A Beautiful Thought (The Beautiful Series) (30 page)

“Maybe you should take a quick shower, sweetie,” Abbey sneered wittily, stifling her laughter.

“Thanks. Love you, too,” I repeated, loving her honesty but disliking it at the same time. I guessed it was a best-friend thing.

“Back atcha, girl.” She winked. “Now, hurry and go fix yourself up. I can let myself out.”

I flew through my shower like a mad woman. I dried off, only to realize I did not have my clothes, so I wrapped the towel around myself before peeking my head out the door.

I softly yelled, “Abbey?” to make sure she was gone.

When I got no response, I ran for it.

Five steps into my sprint, I caught sight of Damon from the corner of my eye. I half-jumped, screeched, and spun around to face him, nearly breaking my neck in the manner.

“Jeez!” I yelped.

Damon was leaning against the arm of the couch with his arms crossed and his legs propped out in front of him.

“You scared the hell out of me!”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. Although, I should have known with how often I catch you flying out of the bathroom.” He smiled, but it did not reach his eyes. His expression sobered, and it did not take much to realize what he was thinking about. “It’s how we shared our first kiss,” he added.

My expression mirrored his as I replayed the images of that day. I let out a deep breath, soaking him in some more. His brown hair was ruffled more than usual, and his blue eyes were heavy and appeared restless.

With my heart pounding for more reasons than one, I lessened the gap separating us, yearning to be near him, as I needed to apologize for my inappropriate behavior yesterday.

He watched my every move. The tension in the air was thick, but I disregarded it. I brought my hands to either side of his face, only inches away from him, and I brushed them through his messy hair and down to his morning stubble I loved so much.

As if absorbing my touch, he closed his eyes, let out a relieved sigh, and let his forehead fall against my chest. His hands came to my sides and tugged me into him.

“I’m so sorry,” I said softly, breaking the silence.

He gently shook his head. “You don’t have anything to apologize for, Gail.”

“Yes, I do,” I countered, caressing him. “When you love someone, you support him and his dreams. I didn’t do that for you yesterday, and I’m sorry.”

“I should have told you sooner,” he replied, remorse lacing his tone. He tipped his head to meet my gaze. “I never meant to hurt you.”

“I know,” I acknowledged. “You did it because you wanted to keep me from worrying.”

“Yes, I did.”

“And because you love me.”

“So damn much,” he agreed in a heartfelt voice.

“And I love you, Damon,” I said, brushing my hands over his stubble again. “I’ll go to Boston with you and stand by your side, so you can follow your dreams. I can work from anywhere. You just have to promise me that we’ll make lots of visits home to see our family.”

“Now you tell me?” He chuckled deeply.

“Hey!” I throttled him teasingly, shoving him back.

He managed to hold us upright.

“Better twelve hours late than never!” I said.

Damon’s rich laughter filled the air.

“What?” I asked with a raised brow.

“You.” He chortled, rubbing my sides. His eyes now sparkled with happiness. “We need to work on our communication skills.” He shook his head. “Because we could have saved ourselves roughly sixteen hours of hell.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Next time, just try to drop me a hint here or there, so you don’t throw me under the bus,” I added teasingly.

“Okay, I can do that.” He paused and bit his lip. His eyes got that guilty look in them.

“What now?” I asked warily.

“Uh…well…” He laughed, appearing to be looking for words. “Don’t freak out, but I should probably let you know that we are not moving to Boston. I called William Rawn Associates today and told the human resources contact that I couldn’t accept the job offer.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” I gaped at him. “So, we did
just argue for nothing last night! Why on earth would you turn down the job?”

“Because I love you,” he responded with a heart-stopping grin. He pulled me closer to nestle his nose against mine. “Our life is here in Lake Tahoe with our families,” he continued reverently.

“But your dream…” I refuted, trailing off.

Damon shrugged. “If it’s meant to be, William Rawn Associates will accept my counteroffer of commuting from here. Self-contracted architects do it all the time,” he said calmly. “I won’t give up my family for a job.”

“Are you sure that is what you want? You’ll be happy here?” I asked, not understanding why he would walk away from everything he’d worked so hard for throughout his career.

“Yes.
You
make me happy, Gail. That is all I need.” He caressed my cheek with his hand. “Someone wise told me the rest are just details that will fall into place.” He smiled. His eyes shimmered with affection and love. “And working with Jason and being near Lily seals the deal of staying here to be with my family.” He shook his head. “No job is worth losing them or my girl.”

I cupped his cheek and whispered, “But you never lost me.”

He set his mouth on mine. “I know,” he said with a smile. “That only makes me love you even more,” he added before capturing my lips.

~Damon~

Since I was surprising Gail tonight, I sent her a text to let her know I was finally on my way home. I’d just finished up the final touches at the office with Jason and Kyle before the grand opening party that was rapidly approaching.

Everyone was so excited to see the new office building after all of us had worked so hard for this day.

William Rawn Associates entered my mind. I had yet to hear from them. Part of me was giving up hope of things working out. Apparently, they were looking for an in-house architect, and I could not be that guy. I would not sacrifice my family or the business I had helped create here in Lake Tahoe. So, today, I was putting the notion behind me with the intention of only looking forward.

Once I parked my truck at our apartment, I slipped my keys into my right pocket and pulled out my last secret from Gail that I planned on giving her tonight. With thoughts of how she owned my heart and soul, I flipped open the black box and gazed down at the large round diamond setting I had chosen just for Gail.

Damn, I’m nervous as hell.

The image of her beautiful face entered my mind, and it made me so anxious to ask her to finally be mine from this day forward. The anticipation of knowing I had to wait a few hours was going to be the end of me.

I closed the box before slipping it back into my pocket just as my cell phone started ringing next to me. I picked it up, and my eyes widened in shock as I recognized the Boston area code.

“Hello?” I said, masking my surprise.

“Mr. Johnson, this is William Rawn speaking,” the man said to me.

I climbed out of my truck and locked it. “Hello, Mr. Rawn,” I replied politely, striding toward the apartment.

Gail was waiting for me to pick her up for our dinner reservations.

“It has been brought to my attention that we have a dilemma with bringing you aboard our company,” Mr. Rawn stated.

“Unfortunately, yes, sir,” I said, opening the door and closing it behind me.

“I would still like to bring you into our team of architects. Can you please explain your reasoning to me, so we can see if we are able to reach a common ground?” Mr. Rawn asked in a friendly manner.

As I watched Gail flying around the apartment in search of her purse and shoes, only to change her heels again, I smiled while I sat down on the couch.

I shifted back into business mode. “While I have always envisioned working for your highly respected company”—my girl and our families entered my mind, giving me the strength I needed right now to lay all my cards out in the open—“my life and family are here in Lake Tahoe. My brothers and I just opened an all-inclusive construction company, and I will be handling all of the architectural design work.”

Gail came to a dead stop across the room.

“If you give me the chance, I will prove to you that I can successfully work with both companies as a self-contracted architect living in Lake Tahoe and commuting to your office in Boston as necessary.”

“I see.” Mr. Rawn paused as though contemplating his response.

My pulse beat rapidly throughout my body with each passing second.

Then, he continued, “As a family man, I understand the need to be with them. As an entrepreneur myself, I know the desire to be independently successful. However, what I must know from you is that you’ll do whatever is necessary to make this work from afar, including traveling when it is required and giving each and every design your all.”

“I give you my word, sir,” I said with conviction and confidence. “And I give every job my all and nothing less.”

“Those are terms I can work with, Mr. Johnson. I will update Mr. Reagan with our new agreement and have him coordinate a schedule with you,” Mr. Rawn stated. “I will also have him forward you my direct line to use from here on out, so if you have any reservations, you can contact me directly.”

“Thank you, Mr. Rawn. I look forward to working together.”

I smiled genuinely at Gail as she approached me. Her expression was full of awe and happiness, reflecting my own.

“You’re welcome. We will be in touch,” Mr. Rawn replied before hanging up.

I barely hit the End button on my cell phone before Gail leaped onto my lap.

“Rawn accepted your offer?” she shouted with enthusiasm consuming her voice.

Laughing wholeheartedly, I enclosed my arms around her. “Yes, sweetheart, he did.”

“Oh my gosh! You did it!” she squealed, kissing me across my cheeks, forehead, and temples.

I relished in her touch.

“I knew you would get it!”

I grinned over at her. “And how did you know that?”

“Because you are talented and deserving”—she smiled playfully—“and you’re extremely sexy and composed when you get in that business mode of yours.” She wiggled against me.

I beamed over at her, and suddenly, the moment struck me. This was everything I wanted in life—my job and the girl of my dreams. There was only one missing piece, and I knew I could not wait another minute to ask her. I was yearning to make her mine to complete my life. Dinner was simply too far away.

Gail ran her fingers through my hair and lowered her forehead against mine. “Hey,” she purred. “Are you okay?”

“More than okay, sweetheart,” I said, breathing in her lavender scent. “I do have a surprise for you,” I crooned with a mischievous yet loving grin.

“You’re not supposed to keep secrets from me,” she chided playfully, reading my lighthearted demeanor.

“A beautiful girl who once hid worms in her purse from me told me that a surprise is not a secret,” I replied.

Unleashing my blue eyes, I gave her a look that I knew would distract her while my hand wandered between us. I took out the little black box that would forever change our lives from this day forward.

“It’d better be a good one, handsome, or you’ll be in trouble,” she admonished teasingly, gathering her hands around my nape.

“It’s a permanent one,” I informed her with sincerity ringing in my tone as I lifted my hand between our bodies.

Gail’s eyes caught the movement. She gasped softly and threw her hands over her mouth. Her eyes filled with tears as she gazed at me, and I could feel her love for me with just that one look.

I popped the lid open with one hand, revealing the stunning diamond ring I had spent days searching for. I’d wanted to pick the perfect one for her.

“You consume my heart, Gail,” I breathed, opening myself to her. “It beats with only thoughts of you. I want to spend my life with you, share my dreams with you by my side, and make all of yours come true.”

I carefully retrieved the ring with my fingers. She lifted her trembling hand and met mine halfway.

“I want to wake up next to you every day, knowing you’re mine forever.” I smiled lovingly at her. “Marry me, Gail,” I finished, feeling all the love I had for her coursing through me and filling every part of my soul.