Something Like This (Secrets) (29 page)

His gaze still on the water, he said, “On one condition.”

“What’s that?”

“That you’ll always be honest with me. I want to know what you really think, not what you think I want to hear.”

“Deal. I read manuscripts for a living so...”

“Be brutal. Don’t hold back.”

“The show will be starting soon. Should we go in?” I asked.

“In a minute.”

“I can go on in, if you want a little time to yourself,” I said.

Suddenly he got down on one knee, a little black box in his hand.

My stomach dropped to the ends of my toes. I looked at the other people on the terrace, I glanced at the water, the lights of the city, I looked back at the terrace doors and windows. I looked everywhere and anywhere but at Reece.

A few people noticed what was about to happen and circled us.

My tears flowed. I covered my mouth with my hands. Was I dreaming? All my life I had dreamt of being happy, truly happy. All my life I had fought for more, punched despair in the face and told it to get out, to leave me alone. All my life I had battled with myself, dropping to my knees, curling in a corner, damning God for the wretched life He had given me.

“Jadie,” Reece said, holding a ring in front of me.

“Oh my God, Oh my God, this is so awesome,” someone said.

More people gathered around us.

Taking my finger and sliding the ring on it, he said, “Jadie Santiago, will you do me the honor of marrying me?”

I cried harder. I couldn’t believe this was happening, that Reece, the person I loved more than anything in the world, the person with whom I wanted to spend the rest of my life was on one knee proposing to me, asking me to be his princess.

“Yes, yes, yes, I
will
marry you.”

People cheered and clapped.

Reece stood and swept me up into his arms. “We’re not borrowing forever.”

“We’re keeping forever,” I said, kissing him. “It’s you and me against the world.”

“Always,” he said.

I caught a glimpse of my father at the window. He blew me a kiss.

You see me down here, Mami. I made it. I’m making it.

“Reece,” I said.

“Yeah.”

“I think I want three or four kids.”

“I was thinking five.”

“Five it is.”

THE END

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Thank you for reading.

A special thank you goes out to Moses Cardona of the John Hawkins Literary Agency who read a draft of SOMETHING LIKE THIS and offered valuable feedback for how to improve it.

Thank you to Morgan Doremus for her support and encouragement. And thank you to my editor, Elissa Petruzzi, for helping to turn a raw draft into a polished manuscript.

And always, thank you to my husband and two children, for loving me and putting up with my little crazy dream of becoming a published author.

Did you love
Something Like This
? Then you should read
Sweetwater American
by Eileen Cruz Coleman!

Set in Washington, D.C. and El Salvador,
SWEETWATER AMERICAN
is the story of an orphan and would-be filmmaker who is sent to live in a cursed town in El Salvador with her godmother, a woman whom she has never met and who may hold the secret to breaking the town's curse.

While living in El Salvador, after a film crew comes to her town to film a movie, twenty-two-year-old Sandy realizes she wants to be a documentary filmmaker. When she returns to the States, she attends George Washington University where she meets Elena, a sixty-something-year-old woman who serves peas and mashed potatoes in one of the school's cafeterias.

She also meets Professor Smith, with whom she slowly begins to fall in love. But, Sandy's past still haunts her, preventing her from surrendering her heart to the man she loves.

Sandy, intrigued by Elena, decides to ask her if she would be willing to share her life story with her. Elena agrees to tell Sandy her story. During the interview, Sandy is forced to come to terms with her own past and she begins to understand what the term, Sweetwater American, really means.

Read more at
Eileen Cruz Coleman’s site
.