I shook my head. "It has nothing to do with the Pink Ladies and T-Birds," I said. "It's the every day part I'm talking about."
Daniel wrapped his hands around my waist pulling me close to him. "Courtney, baby, you must know by now that I want you to be mine every day. I would feel terrible if I hadn't done enough to assure you of that."
"What about tomorrow?" I asked.
"You'll be mine tomorrow just the same as you were mine today and yesterday."
I loved it when he called me 'his'. It wasn't the first time he had done it, and each time the word sent a rush of anticipation through me.
"I know, but I won't be here tomorrow," I said. I furrowed my eyebrows and gave him a disgruntled expression that made him smile.
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean you won't be mine," he said.
I wrapped my arms around his midsection, hugging him tightly. I loved the way his body felt—the way muscles lined his back and sides. I wanted to feel him pressed up against me like this for the rest of my life. I never wanted to let him go.
"Can't you see that I'm trying to get you to beg me to stay?" I asked.
His smile faded and he regarded me seriously. "Courtney, if I thought for one second that begging you to stay would make you do it, then I would beg. I would have no shame. I would fall to my knees and beg, right here right now."
My heart began racing because I could see that he was serious. He honestly thought that I had to go back to California—or that I wanted to.
I lifted my hand and touched his face. His dark eyes were so endless and mysterious that I felt like there were elements of him I might never know.
"Ask me to stay with you, and I will, Daniel," I whispered, still touching his face.
"Stay, Courtney," he said without hesitation.
He said it so earnestly that I had no other choice but to smile. "Do you mean it?" I asked.
His expression shifted to one of slight confusion like he couldn't believe I would even ask such a thing. "Of course I mean it," he said incredulously. "I am so sorry you even feel the need to ask that," he added sweetly. "I want you to stay with me. I want you to stay tomorrow, and the next day, and the one after that. Stay by my side and never leave me, Courtney. Just go ahead and marry me and wake up next to me every single morning. If I had things my way, that's what would happen."
"Then, let's do it your way," I said.
My heart was about to beat out of my chest because I meant every word I was saying, and I knew Daniel did also. We were on the verge of making a real true commitment to each other, and we both knew it.
"I love you," I said. "I don't want to be apart. I don't want to leave tomorrow. I don't want to leave ever. I mean, I want to take trips and do stuff, but I want you with me."
"Do you understand what you're saying?" he asked.
I nodded. "Perfectly."
"What?" he asked.
"I hope we're saying I'll cancel my flight tomorrow and just go ahead and rearrange plans for the rest of my life—that I'll just go ahead and marry you and be your lady for good."
"Can you really do that?" Daniel asked.
"Can you?"
"Yeah, but you have a whole life and persona and everything over in California."
I was still barely touching his cheek with my fingertips. "Do I? Do I really? As it stands, the idea of leaving Memphis seems more dreadful than the idea of not returning to L.A. I know I have a life over there, but I'd rather not go back to it if it means leaving you, Daniel."
Daniel put his fingers to his ear and made a somewhat confused expression like he was trying to discern what he was hearing. "The words you're saying right now are the most precious, unreal words I've ever heard in my life. They are entering my ears and then somehow miraculously causing things to happen inside of me. It's amazing to me that words formed with your mouth and spoken into the air can cause a physical shift in my body like this. Please say I'm hearing you correctly when you say you're not getting on a plane tomorrow. Please say you're staying with me."
"I am," I said, smiling.
"Seriously?" he asked.
I nodded. "I don't want to leave you," I whispered.
"I don’t want you to leave, either," he said.
"Let's not do it, then."
"Great. Stay," he said.
"Fine. I will."
The hint of a grin touched the corners of his mouth, but otherwise we just stood there and stared at each other.
"Marry me," he said.
"Okay."
"Okay?" he asked.
I nodded. "Yes."
He scanned my face as if searching my expression to make sure I was serious.
"When?" I asked.
"Yesterday," he said.
"Yesterday's gone," I said. "How about tomorrow?"
He smiled. "Don't tempt me," he said. "My granddad's a pastor. I could seriously make that happen. (a pause) Courtney."
"What?"
"I am a hundred percent serious right now."
"So am I, Daniel. So am I. My heart is about to beat out of my chest right now. I'm super serious. I want to be with you every day for forever."
"Let's do it, then," he whispered. "We don't really have to get married tomorrow, but let's do it. Let's do it soon."
I nodded. "Okay."
"Really?" he asked.
"Really," I said.
"So, you're not flying home tomorrow?" he asked, clarifying.
"I'm already home," I said.
Daniel's expression changed when I said that. It was subtle, but there was a change, and it caused warmth to spread through my body. He realized how serious I was. He realized I was giving him ownership of my heart, and he smiled at me like he was up for the challenge. He scanned my face with his gorgeous dark eyes, taking in every inch as if memorizing it.
I knew he was going to kiss me, and I got a tingling sensation in my lower abdomen as I waited for him to do it. I stared at his mouth waiting desperately for him to come closer—for him to close the remaining few inches that separated us.
"I'm yours, Daniel." I whispered the words, hoping that would send him over the edge, and it worked.
Daniel kissed me. He started with a couple of gentle, tender kisses, and then he opened his mouth to me, kissing me more deeply than he ever had before. He kissed me so fully and deeply that the action of it conveyed a promise of things to come.
I told Daniel Bishop that he owned my heart, and he kissed me as if he fully understood what that ownership meant. There was such urgency and passion in his kiss that it felt as though we were sharing something different than we ever had before.
I wrapped my hand around the back of his head, holding him closely and letting him know this was exactly what I wanted. He somehow poured love, tenderness, and possessive protectiveness into me during that kiss and I received it gratefully, letting him know with muted whimpers and clinched fists that I was his just like he was mine.
It hit me during that kiss that I was the only woman to ever receive that type of affection from Daniel, and the thought of it made a swelling sensation happen inside me. I held him tightly, conveying the fact that I ached desperately for more of him, and he kissed me deeply for a few more charged moments before breaking the kiss and pulling back.
I let out a moan of disappointment as he broke contact, and he smiled before letting his lips touch mine again like he just couldn’t resist. He kissed me three or four more times, all with great gentleness, before finally pulling back. I held onto his shirt with tightly clinched fists because I couldn’t bear to let him go.
"We better get married," I said breathlessly.
Epilogue
Daniel and I took a few months to plan for the wedding. I didn't want anything too elaborate, but we talked about it and decided to take our time with the arrangements. The media would have had a field day with a spur of the moment wedding. It wasn't that I cared what other people thought necessarily, but I loved Daniel so much that I wanted to be taken seriously about it. I went back
and forth on that quite a bit, but I ultimately chose to be a little patient.
We decided to have the ceremony in California. The weather was predictably good, and we both liked the idea doing it outside on the beach. I had several picturesque places in mind, and Daniel easily agreed since he knew his family would fly out to join us for the occasion.
I wasn't sad about moving away from Los Angeles, but I did have a lot of friends there and was happy about them being able to come to the wedding since it would sort of double as my going away party. I hadn't officially made a statement about my career, but those closest to me knew that I would, at least, be taking a long hiatus from touring. I had been at it for so long that I was more than ready for the change and thankful to Daniel for being there at just the right moment to make the adjustment seem natural.
In the weeks following my trip to Memphis, Daniel and I did some traveling. Everything we did was impromptu. I would say something like, "I've always wanted to see Stonehenge." And he would reply with, "Let's go."
We went to England, Brazil, and Alaska, and all three of the trips were completely unplanned. I got to meet his brother, Wes, when we went to England. I had seen him before using Skype, but he was the only Bishop that I hadn't had the chance to meet in person, so that made our trip to England especially nice.
Daniel and I loved each other and it showed. He could often be seen with his arm around my shoulders while I snuggled into his protective embrace. We had been photographed quite a bit in positions like that during our travels. A few publications ran articles on how I fell in love with my bodyguard and a couple of others found out who Daniel was and speculated that I was dating motorcycle royalty.
It was for this reason that my publicist recommended that I give the tell-all story to one publication so that we could avoid any more rumors or confusion.
People Magazine did a story on us, taking photos of Daniel training martial arts at work and some with his family at Bishop Motorcycles. Elvis the bird even got his picture taken for the spread.
I bought a house with a bunch of property on the outskirts of Memphis, and they took pictures of Daniel and me out there. It was a really good, honest article that included some of the details about how we met and the fact that we had plans to get married in the near future.
I went to California two weeks before Daniel, so I got to see the article before he did. I texted him pictures of it with a note that said, "This only makes me miss you more," which was the absolute truth.
I didn't love being away from him, but the old adage about absence making the heart grow fonder seemed to be true, and it felt like I loved him now more than ever.
Daniel thought about coming with me, but he had already taken off a lot of work so that we could travel and he knew we had another trip coming up with the honeymoon. I had been busy in California, anyway. I had a lot of things to get in order for the wedding and my move, and the days passed quickly.
Trevor had taken a position with a country star named Brie Ellerbe, so Daniel paired me up with another guy named Sam for the two weeks that I would be alone in L.A. All the guys at Alpha were dependably professional, so it was no surprise that Sam did a great job.
Great job or not, he wasn't Daniel.
I absolutely could not wait to see my man and counted the minutes until it happened.
Daniel, along with roughly twenty members of his family and a couple of his friends, flew to California for the big event. My mom and step-dad would be there along with about fifty of my friends. I initially wanted it to be even more intimate than that, but with all the industry connections I had made over the years, I already felt like I was leaving a lot of people out.
Daniel and the crew from Memphis flew in the day before the wedding. We saw each other, but we intentionally made it brief. Daniel and his immediate family were staying in my friend's beautiful beachfront home in Malibu, which was also the location of the wedding. His back yard was the ocean, and he had access to a small, private lagoon that looked like something out of a movie. It actually had been used in movies.
Anyway, William was nice enough to host our wedding, and he even offered a few of his bedrooms to the groom and his family the night before. A few stayed at my house, but everyone else stayed in a nearby hotel.
I hired Nina and Jake to do my styling for the event. Shelby had stayed at my house, so she was there while I was getting dressed, and they all had a great time talking shop and scheming about how to make me look my best.
I showed Jake and Nina photos from the time Shelby made me look like Aunt Edna, and they both got the biggest kick out of that. They promised to introduce Shelby to some of their industry contacts at the wedding, and I was pleased that they liked each other and got along so well.
I was so nervous that the hours leading up to the wedding felt like one big dream. The ceremony itself felt like a dream as well.
There were roughly seventy people in attendance, but there may as well have been none because I only had eyes for Daniel. I don't even remember walking toward him on the beach. I knew I had crossed space to get to him, but I honestly don't remember doing it. One second, I was hidden away with Denise while she whispered affirmations in my ear, and the next, I was standing right next to Daniel, holding his hands and staring into his endless eyes.
He smiled warmly at me. "You're so beautiful," he said.
"How did I get here?" I whispered.
"Same way I did, I guess."
His granddad was officiating the ceremony, and he just stood there watching us look at each other. So did everyone else, I assumed. I really didn't notice what anyone else was doing—I only noticed Daniel. He was dressed nicely in navy slacks with a matching vest and tie. It was just formal enough for a beach wedding, and I stared at him, thinking he was the most striking man I had ever seen.
"I'm marrying you," I whispered, still gripping his hands.
His grin widened. "It's a good thing," he said. "Because that's what all these people are expecting you to do."
"I'm glad we're doing this," I said.
"Me too."
"I love you," I said.
"I love you too."
The wind was blowing, and Daniel let go of my hand just long enough to reach up and tuck a piece of hair behind my ear.
"Thank you," I said.
"You're the most beautiful thing ever."
I smiled shyly at him and bit my lip. "You are too," I said. "Handsome, I mean. I missed you so much."
"I had plans to start talking right when she walked up here," Jacob said, speaking loudly so that the whole group could hear him over the sounds of the wind and crashing waves. "But they're just so sweet that I had to stand here and listen to them talk to each other. I feel like they're already saying their vows."
We turned to Jacob and he smiled genuinely at us before making eye contact with the rest of the group. He took a second to gather his thoughts.
"I've watched my grandson go through a lot in his young life," he said.
He spoke slowly and proudly, like he was saying the words as they came to his mind and he was choosing them carefully.
"There's a verse in the Bible that says suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope."
He paused and glanced at Daniel sweetly.
"Over the years, I've watched that promise come to life in my grandson. I watched him grow, change, and develop character—unshakable character. Now, as I stand here and look at these two, I see hope. I see a future. I see true and determined love, and I couldn’t be prouder of them or the decision they've made to become one today. It's a great honor to see God's promise revealed so clearly in the life of my grandson and to get to be a part of this beautiful and significant step in his life."
Daniel and I both had our backs to the crowd, and I was glad for that, because my eyes were filled with tears. Jacob stopped talking and smiled at me with tears in his own eyes. And then, in a very unorthodox move, he reached forward and
wrapped his arms around me.
"We love you, Courtney," he said into my ear. "We're so thankful God brought you into Daniel's life."
"Uh-huh," I whimpered, nodding as I hugged him back. "Me too."
He let go of me and spoke for another five minutes about love, commitment, family, and gratefulness.
Daniel kept his arm around me the whole time and I rested my face on his chest since we were so very comfortable that way.
Before I knew it, he was given permission to kiss me, and I turned and looked at him. He gave me a mischievous grin, which implied that this kiss was only the beginning. This caused a whole flood of emotions and anticipation to rise inside of me. He put his lips right next to mine but didn't let them touch. I held him by the arms, squeezing him.
"This is it," I whispered.
"Yep."
"I love yo—"
I started to say the phrase, but Daniel let his lips touch mine before I could get it out. I took a shaky breath as we kissed, realizing once again how very much I loved the soft feel of his perfect lips. He let them linger on mine for a few brief seconds before he pulled back and gave me an easy smile.
"I love you too," he said.
The End
(till book 5)
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Romans 5:3-5
Other titles available from Brooke St. James:
Another Shot:
A Modern-Day Ruth and Boaz Story
When Lightning Strikes
Something of a Storm (All in Good Time #1)
Someone Someday (All in Good Time #2)
Finally My Forever (Meant for Me #1)
Finally My Heart's Desire (Meant for Me #2)
Finally My Happy Ending (Meant for Me #3)
Shot by Cupid's Arrow
So Happy Together (Bishop Family Book 4) Page 14
