AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Of course we can talk about it,” he said. “It’s a great idea, too.”
“I can’t believe I’m going to move again,” she said, really leaning into his chest.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “You didn’t have much stuff, and I’ll help you.” He leaned toward her and added, “I love you, Lauren. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”
“Mm.” She accepted his kiss, her way of saying,Okay. Yes, it’s absolutely okay to see me tomorrow and kiss me like this.
30
Three Months Later:
Blake looked at the sky, trying to find the horizon where the ocean met the atmosphere. It was all one color of gray, and he couldn’t see it. It rarely got too terribly cold on Hilton Head Island, but in the winter, they had plenty of rain and stormy skies.
Today was one such day, and while Blake wanted the sun to shine its brightest on the day he asked Lauren to be his wife, he couldn’t wait for the weather to cooperate. He couldn’t wait one more day, period.
Another hour felt like torture, but Lauren hadn’t come out of her meeting yet. Today was the last day either of them would work this year. The Christmas holidays were almost upon them, and Joy was flying in tomorrow. Blake wanted Lauren to have a shiny new diamond to show off for her friends, and if she’d come out of the country club, he’d be able to get the question asked.
He tucked his hands into his pockets and turned away from the country club. Lauren didn’t know he was waiting for her, and staring at the door was like watching a pot of water and willing it to boil. It wouldn’t, and when she exited, he’d talk to her.
He wandered down the paved path, his thoughts scattering but his pulse absolutely calm. Lauren had said she wanted a spring wedding, and that she didn’t want to be engaged for too long. He figured a Christmas proposal would give her the time she needed to plan the perfect beach wedding, and an engagement of three or four months could hardly be considered long.
In fact, in Carolina, it would be a hurry-up wedding, and he guaranteed his momma would ask if Lauren was pregnant. Blake knew that was an impossibility, but the idea of it made him smile.
They’d talked about marriage, weddings, teenagers, and babies in the past three months, and Tommy had turned fourteen as well. Some days felt like they moved as snails and other days blinked by without Blake knowing what he’d done.
He’d renewed his lease on the building, and this time, he’d added Lauren’s name to it as well. She’d be moving her home-based office into his building, and she had two offices off the back door. With the separate entrance, her clients could come in and not have to go past his secretary or down his hallways, and he could still jot over to her office to kiss her whenever he wanted.
He realized then that he’d been wandering, lost inside his own thoughts, and he turned back to the country club. He’d gone pretty far, and he cursed himself for letting his imagination take control of his life. He’d done that a lot with Lauren, because sometimes he still couldn’t believe she’d chosen him. That she loved him.
She said it every day, though, and Blake sure did like hearing it.
He scanned the parking lot as he returned to the big building in the gray light, and to his horror, Lauren’s SUV wasn’t there anymore. “Stupid,” he muttered to himself. “Stupid, stupid, stupid.”
He didn’t know where she was headed after this, and they hadn’t shared their locations with one another. He jogged to his vehicle and got behind the wheel. He waited what felt like an impossibly long time for his phone to connect to the Bluetooth, and then he dialed Lauren.
Taking a deep breath, he told himself to calm down. He didn’t need to make a big show for her. He hadn’t planned to. The diamond ring sat in his pocket, and he’d been planning to surprise her outside her meeting, drop to both knees, and ask her to be his wife.
Just thinking about it made him cringe. That wasn’t a good enough proposal for a woman like Lauren Keller.
“Hey,” she said.
“Uh, hey,” he said, trying to focus on the conversation and driving and how he could make his proposal better all at the same time. That totally didn’t work, and he backed out of the spot without saying anything.
“What’s up?” Lauren prompted.
“Where you at?” he asked. “Is your meeting over?” He knew dang well it was, and he might be on her tail.
“Yep,” she said. “Finished a few minutes ago. I’m headed to the grocery store to get the meat for the kabobs tonight. Remember we’re grilling in Harrison’s new outdoor kitchen?”
“Yes,” Blake said. “I remember. Are you going to Fresh Mart? Or Shirley’s?”
“Shirley’s,” she said slowly. “Where are you, Mister Williams?”
Great. He’d given himself away. He couldn’t think fast enough to come up with a reason, make the left he needed to in order to go to Shirley’s instead of Fresh Mart, and berate himself, so he said, “I was hoping to catch you at the country club, but it sounds like I missed you.”
“You were? Why?”
“Just wanted to see you,” he said innocently.
