I nodded against his chest. I was determined not to spend our last few minutes together crying. I knew exactly how lucky I was to have had him here for as long as I had. And for my family to have accepted him so much during that time. I shouldn’t cry. Even though I couldn’t imagine falling asleep anymore without him there to say good night to.
Mom is the important issue here, I reminded myself. Nothing was as important as her getting better. I needed to focus on that.
“I’m really starting to wish I had booked that later flight,” Thomas said, kissing my hair and my forehead.
“The later flight would have gotten you to L.A. at six a.m. You have to be on set tomorrow.”
“I think I’d take a sleepless night if it meant I got to spend a few more hours with you.”
I turned in his arms so I could face him. “You know how much I love you, right?”
His eyes searched mine, like he was trying to convince himself. “I think so.”
I shook my head. “Don’t think it. Know it. I love you, Thomas.”
He let out a breath. “Things haven’t been great lately.”
I looked down. “I know. But I don’t care about any of that. I really don’t. I don’t care what we have to put up with. It’s worth it to me. We’re worth it to me.”
I realized, as I said the words, how true they were. I could focus completely on my mom’s recovery right now because Thomas and I were going to be fine. Maria was right—everyone had to decide if their relationship was worth fighting for. But I’d already made that decision. Thomas was worth everything.
“Lizzie,” he whispered, sounding suddenly nervous. “I want you to know something.”
I stared up at him, watching his face closely. He looked like he was struggling with something, debating whether or not to say it.
I would like your blessing.
Was this the moment? Was he going to ask me now? I wished he would—even if he was leaving, even if we wouldn’t get to celebrate it. I wanted to tell him yes, wanted him to take that yes with him when he went, to hang onto in the next few weeks.
He took a deep breath.
Of course, his car arrived at that moment, beeping loudly in the street.
I released a breath I hadn’t known I was holding and smiled. He shook his head, frustrated, but smiled too. He kissed me softly. “It will keep.”
We both stood, untangling from each other. Thomas walked to the door to wave at the driver, letting him know he was on his way, before turning back to me.
“It’s too hard,” he said, wrapping his arms around me. “Leaving you. I hate it.”
“Me too.”
I held him close, surprised by how calm I was. I felt strengthened by the last few minutes, bolstered in my realization that we were going to get married, eventually. We were going to spend the rest of our lives together. Whether he asked me today or in three weeks or a year, it was going to happen. Nothing could keep us apart, not his career, not family, not my own insecurities. Certainly not a few weeks of distance.
I stood on my tiptoes to kiss him, lingering until long after my breath was gone. “I love you,” I whispered. “Be safe.”
“You be safe too. I’ll call you when I land.”
I nodded. He stared into my eyes for a long moment, as if he couldn’t bear to look away. I smiled encouragingly.
“I love you, Lizzie.”
Then he turned, picked up his bag, and walked slowly across the porch and down the walk. The driver helped him put his bag in the trunk, and Thomas stopped before ducking into the car, giving me a last wave.
I waved back, feeling a strange mixture of sadness, loneliness, and relief. I was going to miss him so much. But we were going to be okay. I knew we were.
After he was gone, I wandered around the house for a little while, absent-mindedly playing with the beads of my rosary. I had taken to carrying it around with me since that first night at the hospital, fidgeting with it whenever I felt worried or anxious. It made me think of Thomas, and of my parents, and so it made me feel better.
I didn’t need to be back to the hospital for a few hours yet. I would relieve my dad around two so he could get some rest, and then Maria and Laura would join me a few hours after that, one or all of the boys taking the evening shift. One good thing about having so many family members was that there was never any shortage of people to keep Mom company.
Thinking I might as well rest for a little while, I headed up to my room and stretched out on the bed. I draped the flower beads over a picture of Thomas and me that I had left on my nightstand last August. We’d taken it at Westminster Abbey last year, on our very first date. I could remember lying in this bed last summer after leaving London, staring at that picture and feeling like my heart was breaking in my chest.
Now I smiled at his familiar, handsome face, remembering the excitement of that day, the way I’d had butterflies in my tummy the whole time. How thrilling it felt every time we touched. How we’d kissed for the first time up in the London Eye, and it had felt just like I was falling.
I was just drifting off when I heard the front door open downstairs. Probably Sam coming home on his break to grab some lunch. My brothers had a habit of treating my parents’ fridge like their own. Feeling too sleepy to go down and say hello, I let my eyelids flutter closed.
And then my bedroom door opened. I sat up with a start, my heart beating wildly.
Thomas stood in the doorway to my room, his face slightly red, something clutched tightly in his hand. “I changed my mind.”
“Thomas? What are you doing? Did you forget something?”
He shook his head and came to the bed, pulling me up into a sitting position and crouching in front of me so we were at eye level. I couldn’t see what he was holding in his right hand, but he clutched both of mine with his left. “That thing I wanted to tell you? The thing I said would keep?” He dropped a kiss on my wrist. “I changed my mind. It won’t.”
“What are you—?”
“I bought you something last August,” he said, his voice coming out hurried and nervous. “Right after you came back to London. That’s when I knew, Lizzie, that I was in this with you forever. But I knew you weren’t ready yet, knew that there was too much drama going on with your family. That was okay, though.” He looked down at my hands, smiling to himself. “That just gave me more time to plan. And I planned a lot.”
“I don’t understand.”
But he kept going as if I hadn’t said a word. “First I thought I’d do it in Hyde Park, where we sat and read that day, remember? I think that was the first time I realized how good we’d be together, because it was all so natural with you. Or maybe I’d do it in the London Eye, where we first kissed. Or up in Edinburgh, where you decided to give me a chance. Or I’d take you back to Winchester. Or hide it in one of your favorite books. Or show it to you out of the blue, with no warning.”
I knew exactly what was going on, but all I could do was stare at him, not wanting to interrupt, wanting to hear every second of this story.
“I had a lot of plans, Lizzie. But then we were going to L.A., and I had to start planning all over again. Should I do it in our new house? Or in Vegas? I had finally decided on Christmas, and then that stupid cow had to go and leave my brother.” He smiled ruefully, shaking his head. “I was almost as mad at her for messing up my plans as I was at her for being so awful.” He swallowed. “And then things started to get so rough for us.”
His eyes met mine. “But I never changed my mind. Not for a second. I figured I had already waited so long, I could wait a little longer.”
His gaze seemed to bore into mine, so intense it took my breath away. “Lizzie, I don’t want to wait anymore.”
“Thomas.”
He finally opened his right hand, and I saw the ring. It was beautiful. Exactly the ring I would have picked for myself. Delicate and sweet, thin lines of twisting silver wrapping around each other until they met in the center at a small, perfect diamon
d. “I bought it in Notting Hill,” he whispered. “I think that’s where I fell in love with you.”
I was already crying. “I think that’s where I fell in love with you, too.”
“Maybe it’s wrong to do this now, when your mom is still sick,” he said. “But, Lizzie, if anything, your mom being sick just showed me how we can’t take anything for granted, you know? There are no guarantees in life. I’ve wasted all this time waiting around for everything to be perfect, but perfect isn’t the most important thing. The most important thing is this—” He kissed each of my wrists again before dropping from a crouch down to one knee. “I love you. You are the best part of my life. I want to make you happy for the rest of my life, the way you make me happy every day.” He took a deep breath, looking straight into my eyes. “Will you marry me?”
I slipped from the bed onto my knees in front of him and kissed him, sobbing and laughing, wrapping my arms around his neck.
“Is that a yes?” he asked, and he was laughing too, the sound so joyful it made my heart clench. “This isn’t fair, Lizzie, you have to say the word!”
“Yes.” I kissed his cheeks; his grinning, laughing lips; his eyelids, glittering with tears. “Yes, Thomas, I’ll marry you. Of course I’ll marry you!”
I actually knocked him over with the ferocity of my hug, but he only laughed some more, lying flat on his back on the floor of my room and pulling me onto his chest to kiss me so hard and long that I was pretty sure I wouldn’t ever be able to breathe again. I couldn’t care less—who needed air when they had a man like Thomas?
“I’m so definitely taking the late flight now,” he said, laughing, when I finally let him up.
“Let’s get married right now.” I was beyond giddy. I trailed my lips down to his neck so I could feel the way his throat vibrated when he laughed. “Let’s go back to Vegas. You can fly to L.A. from there.”
“No way. You promised me the whole shebang.”
I kissed his Adam’s apple, his ear, every inch of skin I could reach. “Like you care.”
“I do! I have my heart set on seeing you in a big old white dress. And you said we could have an open bar.”
My breath caught in my chest as the image flashed before my mind—me, walking toward Thomas in a church filled with all the people we loved. I pushed myself up on my hands so I could look down at him, my laughter replaced with tears once again. “This is real, isn’t it?”
His eyes softened as he looked up at me. “Yes, it is. It’s always been real, for me.” He shook his head a little. “The most real thing in my life.”
I lay my face against his chest, feeling his arms come up around me. I never wanted to move, wanted to live in this moment with Thomas forever. I knew he still had to go home, knew this would probably make me miss him more than ever, but none of that mattered right now. The only thing that mattered was the feel of his hands in my hair, his heart beating strong and fast below my cheek.
It wasn’t the most perfect scenario in the world, him having to go the same day we got engaged. But it was like he said—perfect wasn’t the most important thing.
“You’re going to be my wife, Lizzie,” he whispered, almost as if he couldn’t believe it. “My wife.”
I lifted my head so I could kiss him, letting the moment take me over, letting the joy seep all the way through my bones. No matter what else ever happened, I was going to have Thomas at my side. Forever.
Perfect wasn’t the most important thing. This was.
The End
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Her best-selling chick lit series are also available for kindle and in paperback.
Three Girls Series
Come along for the crazy ride as Ginny McKensie and her best friends deal with an unexpected pregnancy in Three Girls and a Baby.
Follow Jen Campbell as she struggles to plan the perfect wedding—and find her very own happily ever after in Three Girls and a Wedding.
Join Annie Duncan as she continues her search for the perfect leading role—and the perfect man to go along with it in the third and final book of the series, Three Girls and a Leading Man.
Reunite with Ginny, Jen, and Annie and catch up with Kiki Barker-Thompson as she attempts to create the perfect fairy tale life in The Truth About Ever After (a Three Girls book).
An all new Three Girls book will be available in January 2014!
Love Story Series
In Search of a Love Story is the first in the three-book series, in which you meet Emily Donovan, a self-described romance novice, as she searches for her very own love story.
An Unexpected Love Story, is the second in the Love Story series, where we follow along with Brooke Murray as she attempts to save her parents' inn, find true love, and run a business-all while wearing the perfect pair of heels!
In the final book in the Love Story Series, An (Almost) Perfect Love Story, we learn more about Ashley Phillips. She has always believed in love, but does she have what it takes to fight for love when her perfect love story turns out to be not so perfect after all?
Lovestruck Series
When Lizzie Medina settles in London for a year of post-graduate studies, she’s sure she’ll be able to start a whole new life. But falling unexpectedly in love with up-and-coming actor Thomas Harper causes Lizzie to re-think… everything. When Thomas’s career suddenly explodes to superstar levels, Lizzie finds herself forced to navigate the fame game of red carpets, catty co-stars, gossip magazines, and paparazzi in Lovestruck in London. When she wished for a new life, she had no idea it would be anything like this!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rachel Schurig is the best-selling author of the Three Girls series, available now in paperback and ebook. Rachel lives in the metro Detroit area with her dog, Lucy. She loves to watch reality TV, and she reads as many books as she can get her hands on. In her spare time, Rachel decorates cakes.
To find out more about her books, visit Rachel at rachelschurig.com
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Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lovestruck in Los Angeles Page 23
