Rent-A-Bride (16 page)

By all accounts her life was better than it had ever been and yet she couldn’t stop feeling like a rudderless boat on a stormy sea. Restless didn’t even begin to describe the feeling that was starting to consume her. It had started about a week ago and with each passing day the unknown terror seemed to grow inside her.

Their one year deadline had come and gone and she had not heard so much as a word from Ed. He’d obviously moved on. She’d always known that was a possibility. Her fear that his feelings for her were so shallow they wouldn’t last a year was exactly why she’d given him the ultimatum. She had no one to blame for her misery but herself. In her heart she knew she’d done the right thing but that was poor consolation as she faced another lonely night in an empty bed.

The hard knock on the door startled her out of her contemplation. Against all reason her heart started pounding as she hurried across the room to answer it.

“Just a minute.” As she reached the door and started to unlock it she paused and took a deep breath. “Who is it?”

“Me. Open up.” The gruff voice of Byron came through the door.

Like a bird shot from the sky her hopeful heart plummeted to the ground. Slowly she opened the door for her brother who was dripping wet from head to toe.

She glanced longingly at her neatly decorated and currently
dry
apartment once more before stepping back to let him in from the rain.

“I’m not staying.” Byron said shaking his whole body like a wet dog. “I’m just dropping something off.”

“Hey!” The voice Amelia longed to hear came from the right of Byron. “Cut it out!”

Amelia peeked around the doorway to find Ed standing next to her brother. His leather jacket in his hand as he dusted Byron’s water residue from his gray sweater.

“Ed? “ Amelia only hoped her voice didn’t sound as shaky to him as it did to her.

He flashed the beautiful smile she’d seen in her dreams a hundred times. “Hello, Amelia.”

“That’s what I’m dropping off.” Byron tilted his head in Ed‘s direction. “He came by the apartment looking for you but I couldn’t find your actual address. I just know how to get here. So I had him follow me over.” Byron’s dark eyes honed in on her face with razor sharpness.

Seeing the question in his eyes Amelia knew she had never loved her brother more than she did at that moment. Over the past year the siblings had grown back to being as close as they’d been as children and Amelia had also gained a sister-in-law and niece in the bargain. Despite returning to Detroit with nothing she’d since gained so much.

Something Byron saw in her face must’ve reassured him because he gave her a subtle nod and turned to leave calling over his shoulder. “Pepper’s waiting for me in the car downstairs. We’re taking Daphne for her one year check up.”

“Give them both a kiss for me.” Amelia waved briefly as the elevator doors closed on her brother leaving her alone in the corridor with Ed. She turned her head to find him watching her intently.

“Can I come in?” He gestured to the apartment.

“Oh, of course. Come in.” She stepped into the room ringing her hands in an attempt to get control of her nervousness.
He came back to me!

“Nice place.” She turned to find Ed’s dark eyes darting around her home.

“Thanks. It’s kinda small but it suits my needs.”

“Not small…cozy.”

She chuckled and crossing her arms she turned to face him. “Ah
cozy
, the
polite
way of saying small.” Her breath caught in her throat when she realized his dark eyes were focused completely on her.

“How have you been?” He asked.

Other than missing you like crazy? “
Okay. And you?”

He said nothing for several seconds just stood studying every inch of her face. His long stare was so intense Amelia was tempted to turn away but it had been so long since she’d seen his handsome face she was as curious as he to see if time had brought any changes to that which she once knew so well. And so she held his stare with her own.

Finally he said. “Lonely. Sad. Counting the weeks and then the days and then the hours.”

She felt her whole body relax. “What took you so long?”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. “I had to wait for this.”

Amelia took the paper and unfolded it to find herself staring at a marriage license issued by the state of Michigan.

“Turns out real ones take a little longer to get that the kind FedEx Kinko’s gives out.”

A silly grin spread across her face and Amelia knew that even if she wanted to she couldn’t stop it. “Go figure.”

“I know.” He glanced around the room once more. “So, you ready to go?”

She frowned. “Go where?”

“Downtown. I made an appointment for two-thirty.”

“Are you kidding me? You waltz in here after a full year—without giving me so much as a hello kiss and expect me to drop everything and—”

Suddenly his hot mouth was on hers and with a will of their own her arms came up and wrapped around his neck. It felt so good to be back in his warm embrace. So right.

His seeking tongue maneuvered its way into her mouth and Amelia put up no resistance whatsoever. His large hands curved around her spine cradling her body in his arms and she could feel his growing erection as it pushed against her midsection. His seeking hands cupped her bottom and pressed her hard against him.

“You’re right.” He whispered in her ear. “We haven’t had a proper hello.”

Taking her hand in his he started toward the narrow hallway leading to the rest of the apartment. “I assume your bedroom is back here somewhere.”

“Ed!” She called as she was tugged along. “Wait. We need to talk.”

“Ah! Here it is.” He said turning into the doorway on the left of the hallway.

“I’m serious. Ed. We need to—whoa!”

Without warning she found herself airborne right before landing on the bed with a bounce. She scrambled up on her knees and pounded her fist on the bed. “All you have is sex on the brain!”

He chuckled as he pulled his sweater over his head. “Like you don’t.”

Amelia was just about to deny the accusation when she found herself distracted by the lovely muscled ridges lining his chest cavity, not to mention those gorgeous curly hair covered pecks and all that muscular, masculine caramel brown skin.

Lord! The man is sexy on stilts!

Sensing her hunger his eyes darkened and turned even more seductive. “You were saying?”

His smudge expression broke the spell. “We. Need. To. Talk.”

He frowned. The mood temporarily ruined. “What’s there to talk about?”

“Ed, it’s been a year.”

He extended his arms in surrender. “And as far as I’m concerned it could’ve been yesterday. Yes. It’s been a year, but it’s been a year of waiting for you. Waiting for this. Amelia, you’re all I’ve thought about. You’re
still
all I want.”

He crossed the room and cupped her face in his hands. “Have you changed your mind about me?”

Amelia saw a vulnerability in his eyes that took her back to their very first meeting. The look of pain and anguish in his eyes the day he came to pick her up at the airport and she knew that no matter whatever else happened between them he had to know the truth of how she felt. “No, of course not. I love you as much today as I did a year ago.”

“Then what is there to talk about?”

She reached up and covered his hands with her own. “Ed, I do love you, so very much I can’t even begin to explain but the truth of the matter is that I’m not the same person I was a year ago.”

He let out a heavy sigh and sat down beside her on the bed. “You’re not
that
different. You still over think everything.”

She positioned herself behind him and began to gently massage his shoulders. “I just want to make sure we’re on the same page. That’s all.”

“Fine. So, what do we need to talk about?”

“Don’t you want to know what I’ve been doing for the past year?”

“You mean other than working at the insurance agency during the day, and taking night classes at the community college?”

She pushed away from him falling back on her elbows. “Have you been spying on me?!”

“I wouldn’t call it spying. More like…making sure you were okay.”

“You
spied
on me!”

He shrugged. “Fine. I spied on you. It’s no big deal.”

“It
IS
a big deal!” Her stunned mind tried to process what she’d just learned. For the past twelve months she’d fought every instinct, every urge to search him out while he’d had no problems at all with breaking their agreement.

“We had a deal.”

He huffed loudly.

“What’s that suppose to mean?”

“Look, I get it. I mean I get why you ask for the time apart. You were worried that what I felt was more about my mourning Stanley and less about any real emotion for you. I
do
understand.”

He turned and stretched out beside her bracing his head on his hand he looked directly into her eyes. “But, Amelia …my darling, my love. I would have had to have been out of my
rabid
mind to let the love of my life walk away from me for a year.

A full twelve months
without knowing where to find you at the end of that time period.” He reached over and tucked a strain of hair behind her ear then leaned over and placed a gently kiss on her lips. “So, please,
please
forgive me for loving you too much to let you go completely.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Then you must’ve already known where I lived.”

He nodded slowly. “Look, I knew how I felt but like you said it had been a year and you could’ve changed your mind. So, I decided to go by Byron’s place and feel him out first.”

Amelia lay staring up into the eyes of the man she loved more than life. “You are one sneaky bastard.”

He smiled mischievously. “Yeah, and you might want to remember that, you know…for when you start having my children.”

Amelia smiled and was fairly sure the smile reflected all the joy in her heart at that moment. It was more joy than she had ever known. “Okay, you’re forgiven.”

“Finally!” He rolled on top of her. “Can we say hello now?”

• • •

It was the first snow of the year. Barely enough to cover the ground but it was cold. Damn cold. Too damn cold to be getting married outside!

But his bride-to-be had always dreamed of an outdoor wedding and after a year of waiting he wasn’t about to continue waiting until summer to marry her. And so, the compromise had been to have a small private ceremony now and a more lavish event complete with all the extravagances later in the year.

Ed stood beside his Best Man, Steve, whose bright red nose was reminding Ed of Rudolph. They were both dressed in tuxedos with emerald green cummerbunds. They stood under a large Elm tree in his backyard along with their inner circle of family and friends.

Stanley’s childhood friend and fishing buddy, Fred, whom they had later learned was Rev. Fredrick Bryant stood nearby clutching his bible to his chest while he blew hot air on his freezing hands.

“Where is she?!” Steve hissed in his ear.

“Patience.” Ed whispered back. Although he was wondering the same thing. He knew he was willing to stand there until he turned into an ice sculpture but he couldn’t rightfully ask their guest to do the same.

“You want me to go check on them?” Byron asked.

Ed was still considering the answer to that question when the back door opened and the Maid of Honor, Pepper, stepped out. Ed could only assume she was wearing the requisite green colors because her winter overcoat covered her from neck to calf.

Byron leaned over to Ed and chuckled. “My baby ain’t nobody’s fool.”

Pepper carrying a small bouquet in one hand held the door open wide for Amelia with the other. Then suddenly she was there.

Amelia watched her step as she held her long gown off the wet ground. She wore a floor length emerald green gown and matching stiletto’s. Her raven colored hair was twisted on top of her head in some strangely alluring concoction, and laced through with green ribbons. Her only jewelry was the tiny diamonds in her ears. Although he’d seen her a thousand times and memorized every feature of her face still her beauty managed to stun him. Somehow the absence of jewelry only enhanced the beauty of her long, elegant neck and bare shoulders.

Bare Shoulders?!

Ed was just about to demand she return to the house and put on a coat when she looked up and saw him. And smiled.

And suddenly Ed was powerless to do anything but stare as she slowly moved down the walkway toward the group. All the while her hazel greens eyes never left his and as she came to a stop in front of him his heart skipped a beat.

She was amazing. He still couldn’t believe she was all his. Through a strange twist of fate he’d brought her into his life never realizing she would change everything.

For a brief instance she flashed her gorgeous smile at Pepper and then returned her attention to him. His eyes roamed over her. Everything from her sexy, long legs right up to those flawless bare shoulders.

He pulled off his tuxedo jacket and wrapped it around her. “If you end up with pneumonia on our honeymoon it will be your own fault.”

“I refuse to wear an overcoat on my wedding day.” She continued to beam up at him. “So if I get sick it would be totally worth it.”

She turned to their small group of witnesses. “I can’t tell you guys how much it means to me to have you all here. I’ve been alone for so long. I’d forgotten how nice it is to be surrounded by a loving family.”

Ed was as touched by her words as everyone else but still he leaned over and whispered in her ear. “Can we get on with this? It’s freezing out here.”

Together they turned to the Reverend and found his kindly eyes looking back and forth between them. “Your grandfather would be so proud of you, Ed. And you too, Amelia. You know this truly was his fondest wish and although he couldn’t be here with us today I know in some way he is.”

As if sensing Stanley’s presence Ed glanced up at the old elm tree and smiled. And in his heart he said a silent and final farewell to the man who’d been more than a father figure,…he’d been his savior, his confidante, his friend.