nolan.”
It wasn’t what he’d been expecting her to say and for a moment he was lost for words. But then the logical side of his brain kicked in and processed what she’d said. She wasn’t rejecting him. She simply needed more reassurance. At least he hoped that’s what was happening. He’d felt adrift like this once before in his life and he’d hated every second of it. It was why he’d been so reluctant to embrace the idea of sharing his life with anyone again. But he’d realized that he had to let himself be a little vulnerable if he wanted Raina to trust him. Trust him and love him.
“You know I love you, Raina, don’t you?” he asked and felt a tentative swell of hope when she nodded. “I got off on the wrong foot with you to begin with and I can’t apologize enough for that. The man I was then, the one who thought he could approach someone with an ulterior motive and damn the consequences—he’s not the man I’m meant to be, nor the man I ever wanted to be. Do you believe me when I say that, too?”
Again she nodded and again he felt the tightness ease inside him that little bit more. Nolan led Raina over to a pair of chairs set against the wall in the alcove. They were surrounded by the noise and celebration of the crowd, and yet at the same time they were isolated. Locked in their own private space.
“I walked away from my life once,” he began anew. “Things became more than I could bear and I had to leave or lose myself completely. I found a new way of living with myself. Unfortunately it didn’t make me a very decent man.
“I like to think that everything in life eventually comes full circle and that fate took a hand in bringing me back to Royal. I wasn’t ready to come back, I’ll be honest with you about that. And I definitely wasn’t ready to fall in love. But I did. Coming home has given me a new start—a chance to lead a good decent life again, a life I want to share with you and JJ, if you’ll let me.
“I love you,” he repeated and took both her hands in his, bringing them up to his lips to kiss her knuckles.
“I know you love me. I believe you, Nolan,” Raina answered him quietly. “My father told me what you did with Jeb. Until I heard what he said and what you’d done, I think I was too afraid to trust my heart and let myself admit that I love you, too.” She pressed one hand against his chest. “I know you have a good and decent heart, Nolan, and your actions have proved that to me when I wouldn’t listen to what I really wanted to hear. You see, I don’t have such a great track record with men. I don’t tend to choose the stayers, or the reliable guys. In some ways I think I was just waiting for you to fail at the first hurdle because that would let me let you go.”
“And I did fail. I failed you terribly.”
“That’s in the past, Nolan. You’ve more than made amends for that. You were acting for your client and, to be honest, even I can see now that you had no other option than to do the best for him at the time.”
She looked up at him and Nolan saw tears swimming in her exquisite blue eyes. The sight made his heart wrench at the knowledge he’d put those tears there.
“Raina—” he started, but she put her fingertips to his lips.
“Shh, let me finish. You did what was right at the time, the same way you did what was right when you resigned your position with Samson Oil. I know that now.” She took in a deep breath and her voice was so soft when she next spoke, Nolan could barely hear her. “I also know about Carole and Bennett.”
The names struck him like a physical blow. “I planned to tell you, eventually,” he said, his voice raspy with emotion. “It was more difficult than I thought.”
“It’s okay, Nolan. I understand that it’s probably too painful for you to talk about them. For a while I’ve held that against you as another secret you were keeping from me. But I’ve let that go. Even so, there’s still something that worries me. Something I need to ask you.”
“Ask,” he demanded.
“Do you love me and JJ because we remind you of your wife and son?”
Nolan felt her gaze lock on him with an intensity that showed him that everything now relied upon his response. He pushed aside the pain and the hurt, and chose his words carefully. His future happiness depended on how he said this.
“Raina, I will always love Carole and Bennett.” His voice cracked on their names and he halted for a moment, closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath. “But they’re gone. Losing them— I thought I’d never love again. That I never could. It wasn’t just the pain of losing them, it was the risk of putting myself back out there again. Of maybe losing what little I had left of them, as well, if I let someone else into my heart.
“Meeting you has taught me that it’s possible to love again without diminishing what I had with Carole, and trust me, I never thought I’d even want to feel about anyone the way I feel about you. You’re so strong and so resilient. Life has battered you down and still you’ve shown your strengths by getting back up and moving forward. You haven’t just been an example to me, you’ve opened my eyes to who I should be and shown me that I can loosen my grip on the past. Doing so allows me to think of a future. It’s a future I want with you.”
She nodded but remained silent. He looked down at the little packet in her hands.
“Will you open it now?” he asked.
His heart hammered in his chest. She could still return it to him. And he’d accept it and let her go if that was what she really wanted, even though the very thought threatened to tear his heart in two. He held his breath until she’d worked loose the tape that bound the wrapping, exposing the ring box. She lifted the lid and gasped. Inside, nestled against a dark velvet bed, lay his promise to her—a cushion-cut blue diamond edged with brilliant white diamonds and set in delicate platinum scrollwork.
Nolan dropped to one knee on the floor in front of her and lifted the ring from the box, offering it to her.
“Raina Patterson, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife? Will you let me be your husband for eternity and be a father to JJ and any other children we might be lucky enough to have?”
She appeared lost for words until he heard her choke on a sob. Tears rolled down her face but none of that mattered when he heard the words she was so desperately working to get out of her throat.
“Yes. Yes. Yes,” she said repeatedly through her tears.
Nolan took her hand, slid the ring onto her finger and stood, pulling her to her feet. Raina lifted her face to his.
“I love you, Nolan. So very much. I was scared, I’ll admit it. And probably too quick to look for reasons not to love you. I didn’t want you to be able to hurt me and I didn’t trust my own judgment anymore. But I do now. I love you and I’d be the happiest woman in the world to marry you. I�
��m so lucky to have you.”
“I’m the lucky one, Raina. I never expected to be given another chance at love and life the way I have with you. And I want to spend the rest of my life showing you how much you mean to me.”
He kissed her and, in her arms, found the sense of belonging that had been missing from his world for far too long. Her lips were sweet and tender and tasted of the promise of a future he never dreamed he’d want again. And yet, with Raina, he knew the future would be truly wonderful and that it was something he wanted to grasp with both hands and hold on to and cherish forever.
“They’ll be doing the fireworks soon,” he commented as they came up for air and he saw the crowd thinning in the great room as people started to move outdoors for the display. “Did you want to go outside to watch?”
Raina shook her head. “No, let’s go home instead...and make our own.”
* * * * *
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NANNY MAKES THREE
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A SURPRISE FOR THE SHEIKH
by Sarah M. Anderson
IN PURSUIT OF HIS WIFE
by Kristi Gold
A BRIDE FOR THE BOSS
by USA TODAY bestselling author Maureen Child
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A White Wedding Christmas
by Andrea Laurence
Prologue
A lot had changed in the past fourteen years.
Fourteen years ago, Natalie and her best friend, Lily, were inseparable, and Lily’s older brother Colin was the tasty treat Natalie had craved since she was fifteen. Now, Lily was about to get married and their engagement party was being held at the large, sprawling estate of her brother.
He’d come a long way since she saw him last. She’d watched, smitten, as he’d evolved into the cool college guy, and when Lily and Colin’s parents died suddenly, Natalie had watched him turn into the responsible guardian of his younger sister and the head of his father’s company. He’d been more untouchable then than ever before.
Lily and Natalie hadn’t seen much of each other over the past few years. Natalie had gone to college at the University of Tennessee and Lily had drifted aimlessly. They exchanged the occasional emails and Facebook likes, but they hadn’t really talked in a long time. She’d been surprised when Lily called her at From This Moment, the wedding company Natalie co-owned, with a request.
A quickie wedding. Before Christmas, if possible. It had been early November at the time, and From This Moment usually had at least fourteen months of weddings scheduled in advance. But they closed at Christmas and for a friend, she and the other three ladies that owned and operated the wedding chapel agreed to squeeze one more wedding in before the holiday.
Natalie’s invitation for the engagement party arrived the next day and now, here she was, in a cocktail dress, milling around Colin’s huge house filled with people she didn’t know.
That wasn’t entirely true. She knew the bride. And when her gaze met the golden hazel eyes she’d fantasized about as a teenager, she remembered she knew a second person at the party, too.
“Natalie?” Colin said, crossing a room full of people to see her.
It took her a moment to even find the words to respond. This wasn’t the boy she remembered from her youth. He’d grown into a man with broad shoulders that filled out his expensive suit coat, a tanned complexion with eyes that crinkled as he smiled and a five-o’clock shadow that any teenager would’ve been proud to grow.
“It is you,” he said with a grin before he moved in for a hug.
Natalie steadied herself for the familiar embrace. Not everything had changed. Colin had always been a hugger. As a smitten teen, she’d both loved and hated those hugs. There was a thrill that ran down her spine from being so close; a tingle danced across her skin as it brushed his. Now, just as she did then, she closed her eyes and breathed in the scent of him. He smelled better than he did back when he wore cheap drugstore cologne, but even then, she’d loved it.
“How are you, Colin?” she asked as they parted. Natalie hoped her cheeks weren’t flushing red. They felt hot, but that could just be the wine she’d been drinking steadily since she got to the party.
“I’m great. Busy with the landscaping business, as always.”
“Right.” Natalie nodded. “You’re still running your dad’s company, aren’t you?”
He nodded, a hint of suppressed sadness lighting in his eyes for just a moment. Good going, Natalie, remind him of his dead parents straight off.
“I’m so glad you were able to fit Lily’s wedding in at your facility. She was adamant that the wedding happen there.”
“It’s the best,” Natalie said and it was true. There was no other place like their chapel in Nashville, Tennessee, or anywhere else she knew of. They were one of a kind, providing everything a couple needed for a wedding at one location.
“Good. I want the best for Lily’s big day. You look amazing, by the way. Natalie is all grown up,” Colin noted.
Natalie detected a hint of appreciation in his eyes as his gaze raked over the formfitting blue dress her business partner Amelia had forced her into wearing tonight. Now she was happy her fashion-conscious friend had dressed her up for the night. She glanced at Colin’s left hand—no ring. At one point, she’d heard he was married, but it must not have worked out. Shocker. That left the possibilities open for a more interesting evening than she’d first anticipated tonight.
“I’m nearly thirty now, you know. I’m not a teenager.”
Colin let out a ragged breath and forced his gaze back up to her face. “Thank goodness. I’d feel like a dirty old man right now if you were.”
Natalie’s eyebrow went up curiously. He was into her. The unobtainable fantasy might actually be within her grasp. Perhaps now was the time to make the leap she’d always been too chicken to make before. “You know, I have a confession to make.” She leaned into him, resting a hand on his shoulder. “I was totally infatuated with you when we were kids.”
Colin grinned wide. “Were you, now?”
“Oh yes.” And she wouldn’t mind letting those old fantasies run wild for a night. “You know, the party is starting to wind down. Would you be interested in getting out of here and finding someplace quiet where we could talk and catch up?”
Natalie said the words casually, but her body language read anything but. She watched as Colin swallowed hard, the muscles in his throat working up and down a
s he considered her offer. It was bold, and she knew it, but she might not have another chance to get a taste of Colin Russell.
“I’d love to catch up, Natalie, but unfortunately I can’t.”
Natalie took a big sip of her wine, finishing her glass, and nodded, trying to cover the painful flinch at his rejection. Suddenly she was sixteen again and felt just as unworthy of Colin’s attentions as ever. Whatever.
“Well, that’s a shame. I’ll see you around then,” she said, shrugging it off as though it was nothing but a casual offer. Turning on her heel with a sly smile, she made her way through the crowd and fled the party before she had to face any more embarrassment.
Copyright © 2015 by Andrea Laurence
ISBN-13: 9781460386910
Lone Star Holiday Proposal
Copyright © 2015 by Harlequin Books S.A.
Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Yvonne Lindsay for her contribution to the Texas Cattleman’s Club: Lies and Lullabies miniseries.
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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