Ellie’s heart felt as if it were about to burst. If this was a proposal, it was the craziest ever.
And the best...
‘I do,’ she whispered. ‘I do...’
Ava was looking from Luke’s face to Ellie’s and back again.
‘That sounded like a wedding vow.’ She grinned.
‘It will be,’ Luke murmured. ‘I hope.’
Ellie couldn’t say anything. She was drowning in love, here, unable to tear her gaze from Luke’s. But she could nod. And she could move closer so that Luke could put his arm around her and hold her up because her knees had gone distinctly shaky.
Mike cleared his throat. He sounded more tentative than he ever had. ‘That doesn’t mean that you’re going to take the property off the market, does it?’
‘If that’s what Ellie wants,’ Luke said.
Ellie couldn’t stop tears gathering at the enormity of what Luke was offering. His love would have been more than enough. This house and garden would be an astonishing bonus but it was more than that.
He was offering to share his past with her.
And his present.
And his future. Their future.
‘It’s exactly what I want,’ she whispered. ‘It’s home...I think it was the moment I walked in here.’
Luke glanced at Mike. ‘Well, that’s that. Sorry. The house is definitely off the market.’
Mike’s nod was resigned. ‘Should have seen that coming, I guess. You two belong together. And you belong here.’ He glared at Marco. ‘You don’t belong here, mate. Come on—I’ll show you the way out.’
Ava watched them leave and then she took a deep breath and smiled at Ellie. ‘We’ve got a lot to catch up on, haven’t we?’
‘We do.’
‘Another time, maybe. I’ve never crashed someone’s proposal before and I’m suddenly feeling like I’m more than a bit in the way.’
But Luke was smiling, too. ‘Please stay,’ he said. ‘I’ll put Jamie to bed and then I’ll find a bottle of wine for you girls so you can catch up properly.’ He bent his head to place a tender kiss on Ellie’s lips. ‘We’ve got the rest of our lives together.’
Ava’s breath came out in a sigh as soon as they were alone.
‘Wow...’
‘I know...’
‘That’s Luke Gilmore.’
‘I know.’ Ellie could feel her smile stretching to rival one of Jamie’s best efforts. He wasn’t Kauri Valley High School’s bad boy Luke Gilmore any more.
He was hers... Her best friend. Her lover. Her soul mate...
And the real miracle was that he felt the same way and the power of that love had been enough to make him realise that his rules had created a prison.
He was free.
Free to be with anyone he chose.
And he had chosen her...
‘Sit down,’ Ava ordered. ‘And start talking. Unless you would rather I made myself scarce? I won’t be offended or anything.’
But Ellie was smiling because she could still hear Luke’s last words—the most beautiful words she had ever heard.
We’ve got the rest of our lives together.
* * * * *
If you enjoyed this story, check out these other great reads from Alison Roberts
A LIFE-SAVING REUNION
THEIR FIRST FAMILY CHRISTMAS
THE FORBIDDEN PRINCE
THE FLING THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
All available now!
Keep reading for an excerpt from CONVENIENT MARRIAGE, SURPRISE TWINS by Amy Ruttan.
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Convenient Marriage, Surprise Twins
by Amy Ruttan
CHAPTER ONE
“HE’S AN IDIOT. I dislike him. There’s no way in heck I’m going to work with him, let alone marry him!”
What Iolana failed to say was, Dr. Andrew Tremblay may be an ass, but he’s sexy as hell and all I want to do is throw him down and either kiss him or strangle him repeatedly.
Her little brother didn’t need to know that part.
No one did.
Or she’d lose her reputation. The one that she’d painstakingly rebuilt since David had left her heart in tatters two years ago. She needed to keep that reputation intact. It was bad enough that she was the daughter of the Chief of Surgery.
Being the daughter of the Chief of Surgery meant that she had to work even harder to prove herself. That she didn’t get handouts.
“Come on, Lana, he’s the best trainer and sports medicine guy that knows about surfing. He’s going to get me into the championships in a couple of months. I need him.”
“No way, Keaka. There is no way.” Iolana smiled to herself, using her brother Jack’s Hawaiian name, which drove him nuts. Even though he used it when he was surfing.
Jack frowned and crossed his arms as he glared at her.
“There is no point in giving me the death stare, Keaka. I invented that death stare.” Iolana pushed past him. And she had taught him that death stare. She’d practically raised Jack after their mother left.
“Dad would’ve applied for his green card as his employer.”
“No, Dad didn’t want to do that. He sees it as favoritism.” Jack rolled his eyes. Lana didn’t find it hard to believe that her father hadn’t applied for Dr. Tremblay’s green card. That sounded like something her father would do.
Never take responsibility, unless it was his patient or his hospital. Which was why Jack was here, begging her to fix his problem. Like she’d done before. Many times. Lana shouldered a lot of responsibility for her little brother.
“Why didn’t Andrew take care of it? He has time.”
“He got busy. Now it’s too late for him.”
Lana rolled her eyes.
Not surprising.
The moment Andrew had walked through the doors of Kahu Kai Hospital he’d had entitled, irresponsible playboy written all over him. Not irresponsible with his patients, but with everything else in his life.
“Keaka, I love you but I don’t think so.”
“Come on, Lana,” Jack begged. “Andrew Tremblay was the best surfer for years. He dominated the world championships. I need this favor from you.”
Iolana snorted. “A Canadian who was a world champion surfer. Seems h
ighly unlikely.”
“Don’t judge a book by its cover, Lana!” There was a glint in Jack’s eye and Iolana couldn’t help but smile, just a bit, as she sat down on the edge of her desk, crossing her arms the way her little brother had done to give him the death stare.
Jack was younger than her by ten years and he always got what he wanted, being the only son. Lana had shouldered a lot of responsibility since their mother left. Their father was a prominent surgeon in Oahu, claiming that he was a distant descendant from an ancient king who ruled Oahu and didn’t have time to raise little kids. So Lana had raised Keaka “Jack” Jr.
Iolana knew their father, Dr. Keaka Haole Sr., wanted Jack to follow in his footsteps and be a surgeon. Except Jack didn’t want any of that. He wanted to be a world champion surfer. That was Jack’s passion, and it had been Iolana’s too, but there’d been such a gulf between Jack and her father since their mother left that Iolana felt as if she had to constantly work to repair the rift between them.
Which was why she was an orthopedic surgeon at her father’s hospital. Or surfing alongside her brother.
“Why should I marry him?”
“Because he’s my friend, a lot of Hawaiian entrants are counting on him, I’m your brother and...” Jack rubbed the back of his neck. “He’ll be kicked out, Lana. There is no surfing in Canada.”
Iolana cocked an eyebrow. “I believe there is.”
“It’s not the same, which is why he came here and became a legend.” Jack ran his hand through his hair. “Lana, athletes come from all over North America to train with Dr. Andrew Tremblay, which is why Dad let him have hospital privileges here.”
“Don’t remind me,” Iolana griped.
She was all too aware that Dr. Andrew Tremblay was given privileges at her hospital, in her department, no less. The way he strutted around the halls, when he was actually here, drove her bonkers.
So smug. So sure of himself.
She’d always thought Canadians were supposed to be nice.
Jack was right. Andrew brought in a lot of money to their hospital and it would make a significant dent in their hospital profits if he left. And Jack might lose his chance at becoming a champion surfer.
Her dreams had been crushed to keep the peace; she couldn’t let that happen to Jack.
“I think this is fraud,” she said. “I don’t relish jail time.”
“You’ve known Andrew for some time. I think we can pull it off. Besides, isn’t Dad always on your case about settling down?”
Iolana frowned. She hated it when her brother was right and their father had been on at her lately about settling down. And her father respected Andrew and knew what he brought into their hospital.
Her father would approve of her choice.
Would he?
Her father had approved of David and look how that turned out. She’d become the laughingstock of the hospital, falling for a womanizer like David.
Her father had been disappointed instead of consoling when it had ended.
People pitied her.
Poor Dr. Lana Haole.
She hated the pity. Hated that her reputation had been destroyed.
It would just be for a year or two. It wouldn’t be all that horrible to marry him for convenience sake.
Jack was grinning at her, probably because he knew that he was wearing her down and she was going to say yes.
“He has to ask me,” Iolana said. “That’s my condition. If he wants the world to believe that we’re an item and that this marriage is legitimate to protect his keister, he’s going to have to get on one knee with a ring and ask me.”
Jack winced. “A ring?”
“A ring.” Iolana got up and walked to the door of her office, giving her little brother a subtle hint that she wanted him to leave. “And a nice, big, expensive...”
The words died in her throat when she saw that Andrew was on the other side of the door, a hand raised as if he was about to knock. He grinned in that boyish way that simultaneously made her melt and grated on her nerves. How many times had they butted heads on the ER floor? And he always ended arguments with that smile which infuriated her.
“I see Jack’s spoken to you.”
Iolana crossed her arms and glared at him. All he did was grin. “Dr. Tremblay,” she acknowledged.
He slipped his hands into the pockets of his white lab coat and grinned, leaning forward. “You know, if you glare at me like that no one is going to believe that we’re supposed to be getting married.”
Iolana growled as he moved past her and into her office. She shut the door and stood in front of it, glaring both at her brother and Andrew.
Andrew cocked his eyebrow. “You don’t look too happy about this arrangement.”
“And what about this arrangement should I be happy about?” she demanded.
“I get to stay here and work. I get to continue on your brother’s training.”
“And why should that make me happy?” she asked.
“Oh, come now, Dr. Haole. You treasure me and my experience.”
“Well, I’ll leave you two to figure out the details of this arrangement,” Jack said nervously as he walked toward the door. Iolana fixed him with an icy glare as he moved past her and slipped out into the hallway.
“Hey, Keaka, not a word to Dad!” she called out after her brother, before slamming the door again and facing her intended.
“Keaka, eh? You must be ticked off at him.” Andrew didn’t look at her. Instead he wandered around, looking at everything but avoiding eye contact with her. Which was safer for him because she was sure her look would grill him on the spot.
“I’m not happy about this, Dr. Tremblay.” She marched to her desk and took a seat in her chair. She wanted to put something solid between the two of them. She folded her hands on her desk. “There are stipulations to this arrangement.”
He cocked one of those blond eyebrows of his and adjusted his glasses. “Stipulations?”
“You want this to be believable, don’t you? I mean, if Immigration were to find out, our careers and the reputation of this hospital would be at stake. Jail time as well. Besides, I’m not irresponsible. I would’ve dealt with this long ago, so as not to resort to this.”
He nodded, but she could tell by the way his lips were firmly pressed together he didn’t enjoy her lecture. He just tolerated it. “Fair enough. What did you have in mind, Dr. Haole?”
“I want a public proposal,” she said. “And I want a ring.”
“You want a ring?” he asked in disbelief that wiped the haughtiness off his face.
“We have to make this as real as possible.” Iolana couldn’t help but grin. “I’m risking a lot.”
“Is that so?” He leaned over her desk, those blue eyes of his boring into her. “Any particular cut?”
She held out her hand, wiggling her fingers in front of him and grinning, knowing that she was bugging him immensely. “I’m partial to an emerald cut, but I’ll leave that up to you. There has to be some romance in this arrangement.”
Andrew made a face. “Is there anything else?”
“Well, we’re going to have to suss out living arrangements, I suppose. I guess it would make the most sense if you move in with me, and we’ll have to sign a prenuptial agreement.”
“It’s not a real marriage,” he said and then looked highly insulted. “What’s wrong with my place?”
“Don’t you live in an apartment? I have a house. And it is a real marriage—we’re really getting married. It’s not a make-believe marriage. I have to protect my assets.”
“Fine.” He straightened and crossed his arms. “So when am I supposed to make this public announcement of our engagement?”
“I’m not sure. Perhaps at the fund-raiser at the end of the week?
That would be a good place for you to get down on one knee and give me a ring.”
“You have this all figured out, and so fast.” Andrew grinned then. “You’re secretly pleased by this, aren’t you? I think there’s more to you than meets the eye.”
Heat bloomed in her cheeks. “I think fast on my feet. That’s all.”
“No, I think you secretly want this. You want me.”
She was seeing red. “I could turn you in.”
“You won’t, though.”
“Won’t I?”
“No, because you’re attracted to me. You just don’t want to admit it.”
She glared at him. “Now I remember why I didn’t want to do this. You’re an arrogant jerk.”
“So why are you doing this if you detest me so?”
“Business. You bring revenue into this hospital.”
“That I can’t deny.” He grinned. “Is that all?”
No.
He was her ticket to have people stop pitying her. Including David.
“I love my brother and he thinks you’ll bring him to the surfing championships.”
Andrew nodded. “Jack is talented and he will get to the finals. He will be a champion.”
Iolana smiled then. “That’s why I’m doing it. Nothing more.”
“It is a lot for you to take on. You must love your brother.”
“I do.”
“Well, I appreciate it.” And she knew that he meant it; just the change in his attitude made her think that he was sincere.
“Are you actually thanking me, Dr. Tremblay? I’m shocked.”
“Don’t get too used to it, Dr. Haole. And I think, because we’re supposed to be intimate, we can drop the formalities and use our first names. I mean, people won’t believe that we’re madly in love if we refer to each other as Dr. Tremblay and Dr. Haole.”
“Fine,” Iolana said. Though the thought of being intimate, of letting her guard down made her stomach twist. David had hurt her so badly that the thought of letting someone else in, no matter how lonely she was, was terrifying indeed. Even if it was fake. It was risky.
The Surrogate's Unexpected Miracle Page 16
