Full of Wonder: A Sweet Romantic Comedy (Wonders Never Cease Series Book 2), page 1
Full of Wonder
Wonders Never Cease Series 2
B.M. Baker
Redeemed Writing Press
Copyright © 2023 B.M. Baker
All rights reserved
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
All scriptures taken from The Holy King James Version Bible
Printed in the United States of America
Dedicated to Marie. Thank you for your excitement about this series, and for always asking how my writing was going. It served as an encouragement to me every time I wanted to give up on this book. God bless you!
Praise for Full of Wonder
Full of Wonder is charming and sweet, with a dash of humor and a pinch of zest. The fake dating trope is taken to the next level by combining it with an underlying theme of faith. No emotion goes unturned as Marco and Rosalina navigate their accidental romance. B.M. Baker delivers another delightful story with unforgettable characters, swoonworthy moments, and valuable lessons for us all. ~ Kaelin Scott, author of Game Set Love and Worthy of Love
Full of Wonder epitomizes the fake dating trope through a Christian lense. The characters grapple not only with their growing feelings for one another, but also with the consequences of their deception. With classy wit, dramedy, and swoon, Baker is sure to leave the reader... full of wonder. ~ Drew Taylor, author of The Designated Friend
B.M. Baker has done it again, blending comedy, sweet romance, and purity in one of my favorite tropes—fake relationships. If you're someone who appreciates some romantic madness, awkward moments, and you're a dog lover too, then don't hesitate to get this book—you won't be disappointed. Enjoy the journey as Marco and Rosalina accept each other’s flaws and reveal their true feelings. ~ Lisa Renee, author of the Bachelors of Clear Creek series
Full of Wonder is the perfect light-hearted read that will have you grinning from ear-to-ear. Baker’s unique characters deliver a delightfully fun story brimming with banter and hilarious situations. You can’t help but root for the characters as they navigate separating their real feelings from the lies they’ve weaved. Full of genuine faith, warmth, and loads of doggy love, Full of Wonder is sure to leave you with a smile on your face. ~ Latisha Sexton, author of the In the Midst series
Baker delivers a romantic comedy without the spice, witty banter without borderline comments, and a sweet love story without anything explicit, proving this to other rom-com writers: you can tell a great story while keeping it clean. ~ Caitlin Miller, author of The Memories We Painted and Our Yellow Tape Letters
From meet-disaster, to fake dating, to falling unexpectedly in love, Baker delivers laugh out loud moments with these two imperfectly adorable characters. With just enough tension and swoon, you won't be disappointed by picking up this sweet read! ~ Dulcie Dameron, author of the River Hollow Romance series
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Praise for Full of Wonder
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-One
Twenty-Two
Twenty-three
Twenty-four
Twenty-five
Twenty-six
Twenty-seven
Twenty-eight
Twenty-nine
Thirty
Thirty-One
Thirty-two
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Books In This Series
Books By This Author
About The Author
Psalm 105:5
Remember his marvelous works that he hath done;
his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth;
One
July 10, 2019
It’s hard to attend the wedding of the woman you thought you’d marry.
Marco Mendez folded the wedding invitation up for likely the five hundredth time since receiving it in the mail on Saturday from his high school crush, Lillian Harrison. It was only Wednesday and the creases were already looking worn. Marco doubted it would last much longer if he kept pulling it out of his pocket to glare at.
Why he was carrying it around to torment himself with, he didn’t know. Maybe he liked pain?
Yeah, that’s it. I like pain.
Marco rolled his eyes at his own pitiful thoughts. If only he had spoken up sooner, maybe things would have turned out differently. Why couldn’t he have worked up the nerve to tell Lillian how much he cared for her?
He supposed he took it for granted that she knew what his feelings for her were. Hadn’t it been obvious? They’d spent their entire junior and senior years of high school together.
Having attended a small Christian school, there hadn’t been much diversity among the students. With Marco being Hispanic and Lillian Asian, they were both in the minority. So, naturally, they’d created a bond and had been best of friends.
But, best of friends wasn’t a free ticket to the marriage altar. Now Lillian was engaged to marry a Vietnamese man. Lillian had often talked about wanting to marry someone who shared her heritage, so Marco figured he should be happy for her.
It was hard to be happy, though. It hurt too much. Now he had to attend her wedding and watch her marry the man who’d managed to win her undying love. A man who couldn’t even stay awake while standing up, as he suffered from a neurological condition called narcolepsy. But Clint Bishop had been able to do what Marco never could: speak his feelings and declare his love.
If only Marco hadn’t waited too long.
He sighed regretfully and proceeded to down the last of his carton of coconut water.
“Hey, you about ready to get back to work, amigo!” One of Marco’s coworkers and best friend, José Torres, hollered from up on the roof.
Marco tossed the empty beverage in the bed of the utility truck. “I’m coming!”
He jogged back toward the house, climbed the ladder with monkey-like skill, attached his safety harness, and scaled the high-peaked roof without a single wobble in his knees.
“Were you reading that letter again?” José asked, an eyebrow raised in an expression that said his friend already knew the answer.
Marco grumbled.
“What’s that?” José cupped a hand around his ear.
Marco sent José a glare. “I was.” He grinned largely to hide the heart-wrenching pain he felt in his gut.
“You need to get over her, Marco.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“She’s getting married, for crying out loud! That means any fancies you held for Lillian are over. You had your chance, and you blew it.”
“Wow. Guess I won’t be getting any sympathy from you.” Marco grabbed his roofing shovel and returned to the task of removing shingles. He put extra muscle into the job than he normally used and found satisfaction in the pulling he felt through his back. At least it momentarily took his mind off the pain in his heart, and the torture in his mind thinking about seeing Lillian at the altar with that man.
“You need to suck it up, bro.”
Marco rolled his eyes while his back was to José, but then he turned around and flashed another of his big grins. “I’m fine. Really. See? I’m smiling.”
José set his shovel down to point a stern finger at him. “Your smile doesn’t fool me. We’ve been friends since we were in diapers. I know you wear that smile to hide what’s going on inside. The bigger the grin, the deeper the pain.”
Did his friend have to be so right? Margo growled and didn’t bother keeping the grin on this time, but scowled and, for the first time, said words out loud he’d never admitted to anyone but himself. “I love Lillian.”
Whoa. Those words were powerful. And saying them now made it feel as if his whole world had been rocked. Good thing he had his safety harness on, for Marco’s legs gave out on him in his squatted position and he dropped to his bottom.
It’s too late. How he hated those three words. As much as they hurt in this instance, he couldn’t imagine how terrible it’d be to hear them from God on judgment day.
José shook his head, probably thinking of what a sorry lot he was. And maybe he was. A man in love with another guy’s fiancée?
Yeah, that doesn’t fly.
Marco clenched his jaw and worked on taking more of his hurt anger and frustration out on the shingles.
“Say, why don’t I help you get your mind off of things?” José asked after a few minutes.
Marco was already panting from his exertion. If he kept up this pace he’d never make it through the day. He needed to get a hold of himself. He swiped the arm of his orange long sleeve T-shirt over his perspiring forehead and righted the brim of his tan sun hat again.
“Nothing will get my mind off it. It’s a hard fact that can’t be changed, and I need to learn to live with the reality.”
“I think I know exactly what would help you, though.”
Marco doubted it, but gave his friend his full attention. “What do you have in mind?”
“Join Regina and I for dinner Friday night.” José got a silly lost-in-love kind of look. It was not becoming on him.
Regina was José’s fiancée, and wedding bells would be ringing for them next month too—exactly a week after Lillian and Clint’s wedding.
“Why would I want to join you and Regina for dinner? You two will be so caught up in each other. I’d be an annoying third wheel on your date.”
“Ah, but you miss my meaning.” José tsked.
Marco shook his head in annoyance and returned to scraping off shingles. “Then tell me what I’m missing.”
“Let me set you up on a blind date.”
“Absolutely not.” Marco gave a hard shove on his shovel. “I don’t want you setting me up with an unknown woman. If I can’t have Lillian, I won’t have anyone.”
“Well, then you’d better learn to enjoy bachelor life. Because you ain’t getting Lillian.”
The man was no help. Not that there was any help for him. The engagement ring he knew was on Lillian’s left fourth finger now sealed the deal. He knew Lillian. She’d not let a man put a ring on that finger unless she was serious. He should have known it was coming. In fact, he’d seen it coming, but had kept himself in a state of denial.
It all started that fateful day in May. Marco would never forget the scare Lillian had given him when she’d wound up in the hospital after a bicycle-versus-automobile accident. She’d been in a coma for two-and-a-half weeks. Marco had feared he’d lose her. He’d spent the days of her unconsciousness praying and working up the courage to tell her he did, in fact, care deeply for her. That they weren’t merely friends.
But then one day when Marco had gone to visit her in the hospital, there’d been a man there. A Vietnamese man. Who looked exactly like the kind of man Lillian would fall for. And from the look on said man’s face, Clint Bishop (he really didn’t like the name right now), Marco had known right then he hadn’t a chance. Clint clearly loved Lillian, and he knew Lillian would choose him in a heartbeat.
And she had.
To Marco’s dismay.
Now he had around three-and-a-half weeks to come to terms with her decision before he had to witness the wedding of the love of his life to the man Marco felt no small kindness to at the moment.
God, help me.
José’s eyes were locked on him and it was grating on Marco’s nerves. “Will you quit staring at me,” he hissed.
“I will if you say you’ll come to dinner.”
“Sure. I can say I’ll come.”
José growled. “You have to mean it.”
Marco paused in his work. “I don’t know if I can trust you with picking out my blind date.”
“Ah, so you’re considering it?” José’s eyes took on a light.
“I said no such thing.”
“Would you agree if I told you who the woman is?”
“I might.” Marco rubbed his chin.
José nodded and inched across the roof to get closer, likely so Santiago and Javier, their fellow roofers on the other side of the steep peak, couldn’t hear. “My cousin. Rosalina.”
Marco raised a brow. “I didn’t know you had a cousin Rosalina.”
“Oh, didn’t you? I guess I never told you about her.” José shrugged as if it was neither here nor there. “Well, yeah, I have a cousin Rosalina, who happens to be completely unattached.”
“José,” Marco growled.
“What? Come on. This could work. Maybe you can hit it off and have yourself a date to take to the wedding. You know, as your plus-one. If you don’t bring someone, and you’re still wearing a face like you have been since you got the invitation, Lillian’s gonna know you’re harboring hard feelings. You don’t want that.”
Marco hated how right his friend was. He sighed and picked at the handle of his tool.
“Is she even from around here?” Marco couldn’t believe he was considering the date.
“She lives here in Peoria. In fact, she lives with my parents.”
“Why is she living with your parents?” Not that it mattered, but if Marco was going to do this, he figured it’d be good to know the woman’s history.
“Well, mainly to help my mom with house chores with that bad back of hers. But also, Rosalina has her own up-and-coming dog-grooming business, and it helps her out with all those expenses not having to worry about cost of living too. Besides, Mom loves having her there. It’s a win-win.”
“Hmm.” Marco rubbed his chin, the prickly stubble reminding him he’d fallen asleep as soon as he’d gotten home last night and, in turn, didn’t get around to shaving. “You think she’d agree to meeting?”
“I can stop by tomorrow morning before work and ask.” José used a sing-song like voice, which told Marco how pleased he was with the plan.
I can’t believe I’m agreeing to this.
Yet, he couldn’t let Lillian see how he was pining after her. Having a date at the wedding would be the best cover-up. He sure couldn’t go with a big grin and expect to fool Lillian. Because, like José, she also knew how he grinned to hide any inner pain.
Would this Rosalina be distraction enough to put a true smile on his face though?
There is only one way to find out.
Marco gave a quick nod of his head before he could change his mind. “Okay. You can mention it to Rosalina.”
José made a fist pump and then reached over to turn on the radio. With the Mexican music blaring, all conversation was brought to a halt and their work speed ramped up as they fell back into their normal day-to-day rhythm.
Two
While some people dreaded hump days, for Rosalina Torres they were usually a delight.
This Wednesday was no different. She smiled as she gave the Maltese a chin rub before sending the dog and his mom off. It’d been another successful dog party here at her The Pampered Poochie’s Parlor.
She’d had around a dozen dogs romping and frolicking in the fenced-in back lawn of her establishment all afternoon, and she’d loved every minute of listening to their high-pitched yips and friendly growls, and watching their happy tail wags and exuberant zoomies around the yard.
The birthday party for little Gianna, the Maltese, had been a success in Rosalina’s book. And by the big smile on the pretty pupper, she knew Gianna would agree.
With a final good bye to the last dog, a Silkie terrier, and his dad, Rosalina lifted her face to the sun one final time before turning around and re-entering her dog salon. The interior’s painted tan walls and ivory floors with brown paw prints with yellow and turquoise bows served to lift her mood even more. It’d been a good day.
A satisfied sigh escaped her as she made her way through the building, turning off all the lights. It was time to close up shop and go home to a quick supper before beginning her evening job: walking other people’s dogs. She needed every possible source of extra income she was capable of, and so Rosalina spent a lot of time dog sitting, dog walking, and babysitting. To be honest, she preferred the work with dogs over the babies. At least dogs didn’t cry, or talk back like an unruly toddler.
A yip sounded, followed by the click, click, click of little toenails on the industrial tile floor. Rosalina spun around and dropped to her knees. “Well, hello, Queenie. Hi, darling.” She proceeded to give her bichon frisé a chin rub. “You had fun during the party today too, didn’t you?”
The smile on Queenie’s fluffy white face was the undeniable answer. “Ah, come here.” She scooped the dog up and buried her nose in the soft white hair. “I love you, doll.”
Queenie showed affection by a long swipe of her wet, pink tongue across Rosalina’s cheek, ending at the corner of her lips. Rosalina chuckled, set the dog back down, and wiped at the wetness with the back of her hand. “Ready to go home?”
