Perri sighs but then nods, and I know she understands me deeply. On this, we’ve always connected. She’s a cop, I’m a fireman—and we both do what we do to help others.
“I need a little levity outside of work. That’s why I make jokes, keep it light. You get me?”
“I do,” she says softly.
“So you might not see that side of me, but I have it. I have it when I walk into burning buildings. When I answer heart attack calls in the middle of the night. When we rush to an accident on the highway. Same as you.”
“I understand.”
“And the other thing I don’t joke about is this woman.” I squeeze Vanessa’s hand harder and turn to face her. “I fucking love you so much. So much that you simply can’t go to the wedding with Jamie. You’re going with me.”
Vanessa laughs. “You’re not asking? You’re telling me?”
I roll my eyes. “Woman, you’re going with me, you want to, and that’s that.”
She grins, smacking my chest. “Fine. If you insist.”
I look back at Perri. “Cancel Jamie. Call off that blind date. Whatever you need to do. Vanessa is mine, and I’m a hundred percent serious about that. And you need to know I will treat her right; I will do right by her. I will treat her like the queen she is to me. So you can just stop worrying and talking shit about my balls.”
Perri’s mouth parts in an offended O. “I do not want to discuss your balls. Now or ever.”
I grab my crotch. “Good. The balls are off-limits. And so is Vanessa. No more setups. No more anything.” I drape my arm around my woman, tug her closer, and plant a quick kiss on her lips. “She’s taken.”
Perri’s smile is huge and surprises the hell out of me. She jumps up and wraps her arms around both of us. “I love you guys. Just be good to each other. Always, okay? Or I’ll hunt you down and break your arm, Shaw.”
I laugh. “It’s always something with you, isn’t it?”
“Always,” Perri adds.
The three of us separate, and I return to the final matter at hand. “You’re going to uninvite Jamie now?”
Perri furrows her brow. “He’s a guest. That’d be rude.”
“Then uninvite him from the blind date.”
Vanessa chimes in. “I should let Miriam know too. It’s the right thing to do.”
Derek coughs, cutting in. “I can handle that.”
I turn and stare at him quizzically. So does Vanessa. And Perri.
He shrugs, an impish grin on his face. “I might have played a part in the whole thing.”
15
Derek
Sometimes you have to take chances.
Last year, I took a chance to be with Perri.
And this past week, I took a chance for Shaw.
Even though there were risks. Like pissing off the woman I love.
Perri marches up to me, slams her hands on my chest, and quietly hisses, “What did you do?”
But I’m not worried. I know how to smooth things over with this fiery woman I adore to the ends of the Earth and back. I smile and run a hand through her hair. “Kitten, it’s all good. I knew he was in love with her.”
She squints. “How did you know that? I didn’t know that.”
I scoff. “You didn’t want to know that! But I’ve been trying to tell you for months. He’s so damn crazy about Vanessa. I could barely handle him mooning over her every time he saw her.”
“So you did what exactly? Arranged a snowstorm?”
I wiggle my eyebrows, pleased at my machinations. “I’m good, but I’m not that good.”
Her eyes don’t let go of mine. “So what did you do, McBride? Don’t make me cuff you and bring you in for questioning.”
I loop my arm around her waist and raise my eyebrows. “That might not be so bad. But you won’t, because I’m not the bad guy in this story. There is no bad guy. I’m one of the good guys, and I did a good thing for everyone by making all this love happen.”
“And how did you do that, Mr. Matchmaker?”
I smile, pleased as the dickens. “I talked to Miriam at the library when I was there with my niece. We chatted about a bunch of things. Her son, Vanessa, Shaw, and oh yeah, someone else.”
“Who?”
I whisper in her ear.
“What?” Shock covers Perri’s face when she draws back.
“Indeed. And look, Vanessa and Shaw needed a kick in the pants to get together. So I gave them one.”
“What if it had gone south?”
“But it didn’t. Because we engineered it brilliantly. And besides, these two,” I say, gesturing to the new lovebirds, “are so in love that it simply couldn’t go wrong. So Miriam and I arranged the whole Jamie-Vanessa thing to get the two of them moving. It worked. I knew Shaw would only get his butt in gear if someone serious seemed to be going after Vanessa. I also knew she was crazy about him.” I run my fingers over Perri’s cheek, giving a smile just for her. “And I knew you’d forgive me.”
She breathes out hard. “That’s a lot of assumptions.”
“But you forgive me?”
“Hmm.” She’s softening. “Why should I?”
“Because I pushed all the right buttons to engineer true love.”
She turns to look at Shaw and Vanessa, who seem sickeningly happy, then she turns back to me. “Fine. I forgive you.”
“Good, because I fucking love you, and I also knew you’d be happy if Vanessa was finally with the man she wanted.”
Perri sighs contentedly. “She does seem to like him.”
I shift my gaze to the hallway. “How many bedrooms does this cabin have?”
“At least two, I think.”
“What do you say we claim one for the rest of the day?”
“I’d say that’s a deal.”
* * *
Shaw
Later, we tromp outside in the snow for a snowball fight, and the ladies make snow angels as the sun shines brightly on a carpet of white.
With my phone, I snap a picture of my very own snow bunny, then I tug her up from the ground and press a kiss to her cold nose.
“Hey, you,” I whisper. “So this is kind of nice.”
She stares down the bridge of her nose. “Kind of?”
I shrug nonchalantly. “Kind of totally fucking awesome.” Then I sniff. “Also, it smells like juniper out here.”
“That’s the juniper tree,” she says, waving behind her toward a thatch of trees. “And thanks a lot. Now I’m craving a juniper latte.”
I hold up one finger. “I promised to treat you like a queen. Be right back.”
I grab Derek, take off in my truck on the newly plowed road, and return a little later with a quartet of juniper lattes.
“Told you I’d treat her right,” I say to Perri as I hand the beverage to my woman.
Vanessa taps her fingernail against the side of the cup. “This is pretty good treatment.”
That evening, over a simple dinner and snacks, the four of us play Monopoly, then we go to our separate rooms. All I will say is thank God they’re on opposite ends of the cabin.
Because Vanessa and I make use of ours.
All. Night. Long.
16
Book Club Ladies Group Chat
Miriam: Everything is in place. All systems are go. Fingers crossed for liftoff.
CarolAnn: Toes crossed too!
Miriam: I have faith in our matchmaking. It’s going to go perfectly. It’s not like there’s anyone else in the picture. We have this all mapped out. Don’t forget that, ladies.
Sara: Plus, we’re damn good at this. Look at Hunter and Madeline, already hitting it off. Surely we’ll be two for two.
Miriam: By the way, I am so glad we added secret matchmaking to our book club responsibilities.
CarolAnn: So am I. And we are quite amazing at it, if I do say so myself. Then again, we’re grand at so many things: book clubbing, wine drinking, not to mention NSFW conversating.
Sara: We do rule at
all those over-sixty hobbies.
Miriam: Ladies, let’s agree we get better with age.
CarolAnn: We are the finest of fine wines.
Sara: Have I mentioned that retirement is officially the most awesome part of our lives?
CarolAnn: I’ll drink a merlot to that!
Miriam: Let’s keep making things happen. The wedding is going to be fantastic. You’re the best friends a gal could have.
Sara: Cheers to us!
Miriam: And to the young people who benefit from a nudge here and there. May they be blessed with love, trust, and the hottest of hot sex.
CarolAnn: Double cheers to that.
Sara: Make mine a triple. :)
Epilogue
Vanessa
In his tux, Shaw is exactly as handsome as I imagined he’d look.
Correction: more handsome. He’s somehow even better-looking now that he’s mine. Because we’ve opened up to each other. Because we trust each other. Because we’re together, and that makes me more attracted to him every single day.
Crazy, huh? I already thought I’d reached the edge of attraction, but I can see that it’s infinite when you don’t have to love in secret. I love Shaw more now that I’ve set my emotions free from where I’d hidden them—free with room to breathe and expand and grow.
I love him more now that I can share my love with him.
With his elbow hooked through mine, we walk down the aisle till we reach Derek and the minister, who happens to be married to Derek’s sister. His brother-in-law is a military chaplain, so he’s handling the vows.
Shaw takes his place next to the groom, his smile lingering on me. I stand next to Arden, and Derek’s sister, Jodie. When the wedding music begins, all eyes turn to the bride as Perri, radiant in white and holding a bouquet of lilies, walks down the aisle, looking as happy as anyone could ever possibly be on her wedding day. When she reaches the altar, she meets Derek’s gaze and whispers hi.
It’s so tender and intimate. It’s everything I could want for my friend.
He whispers hi back to her, and even in that two-letter word, I hear so much love. My throat catches, and out of the corner of my eye, I glance at Arden next to me. We don’t have to say anything. We’ve always had an intuitive kind of language, the three of us friends. I feel passing between us this happiness—this awareness that here we are, decades later, still best friends and heading into new and wonderfully fabulous phases of our lives.
* * *
Later, the three of us gather in a corner of the reception hall under the twinkling lights, watching other guests dance. I lift a glass of champagne to offer a toast. “Look at us. The kick-ass girls of Lucky Falls.”
Perri raises a glass high. “I propose a new name. The kick-ass women.”
Arden lifts her champagne but doesn’t take a drink. “I’ll toast to that.”
I stare at her, instantly knowing why the bubbly isn’t touching her lips. “Why aren’t you drinking champagne? Is there something you want to tell us?”
She giggles then says, “I’m having a baby in six more months.”
I squeal. Perri shrieks. And we group-hug in the biggest group hug ever.
Someone else is having a good time here too.
My little sister.
Turns out Ella’s the one Miriam had in mind for Jamie.
Turns out Jamie has had his eye on her for a while as well.
And all it took was Derek and Miriam plotting to bring two new couples together.
The other night, I texted her.
Vanessa: Why didn’t you tell me YOU were the one who wanted to get on Jamie, stat?
Ella: I did say he deserved a Marquez sister. I just didn’t say which one. :)
Vanessa: My, my. You sure do like semantics, don’t you?
Ella: I do enjoy words. :) But seriously. I also knew you’d never wind up with him.
Vanessa: Why?
Ella: Please. I’m a lover of books, stories, and romance. I’ve been devouring tales since I could read. It was inevitable that you had it bad for your best friend’s brother, and it would only take time, or a snowstorm, for you to get together. I wish I could take responsibility for that snowstorm, but fate obviously knew the two of you needed it.
Vanessa: You’re too observant for your own good.
Ella: Well, it was patently obvious you’ve had it bad for Shaw for years.
Vanessa: And do you have it bad for Jamie?
Ella: I haven’t even been on a date with him!
Vanessa: That’s not the question.
Ella: I’ll answer the question after I go out with him.
Vanessa: My money is on yes.
I take a spin on the dance floor with Shaw, passing Ella and Jamie on the way. He looks enchanted with my sexy librarian sister. I wink and wish her luck.
She blows me a kiss. “Your money is right.”
“I knew it.”
On the other side of the room, Miriam tucks a strand of hair behind her ear and smiles. Shaw and I make our way across the dance floor, stopping in front of her.
“Thank you, Miriam.”
“No, darling. Thank you. All is well in Lucky Falls when it comes to love.”
“I’ll say.”
We return to dancing, where we shimmy next to Shaw’s father and mother. His dad gives a tip of the cap, a nod, and a smile to his son, then mouths Well done.
“I’ll say,” Shaw echoes.
Another Epilogue
Shaw
Several months later
I check the weather report. There’s a snowstorm coming in, and I have the weekend off. So does my girlfriend.
I head to her bowling alley for a few rounds, then a few not-so-stolen kisses, then tell her I plan to take her to Tahoe the next day. “No ifs, ands, or buts about it.”
She gives me a look. “Like I was going to protest? You drive, I’ll play Elvis on the Bluetooth, and I’ll bring those sexy sweaters that get you revved up.”
“Everything you do gets me revved up.”
We drive up together, listening to fifties tunes about love and Cupid. She teaches me a few more Spanish phrases. I’ve been picking up bits and pieces of the language. Well, beyond the ones I hear most frequently—oh Shaw, yes Shaw, my God, do it again, and more, more, more.
In town, we stop at the market and pick up food, beer, champagne, and all the fixings for hot chocolate.
At the cabin, she says she’ll straighten up the bedroom, and while she does, I start a fire and whip up some hot chocolate, adding a dollop of whipped cream to each mug.
“Well, don’t you know the way to my heart and panties,” she says when she returns to the living room.
I stand in front of the fireplace, a cup in each hand. “I’d like to keep finding my way there for the rest of our lives.”
She tilts her head curiously. “What do you mean?”
And as soon as I hand her a mug, setting mine down on the table, I drop to one knee.
“Yes!”
I burst out in laughter. “You didn’t even let me ask!”
She clasps her hands over her mouth. “Yes!”
“I’m asking anyway,” I say through my chuckles. I straighten out my smile because this is a time to be serious. “Vanessa Marquez, you are all my answers, and I love you so much. You’re my snow bunny, my friend, my lover, and the only woman I ever want to come home to after a fire. I want to be yours forever, and I want you to be mine.”
She shouts yes again as tears streak down her face.
“Maybe take a look at your hot chocolate,” I say, nodding to her snowman mug.
On the handle, I’ve strung a diamond ring.
Her eyes widen. “Oh my God. It’s gorgeous.”
I untie it, slide it onto her finger, and kiss her in front of the fire as the snow begins to fall.
THE END
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What’s a man to do when the one who got away comes roaring back into his life, and asks for a little help in the bedroom?
Say Hell, Yeah!
Of course.
But if she happens to be my business partner’s daughter? And she’ll be working in our practice, where we’ll be rubbing elbows every day? Also, have I mentioned she’s
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