Sweet Sofie (25 page)

“He’s gone, Eric.”

Eric tensed, but he didn’t say anything.

“Your dad probably told you but I wanted—”

Eric pulled away. “Don’t. I don’t wanna hear it.” He stared at her. “You love me?”

“Of course.”

“Then that’s all I need to know.” He kissed her again. “I wasn’t even sure until just now when I saw you. Now I know for sure. I could never be happy without you.”

Sofia smiled, feeling the warm tears stream down her cheeks. She wrapped her arms around his neck, an enormous relief washed over her. “Oh, Eric, I was so scared.”

“Me too.” He rubbed her back then pulled away, but took her by the hand. “Let’s go.”

He grabbed his luggage and started walking fast.

“Where are we going?” she asked, the excitement building with every step. Eric was home, he forgave her, and she’d never do anything to screw up again.

For the first time since he’d arrived, she saw him smile and a twinkle in those amazing brown eyes. “We got a lot of catching up to do.”

He squeezed her hand. After weeks of crying herself to sleep, she could finally smile, feeling the familiar flutter in her stomach that only Eric would ever make her feel.

***

It wasn’t quite the weather Eric had hoped for, but it didn’t matter. This was just the first of seven glorious days he’d be spending with Sofia on their cruise. They originally planned to take a shorter one because of the price, but his dad had surprised them with the seven-day one. As usual, he said it helped to know people, and he had plenty of friends in the travel business.

Eric walked back to where Sofia was sitting on the deck. They’d both brought their laptops with them. Sofia said she couldn’t wait to write while sitting on the deck of a cruise ship, drinking a fancy cocktail. Eric was glad since his dad had hooked him up with a few web-building jobs for some of his associates. As obsessive as he was when it came to that stuff, he’d need all the time he could get. What better time to get started on them then on a cruise ship next to Sofia—while she wrote.

Sofia looked up from her laptop as he reached her with their drinks. “Ooh, fancy!”

He’d looked forward to seeing Sofia in a bikini all week, but March was hardly the time of year for that. It didn’t matter. Even in jeans and a light sweatshirt she was beautiful as ever.

Eric handed her the drink with the big pineapple wedge, then leaned in and kissed her. She put down the laptop and took a sip of her drink, looking out into the out into cean. “This is heaven.”

Moving his own laptop from the chaise he’d been sitting on, to the table next to it, he sat down. “Yeah, it is.” He eyed her as he sipped his beer. “Did you get any writing done?”

“I did, actually.” She smiled. “I was inspired yesterday by Angel and Sarah’s engagement announcement. They were so happy, a story came to me.”

He stared at her for a moment. How was it that even after all these years, sweet Sofie could still cast such a spell on him?

She took another sip of her drink. When he hadn’t taken his eyes off her, she smiled and asked, “What?”

“You think we’ll end up married someday, too?”

“Absolutely,” she said, leaning over with a wicked smile. “You’re stuck with me forever, Eric Diego.”

God, he loved her smile. “Is that right?”

“Yep, or I’ll sic my brothers on you.”

Eric laughed. “Like anything could ever keep me away from you—remember even they couldn’t?”

“How can I forget?” She held out her glass. “To forever.”

He clinked it with his beer bottle, then kissed her. “To Forever.”

I’d like to thank my critique partner and beta reader Tammara Webber author or Between The Lines, for her honest and very constructive feedback. I’ve been very fortunate to have found not only a critique partner in you but a good friend who TRULY understands the ups and downs of being a writer. Thank you for being there to listen to my rants and helping me through the hard days. I look forward to working with you from here on. I’d wish you luck on your own writing but you don’t need it, you’re already a SUPER STAR! =)

To my husband Mark, what can I say? Thanks for putting up with the endless hours of writing editing and taking over the cooking and laundry on days when I just can’t be pulled away from my computer. I love you and appreciate your patience. I know you’ve never been much of a reader especially of romance novels so the fact that you’ve taken the time to not only read each and every one of my stories and put so much thought into your input means so much to me. I love you. You are my rock.

To my other beta readers Ivannia Alay, and Beth Fred. Thank you for your detailed critiques and enthusiastic feedback. It always amazes me how the smallest details could make such a difference in character development and overall pacing of a story. Thank you for helping me see those things those t that I often overlook. Ivannia, you never like the cussing, I can’t wait until you read Romero. I can already see you cringing. Lol

I hope you enjoyed my latest edition to The Moreno Brothers series. Please let me know what you thought by writing a review on the Amazon, B&N or Smashwords websites. The next in the series was supposed to have been Sal’s story
Making you Mine
which is currently a work in progress, but because of the interest and requests I’ve received from YOU the readers, I’ve decided to include Romero’s story in the series. I wasn’t going to, but then the story just came to me and kept coming. It will now be the next in the series and tentatively due out by the end of October of this year. The final in the series Making You Mine, will be out
hopefully
by the end of the year.

To read excerpts and updates I invite you to visit my website: www.ElizabethReyes.com Also, please visit and like my Facebook Fanpage at http://www.facebook.com/TheMorenoBrothers and follow me on twitter @AuthorElizabeth

Thank you all for your continued interest in The Moreno Brothers!