Back to September, page 25
“Of course I was scared, you idiot. It’s you. Nothing can happen to you. Do you hear me?” Fresh tears now. I was apparently an untapped well of them.
“Hey, I’m okay. I promise. Stop that. I’m serious.”
Parker was moving toward me, and in response I took a decided step back. If she touched me right now, I’d come undone. I was an unraveling ball of emotion already, all of them held in for too long. I couldn’t let myself get any further out of control because I had things to say, damn it. I pointed at her. “Hold on a second.”
She held up her hands in apology. The softness of her features rescinded, as she likely remembered where we currently stood. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cross any lines.”
“This is a mess,” I told her.
“I know. I apologized. What can I do? I can call the police department. Let them know I’m okay.” She turned around to likely do just that.
“Please, wait.”
She paused, turning back to me curiously. “Okay. Hannah, you seem very—”
“Off-balance? No. I’m not anymore. I’m not confused either, and I’ve been that for a long time. My heart hurts. That part’s true, because I’ve been apart from you for so long.”
I watched as her expression shifted. Her lips parted slightly, and her eyes went wide. I had her attention. “Is this about me disappearing?”
“Put that on hold,” I said, and brushed the annoying hair from my eyes. “I have to talk about the rest first.”
She nodded, and I shook my head at the magnitude of love rushing through me. It had always been there. I’d just gotten really good at keeping it dammed up.
“I know you left that day in the hospital because you were scared.” A pause.
Parker’s face fell in recrimination, and she touched the back of her neck the way she sometimes did when uncomfortable feelings bubbled up.
“It gutted me. I won’t pretend otherwise, and I thought, after that day, that we couldn’t go back. I didn’t feel safe with you anymore.”
“I hate that I did that to you. To us. I won’t ever forgive myself.”
I took a step toward her. “Well, I have, and I want you to work on doing the same. Do you know why?”
“Why?”
“Because we’re like a shooting star. You don’t see them every day, and when you spot one, you have to treasure the gift.”
“That’s exactly the reason I’ve stayed away. I’m not going to do any more damage.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think you will. Do you know why? We’re in this together.”
She seemed taken aback, and of course she would be. I’d not answered her letter, I’d rebuffed her in Portland, and now I’d shown up unexpectedly at her home and fussed at her for being irresponsible. “What are you saying, Hannah?”
“I’m saying that I love you, and I’m late. I should have chased you when you left, let you know that your fear was something we could work through together.”
Parker blinked. “You love me after—”
“Yes. Before. After. Always.”
She shook her head adamantly and her green eyes glimmered brightly with conviction. “What I did was awful.”
“Do you plan to do that ever again?”
“What? God, no.” She touched her chest and moved straight to me. “I would never, ever hurt you that way.”
“Then use the elevator next time.”
She smiled briefly. “I will forever embrace elevators. You have my word. I’ll get a tattoo of one.”
We stared at each other.
“Do you love me?” I asked.
She didn’t hesitate. “You know I love you. I will always love you. That hasn’t changed for a second.”
“I love you, too.”
We stared at each other. I inclined my head to the side and sent her a smile that I hoped communicated everything I was feeling. Instead of returning it, she walked away to the railing overlooking the lake. I gave her a minute, let her be with her thoughts, before slowly following her there. I slid my arms around her waist from behind, and her breathing hitched at our contact. I held her for several minutes, gently, just like I used to back in Providence, when we’d stare out at the night from my balcony. She didn’t ask me to stop. She didn’t step away from my touch. Instead, as the seconds ticked by, she relaxed into it.
Finally, I spoke quietly. “We’re both afraid. That’s not an excuse to give up what we want in life.” I gave her a squeeze. “There’s no one for me but you, Parker. I’ve tried convincing myself otherwise. I’m done now.”
She sniffed, and though I couldn’t see her face, I could tell there were tears. It was an emotional day all around.
“If you love me back and tell me you want this as much as I do, then we work through the rest together.”
“I love you. No question.” She turned in my arms and rested her back against the railing but hadn’t let go of me. That was something. “You’re the first thing I think about each morning and the last thing on my mind when I go to sleep. But you deserve more.”
“Can you give it to me?”
That seemed to pull her up short. She hadn’t expected another chance, and I hadn’t expected to give her one. “Yes. I think I can, but what if—”
“I get clubbed over the head again?” I meant for it to be a lighthearted comment, but the sadness that came over her face had me rushing to reassure her. “You can freak out all you want. As long as you plant your feet. I’ll be there to talk you down.”
“When you were first brought into the hospital, I was worried you wouldn’t make it.” She whispered the sentence, emotion strangling her voice. “But do you know what I’ve realized since then?”
“What?” I asked.
“That if I lost you, then I still would have had the best moments of my life because I met you. And I then understood that I’d made the biggest mistake of my life in not spending every second I had with the woman I love, the woman who had become everything to me.” She paused. “If I live my life trying my best to avoid any kind of major loss, in the end, what will I have to show for it?”
She dropped her face onto my shoulder and held me tight. “I’m so sorry, Hannah.”
“I know.” I pulled her in close. “Remember that night at Harry’s when we argued about romance and idealism?”
She laughed, and lifted her head. “How could I ever forget? The poor bartender.”
“You were right. Fantastical, novel-worthy romance exists.” I gestured between us. “I wouldn’t be standing on a lake in Austin, Texas, if it didn’t. Everything in my life propels me toward you, and when we’re together? Everything is better.”
She nodded and pulled my hand to her chest just like she had that first night I’d met her, back at my apartment. The gesture released such a warmth in my chest that it was I who moved into her arms this time. We hadn’t come to any formal conclusion, and there was work to be done, but standing along that railing overlooking that lake, we shared a long, slow, and tender kiss.
“This might be scary,” she said.
“It might be.”
“You know what, though?” She offered a tender smile. “Doesn’t feel scary at all. In fact, in the last five minutes, I’ve felt more like myself than I have in a long time.”
“Good.”
She wrapped her arms around me tighter. “I love you so much. Do you hear me?”
I relaxed into her, savoring her warmth, her scent, her being. “I love you, too.” A pause. “We should probably call the police now.”
“One more of these first,” she said, and brushed her lips to mine.
“Maybe two,” I whispered back.
* * *
“Good morning, baby,” were the words I woke up to the next day. Parker, back in the most amazing robe in the world, stood next to the bed with two cups of coffee. I pushed myself up and accepted the mug she handed me.
“I slept in?”
She winked. “We were up pretty late.” She sat on the bed with her own cup and smiled at me. “I was thinking.”
“What were you thinking about?”
“Well, after reliving everything we did last night, and everything we said to each other before we did it, I want a firmer plan for the future.”
I took another sip. “And what have you come up with?”
“I want to move to Providence.”
I hadn’t expected that. I figured we’d do the long distance, travel to see each other thing for a little while before settling on something more workable. Her plan was infinitely better.
“You would do that?”
She nodded. “You can’t leave the shop, and I don’t want us to be apart. Especially now. If you don’t want me to move in with you yet, I can get my own place nearby. I want to hold on to the lake house for getaways. For you and me, when you can steal time away from the shop. But I’ll sell my apartment in New York. I won’t need it.”
My heart swelled, and the smile on my face followed suit. “Live with me. It would be insane not to.”
“Are you sure?”
I nodded, remembering how perfectly we’d fit together the last time she’d stayed with me for an extended time. It had been the happiest time in my entire life.
Parker set her mug on the end table, retrieved mine, and set it next to hers. “What are you doing?” I asked with a giggle, and she slipped out of her robe, naked and beautiful, and climbed back into bed with me.
“I think this is called a lazy morning. Prepare for lots of them in the future.”
The future.
I marinated in the promise of that word and looked forward to everything the future brought with it. That morning was a memorable one full of warmth, laughter, pleasure, and above all, immeasurable love.
One chapter in our romance down, so many more to come.
Epilogue
One Year Later
“Do you think I should hang the witch reading Edgar Allan Poe in the front window or the back of the store?” Luna asked, twirling her currently bright orange strand of hair. “I want to capitalize on her seasonal relatability.”
I glanced up from the inventory order I was constructing on my laptop and attempted to regroup. Luna was in full-on Halloween decorating mode and already had the place looking like a spooky little wonderland full of black cats, pumpkins, and ghosts—all with a penchant for reading, of course. “Let’s hold her for inside, so she doesn’t detract from the monster-mash book club meeting in the front window. I don’t feel like they would have invited her, you know?”
She nodded. “Maybe a monster/witch rivalry thing?”
“Yeah, I just can’t imagine them necessarily socializing on a regular basis. There would be tension.”
She pointed at me. “I feel you.”
The bell above the green door rang and Parker walked in like a woman on a mission. She held up one hand.
“Your fiancée is here,” Luna said in a singsongy voice.
How long until someone tweeted that she was in the shop? I grinned, as it had become a fairly common occurrence. We’d started taking bets on how much time would pass before it happened. The end result was we were blessed with extra customers that Parker then had to smile and sign for. Not that she ever seemed to mind. I definitely didn’t.
Parker approached the counter with a determined stare. “Hear me out.”
I raised a shoulder. “I’m definitely willing to hear you out, except I was told in no uncertain terms when I left this morning that you were not to leave your writing desk or our apartment until you had three thousand words, and I wasn’t to speak to you as leverage until that happened. You were very firm.”
“I remember saying that. I meant it at the time. Things have changed.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Have they? Because I’m not in the habit of breaking rules. Am I allowed to talk to you or not?” I passed her a hopeful look because anytime she showed up at the shop, my day was instantly brightened, and I wanted nothing more than to talk to her and find out about her day so far.
She waved off my concern. “Rules are made to be broken.”
“Aha, so a no-go on the writing progress.” I closed my laptop. The order could wait. I had a more important conversation.
“Well, I couldn’t concentrate.” She dropped her voice. “I started remembering all those adorable sounds you made last night, and then that got me thinking about our wedding night.”
“Parker! Not here.” I glanced around.
She didn’t even pause. “And then the wedding itself. We haven’t made any definite arrangements yet.”
“True.” I felt the blush recede. We’d decided on late spring but still needed to hash out the details and hire a knowledgeable planner, pronto.
But Parker had her idea face on, which I happened to love.
Her features popped with extra excitement, as if she’d stumbled onto something that had amazed her. To her credit, her ideas were generally fantastic, and I often benefited from her creative side, so I listened eagerly.
“Okay, this is the hear me out part. Remember the first night we met, when you told me you enjoyed learning about wine?”
“Yes, and you asked if I’d been to Napa, then declared that I would go one day.”
She paused, building anticipation. She was excellent at that. “What do you think about a Napa wedding?”
I stared at her. “As in…actually in Napa?”
She nodded, beaming.
The wheels in my head began to slowly process the concept. “It’s an interesting idea. What about our friends? Do you think they’d be able to come? I wouldn’t want them not to be with us.” We’d already decided on a small wedding, but I wanted the key players present for sure.
Parker shook her head. “Not a concern in the slightest. I’ll make sure they’re all there. What’s the point of having tons of money if you can’t spend it on the people you love? It’s the biggest day of our lives. A very worthy cause.”
I could see Luna practically vibrating as she prepped her decorations not far away. She’d clearly heard every word, having perfected the art of eavesdropping. The idea of getting married somewhere as beautiful as Napa almost seemed too good to be true. Was this my life? I imagined my parents there, Bo and Amy, Parker in a dress standing among the vines. The daydream demanded that I sit down. I had to. Then I stood back up again. There was no universe in which I could say no to her proposition.
“Ms. Bristow, I think you have yourself a destination wedding to plan.”
Parker clapped her hands once. “Future Mrs. Bristow, I could kiss you right now.”
I laughed at the use of my soon-to-be name.
She joined me behind the counter and wrapped one arm around my waist. “We’re getting married in Napa,” she said quietly. “You and me. Vineyards in the spring. We’ll probably have to take anniversary trips there. Then take our kids. Show them where it all happened.”
I sighed dreamily. “I love this idea, but not as much as I love you. And wine.”
“I love you, too. What do you want for dinner tonight?”
I grinned. “I’m easy.”
She raised an eyebrow, and I laughed, knocking her one on the shoulder for the cheeky insinuation. “How about a good burger? Extra sloppy.”
“You know my heart,” Parker said in happy approval. “Have a good day at work, sweetheart, and I will be waiting with a glass of wine for you when you get home.”
“Okay, but I’m only accepting it if you’ve finished your words.”
She sent me a smile over her shoulder. “Deal.”
I watched Parker leave the store and couldn’t help but marvel at the difference two years had made in my life. I’d opened up my heart to someone new, gone through the storms of heartbreak, only to emerge happier on the other side. I was in awe of how wonderful giving yourself to another human could be. I looked back in amusement at the time I didn’t want Parker’s book in our one and only display because romance was silly and idealistic. I was someone who could admit when she was wrong, and I’d never been more off base about anything in my life.
A text message hit my phone. PS. You look so beautiful today. I love you.
I smiled, because I was living out my own romance novel every single day, and I knew now without a shadow of a doubt that it came with the happiest of endings.
About the Author
Melissa Brayden is a multi-award-winning romance author, embracing the full-time writer’s life in San Antonio, Texas, and enjoying every minute of it.
Melissa enjoys spending time with her family and working really hard at remembering to do the dishes. For personal enjoyment, she throws realistically shaped toys for her Jack Russell terriers and checks out the NYC theater scene as often as possible. She considers herself a reluctant patron of spin class, but would much rather be sipping Merlot and staring off into space. Coffee, wine, and donuts make her world go round. Visit her online at melissabrayden.com.
Books Available From Bold Strokes Books
A Moment in Time by Lisa Moreau. A longstanding family feud separates two women who unexpectedly fall in love at an antique clock shop in a small Louisiana town. (978-1-63555-419-9)
Aspen in Moonlight by Kelly Wacker. When art historian Melissa Warren meets Sula Johansen, director of a local bear conservancy, she discovers that love can come in unexpected and unusual forms. (978-1-63555-470-0)
Back to September by Melissa Brayden. Small bookshop owner Hannah Shepard and famous romance novelist Parker Bristow maneuver the landscape of their two very different worlds to find out if love can win out in the end. (978-1-63555-576-9)
Changing Course by Brey Willows. When the woman of her dreams falls from the sky, intergalactic space captain Jessa Arbelle had better be ready to catch her. (978-1-63555-335-2)
Cost of Honor by Radclyffe. First Daughter Blair Powell and Homeland Security Director Cameron Roberts face adversity when their enemies stop at nothing to prevent President Andrew Powell’s reelection. Book 11 in the Honor series. (978-1-63555-582-0)
