The party guests shifted and a swirl of whispers and gasps floated over the air, but Harper couldn’t tear her eyes away from Brandon as he pressed his forehead to her hand, then sought her gaze once more.
“This is me begging, Harper. I’m begging you to love me, to have me, because I can’t live without you. I can’t breathe without you. There is no me without you.” He rotated his jaw, as though the weight of his emotions was turning his muscles into lead. “I can’t stand it any longer, you not knowing how utterly I’ve fallen in love with you. You’re already my best friend, my everything, but I want more—no, I demand more. I refuse to live one more minute of my life without you by my side. As my partner, as my lover, as my wife. My world.”
Harper reached her free hand out and traced the angle of his cheekbone, capturing a solitary tear that had broken free from his eye. Collecting herself, she drew as deep a breath as she could and looked around the room, above the heads of their audience.
On every television set, photographs from the last two months flashed at her—the evidence of their growing bond. The party at Duke’s lake house, the hospital, skydiving, hockey, yet the photographs showed only a fraction of the moments that built a friendship like theirs. The late-night conversations, the endless text messages, the arguments and the jokes, the laughter and the tears. The messy moments that made up a history together.
The photographs didn’t show the man who’d shepherded her through her darkest hours surrounding her surgery, who’d held her tight through an endless night and told her over and over that she wasn’t alone until she believed him. This was the man who’d taught her how to live, to really live.
She let her gaze fall back to meet his. “I loved being your best friend.”
“I loved being your best friend, too. I want to be your best friend for the rest of our lives.”
Every molecule of her body screamed, Yes, that. “You want to marry me?” She didn’t yet trust herself to have understood him correctly.
“I do, more than anything.”
The cameraman cleared his throat. “Show her the ring, dude.”
Brandon’s eyes widened. “I almost forgot about that.”
From his suit jacket pocket, he withdrew a black velvet box and opened it. Sparkling up at her was her ring. Her sapphire and diamond ring. “I want to marry you and I want to live in your big brick fortress with you except when I take you around the world to see everywhere you’ve ever wanted to go, show you anything you’ve ever wanted to see, and help you experience any crazy or wonderful thing that you get in your mind to do.”
All she could think to say was, “We’d need more blue napkins.”
He released a nervous laugh, the fire in his eyes softening. “A lot more. An endless supply. Tell me you forgive me for taking so long to figure out that I couldn’t live without you, Harper. Tell me that you love me. Please.”
“I forgive you for taking so long and for breaking my heart so many times.” Sniffing, she dabbed at the corner of her eye before continuing. “I think I would have waited for you forever. I told myself over and over that I needed to move on, and there were moments when I honestly believed that I could, but the truth was that there is no hope of moving on from someone who’s permanently etched on my heart, on my very soul. You said that there was no you without me, but the same is true for me, with you. I love you. I’ve always loved you and I always will.”
He bowed his head, his breath stuttering out, and when he looked back up at her, tears streamed down his cheeks. He held the ring box higher. “Then marry me.”
She nodded like crazy and was too overwhelmed to croak out more than a “Yes.” Not that he would’ve let her say more. Rising, his arms closed around her and his lips found hers.
The room exploded in cheers. Harper heard them over the fast, loud beating of her heart, but only barely. She framed Brandon’s face with her hands and poured all her love into a kiss that was over too fast.
Breaking away, he thrust the ring box between their bodies and removed the ring with unsteady fingers.
Harper’s whole body surrendered to a shiver as he slipped the ring onto her ring finger.
“I love this ring,” she said as he slipped it on her finger.
“It’s going to look even better next to a wedding band.”
The joy of that idea made laughter bubble up inside her. She could have lived without Brandon Theroux, she would’ve found a way, but, oh, the life they were going to have together.
He took her left hand by the wrist and held it up in a kind of victory salute that made the party guests go wild all over again.
“Swing that rock over here,” the cameraman said.
Hands joined, Brandon and Harper obliged.
“We’re being filmed still,” Harper said.
“Well, yeah. You’re the big finale of the show. It might be called Meet the Groom, but I can’t wait for the world to meet my chosen bride.”
She gasped through a smile. “I’m the final shocking twist!”
“You’re the game changer, baby.” With a wink, he flashed her his signature rakish, lopsided grin. “How about we show ’em at home how it’s done?”
His hands cradled her head and his lips descended over hers. He kissed her deeply and passionately, just like she needed to be kissed, like she deserved to be, like only he, Brandon Theroux—decorated war veteran, amputee advocate, America’s favorite groom, Destiny Falls’ most famous citizen, and Harper Johnson’s very best friend—was capable of kissing her.
Epilogue
One year later . . .
The Meet the Groom season finale was television’s surprise hit of the fall, hitting ratings gold with a surprise twist ending that had every entertainment news program and magazine abuzz for weeks. Brandon and Harper turned down a lucrative offer to stage a televised wedding spectacular, but television viewers rejoiced as fan favorite Danielle was announced at the end of the show’s finale as the next season’s star of Meet the Bride—a deal she only accepted after the network agreed to donate a half-million dollars and commercial airtime to Urban Treble.
Kayla Ray made it through boot camp in one piece, if not a tad more humble than she’d been before enlisting, and vowing never to complain about boredom again. After completing specialized training as a small arms repairer and technician, Kayla was assigned to a US base in Okinawa, Japan, where Harper and Brandon had the privilege of hand-delivering Kayla’s first care package from Destiny Falls and sharing the news of their engagement with their dear friend during one of their many adventures abroad.
Brandon’s celebrity continued to finance his determination to show Harper the world from hundreds of different views. Toward that end, they’ve already crossed off from their new bliss list the Eiffel Tower, the London Eye Ferris wheel, and the top of the pyramid at Chichen Itza in Mexico. But no matter where in the world they traveled, they ended every trip in their favorite place: tucked into the cozy second-floor apartment of their very own historical brick fortress sitting on the bank of the Erie Canal in the small New York town they called home.
Gabe continued to flourish in his role as Bomb Squad’s team captain. After a series of failed roommate situations, he asked Will to be his roommate, but Will decided he didn’t much mind being the guy who lived in the backyard at Duke’s house. However, he did almost let Gabe talk him into asking out the waitress at Locks who’d been flirting with him. Almost.
As for Gabe’s love life, he finally worked up the courage to sign up with an online dating site, but all that did was provide him with a series of colorful stories to share with his buddies over beer. He never did find a roommate he liked as well as Brandon, so he gave up the search and adopted a rescued pit bull named Roxie, who fast became a cherished companion and the best roommate a person could hope for.
Presley adored being single more than she’d ever dreamed possibl
e. Inspired by Harper, she started her own bliss list and it wasn’t long until she discovered a new passion—dancing the Argentine tango, a love she stumbled upon by accident when a dance studio moved in across the street from her accounting office. She revamped her signature style from 1950s pinup girl to Evita chic, as she called it. Though singledom suited her, sometimes the struggle to find a dance partner proved frustrating, and when plied with enough wine, she sometimes let slip that she wouldn’t be opposed to committing to a permanent dance partner, should a dashing gentleman who knew how to lead a tango happen to move into town.
Theo and Allison settled seamlessly into married life, and it wasn’t long before Duke, Liam, Brandon, and Theo were tearing down walls of the Cloud Nine landing house to add another bedroom to support the Lacroixs’ growing family. Baby Henri wasn’t slated to make his appearance for a couple more months, but Duke’s crew had raced to finish the project in advance of Brandon and Harper’s wedding day in early July. Though they didn’t quite succeed in that goal, neither the bride or groom minded the under construction appearance of the landing house in the backdrop of the grassy commons where the ceremony would be taking place as soon as Brandon’s bride emerged from her apartment and joined him where he waited just inside Locks’ front doors to escort her down the aisle.
In fact, Brandon didn’t think he’d ever seen such a perfect picture as his view from the window at Locks of all the many people he loved sitting together in rows of white chairs beneath a glorious, sun-soaked afternoon sky, ready to share in the happiest day of Brandon’s life. He was so damn lucky to be alive, to have been given this second chance, and to be surrounded by so much love. He hoped he never got over the awe of it.
From his tuxedo jacket pocket, he pulled a cerulean-blue cocktail napkin that he carried in his wallet wherever he went—his most precious possession, his talisman. Though he knew them by heart, his gaze scrolled over the words that laid out in simple terms his true purpose for being, the reason his life had been spared. In one of life’s great ironies, the Meet the Groom announcer had been asking the very question Brandon should’ve been asking himself all along. As it turned out, love really was the answer.
A rustle of fabric and footsteps pulled his attention to the stairs, where Harper stood with Presley, Olivia, Marlena, and a very pregnant Allison behind her. Harper looked resplendent in a stunning white gown that hugged her figure just right. Peeking out from beneath the dress’s neckline were blue and green swirls of color from the intricate Japanese-inspired koi design she’d had tattooed on her chest. Though Brandon took every opportunity to remind her that her body would always be a perfect work of art and beauty to him, tattoo or not, he loved the confidence that the tattoo had instilled in her. It was the final key to loving her body, she’d told him.
He shifted to face her, swallowing away a tightness that had settled in his throat as he searched for a compliment worthy of her. He almost told her that he’d never seen her more beautiful, but that wasn’t true, exactly. There had been so many times that he’d had that same thought. The first night they met, the first time they made love in Miami, while skydiving, just that very morning in bed . . .
Her smile was indulgent. “Did I catch you reading that napkin again?”
“Those words changed my life.”
“Both our lives.” She started down the stairs. “I, Harper Johnson, vow to seize the day and live a life of adventure and joy from this moment forward. No fear, no holding back.”
He walked to meet her at the base of the stairs, then took her hand and pulled her close.
From the minute he’d woken from surgery in the aftermath of the IED explosion that had taken his foot, Brandon had known that his life had been spared for a purpose, though so many other soldiers had perished. He’d also known the new mission that the Powers That Be would task him with would be something thrilling—a tour de force of epic proportions. And, boy, had that hunch proved right.
The night he’d written that contract for Harper, he’d been proud of her for embarking on her own mission to find the meaning of life. Little had he suspected that her quest was actually the Powers That Be spelling out his life’s new mission as well. To share a lifetime of adventure and joy with this one incomparable woman.
Arm in arm with Harper, he replaced the napkin in his pocket, opened Locks’ front door to the opening strains of “Here Comes the Bride,” and sent up a silent message to the Powers That Be. No fear. No holding back. Mission accepted.
Melissa Cutler is the author of numerous novels including the Bomb Squad series, featuring Undefeated and Risky Business. She knows she has the best job in the world, dividing her time between her dual passions for writing sexy contemporary romances and edge-of-your-seat romantic suspense. She was struck at an early age by an unrelenting travel bug and is probably planning her next vacation as you read this.
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