Ripping Pages (28 page)
Authors: Rachel Rae
The answer, as it always was when it came to Van, was so easy.
“Yes, Yes, Yes! I will marry you. I love you so much.”
I kissed him, Hard. His scent that could only be described as Van, enveloped me.
He carried me to the front of the stage to the audience.
I had forgotten about them. All I could see was him.
“Hey, guys, let me introduce you to the future Mrs. Van Whitaker. This is my Sweetness. My world.”
The crowd went crazy, and the fans yelled so loud my ears were ringing, but it made me smile. He gently placed me down to stand on the ground. He took the charm I was holding in my trembling hands. He placed it on my bracelet. The bracelet that told our life. Our story. He unclasped the ring from the link and placed it on my finger. I stared at it in awe as my eyes shined with wonder as I looked at it. It was remarkable and exquisite, and absolutely perfect. I smiled down at him as he bent down to kiss my belly. He stood up and kissed my forehead, nose, and then my lips. My heart constricted. I loved him more than I could describe. He was my plot twist thrown in to make the story more interesting, and he truly did. I couldn’t wait to see how the rest of our story would be written, but I knew that no matter what happened, ours was one that ended with a Happily Ever After.
I could have never ever actually finished this book if not for the loving and overwhelming support of my friends and family.
My wonderful husband: Thank you for yelling at the kids with me about ripping up their books so you could come up with the amazing name Ripping Pages! That was epic! You’re my very best friend. Thank you for always supporting me, believing I could actually accomplish this enormous fete. I know I drove you crazy whining about how terrified I was and doubting myself over and over again. I’m sorry if I was moody and sometimes hateful while I was engrossed in this process. Thank you for forgiving my bitchy-ness. You have always been my number one fan and my backbone and I am so thankful to the Lord that he gave me you. I couldn’t have picked a better man to love and to raise little people with. I could have never ever dreamed up Van and made him come to life had it not been for you. And thank you for loving me through my, at times, unhealthy obsession with book worlds and fictional men. I love that you love my crazy! I love you forever and ever.
My beautiful crazies: Momma loves you so much and even though you are NEVER allowed to read this so you will NEVER actually see this, I love you with every fiber of my being and I’m sorry if I shooed you away or didn’t praise your little achievements enough while I was lost in this author land! You can write a book about me when you grow up! Love you all and I am so blessed to be your mommy!!!
My sister: Stephanie, You were there for me from the very beginning! Thank you for letting me bounce ideas off of you and for listening to me go on and on about this book and interrupting you every five seconds while we drank our coffee and for not getting sick of me as I whined and doubted myself. Thank you for actually having the faith in me to complete it. You always have my back. Your support and encouragement never wavered and I am so thankful you are my best friend and partner in crime. I love you so so much!
My momma: So much of Tinley’s momma is you. You have always been so strong and your words of wisdom never seem to fail me. God made the best when he created you. I love you so much! Thank you for having faith in me and I hope I did you proud and I wasn’t too vulgar! Lol Love you!!
My daddy: Thank you for being such an amazing man. For always being there for me no matter what. I love you more than you know. Thank you for believing in me!
My wonderful in-laws: Thank you for your support and reassurance! I love you all so very much and am so glad we are a huge happy family!
My fabulous beta readers: Stephanie, Cheryl, Kristina, Jenn, Tiara, Robin, Miranda from Mommy’s a Book Whore Blog and Mari from Keepin it Real Book Blog, Thank you so very much for being my first line of defense. For telling me the truth even if you thought it would make me cry. You have helped me make this book what it should be. It’s perfect so thank you for all of your input and critiques.
All of my ah-freakin-mazing friends and family members for believing in me and for always being so supportive. There are no words for you all. I love you. Each and every single one of you.
My wonderful, fabulous cover designer, Robin Harper from Wicked by Design, You are so freakin amazingly talented and I can’t thank you enough for putting up with me and my indecisive pickiness until we got my gorgeous cover perfect! I absolutely am in love with it! You are awesome!
My editor, Rogena Mitchell-Jones, Thank you for translating my book into English. I write like I talk so I know you were probably thinking “What the heck” But You were so kind and extremely thorough and the editing is fabulous. My book is now flawless, so thank you. I appreciate all that you do!! You rock!
Stacey Blake from Hayson Publishing for formatting my little book. Thank you for walking me through the process and for not getting annoyed when I kept asking questions! You’re awesome!
The fabulous ladies at Keepin it Real Book Blog, thank you oh so very very much for promoting me and for believing in me and Ripping Pages. I can’t thank you enough for everything you did to get my name out there and get people interested! You two are unbelievable!!
All my new amazing author friends, you know who you are. Thank you so much for not getting annoyed when I bugged you with yet another stupid question! Your friendship has been so awesome and you will never understand how much I treasure it even though we’ve never met face to face. I hope that changes soon.
I would have never EVER ventured out in this journey of writing a novel had it not been for some amazing ladies who have inspired me beyond measure: E. L. James, S.C. Stephens, Abbi Glines, Molly McAdams, Madeline Sheehan, Tina Reber, Jamie McGuire, Colleen Hoover, and many many other authors whose words and works of fiction have led me to where I am right now: You don’t know me at all and you will probably never see this but I can’t thank you enough for showing me that it’s possible if you just keep at it. I am amazed by you all and you will never know how much I look up to each one of you. So thank you for writing astounding books and letting me escape into their worlds and get lost for a while.
My facebook “Raes of Sunshine” thank you for being there with me from the beginning and for sticking around! Your belief and support has kept me going when I didn’t know if I could anymore! You all make me smile and I heart all of your faces!
Thank you all. Every person who shared my page, a photo, a teaser a snippet a quote, anything. Thank you, thank you, Thank. You!!!
A special shoutout to Josh Kloss, my physical muse for Van. Thanks for being so gorgeous!
To the Wonder Pets: Thank you for creepily whispering in my ear as I was falling asleep to your show during naptime and heard from Ming Ming “Witness Protection”. I was kind of lost with where I was headed in the book that day so thanks for showing me where to go.
My Lord and Savior, Thank you for your amazing grace even when I don’t deserve it and for giving me life and blessing me with every single person you have put in my path.
And finally, thank you to YOU. Yes, YOU! The person who is reading this. I cannot express how grateful I am that you took the time and money to buy and read my first novel. I truly hope you enjoyed it and I am so honored that you gave a newbie like me a shot. I set out to see if I could really do it. To see if I could stick with it and to see if I could make these characters and this story come to life. I hope my words and my story helped you forget about bills, stress, work, all those real grown up things that can make reality not so fun sometimes for just a little while and get lost in Ripping Pages and in Van and Tinley’s world. Because that’s why I started reading and eventually started writing. I love getting lost in a good book and I hope this one did that for you even if only for a moment. Thank you truly from the bottom of my heart.
Anyone who I may have forgotten, please know it wasn’t intentional!! My mind is a crazy jumbled mess!!
I Love and cherish you all,
Rae
XO
Rachel Rae is a devoted wife to her highschool sweetheart and momma to three unbelievably gorgeous children. She enjoys reading all things romance and writing about love and happily ever afters. When she’s not engrossed in a good book and obsessing over fictional boyfriends, you can find her gossiping over coffee or wine with frozen berries, goofing around with her sister, watching trashy reality TV and facebooking entirely too much. She is addicted to music, chocolate, Christmas, lip gloss, glitter and all things girly. She lives in Texas with her family.
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