Her Charming Secret (36 page)

“Since the time I read the dedication in your novel.” He smirked. “So, I was your secret all along?”

She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his lips lightly before saying, “No, you weren’t my secret. You are my
charming
secret!”

Alex chuckled as he put his arm around Abigail’s shoulder. “You hear that, baby? Aiden is her charming secret.”

Abigail grinned and replied, “Hey, player, you are a great Cupid, but turn around and see what’s going on with your baby!”

“What?” He turned around to see his car being towed. “Blast it!” He ran towards it, yelling, “Hey! Leave my baby alone! Come back here! HEY, WAIT!!”

“Before he met Abby, he used to chase girls,” Ashton said with a grin.

Aiden held Jo tightly as he said, “And after meeting Abigail, he chases after cars!”

“Thatz why I zaid to bouy a limouzine!” Pierre puffed proudly. “You Canadianz havez no cluez about how greatz ze French are! We arez ze bezt and you are notz!”

Everyone stopped in their tracks and glared at him.

“Whatz? I zpeak the truthz!” He shot back at them. Ashton placed his hand over Pierre’s mouth before he could insult even more people.

Suddenly, they heard a loud noise again and turned around to see Alex. He looked completely out of breath, and the tow truck driver seemed to be playing with him, going all around the terminal with Alex running right behind him.

“WAIT! DON’T TAKE MY BABY AWAY!” he shouted, still running after his car.

“Thank goodness I’m not him!” Aiden grinned.

“I’m glad that you’re you! And Aiden, I love you.” Jo grinned and pulled his head down to kiss him passionately, forgetting about everyone, not caring if people were watching or about Pierre’s comment that the French are the most romantic people on earth.

She sighed in content; this is exactly where she wanted to be. Pulling him closer, she rested her head on his chest, happy just to hear his heartbeat.

“As I love you,” he replied, running his hand over her back and holding her tight in his arms.

She knew one thing for sure. When it came to having an epic romance, no one could beat them. Sighing contentedly, she pulled away.

“I love you more!” She childishly poked her tongue out.

Aiden smiled before replying, “And I will love you until infinity runs out.”

He placed his forehead against hers and smiled happily. This was where he belonged.

With her, forever.

- Epilogue -

A week after finally getting back together with Jo, Aiden was staying at his parents’ place as Adele was remodeling his own. His twin had decided that as she had nothing else to do, fixing Aiden’s home would be a fun project. It had been a while since she had taken up any work because of the wedding, and she thought it would be cool to brush up her skills by redoing Aiden’s place.

He didn’t share the sentiment, as, according to him, there was nothing to fix, but he agreed anyways. Seeing as Jo was moving in along with him, they decided to make some changes to include her things. Aiden suggested an extra bookshelf to house the various books that Jo possessed, but Adele had shown Jo a few ideas and now a single bookshelf had turned into a piece of art with various pieces of wood placed at different angles all over the wall to make it one huge rack of books.

From then on, it was like Jo had been given complete freedom in the remodeling; Adele, his sister and interior designer, had basically started asking Jo for the final say in everything – like colors to wall patterns. Not that it mattered, because Jo knew him well. But he still found it funny that in a span of a few days, he had somehow gone from having no life, no girlfriend, nothing, to having a girlfriend, and having said girlfriend moving in with him and his sister asking his
girlfriend
rather than him about fixing his own place.

It was the weekend, but Aiden had to go to work to get some statistics on his latest project. He was really excited about it, and couldn’t wait to fill Jo in about the details. Since it was the weekend, and was actually supposed to be his day off, he had opted for a rather casual look with dark blue jeans, a t-shirt and a hoodie; the formals could stay in his closet till Monday, he decided. He rushed downstairs, only to stop short when he saw his dad hugging his momma from behind and whispering things in her ear that were making her blush. Deciding that he was better off not interrupting that scene, he slowly made his way out without making a noise. Seeing as his car was still getting fixed and it was a beautiful day, he decided to walk to the research institute, which was pretty close. Halfway through, he glanced at the time. Groaning, he began to run, files in hand; he was late.

Fifteen minutes later, he reached the institute and ran upstairs to his office to check the files on his project. As he opened it, something weird caught his eye. It was a red paper, and there were two words written on it in white ink: 
Marry Me?

Shocked, he pushed the paper away, wondering if someone was playing a prank on him. Standing near the window, he was considering all the people who would play such a prank. But deciding that it could wait for later, he started going over his files. He was meeting Adele for coffee later as she needed help with planning Ashton’s birthday. He smiled as he thought of how Alex’s brat had grown up. Sighing, he looked out of the window, wondering when they had all grown up.

When he looked out of the window again, something weird caught his eye. On the building opposite to the institute, the glass panels were changing, a white sheet slipped on one, and another. It went on till eight characters appeared on the white: MARRY ME?

He sighed deeply, thinking someone was trying to propose to somebody from this institute. He picked up his files and phone and walked out, waving goodbye to his colleagues.

Aiden met Adele at the café nearby; she had already ordered cappuccino for both of them, knowing all too well that if there was a place for them and it had anything to do with coffee, there better be a coffee mug in both their hands.

He hugged his sister and said, “Twin, something weird is happening. Wherever I look, I see the words ‘Marry me’. It was there, on a tree near the institute; a little poster saying ‘Marry Me?’”

She chuckled, “Seriously? Looks like someone might be proposing. There are weird ways to propose nowadays.”

When their orders were ready, Aiden pulled out his wallet to pay for the coffees.

“Sir, it’s already paid for,” the girl replied, smiling lightly.

“Excuse me? I don’t think so, we haven’t paid for it yet,” Aiden replied.

Adele peeped from his side and said, “I’ll take that. I’m not gonna say no to free coffee. Gabe has been surprising me by doing these really romantic things.”

“You think Gabe paid for 
our
 coffee?” he asked as he walked along with her towards a table. They sat down, and for the first time she laid her eyes on her coffee mug. It had a smiley on it.

“Aiden, look at this,” she said, distracting him from reading his message.

“Hmm?” He looked at the smiley and smiled. When he looked at his own cup, he backed away in horror. Again, those two words were written on it.

“Freaking hell!” he cried, got up and ran out.

When Adele saw the words ‘Marry Me?’ she just shook her head and ran behind him. He was standing near the road, raking his hand through his hair as he groaned deeply.

“Any idea who’s doing this?” Adele asked, coming closer.

He shook his head. “I really don’t know. It can’t be Jo. She was pretty clear about needing more time, and she already said no. I seriously hope for his own sake that Alex isn’t playing a prank on me, because Uncle Will is going to get a long list of bad deeds that Alex has done this year. And I am pretty sure he will take care of him, too.”

Adele sighed and began to walk ahead in daze. “Maybe it’s a stalker,” she said to her brother, who was following her.

“A stalker trying to propose?” Aiden gave her a cynical grin. She too laughed before stopping. They looked around to see pamphlets everywhere – some pinned to the tree, others covering various other things, all saying ‘Marry Me?’

As they moved forward, a bus that was passing by came to an abrupt stop. On it was a banner hanging from the side with the exact same words written on it.

Aiden eyed it in horror before calling a cab. “What the heck is going on? Are all Torontonians getting married? Why am I seeing those words everywhere?”

He got in, followed by Adele. He gave the address to the Reids’ place and sat groaning at the weirdness of his day. When they reached home, he paid the fare and went up to his room. He needed some semblance of normalcy, and his room was the perfect place for now.

He sat on the bed, running his hand through his hair as he tried to figure out what was going on. He was either losing it or he couldn’t be sane without having a single drop of coffee; he figured that the latter might be true, because he hadn’t had coffee yet.

“Adele and Alex are right. I’m addicted to caffeine.” He sighed. Just then, he heard a noise from outside. He walked to the window to see Jo and Ashton jumping on the trampoline.

“Aid,” Jo waved towards him. “Look behind me!”

He did as she had told him and the grass in the garden was trimmed into the seven letters that had stalked him all day; it said ‘Marry Me!’

And then Jo held up a huge white chart paper that had the exact same thing written on it. “Come down, Aiden!” she shouted and jumped off the trampoline to stand near the pool.

“Aiden Reid, will you marry me?” she shouted, holding up the chart paper high enough for him to see.

He laughed and nodded, “Yes! YES!!! A thousand times yes!”

Aiden rushed out of the room before running back in to pick up the engagement ring box and rushing out again. He pocketed it and went downstairs to see her grinning and saying something to Ashton, who was recording a video on his camcorder.

“Jo!” Aiden called as he came near. She turned around and grinned widely before jumping on him. Aiden was standing near the pool, and as she flew on him, his leg slipped and they fell in. Underwater, Jo pulled him to her, a small stream of bubbles floating up between them. She slid one of her hands around his neck, and the other around his shoulder, pulling him into a kiss. He caught her waist and pulled her closer, pulling her into a deeper kiss. A little later, they surfaced gasping, still in each other’s arms and soaking wet. Gasping in huge breaths of air, they smiled at each other.

“Jo, were you the one who put up all those messages for me? At the institute, the message on the building and the flyers? And my coffee? You paid for it?”

She nodded happily.

“Oh, and the bus too! How did you manage to do that?”

“Ah, I didn’t do 
that
. Alex and Ashton decided to help me. They arranged the bus thing.” She grinned widely.

Aiden kissed her cold, wet lips once before getting out of the pool and pulling her along with him. Once they were out, he went down on one knee, surprising the soaking wet Jo.

“I should have done this right the last time,” he said and pulled the ring out of his pocket.

“Josephine Rae Winters, I didn’t know what real love was until I met you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. We started off as friends. Back then, you approached me when I was nothing, but you didn’t care about that. You called me a jerk and stepped on my foot when no one else dared, but I couldn’t help but fall in love with you. I promise to love you, cherish you and protect you all my life. All this time I felt incomplete, but having you by my side completes me. Jo, will you make me the happiest man alive by doing the honor of becoming my wife?”

She looked at him in a daze and a single tear slid out of her eye.

“Baby, it’s cold and I’m freezing, and completely drenched,” he said as he shivered lightly.

“Yes, yes, yes!” she screamed in excitement and he slipped the ring on her finger before standing up and capturing her lips with his. Ashton stood there on the side, completely ignored as he recorded the whole thing.

“Oh, Aiden, I can’t believe you just said those lovely words. I love you!” Jo grinned in excitement.

“But your proposal was great, Jo! And here I thought someone was stalking me.” He sighed.

“Seriously? Do I look like a stalker, Mr. Reid?”

“No way, soon-to-be Mrs. Reid.” He kissed her nose before kissing her again.

“Mrs. Reid. So I’ll be Jo Reid? I like the sound of that.” She smiled as she pulled away. He threw his arm around her shoulder and steered her towards the door, set on getting them dry before they both fell ill.

“Jo Reid does sound great!” Aiden smiled, kissing her lightly on her forehead, which caused her to wrinkle her face a bit. They laughed before walking in.

“Aiden, Jo, what happened to you two?” Adelynn asked as she looked up at them. She touched her son’s hair and groaned. “Look how wet you are! You’re going to catch a cold!”

Jo smiled at them, wondering if her mother would have done the same. Erin didn’t spend much time with her after Joseph left. She had been so depressed and then so ill, she just never had the time. So Jo was mostly alone. But she was grateful to have Jacob. He had been the parent she needed. The stern father and the loving mother all rolled into one.

As for Ben, he had announced that he was getting married next month. He had met his childhood sweetheart and things just seemed to have clicked; now he was getting married and Jacob was going to be the best man. Abigail was the wedding planner again; she just couldn’t say no. As for Ben’s fiancée, Leah, she was an angel, according to Abby. She was helping Abby all the time with the wedding planning. Jo couldn’t wait to meet the bride-to-be herself. She loved Ben as much as she loved Jacob and was really happy that he was finally getting his happily ever after.

Jo’s thoughts came to an abrupt stop when she felt something warm touch her skin. Adelynn had placed a huge towel over her shoulder and was checking her forehead to see if she had a fever. “You too, Jo, I don’t want you to be playing in the water,” she said in mock-anger.

“Yes, Mrs. Reid. I won’t do that again.” Jo smiled.

“Oh no, dear. You should start calling me Mom – or Momma like Aiden does. After all, you are a part of our family,” Lynn said, pulling Jo into a hug. A mother’s touch felt so good; Jo couldn’t help but smile and hug her back.

“Aidey!” Aubrey shouted as she came down the stairs and flew at him. He caught her and hugged her tightly, making her giggle. Fluffy came running towards Jo and tried to lick her hand. She bent and patted his head. As he sat there playing with Jo, Aubrey tensed up. First her Aidey, now her Fluffy? 
Why did everyone like her?

“He’s mine,” she said to Jo.

Jo looked up at her and backed away. The whole family had accepted her, but not Aubrey. Even after all this time she seemed to not like Jo. She had gotten close to Abigail, too, but she wouldn’t talk to Jo. It saddened Jo a bit that one of the most important people in Aiden’s life seemed to dislike her.

“I’m sorry,” Jo murmured and looked at Aiden. “I think I should leave now.”

Aiden looked at her sad expression; Aubrey upset her every time she visited them, but both of them were important to him. He had tried to give Aubrey time to adjust to and like Jo. He couldn’t choose between his fiancée and his baby sister. As Jo walked backwards before turning to leave, he caught her arm. He couldn’t stand silent while Jo got hurt and kept quiet every time when she wasn’t even at fault.

“Wait,” he said. He held her hand as he spoke to Aubrey, who was standing with Fluffy close to her.

“Aubrey, I want to tell you something important. You see, Jo is very important to me. I love her, and I’m going to marry her,” he said in a calm, soothing voice as he kneeled down and spoke again, “You will always be my angel, but I don’t like the way you treat Jo. If she’s upset, that will hurt me too. Is that what you want, angel? For me to be sad?”