Happy Valentine's Day! Sometimes love can be a nervewracking thing, like it is for my commitment-phobe heroine, Shelby, from I Do. . . or Die. Here's what happens when she gets a proposal of marriage from Ryan:
“Shelby, I love you.”
What? My breath caught. My heart started pounding so hard, I could barely hear the rest of his words.
“And I realized it when I was on vacation, and all I could think about was how I wished you were with me, and how much fun we would have if you were there.”
“You just wanted to see me in a bikini.”
His lips raised briefly. “Well, that would have been a bonus. I really missed your kooky humor, and how you make me laugh. I realize how bland everything is when you’re not around to spice things up.”
He gulped, searching my face for my reaction. I was still so stunned, I was speechless, so I squeezed his hands, hoping he wouldn’t think I’d just had a stroke and this was the only way I could communicate.
Although it kinda was.
“But I’m not your type,” I finally said.
“No one is more surprised by that than me.”
I leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his perfect lips.
“Ryan. I love you too. I was afraid to admit it to myself. I’d tried not to let it happen. It’s never happened before, so I didn’t know how to handle it. But when I nearly got shot and I realized I might never see you, ever again—”
My kiss this time was a little more fervent.
He still held my hands, and the next thing I knew, he was on one knee, gazing up at me.
“No. Ryan.” I tugged at his arm, trying to pull him up, so I could stop him before he said anything. But he was determined.
“Shelby, will you marry me?”
My heart thudded, in slow motion. A combination of fear, and excitement, and dread swirled inside of me. “Ryan, I—”
I could feel my forehead break out in a sweat, and then the room began to oscillate. I squeezed Ryan’s hands, to keep from slipping off my chair.
“Put your head between your knees,” Ryan said calmly, helping me with the task since I was about as useless as a girl could get right then.
“I wish your face was here instead of mine,” I said in a muffled voice.
~~~~~
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