Love, Laughter, and Happily Ever Afters Collection (185 page)

As he came back down from the cloud of bliss, he felt Haley’s soft touch trailing up and down his back. He didn’t want to leave her, but he knew he had to get back to Emily.

“Come home with me,” he said.

“What?” she asked.

He lifted up on his forearm and looked down into her glowing crystal blue eyes. “I have to go back and be with Emily, but I need you tonight. I need to hold you. Be with you.”

“Okay,” she agreed with a smile.

Eddie knew in that moment that he never wanted to spend another night without her by his side.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

“NO PEEKING,” Eddie repeated for probably the tenth time in the last five minutes.

“I’m not,” Haley said again as she touched the blindfold that covered her eyes.

“Then stop touching,” Eddie said, pulling one of her hands away from her face.

The truck bounced and Haley grabbed on to the door as she smiled and laughed. “Sorry, I can’t help it. I’ve never been blindfolded before.”

She heard Eddie groan beside her. “Then I think I might just keep that for later.”

A shiver of anticipation and excitement raced through her from his suggestive words. The thought of being blindfolded while Eddie did wicked things sounded like her personal definition of heaven. Especially now that she knew that when you couldn’t see all of your other senses came to life. Her sense of touch, smell, and hearing were currently heightened, each one so much more acute.

“Are you hungry?” he asked. “I’m sorry I forgot to make you breakfast.”

“I’m not hungry,” Haley replied. And she wasn’t. Eddie had more than satisfied any hunger she might have had.

That morning, Eddie had woken her up by carrying her into the bathroom, where a steaming shower had already been running. Then he’d stripped her out of her pajamas, washed every inch of her body, and pleasured her with his hand and his mouth before making hot, passionate love to her against the hard tiled walls.

Then he’d dried her off, pointed to a pair of jeans and a shirt he’d laid out, instructed her to get dressed and meet him downstairs. When she had, he’d been waiting with a blindfold. He’d put it on her and led her out to his truck, and now she had no idea where they were headed.

“Can I have a hint?” she asked.

“No,” he said.

“Please?” she begged.

“Nope,” he answered, totally unmoved by her pleas.

She tried to stop smiling but she couldn’t. In fact, her cheeks were already hurting and they couldn’t have been driving for more than ten minutes or so.

“Okay, now put these in,” she heard him say before she felt him place something with wires and little rubber ends in her hands.

“What’s this?” she asked.

“Oh sorry. I forgot you can’t see. They’re earbuds.” His voice sounded excited as he spoke.

“I have to wear earbuds too?”

“Yes. When we get to our destination, you would guess it before I took off the blindfold if you didn’t have those in.”

“Aha,” Haley said, pointing her finger up in the air, “a clue. I would
guess
it if I didn’t have
earbuds
.”

“Yes,” Eddie said flatly in a mocking tone. “We’re going to a place that has sounds.”

“Whatever. That
was
a clue,” Haley maintained.

“Fine. It was a clue. Put your earbuds in.”

It took a few tries because Haley’s hands were shaking with excitement and it was actually a lot harder than you would think to do things while blindfolded. But after several attempts, she was successful.

“They’re in,” she announced probably a little too loudly.

When she did, she heard Eddie chuckle and then music began playing in her ears. As soon as she heard the opening chords, she felt herself tearing up. It was the song they’d danced to at her birthday.

She sniffed, breathing in a shaky breath, and she felt Eddie’s warm, comforting touch as his hand covered hers. He rubbed his thumb, lovingly caressing the top of her hand as they drove.

Haley still sometimes had a hard time believing this was all really happening. The last few months had been a whirlwind. So much had happened over the summer.

The store was so successful she now had two part-time employees. The driver who had hit Emily had pleaded no contest, mainly because there had been eye witnesses who had seen him on his cell phone. Since it was his first offense, he’d received two years’ probation and one hundred and fifty hours community service. Lacey had gotten arrested the same week of Emily’s accident for punching a woman at The Grill. She’d hightailed it out of town the morning she’d been released from jail. No one had seen her in over two months.

And the best part of the summer by far was that she and Eddie were together. Really together. He even wanted Haley to move in with him, but she just didn’t feel like it was the right example to set. Not for Em. The only night Haley had ever spent there when Emily was home was the first night she’d gotten out of the hospital. Now she only stayed when Emily was at a friend’s house or, like last night, when she was at Chelle’s.

Haley rocked forward in the seat as the truck came to a stop. Her first instinct was to take off the blindfold but she resisted. Eddie had gone to a lot of trouble to plan whatever he was doing and she didn’t want to ruin it.

She felt the truck rock as Eddie got out and shut the door, and the next thing she knew, he was at her side, helping her out of the truck. Instead of setting her down on the ground, he picked her up and carried her like a groom would his bride. Haley’s arms flew around him and she nuzzled her face into his neck. She honestly didn’t care if this was the surprise. Being held in Eddie’s strong arms while she kissed his sexy neck was definitely her idea of a good time.

She felt his neck vibrate against her lips but she had no idea what he was saying because she still had the earbuds in.

He stopped and set her down. She was a little unsteady on her feet. The ground was not even. She waited. She could sense movement around her but she was scared to reach out so she stood still. While she still had the blindfold on and the earbuds in, she felt Eddie take her hand. For a second, she thought he was going to lead her somewhere, but then the blindfold came off and the earbuds popped out.

The sun was bright, so it took her a moment to see anything at all. She lifted her hand as she squinted. Then she heard a short blast of air. Hot air balloons. Quickly looking behind, away from the sun, she saw the most beautiful hot air balloon sitting on the grass a few yards away.

She turned back around with tears in her eyes over the fact that he’d remembered how much she loved hot air balloons and had gone to this much trouble to surprise her. When she did, she saw that not only was Eddie standing in front of her holding her hand, but her parents, sisters, cousins and their wives, friends, and Emily were all there too.

When she looked back at Eddie, he dropped to one knee and she covered her mouth in shock as tears fell down her cheeks. Staring up at her with love pouring out of his eyes, he said, “Haley Sloan, I love you. You are the sweetest, sexiest, most loving and kind person I’ve ever met. You have the biggest heart and you give of yourself totally, selflessly, never wanting or asking for anything in return. But you deserve
everything
and more. That’s exactly what I want to give you. I know that I haven’t always been what you deserved. But if you give me the chance, I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you. And you know I’m a package deal.”

Haley smiled, and there were scattered chuckles in the crowd as he waved Emily over to them. She ran up the small hill Haley and Eddie were on and stopped beside her dad. Eddie wrapped one arm around Em and with the other took out a ring.

“Haley, you have been a part of us, this family, for years. So we were wondering…” He gave a nod to Emily.

“Ok,” Em chirped, her pink sundress swishing back and forth as she wiggled excitedly. There was more laughter from the crowd. Emily smiled up at Haley as she said proudly, “We were wondering if you want to make it official?” Then she gave her dad a high-five and ran back down, stopping beside Chelle, to whom she also gave a high-five.

Haley was laughing through her tears as she looked back at Eddie. He was smiling, but when their eyes met, his face grew serious. “Haley, will you make me the happiest man on the planet, not to mention the luckiest, and do me the honor of being my wife?”

“Yes,” Haley said, tears pouring down her face as Eddie slipped the most beautiful antique ring on her finger. Her friends and family burst into applause, cheers, and whistles.

As soon as the ring was in place, Eddie was on his feet, lifting Haley up in the air. He kissed her as he walked up the hill to the hot air balloon basket.

He set her in it and hopped over the side. She looked up at him, asking, “What about them?” pointing to all of their loved ones who had gathered.

“They’ll be there when we get back,” Eddie said, motioning to the pilot for takeoff.

Haley’s fingers wrapped around the basket as they lifted into the air, Eddie stood behind her with his arms wrapped around her.

“I have one more surprise,” he said against her ear.

She looked back at him in disbelief. “You do?”

He nodded, smiling. “I already set the date for our wedding.”

“You did?” Now she was really in shock.

“Yep. Last week while I was up at Whisper Lake, I booked the chapel for December twenty-fifth.”

Just when she thought she was all cried out, more tears sprang up in her eyes. “We’re getting married on Christmas?!”

“If you want to.”

“Of course I want to.” Haley still couldn’t believe that he knew her as well as he did. “What did I do to deserve you?” Haley asked, repeating back to him the same thing he always said to her.

“You loved me when I didn’t deserve to be loved.”

Eddie leaned down and kissed her softly as they floated into the sky. Haley knew that she would love this man forever…and now they were going to make it official.

OTHER TITLES BY MELANIE

The Hope Falls Series

Sweet Reunion

Sweet Harmonies

Sweet Victories

Home Sweet Home

Snow Angel

Snow Days

Snowed In

Let it Snow

The Crossroads Series

My First

My Last

My Only

My Everything

Tempting Love

Crazy Love

Actually Love

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

http://melanieshawn.com

Melanie Shawn is the writing team of sister duo Melanie and Shawna. Originally from Northern California, they both migrated south and now call So Cal their home. Growing up, Melanie constantly had her head in a book and was always working on short stories, manuscripts, plays and poetry. Shawna always loved romance in any form - movie, song or literary. If it was a love story with a happy ending, Shawna was all about it! She proudly acknowledges that she is a romanceaholic. They have joined forces to create a world where True Love and Happily Ever After always has a Sexy Twist!

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NOT OVER YOU

By

Marquita Valentine

© 2013 by Marquita Valentine. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted downloaded, distributed, stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, without express permission of the author, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages for review purposes. This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any person, living or dead, or any events or occurrences, is purely coincidental. The characters and story lines are created from the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.