by Ashlee Price
I looked at that gun, the frightened hand, the possible tragedy about to unfold right in front of me. Even at that late hour, after having rescued so much of what had seemed lost, we were still just a hair’s breadth away from a misunderstanding that would take Langdon’s life and ruin my own forever. The bitter coldness of the irony shot through me in a panicked shiver.
I looked at John Alister and I could see that he was instantly aware of the position the spinning wheel of fate had put him in. In that moment he held all of our fates in his frail, sweat-slicked hands. He could push the frightened security guard’s buttons and incite a shooting. With Langdon down, he could ally with his wife and her girlfriend and make me out to be a liar or a criminal, and my own life would be over there and then.
John looked at me, then at his wife and her accomplice, groaning on the floor.
“Stand down,” John said, “it’s not him, it’s those two, my wife and her friend there.”
The security guard looked at Langdon. His gun was shaking in his hands. “Oh, um, sorry, sir.”
“No worries, mate… long as you don’t shoot, eh?”
The guard looked down at the gun in his hands. “Oh, right.” He holstered it, then pulled out a pair of handcuffs and bent down to Margaret, cuffing her hands behind her back while two other guards secured Beverly in the same way.
“Hey, you can’t cuff me like this,” Margaret said, “you’re not real police!”
“They’re on the way,” the security guard said, leading them out.
Margaret turned and hissed at me. “I’m going to kill you someday, I swear it!”
I said, “You’ll have to get in line,” as they dragged the women out. I turned and fell into Langdon’s arms, which he wrapped around me with new urgency and strength. We both knew how close we’d come to losing each other, to losing everything we’d fought so hard for. But luck and love had seen us through, and it was a moment to be relished, indulged, celebrated.
Langdon said to me, “Sorry I didn’t tell you about the janitor switch, luv. Nothin’ personal. Wasn’t that I didn’t trust ya.”
“You had to play things close to the chest. I understand.”
“And when it comes to your chest,” Langdon said with a little grin, “the closer the better!”
John approached us. “I… I don’t know what to say. I’m… I’m so ashamed.”
“No reason to be,” Langdon said. “You know what they say: ‘Behind every woman there’s a great man, it’s true. But she has a hand in every downfall too.’”
John and I shared a chuckle. I said, “I hadn’t heard that.”
“I’ve lived it,” John said. A sad silence filled the office. “Attempted murder, that’s going to ruin me.”
Langdon said, “What attempted murder?”
“My wife, the gun to her head?”
Langdon just shook his head as if he had no idea what John was talking about. I was ready to follow Langdon’s lead, then and for the rest of my life. “I didn’t see that,” I said, “I didn’t see anything like that.”
Langdon said, “Neither of us did, whatever claims those two may make.”
I added, “Guess it would be our word against theirs.”
John smiled, realizing what we were telling him, that we would help him cover up his mistake so he could preserve his life, so that Bailey could have a father and someday a mother worthy of her. John said only, “Thank you,” because those two words said it all with a simple beauty no other words could match.
John gestured toward the door, and Langdon and I both knew we’d have to go with him to the police station. Perhaps the pair would have a press conference afterward.
Something occurred to me. “Langdon, if you’re a Good Will Ambassador from the United Nations, how did they manage to hold you in jail as long as they did?”
“Like I said, it’s mostly ceremonial. Y’gotta go outta yer way to get that special treatment, and that’s just not me.”
Of course, I thought to myself, I should have known better than to ask.
Langdon said to John, “So, the country, y’think?”
“Yeah, I… I think it’s time for a simpler life. Bailey deserves better.” He turned to me. “Not that I’m leaving you out in the cold, Sheryl. You’ve earned a good place here. Even if I retire early, that doesn’t mean I don’t still get to make the big decisions. Maybe… you’ll be the one to make those decisions someday.”
“That’s very tempting,” I said, my eyes and my smile finding Langdon, “but I saw myself leaving New York for a while.”
Langdon returned my smile, and our eyes locked. “Y’never know what our future’ll hold. I always thought our companies could do well together.”
I said, “Maybe it was fate or destiny or whatever they call it.”
Langdon said to me, very softly, “I call it love.”
Epilogue To Bossman’s List
We stood on the cliffs of Kalbarri in Western Australia, the spring breeze pushing back the blonde ringlets on either side of my face, demure behind a white veil.
I looked into Langdon’s eyes. Each one of us was locked on the other. He was almost regal in his tuxedo, long hair tied back, posture proud and perfect. Even the majesty of the craggy cliff side and the gorgeous Indian Ocean couldn’t distract us from each other in that moment of our perfect union.
Langdon said, “Before I met you, I wasn’t really living. There was a hole in my heart I just couldn’t fill. Now I know you were the only person who could fill that hole and make me complete. I wasn’t really a man till I met you. My life hadn’t really begun. Now we’re only just beginning our lives together. Nothing before you means anything to me. Besides you and your happiness and our children’s and our grandchildren’s, there is nothing. Just you, just me, just us.”
A joyful tear crept down my cheek. I wanted to look away to hide it, but I just couldn’t turn away from that marvelous face, the face of the man I loved and had always loved and would always love.
I said to Langdon, “I thought that when we met, I’d been running… running from my past, running through my days, running out the clock, running out of steam, running out of time. I’m just so glad that, really, I wasn’t running away from anything, but toward something… someone… truly amazing. Because what I really wanted… and needed… and couldn’t find until you… was love.”
Over Langdon’s shoulder, I noticed Ricardo polishing his fingernails on his lapel and then blowing on them in a cute bit of self-congratulations. I had to admit it was a pretty great line, since I stole it from him.
Our celebrant was a chubby, smiling local judge who smiled broadly without sacrificing any of the dignity of the moment. “I am duly authorized to solemnize this, your marriage, according to the laws of Australia.
“Before Sheryl and Langdon are joined together in marriage in my presence and in the presence of those your family and friends, I am bound as you know to remind you publicly of the solemn, the serious and binding nature of the relationship into which you are about to enter.”
I could feel the joy rising up from our guests, our friends and family, and I couldn’t wait to bask in this moment with them, to celebrate our togetherness, the rare moments we’re given to enjoy with one another.
But that moment was just for us, just for me and Langdon.
“Marriage as most of us understand it is voluntary and is a full commitment of a man to a woman and a woman to a man. It is made in the deepest sense to the exclusion of all others and is entered into with the desire, hope and firm intention that it will last for life.”
As we’d rehearsed, I put the ring on his finger, my hands trembling, mind already doubting my memory.
I said, “I call upon the persons here present to witness that I, Sheryl Francis, take thee, Langdon Cane, to be my lawful wedded husband.” They were the sweetest words I’d ever spoken.
Langdon took my hand in his, sure and simple as he slid that golden band around my quivering whit
e finger.
“I call upon the persons here present to witness that I, Langdon Cane, take thee, Sheryl Francis, to be my lawful wedded wife.”
We looked at each other, and our celebrant glanced at us for a stilted moment before saying, “Well, what’re you waiting for? Have at it!”
The crowd chuckled, and so did we before going in for that solemn kiss, a moment we’d lived and worked for and almost died for, a moment we’d almost missed, a moment that would become the rest of our lives. His tongue was familiar, warm, loving, greeting mine with a new wonder, a new depth, a love even greater than before.
Our lips parted and the crowd’s applause rose and fell before the small violin ensemble played us down the aisle as man and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Langdon Cane.
We dallied for a while with our friends and family before retiring into the nearby castle for our lavish reception. This time I really did feel like a princess.
My parents were the first to rush up to us. My mother gave me a big hug while my father gave Langdon a hearty handshake.
“Welcome to the family, Langdon.”
“Good of ya, sir,” Langdon said. “I’ll try not to let you down.”
“Just don’t let Sheryl down,” my mother said, “or you’ll have me to contend with.” Langdon offered her a wink and a nod and a little salute. She turned to give me a little kiss. “Don’t stay out here too long, dear, you’ll catch cold.” She faded back with my father, and I glanced at Langdon with a roll of my eyes. He knew what I was thinking, but also how lucky I was to have parents at all. He looked out over the crowd, and I knew he was imagining seeing his own parents there, perhaps even playing out the moment they would have shared had they survived.
But I also knew what Langdon knew: that then his whole life would have been different, that we probably would never have met, that their sad fate was only one necessary step in a grand plan which had brought us together to forge a family of our own. I’d never met the Canes, but I couldn’t help but imagine that they’d be pleased.
John and Bailey Alister stopped by on their way inside. Both of them were smiling, almost beaming. They had new color in their complexions, and John seemed to have lost a little weight. He looked more handsome and more healthy than I’d ever seen him before.
I asked, “How’s life in the country?”
“Love it!” Bailey was quick to say. “I have a horse of my own! Clip Clop! And I take care of him and clean him and train him every day.”
“That’s right,” John said with a warm and loving smile. “And I’m very proud.”
She smiled. “I’m proud of you too, Daddy.” They hugged, and John turned to me.
But Bailey looked at me and curled her finger at me to draw me in, in the way I remembered Margaret Alister doing. This time, like the last, I had to respond, so I pulled my dress up a bit and knelt down to Bailey. She threw her arms around my neck and squeezed tight. She not merely kissed me, but jammed her face into my cheek, and I could feel the wetness of a single tear.
She whispered into my ear, “Thank you.”
She squeezed tight, and I squeezed even tighter, sharing a big hug with arms a fraction the size of my own.
“I’m hearing good things about Alister Fashions since you took over, Sheryl.”
I stood and looked at Langdon. “I’ve had the two best teachers in the business.”
John chuckled. “You’re the one taking us to school, Sheryl. Your New French Resistance campaign? That was genius, I have to say.”
Langdon said, “Sheryl’s program is putting veterans to work, raising money for PTSD sufferers and the homeless, and it’s the hottest look in Europe. Rippah!”
“You know you’re only encouraging her.”
“That’s just what I want to do.”
“And that kid Ricardo, he’s a real dynamo, huh? The Powerplay website’s a huge hit. Costs are down, ad revenue’s way up, sales are through the roof. There he is.” Ricardo approached us, looking very dapper in a white suit. John wrapped his arm around Ricardo’s shoulder. “Here’s our boy wonder.”
A bit confused, Ricardo said, “Is that a cosplay thing? Because, y’know, we could talk.”
John said, “Just keep working that website.”
I asked John, “How’re the women in Connecticut?”
“I’m in no rush,” John said. “It’s time for me to be a better father, and a better man, before I find a better woman.”
Ricardo fanned his hand in front of his face, feigning a return of the vapors. Shaking his head, he walked away muttering, “Such a waste.”
I glanced out to see a figure in the water out in the distance, a great whale breaching the surface, dangling a moment before falling back into the sea. Then I noticed another, not far from the first. They were a pair, I was certain, as the first two we’d seen months before had been a pair. But it can’t be the same two whales, I told myself, it just couldn’t be possible.
Could it?
They seemed to be dancing, celebrating life, even celebrating our union from afar. I couldn’t help but smile. One thing I knew for sure was that there was much more to life than appeared at a glance. That dream I’d had, of a man I hadn’t met, had proven to be a premonition. The rest, other visions, had merely been that. They’d been wrong, and so they hadn’t come true. I looked at Langdon in a moment of silent reflection, sharing a wordless smile, and I couldn’t help but think, Langdon is true. Langdon is right. We’re right together.
And when they’re just right, dreams really do come true.
~The End~
More from Ashlee Price
THE PRICELESS ONE
A Billionaire Romance
(Contemporary Romance Novels)
UNCOVERED
Book 1
Description
Erin Adams works as a curator at the Museum of Natural History in New York. She makes sure that each piece that is brought in is perfect, and she has a special reason for loving the place. It is where she grew up with her father, and since his passing it has become her biggest connection to him. Erin can’t imagine living anywhere else than above the museum – but that is all about to change.
She finds out that she is going to lose both her job and her residence with the sale of the museum. While she tries to figure out what she is going to do, Erin notices a tall man who seems to be everywhere that she is. Erin is shocked to find out that he is the very man who has ruined her future.
What he proposes is preposterous, but it is almost too good of an offer to turn down.
Chapter 1 – Erin
I looked in the mirror and smiled at my reflection. The glasses were gone, contacts in their place, and I could finally see my face. I was looking good, and it had been a long time since I felt this way. Usually I wore slacks and blouses for work, but tonight I was going all out for Rose’s art show. She hadn’t been in town in weeks, traveling to South America for a photo shoot, and I missed her. It seemed like the thing to do, getting dressed up, but I almost didn’t recognize myself.
The black dress was a little above the knee and it felt so right on my body. It hugged my slim frame just right and for a moment I felt beautiful. My hair was straightened and hung down past my waist, tickling my bared arms as it softly caressed my skin like the silk dress. If nothing else, I was going to get to see my best friend and I felt like a million bucks. That was a big step away from my normal life. For a night, I felt like I could be someone else. Tonight, I wasn’t a museum curator.
I was nervous about how I looked and I brushed on a little eyeliner and lip gloss, just to make those features stand out a little. The dress and hair had seemed out of place without something on my face. I didn’t care much for makeup, but tonight was different.
I took a taxi downtown to the small pop-up art gallery that Rose had created. The opening was almost as interesting as the pictures on the walls. It was carved like half a tree, and when I walked in there was a feel of the rainforest. Rose had always been fascinated with t
he climate around the equator, and she had told me when we were in college that she would find a job that paid her to be there. She had found it as a freelancer and this was her third trip in as many months. I was afraid she was going to move down there permanently, especially with a new man in the cards.
“Erin, you made it!”
I smiled at her, taking the hug that she offered and admiring her curved body in the hot pink dress that made her dark skin pop in contrast. Her short hair was in curls almost as big as the gold hoops in her ears.
“I told you I would be. This place looks great.”
“This place? Girl, look at you.”
Catching me off guard, she spun me around before I was able to stop her.
“Stop, it’s nothing.”
I could tell that Rose didn’t agree. She had a look that told me that this was a real departure for me. I had a habit of dressing as conservatively as possible. After breaking up with Zac a couple of years before when he cheated on me, I’d decided that I didn’t want to date for a while. To think that it had been two years was hard to stomach, and as Rose looked on I realized that it had been far too long. It had been far too long since I had gotten dressed up nice, and now I knew that I was going to have to do it more.
“Well, I don’t know about nothing, Erin. You look good, honey, and we need to show you off. If you are still around at the end of this, we should go down to the club and take that bad boy for a spin.”
Her hands touched the soft material and she made me laugh with the look on her face. She always knew how to make me feel better, and the self-conscious thoughts that I had were slipping away. I had missed Rose, and seeing her then was enough to remind me of why. She was always the happier one. She made everything seem like it was no big deal. It was, sometimes, but with Rose, nothing really mattered.
“If you aren’t already too tipsy.”
I looked at the glass in her hand and she grinned. “Third, maybe fourth, but I figure if I can still walk straight, that’s good enough.”
