Love's Little Instruction Book (28 page)

So what was she afraid of? She could still have her career, her notoriety, and her independence. Dave would never try to take that away from her. And she suddenly knew that this was what she wanted. She still wanted the all things that she had wanted before, but she also wanted band aids and stickers and baby pictures — as long as she could have Dave with them.

She pulled his hand up to her lips and kissed the flat place between the knuckles. “I love you,” she told him, looking him right in the eye.

“Thanks,” he told her. “I feel better already.”

And suddenly she was grinning at him, a big, goofy, happy as a clown grin.

“What’s that smile for?” he asked.

“I want this,” she told him. “I want the in-laws, the photo albums, and the magic stickers. But most of all, I want you. Will you marry me?”

His jaw actually dropped. “What about all those things you said?” he pressed. “The independence, and not wanting to be married again?”

She shook her head. “I have that. I have everything I want. But like you said, I’m happier with you than without you. I’m happier with you than I’ve ever been before. And I won’t lose what I’ve got by marrying you. You’d never make me give up the things I love to do. But it would feel like I’d lost everything if I ever had to face a life without you in it.” She reached up to touch his face, his curls. “I want it all, Dave. But most of all I want to know that you’ll be with me forever. Will you? Please?”

He looked at her with eyes that sparkled as if full of tears, and with the sweetest, wobbliest smile she’d ever seen in her life. But still he hesitated. “Are you sure, Neesie?”

She dug her hands into his curls and nodded, feeling her own eyes fill with tears.

“Then, yes.”

Dave DiSciullo and Denise Johnson were married on a beautiful spring day, standing side by side on the porch that they had painted together.

Dave had almost wept when he saw Denise coming toward him on her mother’s arm. God, she was beautiful. Her dress reminded him of the one that Marilyn Monroe had worn in
The Seven Year Itch
— white, with a halter top and a full skirt. Her hair was swept up into a chignon at the back of her neck and she carried a bunch of lilacs picked from his mother’s yard just that morning. The cut of her dress combined with the sweep of her hair reminded him of a swan, graceful and elegant.

He was visibly shaking when he took her hand in his, and he was afraid that he might not actually be able to get the ring onto her finger, but he managed it. And when he looked into her eyes after sliding it into place, he saw that her eyes were filled with tears as well. They smiled at each other and he knew that he had to be the luckiest son of a bitch on the face of the planet. And then it was over, and they kissed, and she was his wife. He didn’t think he would ever stop smiling.

He stood now, momentarily alone on the front porch while the reception went on in the backyard. He had wanted to check his car — with Kirk, Ghoulie, and Denise’s two brothers for groomsmen, he was feeling a little anxious for the sake of his Toyota, but so far it was still untouched. He tried to feel relieved, but it was still early in the day. He heard the front door open behind him and the sound of footsteps as he stood there with his hands in the pockets of his tuxedo, but he didn’t turn even as he felt Denise’s arms come around him from behind. She kissed the back of his neck and he smiled, then pulled his hands from his pockets and laid his arms on top of hers. “You all right?” she asked.

He chuckled. “Are you kidding? This is the best I’ve ever been in my life. How you holding up?”

She kissed him again. “Best day of my life, too,” she told him. He turned in her arms then, looking up into her face.

“I can’t believe you’re finally mine,” he said softly.

“Denise DiSciullo, that’s me,” she agreed.

“But you’ll stay Denise Johnson professionally,” he told her. “That’s important, the name recognition factor.”

She smiled. “Easier to spell, too. But Denise DiSciullo does have a certain ring to it, don’t you think?”

“Prettiest name I’ve ever heard.” He gave her a wobbly smile. “Thank you,” he whispered. “You mean more to me than anything else in the world.”

“I love you,” she told him.

“I love you, too.” They leaned forward to kiss each other, diligently ignoring the sound of the porch door swinging open.

“Come on, you two. The wedding night doesn’t start until you leave here.”

Denise laughed as Kirk approached them.

“They’re looking for you both in the backyard,” Kirk continued. “Your mothers think it’s time to cut the cake.”

“I know,” Denise said, then she looked at Dave. “That’s what I came out here to tell you. Guess I just got a little distracted before I could deliver the message.”

Dave nodded.

“I guess I should go touch up my make up a little before the next round of pictures,” she said, excusing herself.

“You look great,” Dave told her.

“Yeah, but I probably kissed off most of my make up,” she laughed, reaching up to wipe at his lips with her thumb.

“That’s my favorite way of seeing you,” he grinned.

“Just the same … ” She kissed him one more time. “I’ll meet you in the backyard in a few minutes.”

He watched her go, then turned to Kirk. “Promise me that you’ll be gentle with my car,” he said half pleadingly.

Kirk grinned. “Relax. A little shoe polish, some tin cans, streamers, a big sign. We won’t touch the engine, I promise.”

“I’m going to hold you to that, Kirkie.”

Kirk held up two fingers. “Scout’s honor.”

“Yeah, but you were never a scout.”

Kirk chuckled, then glanced back at the door through which Denise had disappeared, stuck his hands into the pockets of his tuxedo and rocked back on his heels. “You know, Dave,” he said conversationally. “Those books we read? They all end at the wedding. As far as the stories go, there may be an epilogue where they have a kid, but once the characters say, ‘I do,’ the story ends. Their lives are pretty much over.”

Dave just smiled. “The story’s not over,” he told him. “This is just where ‘Happily Ever After’ begins.”

That night, a freshly showered Dave stepped out of the bathroom and moved down the hall toward his bedroom in the upstairs of Mrs. Silva’s house. He stopped in the doorway and leaned against the doorframe, looking at the sight of Denise — his wife — sitting on his bed in a filmy white negligee, reading a book that he’d left on the nightstand. She was beautiful. She was sexy. And she was really, really here and really, really his. He had never felt more blessed.

She looked up at him, standing there in his boxers and bathrobe and smiled. “Hey ya, handsome.”

He smiled back. “Hey yourself. Can I get you anything?”

“Just you.” She set the book back on the nightstand and scooted over on the bed.

He didn’t need to be asked twice. He launched himself away from the doorframe, sat next to her on the bed and leaned in to kiss her. God, he would never get tired of kissing her. “Thank you,” he whispered.

“For what?”

“For everything. For being here. For having me.”

She reached up to touch his face, her eyes glistening. “Oh, God, Dave. You don’t have to thank me. Not ever. You’ve already given me everything I wanted. You gave me you.”

He caught the hand against his face, pulled it up to his lips, and kissed it. “I still can’t believe it. You’re really here. And really mine?”

“I’m really yours,” she assured him.

He shifted onto the bed, lying against the headboard so that she could rest her head on his chest. “I’ve wanted you for so long,” he told her. “I think I started falling in love with you that night when I was working late and you bought Theresa that candy bar. Do you remember that?”

“A little.”

“I didn’t think you would ever even notice a guy like me, though. You were so perfect and I … ” He gathered her up and cuddled her closer. “I couldn’t image how I could ever get you to even notice a guy like me.”

She drew in a long breath and reached into the chest of his bathrobe, gently swirling his chest hair through her fingers. “I noticed you, I just didn’t appreciate you at first. Everything was too new, and there were too many new experiences for you to stand out back then.”

“I don’t exactly stand out,” he agreed.

She raised her head and looked at him. “Maybe not physically, but as a human being — a caring, emotional, good person — I’ve never met a better man.”

He felt humbled and reached up to cover her hand with his own, pulling it toward his heart and pressing it against him. “I’ve wanted you for so long,” he said again. “And now you’re here.”

“Now I’m here,” she agreed. “And I’ll never go away.”

He sighed contentedly and she reached up to kiss him, then snuggled back down into his arms, listening to his heart. He lay there, just stroking her arm and back and feeling a sense of peace like nothing he’d ever known before. He sat there for a long time, just being with her. He supposed that as a groom, she might find this pretty lacking, but honest to God, he was happy just to hold her.

“Hey, Denise,” he said, after a long, long moment.

“Mmmm?”

“Want to know a secret?”

She didn’t bother to move. “Sure.”

“When I started to get to know you, and I knew that you were really, really someone who I wanted to be with, I came up with a plan.”

“Plan?”

“Mmm hmm. I didn’t think a glamour girl like you would ever look twice at a guy like me. Every time I’d hear something new about you, it just seemed like I was more and more lacking compared to the life you’d led before.”

She raised her head. “You’re not.”

“
Shhh
. You’ll probably think this is funny. I talked to Kirk and Ghoulie about it, and we got this idea. It sounds kind of silly now, but we decided that since your mom is a romance writer, you probably had great expectations in the romance department, so we started reading romance novels, looking for things that might help get you to notice me.”

“I always noticed you, Dave. It’s just that it took me a while to really know you.” She tilted her head and studied him. “You actually read romance novels?”

“Mmm hmm.”

“What did you think?”

He shrugged just a little, turning a slight shade of pink. “That some of it was helpful, but a lot of it couldn’t really apply to me and you. I mean, this is the twenty-first century. I could never work my way up from page to knight to win you. I’m not a millionaire who could sweep you away to wonderful, exotic places. And your ranch and your reputation were both safe — you didn’t need saving. Not much that a modern guy could emulate, you know?”

She smiled. “You are my knight, my fortune, and my hero. You know that, don’t you?”

He looked at her and smiled. “Right this minute, I feel like I am, yeah.”

She burrowed back against him, resting the back of her head again his chest while his hand slid up to casually trace loops around the outer edge of her breast. “So did you learn anything?” she asked him. She felt him shrug behind her.

“Well, it gave me a lot of ideas,” he told her.

“What kind of ideas?” she asked.

“See that book you were just reading?” he asked her.

She looked over at the nightstand. “Yeah.”

“Open it up to page two-oh-four.”

Glancing up at him curiously, Denise reached over to grab the book, discovering that he had dog-eared page 204. Skimming it, she discovered that it was a rather lengthy — and detailed — sex scene. “Oh, my … ” she muttered, reading as quickly as she could. “You mean you want to … ”

He took the book out of her hands and set it back on the nightstand. “Uh huh.”

“Shouldn’t I finish reading it first, so I know what you want me to do?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Don’t worry about it,” he told her. “I’ve got it memorized.” Rolling her off of his arms and onto her back across the bed, Dave taught her that there was, indeed, a lot that could be learned from a romance novel.

In the mood for more Crimson Romance?

Check out
Falling For You
by Heather Thurmeier
at
CrimsonRomance.com
.