“Oh, not another Vanessa Valentine,” she groaned.
“She’s not even a woman, you know. Vanessa Valentine is a guy.”
“She is not! I’ve met her.”
“Yeah, she is. I play poker with her. Him.”
“Really?” Lissa turned over the book he’d given her and looked at the picture on the dust jacket. “Then who’s this?”
“That’s his sister. She’s his front. And those books are as bogus as he is.”
“Then why were you reading them?”
It was the last straw. Lissa had been clueless ever since he’d known her. She needed to get a clue. “Because I thought they’d give me some idea about how to get your attention,” he snapped.
“What?”
“Damn it all, Lissa, I’ve been in love with you since we were kids. I thought that if I turned myself into some superstud, some romance hero, in time for the reunion, maybe for once, you’d see me. Really see me.” He wanted to cry, wanted to punch something, take his chair and throw it through a window. Instead, he stood and dumped the rest of the books in the bag onto the fire, sending sparks flying in all directions. “These are all crap. They end up with the guy getting the woman he’s in love with. Well, the guy doesn’t always get the woman of his dreams because the woman of his dreams doesn’t always see what’s right under her nose, even when he tutors her in math, even when he tapes hearts to her locker. Even when he takes dance lessons for two friggin’ months—all so he can impress her when she comes back for the reunion.”
Had all of that just come out of his mouth? Now he’d really made a fool of himself. He fell back into his chair and glared at the fire.
“Oh, Jonathan,” she said softly.
Now she felt sorry for him. That was the greatest humiliation of all. “Go back to the reunion, Lissa. There are lots of people who want to see you.”
“But there’s only one person I want to see right now, and that’s my old friend Jonathan.”
“I don’t want to be your damned friend.”
She knelt in front of him and laid a hand on his arm.
He snatched his arm away.
“You really are a good dancer.”
“Damn straight I am.”
“How about another dance?”
“I don’t want to.” He sounded childish and he knew it. Heroes didn’t act like that.
“Please.”
He was being a total shit, which she didn’t deserve. It wasn’t her fault she’d never seen him as anything more than a friend. It wasn’t her fault he was a fool.
He sighed. “Liss, I’m sorry. Forget I said any of this, okay? Go back to the dance. I know they’re still going strong.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to go back to the dance. I want to hang out with you.”
Yeah, he really believed that, just like he still believed in Santa.
“Remember the time all our families had that big bonfire down by the river?”
He remembered everything they ever did together. He nodded.
“What were we in, sixth grade?”
He nodded again.
“Rand kept setting his marshmallows on fire. He never wanted to let them turn golden brown. He said he didn’t like to wait.”
Rand had always looked for the easy way—whether it was toasting marshmallows, taking credit for high school acts of gallantry, or getting a little on the side when his wife was back in California. Jonathan frowned.
“You toasted one for me.”
He couldn’t help smiling at the memory. “The perfect marshmallow.”
“We took a picture. I still have that picture in one of my old photo albums.”
Her dad had taken it. They’d been sitting side by side in front of the campfire with him displaying the marshmallow, her giggling.
“You were always doing nice things for me.”
“You were easy to do nice things for.”
“So, now do something nice and dance with me. Please?”
She was just humoring him. But okay, so what if she was? He’d never have her, not the way he wanted, but here by the firelight he’d hold her in his arms one last time. If he couldn’t keep the girl, he’d take the memory. He stood and moved away from the fire and held out his hand.
She took it and let Jonathan draw her to him.
“There’s no music,” he said.
“We don’t need no stinkin’ music,” she joked.
He showed off a couple of his swing steps. She followed haltingly, laughing. Then he moved them into something slower.
She mirrored his steps and soon they were moving perfectly together. He turned her and pulled her against him, wrapping his arms around her and swaying gently, treasuring the thrill of feeling her body so achingly close. He laid his head against hers. Her hair was so soft.
“Thank you for the hearts on my locker,” she whispered.
Credit where credit was due. And it had only taken sixteen years. He smiled. “You’re welcome.”
“You really are a wonderful dancer.”
“I could be wonderful at a lot of things...if only you’d give me a chance.”
“Maybe I’m giving you a chance right now.”
Maybe she was. Maybe he’d never get another. He spun her into a turn, this time bringing them face-to-face. Once more he drew her close until they were touching. There in the dying firelight it was hard to read what was in her eyes. Was that a hint of desire he saw or was he imagining it?
There was only one way to find out. Channeling every romance hero he’d studied, he lowered his lips to hers and kissed her. It was tender and packed with a lifetime of love, a kiss worthy of a Vanessa Valentine novel, the kiss of a lifetime. And he’d remember all his life that right now, for just this moment, she was his. It was with great reluctance that he ended the kiss.
She pulled away enough to look up at him. And now there was no mistaking what he saw in her eyes. But he couldn’t believe it. “Jonathan, have you really been here, right under my nose, the whole time?”
He felt like his chest was filled with fireworks, all going off at once. He smiled at her. “I’ve always been here for you, Liss, and I always will be.”
“Oh, Jonathan.” She took his face in her hands and kissed him again. And this kiss was even better than the one before.
He was barely aware of the sound of car tires crunching on his gravel drive, of a car door shutting, of Chica barking and someone calling his name.
“Hey, Jon!” Kyle ran around the corner of the house, carrying Jonathan’s pants. “We found your—” At the sight of Jonathan and Lissa in each other’s arms, his mouth dropped. Thinking fast, he whipped the pants behind his back. “I was just dropping something off.” He started walking backward, nearly stumbling in the process. “I’ll leave it on the front porch. Good to see you, Lissa.” Then he grinned. “Good to see you with Jon.” After that he faded into the darkness.
Lissa looked questioningly at Jonathan. “What was that all about?”
“Nothing important,” he said.
The fire was down to a flicker now. Lissa shivered and rubbed her arms.
“Let’s go in the house,” Jonathan suggested.
She smiled at him and nodded. Hand in hand, with Chica tagging along as chaperone, they went inside and settled on Jonathan’s couch, where they talked for hours. The talking led to kissing, and as the sun finally came up, Jonathan learned one final lesson—what a woman wants most is a man who will always be there for her.
What He Always Wanted
June, ten months after the reunion
Jonathan stood at the front of the Icicle Falls Community Church, wearing a white tux and a pink rosebud boutonniere, waiting for the most beautiful woman in the world to walk down the aisle to him. Kyle and Adam stood next to him, and Chica, who’d been the ring bearer, was sitting at his feet. Off to the side sat his mother, Neil and Juliet, who had baby Jonathan on her lap, along with his grandmother, who’d flown in from Arizona for
the event. All three women were already dabbing at their eyes.
Tina Swift had come down the aisle, followed by Laurie Poznick. After Laurie, it was time for the bride.
And here she was, escorted by her proud papa. Jonathan had just about burst his buttons when Lissa told him what her father’s reaction had been on hearing they were engaged. “Thank God you finally got it right, Liss.”
Her father wasn’t the only one who was grateful. The sight of her all dressed in frothy white, walking down the aisle, carrying a bright bouquet of spring flowers, took Jonathan’s breath away. He’d dreamed about this for so long, but even his wildest dreams couldn’t come close to matching reality. This woman, who was as lovely on the inside as she was on the outside, was going to be his wife.
He would remember every moment of this day for the rest of his life, every word of their vows—even though speaking them in front of all these people made him as nervous as the thought of their dance at the wedding reception.
But it wasn’t hard to say “I do.” And it wasn’t hard to ignore the hoots and cheers and applause of friends and family when it came time to kiss the bride. He was so caught up in the moment that everyone and everything faded to a background blur.
“I love you, Lissa,” he whispered after they’d kissed. “I always have and I always will.” He couldn’t help adding the immortal words of romance hero Sir James Noble. “The sun will turn to ash before I stop loving you.”
“Oh, Jonathan,” she said, “I love you, too, and I think I always have.” Then she kissed him again to more applause and laughter.
The reception was to be held at the Icicle Creek Lodge. Jonathan had finally thought of the perfect romantic gesture, and they left the church in a horse-drawn carriage.
The reception line formed in the lobby, giving people a chance to greet the bride and groom, and then move to the dining hall for appetizers and drinks.
“I knew some girl would find you and take you away,” Dot teased. “Unless...are you two going to live here?”
Jonathan shook his head. “We’re moving to Portland. Lissa’s got her TV show there.”
Lissa beamed. “He’s giving up his life here for me.”
That had been hard. Jonathan was very attached to his house, and he liked living in Icicle Falls. But giving up everything for the woman he loved, that was the number-one thing a hero did, and he was happy to be Lissa’s hero.
“But we’ll be back on long weekends and holidays,” Lissa said. “We don’t want that gorgeous house Jonathan built to go to waste,” she added, smiling at him.
“Well, amigo, you are a married man,” Bernardo said, shaking Jonathan’s hand. “Now the adventure really begins.”
Jonathan was more than ready for it.
Dinner, courtesy of Zelda’s, was fit for a king—salmon in puff pastry, Caesar salad and grilled vegetables. All the guests received special party favors—signed Vanessa Valentine paperbacks (Vance’s wedding gift to Jonathan). While the guests ate, they were treated to a slide show on a big screen. Pictures flashed by of Lissa on Lost Bride Trail, then at the falls, where she claimed she’d seen the ghost of the lost bride, an omen that meant a wedding was around the corner. Then there were shots of Lissa’s bridal shower, along with ones of Jonathan’s bachelor party in Vegas. (Vance had flown the poker guys down for the weekend.) There were lots of sentimental sighs when the picture of Jonathan, Lissa and Chica sitting on his front porch showed up. The last one in the loop made his friends clap the loudest. It showed Jonathan and Lissa poring over a Vanessa Valentine novel.
The big hit of the evening was the wedding cake, which had been done by Gingerbread Haus—a giant romance novel, open for all to read. On one page it read, “Jonathan and Lissa found each other and lived happily ever after.” The following page proclaimed, “The Beginning.”
“We are going to live happily ever after,” Lissa said as they cut the cake. “How can we do anything else since I’ve married my hero?” And that made Jonathan’s heart swell.
There was much ado about throwing the garter. Amid loud encouragement, Jonathan removed it from Lissa’s leg. Later that night he was going to kiss every inch of that beautiful leg, and all the rest of her. He took off the garter and shot it out—and his old pal Darrell Hornsby caught it. Darrell was with a new babe now, another internet matchup named Angelica. He grinned at her and she grinned right back. Go, Darrell.
Plenty of giggling women gathered to catch the bouquet, but to everyone’s surprise the throw went wild, and it landed in the reluctant hands of Vance Fish. Jonathan couldn’t help laughing.
Adam grinned at Vance. “Well...Vanessa. You know what that means. You better go stock up at Victoria’s Secret, ’cause it looks like there’s love in your future.”
“Cute,” Vance said with a scowl.
Next it was time for dancing, bride and groom first. All those people watching... Who cares? Jonathan thought as Lissa stepped into his arms. They did a waltz worthy of Dancing with the Stars, and Jonathan ended it by scooping her up and spinning in circles with her, raising a burble of female sighs from around the room.
“She’s so lucky,” he heard one of her friends say as other couples began to join them on the floor.
Now there was something he’d never figured he’d hear anyone say. But he knew who the lucky one was. He’d finally gotten the girl of his dreams. Vance had been right; love did win in the end.
“It’s true,” Lissa said, smiling up at him. “I got the most wonderful man in the world.”
“Well, at least in Icicle Falls,” he joked.
She made a face at him. “I’m serious. Jonathan, thank you for never giving up on me. For never giving up on us.”
“Well,” Adam said later as Jonathan and his posse stood watching Lissa and her girlfriends doing a line dance together, “you did it. You got her.” He shifted his baby daughter in his arms and kissed her.
“Thanks to you, we all got our women,” Kyle added. He and Mindy would be getting married in August.
“You’d have figured it out without me,” Jonathan said.
“Not if you hadn’t started us reading those books.” Kyle smiled at Mindy, who was showing off her engagement ring to Dot Morrison. “I gotta say, though, even with all the books I read, sometimes I still don’t know what she wants.”
The music had ended and now Lissa came toward Jonathan, smiling at him as if he was Prince Charming.
“I think maybe that requires a lifetime of research,” he said. He grinned. And what a wonderful life he was going to have doing just that.
* * * * *
Acknowledgments
I had so much fun writing this novel. And I have some important men to thank. Huge thanks to Clay Moyle for answering all my poker questions. And for playing poker with me! Someday I am going to master that card game. Thanks to Rob Rabe for sartorial advice and for helping me with my questions about life at a big insurance company. And to my pal Eric Schneider for telling me about his life as a medical rep. Thank you and lots of kisses to my darling husband, Gerhardt, who is an excellent copy editor. (And a pretty darned good husband, too!)
And now for the girls. Ruth Ross, I owe you a huge debt of gratitude for reading this story when it was nothing more than a mess in progress and for giving me so many good ideas. As always, thanks to the brain trust: Susan Wiggs, Lois Dyer, Anjali Banerjee, Kate Breslin and Elsa Watson. You guys are great! Huge thanks to my fabulous editor, Paula Eykelhof, for your invaluable insight and guidance, and to all the great people at MIRA who continue to make me feel so welcome and such a part of the Harlequin family. And last but surely not least, thanks to my wonderful agent and friend, Paige Wheeler. You’re the best.
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ISBN: 9781460309698
Copyright © 2013 by Sheila Rabe
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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