by Ford, Mia
I was speechless and didn’t even have the first clue as to what to say. He leaned forward, smiling and brushing his lips against mine. I took in a deep breath and leaned forward, laying my head back on his chest. He brushed my hair away from my face and closed his eyes, listening to the sounds of the waves. I was so completely and utterly in love with this man that it was insane.
As he drifted off to sleep, I stayed awake, listening to his heart and dreaming about our future. There were so many things that both of us wanted to accomplish, and though they were on different sides of the spectrum, I could tell that our lives crisscrossed right In the middle. That was what a true relationship was really about, having the ability to be your own self, but at the same time, find your paths crossing at the absolute perfect time. Blaine was that crisscross for me. He was that absolute, perfect moment in life, and I never wanted to give him up. I knew that no matter where I went in this world, Blaine would be with me every step of the way.
I turned over in the bed and snuggled my head into the pillow, feeling Blaine turn over toward me and slide his arms around my waist, pulling me close. I had loved the feeling of his arms since the first time we made love, and now, it meant even more to me, knowing that we had almost died. I couldn’t help but think that although the situation had been terrible, it was almost a blessing that it happened the way it did. I no longer had to make a decision about my future. I was free to do whatever I wanted. What I wanted the most was to have Blaine close to me every night and kiss me every morning before I went to work. It may be simple, but it sure as hell beat the mobsters.
Epilogue
Blaine
It had been two months since everything had happened. Every single one of the mob family ended up with a prison sentence, and after the judge heard what Paulie and Harry had done to Josie, he threw the book at them. I was pretty sure Harry wasn’t going to get out of prison alive this time, having made some enemies squealing on them in an attempt to get a plea bargain. The judge dropped all the charges against Josie, paid her restitution, and made a public apology for the way she was treated by the department. She didn’t seem to like the attention, but I was happy she was getting vindication. She was able to get her father cremated, and his ashes sat in the living room of my place, which is now our place, on a marble pedestal by the fireplace.
I took Josie’s hand and carefully helped her up the short flight of steps. She was blindfolded and feeling around her, trying to figure out where I was taking her. I opened the shop door and stepped inside, pulling her forward into the space. I was so excited to give her this gift, it was unbelievable. I closed the door behind us and stepped behind her, pulling the blindfold from her face.
“Ta-da,” I said, walking around and watching her face.
“Wow,” she said, looking at the open space. “But I don’t understand. What is this for?”
“This is for your project,” I said proudly. “We are now standing in your new office space.”
I watched as her eyes grew big, and she started to excitedly walk around the space. She had been invited back to teach, but there was still a bit of a stigma, so she had stayed home since then. I was pretty sure that she wasn’t going to go back to teaching, which was fine with me. She sold her father’s house and moved into mine, and now, we got to sleep in the same bed every night, which was amazing. However, with the lack of employment, she was starting to go a bit stir crazy. She just didn’t know what she wanted to do with her life. She knew that she had the passion, but she really needed the purpose. I sat down and talked to her about her dreams, reminding her that it was never too late to reach for those goals. So, after a lot of thought and about a million sheets of paper, she had started to make a lot of headway into the non-profit sector.
She was starting to run out of room at our place so I thought, what better way to show my support than to get her the space she needed to create the way she wanted to. I could already see that she was ecstatic. Everybody with an idea as big as hers needed their own space, a place to spread out and really put some power behind their ideas. Josie had my kitchen table, and I could tell she wasn’t happy about working from home. So, once I knew everything was totally safe, I bought Josie her own office that was big enough for her to expand in and to bring in employees when she reached that point.
I watched her and smiled as she walked around the room, running her hand over the desks and separators that kept each person in their own little cubicle. She was so excited, and she made me laugh loudly as she jumped up and down and squealed. She came running back over to me, throwing her arms around me and hugging me tightly.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she said, laughing.
“It still needs a bit of work, and new carpet and such, but when we are done with it, you will be the hottest office in all of non-profit,” I said, smiling. “Besides, you have been stuck, and I was really impressed with how much dedication you have been putting into getting this whole thing together. You are really putting your heart and soul into it, and I want you to have the space to explore. I could tell the other day that you were struggling to get out of work mode when you were working from home. Now, you have a place to come to.
“Thank you so much,” she said, leaning up and giving me a big kiss. “You are the world to me. You treat me so good, it’s nuts.”
We wandered around the main area of the office a bit more, exploring the closets and the bathrooms before I nudged her and pulled her over to the corner office. The place was beautiful, already decorated for her with some of the art that she always drooled over in our place. I had the artist do some specialty pieces just for her. The windows in the building were floor to ceiling, and she gasped as she walked over and looked at the view. There were no high-rise buildings in the background, no brick walls, or parking garages. Instead, she could see way out into the ocean. The back of the building faced a private beach, and if you tilted the windows open, you could hear the sound of the waves.
“This is so amazing,” she said, shaking her head and looking out over the water. “I never thought I would have an office, let alone one that looked out over a beach.”
“On top of all that,” I said, leading her away from the window. “This is the desk you will be creating your empire from.”
“Wow,” she said, looking down at the oak desk in front of her.
She walked along, rubbing her hand across the desk and plopping down in the chair behind it. She looked at me and smiled. She looked sexy sitting there like that, and I thought about messing around in the office to break the place in. However, knowing I had somewhere I was trying to take this whole office visit, I controlled my urges and stepped back.
“Now,” I said, standing back. “Turn your chair to the right and open the drawer.”
She looked at me curiously before doing as I asked. She turned her chair slowly, looking at the drawer and then back up at me. I laughed at how timid she was, as if something inside was going to get her. She was so beautiful, and the backdrop of the ocean just made everything ten times better. She slowly pulled the drawer out and stared down at a small box inside. I could see her curiosity swirling around as she reached down and pulled the box out. She turned back and set it in front of her on the desk, moving it around but not opening it. I shook my head and crossed my arms, looking at her with humor on my face. She smiled big and popped open the lid, revealing a very large, round, sparkling diamond ring. Immediately, her hands flew up to her mouth, and she shook her head in shock.
I walked over to her and bent down in front of her, taking her hands in mine. She turned toward me and smiled, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes. This was it, the big moment that would determine all of my future happiness in this world. I loved this girl so much, and I knew without a doubt that this was the right move.
“Josie,” I said, looking up at her. “From the first moment that I met you, you stoked a fire in my soul. It was a fire that made me the happiest man on the planet. You pushed me to
do things, like take my career seriously, follow my dreams, and do what was best for me. Now, I am helping others who, like you, were falsely accused of crimes that landed them in jail, their lives put on hold because no one would listen to them. I have found my niche in life where I can be the lawyer my parents always wanted and actually make a difference in this world. I owe every part of that to you. I have been down the road where I almost lost you. I have watched you slipping from my hands, and it was more devastating than anything I had ever been through before. You are the love of my life. I cannot imagine going a day without seeing that beautiful smile, watching that stubborn tick when you don’t get your way, and feeling my arms around you as we sleep at night. I want every part of you. I want to love and cherish you for the rest of our very long lives. You are the one for me.”
I cleared my throat and pulled the ring from the box, holding it up in front of her. The sun glistened off the diamond, casting moving shadows throughout the entire room. She looked around and laughed, with the wonder of a child glistening in her beautiful eyes. I rubbed a tear from her cheek and took a deep breath, ready to make everything finally come together.
“I am satisfied with my career, I am satisfied with my person, and I am satisfied with the direction in which our lives are going,” I said. “Now, it’s time for me to be satisfied at home, too. Josie, will you please make me the luckiest man in the world and marry me?”
My hands were shaking as I held the ring in front of her. It was like time had stopped, and my heart was beating out of my chest. I knew without a doubt that I wanted to live the rest of my life with this woman in my arms. Anderson asked if I thought it was too soon, but I knew it wasn’t soon enough. We may have only been together for a little over four months, but we shared a soul that had been together for centuries. There wasn’t a moment in my life that I didn’t think about her and our future. Everything I did on a daily basis was for this woman, and everything she did was for me. We were an amazing team, the best of friends, and incredible lovers.
“Yes,” she said finally, shaking her head up and down and laughing through her tears. “Of course, I will marry you. You are my world.”
I smiled and slid the ring onto her finger. She held her hand out in front of her and shook her head, watching the sun catch the curves and dips in the stone. She put her hand down and stood up, pulling me to my feet. I leaned down and wrapped my arms around her waist, picking her up in the air and hugging her tightly. She leaned her face back and pressed her lips against mine, giving me a long, passionate kiss. I set her back down on the floor, and we turned toward the window, watching the waves crash jubilantly against the shore. She shook her head, leaned it against my shoulder, and sighed.
“What is it, baby?” I asked.
“Nothing,” she said. “I’m just so incredibly happy, and for the first time in a very long time, there is absolutely nothing wrong. My life is perfect.”
“You are perfect,” I replied.
“Far from it,” she said, laughing.
“You are to me,” I said, turning toward her and looking her in the eyes. “We are perfect for each other.”
“We always have been,” she replied. “For centuries.”
“I love you,” I said, leaning down and kissing her lips.
She looked up at me and smiled, folding her arms over my shoulders.
“And I love you, Blaine,” she replied. “And I will continue to do so for the rest of our lives.”
Best Seller: Mine Forever
Blurb
Jess White is trying to keep it all together. With a child to care for and only her sister to help her do it, she most certainly has her hands full and her job as a flight attendant doesn’t make keeping it all together any easier. When a gorgeous new pilot joins the team for one eventful flight, Jess can’t help but notice him but all of her warning bells go off. The last thing she needs is the complications that come with a hot shot pilot, especially one as good looking as this guy.
Drew Larson is all business, almost all of the time. He takes a no nonsense approach to his job as a pilot and doesn’t hesitate to implement it when he meets a less than responsible pilot. He has his life pretty well figured out, except for the hot blonde flight attendant he can’t seem to get out of his head. The last thing he wants is to get involved with a woman, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t interested in doing some very inappropriate things to the very sweet attendant on his plane.
As the tension begins to build, will Drew and Jess find a way to navigate their intersecting worlds or will everything come to a head and blow up in their faces?
Chapter 1: Jess
“Red light, Mom! There’s a red light coming up!”
The yellow light about to turn was something I had seen with no problem at all, but I hadn’t been prepared for the sound of my daughter's yelling. I slammed on the brakes of my little white Volvo, throwing both Emma and me forward in our seats. The seatbelt tightened, making me feel like I was suffocating, and I heard Emma make a little strangled sound as her own belt struck her across her throat. When I glanced back at the light, I saw that it was just, at that moment, turning from yellow to red. There had been no need whatsoever for the rapid stop. I rolled my eyes and glanced up at the rearview mirror, where I saw my beautiful ten-year-old girl smiling devilishly.
“Emma, what was that for? We had plenty of time. It would have been safer to stop more slowly.”
“Dunno. This was more interesting, you know?”
"Interesting isn't always better, baby. We're not trying to make things interesting. We're trying to get you to Aunt Sophie's place in one piece."
"But everything's fine, Mama! No big deal, right?"
I rolled my eyes again and hoped that Emma couldn't see the little smile playing at the corners of my mouth. She was only ten years old, but sometimes, I felt sure that she was going on thirty. The way she delivered her little one liners. She had a level of sarcasm and knowing in her that could make it difficult to remember she was only a kid.
I'd talked to Sophie about it a time or two, expressing my concern the way I was sure any mother would. It was probably because she'd had to grow up faster than a lot of little girls, Sophie had always said. Losing her daddy when she was only five years old was certainly enough to do it.
Being shuttled from one home to another would do it, too, and that was something that wasn't going to stop any time soon. Case in point, our current car trip. For the third time in less than a month, I was dropping my daughter off to stay with her aunt, my younger sister, so that I could do my job. Being a flight attendant was something I had always dreamed about, and it was something I mostly loved, but leaving my kid every other week? That part sucked, and there was no getting around it.
"Hey, Mama?"
“Hey, what?”
“What’s the matter with you?” she asked.
"That's not a very nice question!" I answered with a laugh, hoping Emma couldn't see how much her keen perception of me shook me up. "And there's nothing the matter with me. I'm just thinking, that's all."
“But thinking about what?”
“Nothing important,” I said.
“Thinking about something bad, I bet.”
“And why would you think that?”
"Because your head got all wrinkly. Your head always gets all wrinkly when you're thinking about something bad."
“No, Emma, I promise. I’m not thinking about anything bad.”
At least, I hoped it was nothing bad. I added that last part inside my own head as I worked on making sure my forehead remained unwrinkled. Emma was right, the little frown line in between my eyebrows was one of my tells. It was where my worry showed, unless I worked on suppressing it, and Emma appeared to know it.
It shouldn't have been surprising, either. She got the same line of worry on her own small face when something was bugging her. I thought about leaving our conversation where it was and then thought better of it. One thing I had always promised myself
was that I would never lie to my daughter. It was a promise I had made directly after the death of her father, my husband, and one I intended to keep.
Not telling her what was on my mind wasn't exactly a lie, but it wasn't giving her any peace of mind, either. I was already about to drop her off and leave her for a couple of days, which was hard enough. The least I could do was drop her off with Sophie without her having to worry about what I had really been thinking about.
“Hey, baby, can I ask you something?”
“Is it about the thing you’re thinking about?” Emma asked.
“It is.”
"Okie dokie. What's up?"
“It’s about going to Aunt Sophie’s house.”
“Alrighty.”
“I’ve just been wondering, Emma. Does it bother you?”
“I love Aunt Sophie. I like her, too, so I like being with her.”
“I know you do, baby, but does it bother you how often I have to leave you with her? Does it bother you how often I’m away?”
She was quiet for a minute. The light turned green, and my foot pressed down on the gas pedal. Her silence made me nervous about what her answer might be, but at the same time, it made me proud. My baby girl wasn't the kind of kid to deliver an answer without thinking it through, and that was something any parent should be proud of. It was something I would always be impressed by, even when the answers she gave me weren't precisely what I wanted to hear.
“Yes and no,” she said finally.
“That sounds like a true answer. Want to explain it a little?”
“Well,” she said thoughtfully, her voice sounding adult enough that it gave me a little pang of anticipation of her growing up. “You like your job, right?”
“I do, sweetie. I really do.”
“That’s what I thought. I like that. I think everyone should like what they do.”
