Fate (45 page)

This close she could now see
that
the lights on the boat spelled something out. When she was able to make out what it said
,
she choked up.

I don’t do cheese but
this
family is relentless

She laughed
,
still holding her hands at her mouth then read just below written even bigger.

Will you marry me, Rosie?

She looked around
,
and both her mom and Gracie were tearing up but smiled at her. Sal smiled at her too, standing next to Vincent’s parents who looked just as emotional as she felt. How did this happen? How did she go from having just Grace to having all this now? Even though she’d been brought into this family by technicality, Vincent was now asking her to be part of it officially—
to
be his wife.

They all smiled and motioned for her to go down the docking pi
er. The boat was almost there.
Rose started down the pier
,
looking back when she realized the entire crowd was singing along to the chorus of the song. “Not cheesy,” she
mumbled
softly under her breath then laughed as she turned back and kept walking.

Still holding her hand to her mouth but unable to stop smiling
,
she watched as the boat reached the doc
k,
and Vincent jumped out. As soon as he reached her
,
he got down on his knee.

“Marry me
,
Rosie.” He opened the small box he held
,
revealing a heart
-
shaped diamond ring and looked up at her. “Yeah?”

“Of course,”
s
he gasped barely able to get the words out but swallowed hard
,
trying not to become a blubbering mess.

Vincent slipped the ring on her finger and stood up then turned to the crowd, lifting her hand in the air. “She said yes!”

They all cheered and clapped
,
and the guy playing the song started over again only this time in Spanish. Vincent hugged Rose then kissed her. “You know after listening to the lyrics of that song pretty closely,” he shrugged
,
“
i
t’s not so sappy after all. I think I can tolerate hearing it every now and again.”

Rose laughed. “I’m surprised you remembered.”

Vincent leaned his forehead against hers. “I usually don’t remember that kind of stuff
,
but I told you Rosie with you everything is different. Although,” he smirked
,
“I do have a confession to make.”

Rose tilted her head. “What?”

“After hearing you say how much you
loved
the song
,
I had to look it up and check out the lyrics. And I’ll admit they’re pretty cool
,
”
h
e shrugged
,
“
s
appy
,
but still cool, especially the part about not being able to live without you because I really can’t.”

Feeling her heart swell
,
Rose smiled
,
feeling a little less feeble that she wasn’t the only one who felt this way. Of course they couldn’t live without each other. She felt it ever since that first summer. They were
meant to be together—forever.
“You don’t have to
,
”
s
he kissed him then did what he loved doing so much to her and traced
his
lips with her finger
,
“
n
ot ever again.”

I'd like to thank my family
:
m
y husband Mark, my son Marky
,
and my daughter Megan. With this being my eighth novel
,
they now know the drill and roll with the punches like troopers. I appreciate that you guys don't bat an eye anymore when I sit in my jammies for the entire day sometimes longer in front of my computer. This is our new life
,
and I'm so happy that you've all learned to embrace it. I love you!

To my t
w
o critique partners Tammara Webber and Abbi Glines
,
I'm so grateful that even with your incredible successes that keep your lives so busy these days
,
you still ma
k
e the time to give me your take and add your nitpicks and suggestions. I'm honored to work with both you ladies.

To my beta readers Judy Devries, Dawn Winter
,
and Theresa Wegand who are fabulous about reading through my books in a single day and have full reports for me by the very next day! I truly appreciate the time and effort you put into making sure I understand
the
first impr
ession my books made on you.
I'd also like to give a special thanks to Emily Lamphear who was gracious enough to beta
-
read
Fate
for me and also
get
back to me with a
full report the very next day.
Your military knowledge was invaluable to me. It was of the utmost importance
for
me to get it right
,
and without your personal knowledge I wouldn't have felt completely comfortable that I
'd done so with research alone.
I thank y
ou from the bottom of my heart!

To my editor (who also beta
-
reads)
,
Theresa *
E
agle
E
yes* Wegand
,
I thank you for
the
professionalism and the thoroughness that you put into your work. Time after time you've wowed me
,
and I sincerely look forward to working with you on all my next projects
.

To my cover artist
,
Stephanie Mooney
,
I thank you for sharing your incredible talent and having the patience to deal with me
,
even when I ask for things changed again and again. Check your email btw. You probably have yet another on
e
in there from me about tweaking just one more thing on our latest project. ;)

And last but certainly not least
,
I'd like to thank my incredibly vocal, loyal
,
and
wonderful
readers! Without you none of this would be possible. I thank you. My family thanks you
,
and my mommy who constantly wrings her wrinkled little hands and says "
Aye
,
gracias a Dios que parece que les a gustado tus libros.
"
[
Thank God
,
it seems people
like
your books.
]
Yeah
M
om
,
it seems that way. And yes
,
I
thank God
,
but mostly
I
thank you awesome readers! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

I was born and raised in southern California and still live here with my husband of almost nineteen years, my two teens, my Great Dane
named
Dexter
,
and one big fat cat named Tyson.

I spend ninety percent of my time in front of my computer writing and keeping up with all the social media
,
and I love it. There is nothing better than doing what you absolutely love for a living
,
and I eat, sleep
,
and breathe these stories that are constantly begging to be written.

Fate
is the first in my latest series entitled the same thing,
Fate
. If this is
the
first
book you’ve
read of my mine,
you should know that
Fate
is a spinoff series of my first series
,
The Moreno Brothers.
Yes
,
all the brothers including their friend Romero and their sister Sofie have their own stories. Visit my blog for info
rmation,
excerpts
,
and teasers of those books. For those of you who are familiar with my books,
there
will be more in the
Fate
series
,
including other characters from the MB series who
se
stories need to be told because
we never got to find out what happened to them. Stay tuned and visit my blog for more information on this.

I also have another series
,
5th Stree
t
,
about the love lives of the young aspiring boxers from the 5th Street boxing gym in East Los Angeles. There are two books out in that series so far
Noah,
&
Gio.
I will step away from my
Fate
series for now to continue with the thi
rd book of
5th Street
,
Hector.

Representation:
It is with great pleasure that I announce that Jane Dystel of Dystel & Goderich now handles all questions regarding subsidiary rights for any of my work. Please direct inquiries regarding foreign translation and film rights availability to her.

For more information on my upcoming projects and to connect with me (I love hearing from you all!)
,
here are a few places you can find me:

My blog:
authorelizabethreyes.blogspot.com

My Facebook fan page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Elizabeth-Reyes/278724885527554

Twitter:
@AuthorElizabeth

And you can email me at
[email protected]