Page 38 of Down & Dirty

That dress. I still wore it sometimes and it never failed to have the desired effect.

Brodie let go of my hands and took something out of his jeans pocket. A small velvet box. He opened it up to reveal a ring with a square yellow stone surrounded by white diamonds in a platinum setting. It was unusual and stunning. My hands were over my mouth. Now I was shaking as it hit me. This was really happening. It wasn’t even something I’d consciously wanted. I’d figured we were both reluctant after witnessing less than perfect marriages but I’d be lying if I said that seeing everyone around us married and happy hadn’t made me yearn a little...

Brodie said, ‘Jessica Ross, will you please do me the honour of marrying me and letting me show you how much I love you, forever?’

I nodded and suddenly I was crying and half laughing and breathing so hard I felt faint. Brodie was putting the ring on my finger and I was down at his level wrapping my arms around his neck and we were falling onto a bed of soft silken petals and kissing and kissing until we couldn’t breathe and had to come up for air.

We just lay there for a long moment and looked at each other, grinning, limbs tangled. I touched his face, and his scar, reverently. He moved his head and pressed a kiss to my palm.

‘I love you, Brodie Montgomery.’

‘I love you.’

‘Thank you,’ he said.

‘For what?’

‘For rescuing me.’

I shook my head, my eyes filling with tears. ‘No, you rescued me.’

‘You didn’t need rescuing.’

I nodded, ‘I did.’

He snorted. ‘You’re the woman who told me very clearly that she wanted me togo deeper.’

I gasped and blushed and mock hit him. ‘That’sthe memory you think of? From that first night?’

He nodded and smiled and rolled onto his back and took me with him. I spread my legs either side of him and he grabbed my ass. He said, ‘As much as I’d like to reenact that moment right here and now, I have to inform you that we’re being filmed and that the minute we stand up, all of our nearests and dearests are going to jump out to surprise us.’

I did notice a suspicious rustling sound just then and I smiled at Brodie. ‘No harm making them wait a little longer.’

So we kissed again, until we almost forgot, but then Tash, in her own irrepressible way was the one to say, ‘Ok,enough!This gazebo does not have actual walls you know and I think we’ve all seen more than we need to!’

We lifted our heads and everyone popped out of their hiding places around the gazebo. Skye and Jack. Lucy and my brother, Jamie. Julia, my boss, in tears. Brodie’s friends and fellow company owners.

And Tash, also in tears, and holding up a phone to capture this on camera. I let Brodie pull me up and everyone crowded into the gazebo and there was champagne and corks being popped and glasses being passed around but just when I had that dizzying sensation of being on the edge of a precipice because there was so much love and happiness and maybe it couldn’t possibly be real – I felt arms come around my middle and I was pulled back against a strong chest.

I took a breath and believed in it. And us.

The End

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