Better Love
Page 24
“That’s a bummer.”
“I thought you had a thing for Jonah’s sister,” I remarked, watching for his reaction.
“Ashley? Shit. Is it obvious?” He ducked his head into his shoulder.
I snorted. “Not too much.”
“You’re lying. I’m pitiful. I think she’s going out with that Falcon guy.” His expression resembled a dog in a shelter—sad, but still hopeful despite the odds.
“The drummer? Resi was talking about him last week. I think they’re involved.”
Relief lit up his face. “That so?”
“Have you ever asked Ashley out?”
“Not since she shot me down in high school. Then she followed Tom Donnely around for years. I couldn’t stand watching it or hearing her talk about him.”
“Well, that’s obviously over now. Maybe try the direct approach. I’ve found it works well to speak your mind when you want something.”
“What I want right now is a hot shower, some cold beer, and pizza.” He cocked his head. “How’s that for direct?”
“Done. I’ll call Jeff and let him know your order is on the house. Thanks for all of your help.”
I slapped his shoulder. “Thanks for being my first goat customer. We’ll get you set up soon.”
Carter should’ve gone into sales. Or politics. He’d smoothly convinced me I needed something I didn’t even know existed a few hours ago.
“Have you admitted you have a cat yet?” Roslyn asked from her deck chair. A glass of wine rested on the wide arm. Though it was February, we sat outside in the pale afternoon sunlight, kept warm by the fire-pit.
I added another log to the fire, bringing it roaring back to life. “I don’t. I have a mooch who uses me for free meals and a place to sleep.”
“She doesn’t earn her keep?” Roslyn snuggled deeper under her Hudson blanket.
“Presenting me with dead mice and voles is not payment I’m happy to receive.” The beast in question rubbed her side against my leg as if telling me you’re welcome.
“Poor cat. She throws herself at you and you refuse to acknowledge her. I feel sorry for her.” Roslyn clicked her tongue to get the cat’s attention. After jumping on her lap, the feline snuggled into the blanket.
“You’re assigning emotional motivation to an animal.”
“She’s merely a girl standing in front of a boy asking him to give her salmon.” She petted the cat and two pairs of eyes stared at me. “You should name her. Although Cat could be short for Catherine. Or Kathleen. Or Katniss.”
“I don’t know why you are pushing this relationship. One woman in my life is more than enough.”
“It’s good for you not to be alone all of the time.”
“You’re here when I can lure you to the island. How much longer are you going to make the commute before you give in and move here? You can do most of your work remotely. We can make the guest house your office. Why torture yourself with Seattle traffic if you don’t have meetings over there?”
“What about my condo?” She’d been spending more and more time at my house, now keeping a toothbrush and other girly toiletries in my bathroom.
Our bathroom. I needed to start thinking of the house as ours. Everything I had would be half hers, and vice-versa, someday.
“We’ll keep the condo as a city place when we don’t want a ferry induced curfew. Plus, it’s a good investment.”
“Are you asking me to move in with you?”
“Makes complete sense. If I didn’t think it were too soon, I’d find a justice of the peace and ask you to marry me on the spot.”
“I don’t need a wedding.”
“Are you saying no?” My stomach flipped.
“Was that a proposal?”
I hadn’t planned to ask her to marry me. I didn’t even have a ring. Although the jeweler in Langley had an old, mine cut diamond in a modern setting I’d had my eye on. Classic and modern like her.
“Don’t look so worried. I’m saying yes. I think five years is a long enough waiting period.”
A few months later . . .
A WHIRLWIND ROMANCE.
Love at first sight.
Eight years in the making.
“We did this backward.” Roslyn stared at her engagement ring. The old mine cut diamond sparkled on her finger like I’d imagined. I’d called the jeweler and put a hold on it the morning after our fire pit conversation. I’d managed to hold off giving it to Roslyn for a week. Now months later, I still stared at the diamond shining on her finger like a small star twinkling in the night sky. Or the bow light on a boat gliding across dark water.
“What do you mean?” I rested my head on the pillow next to her.
“We had our honeymoon in Venice before you even proposed to me.”
“My love, that wasn’t our honeymoon. Far from it.”
Venice felt like a different lifetime. After our conversation on Valentine’s, she set up an office in the guest house. I kissed her good-bye in the morning, handed her a travel mug of coffee, then watched out the front door as she and Cat crossed the driveway to the office. I didn’t shut the door until she turned and waved at me.
“It wasn’t? The two of us in the most romantic city in the world? Don’t you remember the day it rained and we spent the entire day in bed?”
Of course I did. I also remembered spending a long time counting the freckles on her shoulders and memorizing the thousand shades of blue of her irises.
“No. Merely an appetizer. Or maybe an amuse-bouche is the better comparison.”
I wanted to travel the world with her in every cliché way possible. Travel the Seven Seas, visit all the continents, including those damn penguins on the ice of Antarctica, and not come home for a year.
A man needed fantasies.
I knew it wasn’t realistic for both of us to take off for twelve months. While I had every confidence in Jeff, Coop, and the rest of my staff, her clients would implode without her if she were gone for too long. The Internet covered the globe, but it would be a travesty to check emails while searching for white rhinos in Kenya or sitting on a bench at the Taj Majal. No, a year was out of the question. At least right now.
A month.
Minimum.
“Speaking of honeymoons, how about a month in Italy this summer? We can rent a villa in the Tuscany hills or along the Amalfi coast. Or go to Sicily and visit the Geraci ancestral home.”
“A month? Can we do that?”
“Why not? My staff would probably enjoy not having me underfoot. You can hand off your clients to another publicist in your agency. Or Ashley, if she isn’t too busy with the coffee business.”
“A whole four weeks? This summer? What is this madness of which you speak? Who does this?”
“All Europeans? We can split up the trip into two weeks. Pick two places in Italy to visit. I’ll taste pizza and we can write it off as a business expense if that’ll make you feel less guilty.”
“Eating pizza is the best job ever, you know that, right?”
I kissed her nose. “Why do you think I opened Sal’s? I’m a smart man.”
She captured my mouth with hers. “That you are.”
“And you are a very smart woman.”
“Why’s that?” She stared up at me as she lay on the bed.
“Because you’re mine. Among countless other reasons.” I rolled toward her and scooped her into my arms, fully planning to engage in a round of morning sex before work.
Her stomach growled.
I stroked my hand over the soft curve below her navel. “Someone is craving cinnamon knots.”
“Ooh, those do sound good.” She practically purred.
“No more anchovy and pineapple pizza cravings I hope. I can still hear Jeff retching over that combination, and Coop has had some weird combo suggestions.”
“Anchovies are high in omega-3, calcium, and iron. They’re good for the baby.”
“And the pineapple?” I had to swallow over the disgus
t in my voice.
“What’s that word for salty, sweet, and savory? It’s all of those things together. You should know this being a big foodie guy.”
“Umami,” I whispered against the swell of her pregnant belly. “Hey—”
“No, we are not naming the baby Umami. Or any other food terms.”
“What about Tupelo for a boy? Like the honey? Or Brie for a girl?”
She gave me a “no way in hell” stare I’d come to know well whenever I got creative with baby name suggestions. It was the same stare she gave Erik when he suggested a contest to name the baby.
“Can we even go away while I’m pregnant?”
“Italians have babies all the time. You’ll only be a few months along, and if we need a doctor, we’ll find one. Do you really want to be here while the main house is under construction?” We’d decided to add another couple of bedrooms to the main house in a new wing after negotiating for me to keep my library, but turn the game room into a playroom for the small human. Or humans, if we were lucky enough to have more than one.
“You make a good point. What about the work on Mike’s Place?” She hooked a heel around my calf and tugged me closer.
“It’s being managed. I’m only the mysterious backer, not hands-on, remember?”
“I do remember. McPhee was so mad when he found out they sold for less than he offered.”
I lifted one shoulder in a half-hearted shrug and cocked my head. “I guess it pays to be a local insider.”
“You’re kind of like Whidbey’s own Bruce Wayne.”
“How so?” I kissed my favorite group of freckles on her shoulder.
“Well, you drive a sleek black sports car for one.”
“True. But I don’t have a bat cave.”
“No, but you are Pizza Man.”
I kissed her soundly and thoroughly until she was breathless.
“One major difference.”
“What’s that?” she whispered.
“Unlike poor, lonely Bruce, I’m not a bachelor anymore.”
She grinned up at me. “No, you’re not.”
“You do realize that makes you Pizza Woman, right?”
Her laughter echoed in the bedroom as I tickled her belly with my beard.
While I would always need my time alone to gather my thoughts and restore my energy, I knew without hesitation, Roslyn was my one true love, my life.
Yes, even more than pizza.
Thank you for reading Better Love!
I know there are millions of books out there and tons releasing every day of every week. We are beyond lucky as readers to have access to so many amazing books. I appreciate that you took the time to read mine.
Please leave a review for Better Love on Goodreads or your favorite retailer.
TO MY HUSBAND, thanks for being on this journey with me. Every adventure is better because you are by my side. Even kayaking.
As always, big thanks to the people of Whidbey Island. I find new inspiration every time I visit. For those of you who know the stories behind the stories, thanks for protecting the guilty. To my Whidbey family, thank you for all of your love and support.
To all my readers in Daisyland, I love our online tree house. Thanks for hanging out with me online and coming to see me at signings. I have the best readers.
Gratitude to the people who helped transform an idea into a book: Julia Kent, for all of the conversations and brainstorming; MJ Fryer, for being an early beta reader and letting me know I was on the right path with Dan; Dianne Vermette, for loving Dan almost as much as John; Erika Gutermuth, for checking in and cheering me on through deadlines; editor Melissa Ringsted for correcting grammatical sins and telling me when I nailed the jokes; proofreaders Marla Esposito from Proofing Style and Elli Reid for their amazing attention to detail; Renee at RE Creatives, for the beautiful cover; CA Borgford at Perfectly Publishable, for making the inside of my books so beautiful and always being patient when I change deadlines.
I’m blessed to have Fiona Fischer, Jessica at Inkslinger PR, and Flavia Viotti and Meire Dias at Bookcase Literary Agency on my team. Thank you for all of your hard work behind the scenes, great advice, handholding, and keeping me sane.
I couldn’t get through this publishing adventure without amazing author friends and the Indie community. Thank you for your friendship, support, cheerleading, tough-talks, and continuing to be an incredible collective of kickass people. Ruth, Erika, Dawn, Penny, Helena, Katherine, Heather, Julia, Elizabeth, Jennifer, Lisa, Tina, Elyssa, Traci, Kelly, Nic, KP, Laurie, Sarah(s), and so many more, thank you for your friendship, your encouragement, making me laugh, and always having my back.
To all the bloggers and reviewers, thank you for all that you do to support the books and authors you feel passionately about. I’m always appreciative of the time and effort you put into reading, reviewing, and promoting Indie authors and me. Thank you.
To my readers, thank you. I have the best readers in the world. You bring my stories to life and you inspire me to keep writing. Thank you for leaving a review or telling a friend about my books.
Hearing from readers is the best part of publishing. Feel free to get in touch with me. I can be reached on social media or at daisyauthor@gmail.com.
xo
Daisy
DAISY PRESCOTT IS the USA Today bestselling author of the Modern Love Stories series and the Wingmen series.
Born and raised in San Diego, Daisy currently lives in a real life Stars Hollow in the Boston suburbs with her husband, their rescue dog Mulder, and an indeterminate of imaginary housegoats. When not writing, she can be found in the garden or kitchen, lost in a good book, or on social media, usually talking about hot, bearded men.
Mailing list
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Website
Modern Love Stories:
We Were Here (prequel to Geoducks)
Geoducks Are for Lovers
Missionary Position
Happily Ever Now (coming Winter 2017)
Next to You
A sports Rom-Com standalone
Wingmen:
Ready to Fall
Confessions of a Reformed Tom Cat
Wingmen
(a boxed set of Ready to Fall & Confessions of a Reformed Tom Cat)
Anything but Love
Better Love
Short Stories:
Take Two (Maggie and Gil)
Take the Cake and Run (John and Diane)
Take for Granted (Jo and Ben)
Take it Easy (Tom and Hailey plus John and Diane)
Give and Take (a crossover between Modern Love Stories and Wingmen)
Two Wingmen and a Baby (John with Tom and Hailey)
Bewitched
A magical Halloween novelette set in Salem, Massachusetts
Spellbound
A magical continuation of Bewitched