by Tina Martin
“Preston, I—”
“And I have to find out, not from you but from your brother, that you’re moving to the Outer Banks permanently.”
“Yes. I’m moving here permanently.”
“Why?”
“Because I want to. Because I want a new start.”
“Why can’t your new start be with me?” he asked.
“Because you’re not in the new start phase of your life, Preston. You’re established. I’m not. I’m just figuring out what I want.”
He expelled a breath. “I can’t believe this. I can’t believe you’re doing this to me.” He paced the floor for a moment then said, “You’re basically asking me to choose.”
She shook her head. “I’m not.”
“You are. I built my company from the ground up. My life, my friends…everything is in Charlotte. Except you.”
“We could always try a long distance relationship.”
He shook his head. “No, we can’t. You’re forcing me to choose. You do realize that, don’t you?”
“I’m not forcing you to do anything, Preston. This isn’t about you. It’s about me. You have a life. I’m just trying to find one.”
“Then come back to Charlotte and have one with me,” he pleaded.
“No. I don’t want a man taking care of me. I want my own life. I want to make my own money and I don’t want to live under the shadow of your success.”
“Wow. That actually hurt.” He looked heavenward and said, “Looks like you’ve made up your mind.” He turned away, walking to his bedroom.
Chapter 35
A few days went by. Slowly. Preston passed the time by working on the article he’d started for A Taste of the Beach and Tamera was busy working on names and concepts for her website. Both stayed secluded in their bedrooms, barely seeing each other in the past few days.
* * *
Preston finalized his article and stood up from the bed. It was nearing dinner time and he wondered if Tamera had already eaten. He shook his head. He hated the space between them now and the resulting division that was happening. With only three days left at the cabin, he was due to return home and she was staying put in the Outer Banks.
Gosh, he hated thinking about that. Every time he did, he felt knots in his stomach. He had to do something about it.
Walking to her bedroom door, he tapped with his knuckles and said, “Tamera, you in there?”
“Just a second,” she responded.
He waited a moment. When she opened the door, he saw her sad eyes. A line appeared between his brows. He hated to see her this way. “I was wondering if you wanted to grab some dinner with me.”
She nodded. “Sure.”
She didn’t ask where. Didn’t need to. She needed to be with him just as much as he needed to be with her.
Walking, quietly towards the restaurant, the first restaurant they ate at together towards the beginning of this cabin stay, he took her hand inside his, locked it there, not that he needed to. She didn’t resist. Didn’t attempt to pull it away. She wanted it there – needed to feel some sort of connection with him after three days of no interaction with him whatsoever.
At the restaurant, they secured the same table as before and then he had a suggestion as they looked at the menus. “Hey, let’s order something different.”
“Different?”
“Yes. I know you were eyeing up those barbecue mahi-mahi tacos again because they were delicious, but let’s order something we haven’t tried before. Then we’ll share our entrees to see how we like them.”
“What if we don’t like them?”
“Then we’ll go for what we know.”
She smiled. “Okay. Let’s do it.”
She stared at the menu and said, “I’ll try the Salmon cordon bleu.”
“Funny. I was looking at the same thing.”
She grinned. “And here I was thinking we had different tastes.”
“Guess we’ll see when we actually try it,” he said.
“Okay, so what are you ordering?”
“I’ll try the fried scallops. I’ve never tried scallops, fried or otherwise. You?”
“No. Never.”
“Then this will be interesting.”
And it proved to be just that. The scallops were different, Tamera had said, but not a meal she would order in the future. Meanwhile, the salmon, filled with Gouda cheese, spinach and ham was surprisingly delicious. It was so good, Preston ordered his own plate and finished it before Tamera could finish hers.
“Amazing,” he said, sipping on the sweet red wine he ordered.
“I agree. I think that’s one of the best meals we’ve shared.”
“I think so, too.” He held her gaze for a moment, then said, “I finished my article.”
“You did?”
“Yeah. Haven’t really talked to you in three days and after our argument, I felt like I needed to work off some frustration, so I finished it.”
“Is it exclusively for your eyes only, or can I read it?”
“You can read it,” he said, taking his cell phone from his shirt pocket. “I sent it to myself in an email. Let me pull it up.”
“Okay,” she said, waiting.
“Here it is.” He handed her the phone.
Tamera took it and began reading:
Food, Beach & Fun - It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than ‘A Taste of the Beach’
Article By Preston Michaels
Recently, I found myself on the shores of the beautiful Outer Banks for a weekend of food tasting at the annual, A Taste of the Beach event. The smell of food in the air – funnel cakes, roasting corn along with sweet-smelling candy apples – is enough to make you hungry, even if you’re not.
That wasn’t the case for me. I was hungry, but I found myself starving for something food couldn’t satisfy. I wanted companionship, and I found that in the form of a beautiful young lady whom I met in what some people might consider a serendipitous way. She was just what I needed, and suddenly, the food festival meant so much more.
We sampled barbecue mahi-mahi fish tacos – fish smothered with a tangy barbecue sauce in a soft taco shell with the right amount of lettuce and cilantro garnishment. A dash of lime juice set it off, made the flavors collide in my mouth. It was to die for. We also tried fresh-squeezed lemonade which tastes so much better than the store bought stuff. In fact, I may never buy premade lemonade again. Then there was the roasted corn with seasoning salt and my favorite – the funnel cake. (By the way, you haven’t lived life if you’ve never had a funnel cake with powdered sugar and strawberry topping.)
Tamera looked up at him and smiled, remembering how they’d shared the funnel cake. She looked down at the phone again and continued reading:
But what made all of this exciting, what made the food taste better, what made the day especially brighter was that I got to share it with a truly amazing woman. In one weekend, she changed my life, made me see that life isn’t all work and no play. Made me realize how stuck I was, working behind the scenes in an office all day and never getting out to experience life. To live it. This weekend, I lived.
A Taste of the Beach is a fun time.
A taste of life, of love, of laughter is even better.
Lucky for me, I got to live it all, but this is not where this story, this article, this review ends. It ends when I have to say goodbye to her. When I can no longer see her beautiful face. When I can no longer witness the smile that lights up my day more than the sunshine ever will. When I can no longer see her blush with cheeks as red as a brush of strawberry topping. When I can no longer savor the sweetness of her lips that’s better than any dessert I’ve ever tasted.
She’s my taste. She’s my beach. She’s everything I need to make my life complete.
___________
A tear ran down her Tamera’s face as she looked up at him and lowered his phone to the table.
“I had time to think about us while I was writing that. I thought about us a lot
. I thought about what you said…starting your own website and all the excitement that must come along with that for you. I also thought about the way I felt when I wanted to start my own business, and how fulfilling it was to do so. How rewarding it has been. Who am I to hold you back from your dreams?”
She looked at him, seeing matching emotions in his eyes.
“I know I want to be with you, Tamera. The question I have for you is, do you want to be with me?”
“I do. I like you.”
A small smile formed in the corner of his mouth. “Do you remember me telling you about my ex and how she didn’t want to be with me because of the time it would take for me to start my own business. She gave me an ultimatum…said it was her or the magazine, and when I chose to pursue my dreams, she left. Remember that?”
“Yes.”
“For a long time, I regretted that decision. I hated the fact that I chose my dreams over the love I felt for her. Eventually, I got over it, invested all of my time in the magazine, but the decision haunted me. And now, here we go again. You’re making me choose between you and my company.”
“I’m not, Preston. I told you I wasn’t doing that.”
“But you are, Tamera, because you’re not coming back to Charlotte. Long distance won’t work for me, so the way I see it is, I’ll have to move here to be with you, giving up my company—my life—in the process.”
Tamera shook her head. “I don’t want you to do that, Preston.”
“What other choice do I have, sweetheart, because leaving without you by my side is not an option?”
She brushed a tear away.
“I won’t let you slip away from me, so tell me what other choice I have, Tamera.”
Tamera exhaled quick breaths and said. “I don’t know.”
“Well, there is one thing I—we could do,” he said.
“And what might that be?” she asked.
Preston fiddled around in his pocket, pulled out a black box. Opening it, he placed it on the table. “I could take you back to Charlotte as my wife. As the woman I love and want to spend forever with. Share my life with. I don’t want you to live under the shadow of my success. I want you to live with me to share my success and in turn, I promise I will help you build your company from the ground up. Marry me, Tamera.”
Eyes flooded with tears, Tamera managed to smile when she said, “I can’t marry you. Your sister hates me.”
Preston laughed. “She doesn’t hate you, and she knows how much I care for you. I cannot—I will not—leave this place without you coming back home with me.” He stood up, dropped to his knees in the restaurant and now they had an audience. “Tamera Alexander, will you marry me?”
She wiped her eyes again. “You know this is crazy, don’t you?”
“Yes. I know, and I want you to be crazy with me. Marry me, Tamera.”
“Okay. Yes. I will marry you,” she said, springing forward into his arms before he could slide the ring onto her finger.
After she took a quick shower and slipped into a nightshirt, she walked to his bedroom and slid under the covers with him.
“You remember when I said I wanted to hold you? To know what it would be like to wake up to you in the mornings?”
“Yes.”
“Not once have I had that opportunity this week. Now, we’ll have that for the rest of our lives.”
She smiled, inhaling a long breath of satisfaction. “I cannot believe we’re engaged.”
He took a quick kiss from her lips. “Believe it. I’m making you mine the first opportunity I get.”
She leaned forward, this time, and left a kiss on his lips.
“Big wedding or small wedding?” he asked, running his fingers through her hair.
“I want a small, romantic beach wedding.”
“Beach wedding?”
“Yes. I think it’s idealistic for us, considering…”
“Well, we’re here for the next three days. Let’s get married on Saturday.”
Tamera laughed.
“You’re laughing but I’m serious.”
“You are?”
“Yes. Why wait? I know you’re mine. You know you’re mine. It’s time for everyone else to know it, too.”
“My parents would kill me if I got married without them being present, especially since I told them I’d never do it again.”
“Then I suggest, tomorrow, we let them know what’s about to go down on Saturday.”
Tamera smiled. “What’s going down on Saturday, Preston?”
He positioned his body on top of hers, took a kiss from her lips and said, “On Saturday, you’ll become Tamera Michaels.”
Chapter 36
John and Rena Alexander were ecstatic when they found out Tamera was engaged. Tamera wouldn’t give them details of their engagement or how long she and Preston had actually known each other. She just wanted them to see Preston for the good man that he was – a man who wouldn’t abuse her or mistreat her like Mark had done. This time, she’d found and was marrying a winner – someone who would love and cherish her for the rest of her life.
Once word spread throughout the Outer Banks about an Alexander getting married, the small, intimate ceremony grew into a massive one – with close to two-hundred guests, thanks to Rena and Padma. Padma even took the liberty of flying in all of Preston’s family who could make the last minute wedding and told Preston to consider it a gift.
Preston’s parents, most of his friends and a few of his employees were able to make the trip. And speaking of his parents – they weren’t too thrilled about meeting the woman their only son was going to marry the day of the wedding, but Preston explained how quickly it had happened and how much he loved Tamera. Once they got to meet Tamera, they understood why he had fallen so deeply in love with her.
* * *
The wedding turned out to be more than they had ever imagined. The tall pillar candles, light teal and white sheer curtains tied to posts and to the arbor blowing in the wind with the ocean roaring behind them – the Alexander and Michaels families celebrated the new love between Preston and Tamera on this beautiful summer night.
Preston had been standing at a cocktail table taking a sip of champagne watching Tamera dance with her father, his new father-in-law, when Tyson walked up to him.
“She’s happy, brother-in-law,” Tyson said.
Preston looked at him. “I intend to keep her that way.”
“That’s all I ask,” Tyson said. Then he reached to shake Preston’s hand.
Preston welcomed the handshake, squeezing Tyson’s hand firmly so Tyson knew he meant business. He would take care of her and love her like she deserved.
Preston looked at Tamera again after Tyson walked away. That’s when Serenity stepped up to him and said, “I’ve apologized to Tamera a million times. You think she actually forgives me, or did she only say so because she’s a part of the family now?”
Preston smiled. “She forgives you, Serenity.”
“How do you know?”
“I trust her and if she said she forgives you, then she forgives you. I mean, you are the reason we got together in the first place.”
Serenity’s face brightened. “I guess I am, huh? That’ll make for an interesting story when people ask how you two met.”
Preston chuckled. “Yeah. It will.”
Chapter 37
“I’ve never wanted anything or anyone more than I want you,” Preston said, staring into the eyes of his bride, his new wife. The wedding reception had lasted until one in the morning and now, around 2:00 a.m., they were back at the cabin, both tired and equally as happy.
Standing in the living room, he placed his arms around her, swayed his body from side to side and said, “Dance with me, baby.”
She laughed. “Haven’t we danced enough tonight?”
“No. One more dance. Just us. Alone. Secluded in this cabin.”
“Okay,” she said, matching his body movements, dancing to unheard music in their mi
nds. Dancing to love. To the life they would share.
“I knew you were the one the moment I laid eyes on you and now look at us.”
“Yes. Now look at us,” she said gripping his hand.
Rocking together a little while longer without saying a word, listening to the sound of nothing, Preston broke the silence when he asked, “Are you exhausted?”
“I’m more excited than I am exhausted.”
“Then how about we take this party to the bedroom?” he asked.
“Let’s,” she said, disguising nervousness.
Leading her by the hand, he walked towards the bedroom, pushed the door open and Tamera’s eyes brightened. Stringed lights blanketed the ceiling – the only light source in the room. On the floor were several blankets and plush comforters, pillows and a spread of food – looked like appetizers and desserts. Every dish had its own identifying label.
“Preston Michaels…what’s all this?”
“Well, I figured since we were so busy talking with everyone congratulating us and all, we could have this private food tasting. Besides, I didn’t get a chance to eat. Did you?”
“No.”
“Then let’s.”
She smiled. “B-but how did you plan all of this behind my back?”
“Your brother has connections, darling.”
Tamera sat down, still wearing the sleek wedding gown she had picked out with the help of Gabrielle and Padma.
