The Mind (The Reluctant Romantics #1.5) (13 page)

“Spill it,” I said evenly.

“I finally broke up with Josh and I feel so guilty. I was so wrong. What I did to him was wrong.”

“So your ex came back and you didn’t drop your boyfriend and go running back to Dean. It didn’t take you another year to realize you didn’t love him enough. It took you a month. Aside from the guilt, aren’t you happy about Dean?”

“No, I don’t want him, either.”

“Liar. Wake up, stupid. Everyone at my engagement party knew you showed up with the wrong dude.”

“Nice, Rose,” she said, lifting a freshly filled glass of champagne to her mouth.

“I’m being nice. That’s the nice way of putting it.” I leaned into her. “I love you but you have got a decision to make: shit or get off the pot with Dean. Seriously, the man is practically carrying his balls around in his hand.”

Dallas spit out her champagne as she turned to me and began wiping furiously at the drops that didn’t land on my dress.

“Stop it, it’s fine,” I said, pushing away her hands and stilling them. “You love that man.” She averted her eyes and I knew the subject was dropped before she spoke.

“Okay, no more talk about men. I’m totally done with them for the moment.” Dallas’s eyes softened even more as she studied me. “Rose, give me five minutes with what’s inside my purse, okay? Just five minutes.”

“Fine,” I said, moving to sit back on the couch as she stopped me and turned me towards her.

“Still a tomboy in every way,” she toyed as she pulled out her makeup bag.

“I just don’t know why all this is even necessary. It does nothing but make us look like liars, you know. He’ll know this isn’t what I look like,” I said, spitting out a fiber of powder brush caught on my lip.

“I believe the idea is to enhance,” Dallas said, her eyes narrowing as she concentrated.

“It’s not like I don’t wear makeup. You aren’t dressing a Neanderthal, woman!” I said defensively. But I was sensitive and uncomfortable with all of this, and Dallas knew it.

“Oh so sensitive,” Dallas teased as I resisted the urge to throttle her. “And lip gloss or Chapstick is not considered makeup. Hold still or I’ll do thicker eyeliner.”

“The hell you will,” I said as the salesclerk came in with shoes to match my dress, leaving bobby pins on the table beside Dallas, who gave her a thankful wink. Dallas layered my face in what felt like an exaggerated amount of cosmetics and had just fastened in the very last bobby pin available to my head as Jennifer burst through the boutique door.

“Sorry I’m late. Alex wouldn’t let me leave until he got on the plane. You know he—”

I stood, nervously looking between the both of them as Jen’s mouth dropped open in shock and instant tears fell silently down her cheeks. “Shit,” she muttered as she took a step towards me.

“Shit,” Dallas repeated as tears of her own fell rapidly from her eyes.

I reeled on my sister. “Dallas, you don’t cry!”

“I know,” she said, a small laugh-filled sob escaping her as she nodded at Jen. I could practically see the mental fist bump between them. “You either,” I scolded Jen as she rolled her eyes and wiped underneath them with her fingers.

I blew out a breath of frustration, turned to look at my reflection in the wall of mirrors, and froze.

“Shit,” I muttered as a slow, pride-filled smile spread across my face and a tear formed in the corner of my eye before it slid down my cheek.

“Foster, you’re outta here. I can’t afford any more overtime. Don’t you have a bride to get to?”

Bride.

I smile though I knew he couldn’t see me. The smile wasn’t for him, anyway. I couldn’t wait for the moment it became the truth, just like I couldn’t wait to kiss her for the first time that day under the tree. I admit I rushed it, and I chuckled when I thought back to how big her eyes got when I leaned in and pressed my lips to hers. Any trace of humor from her saucer-sized eyes that tempted me to laugh disappeared the second we connected. And that surprised moan in the back of her throat was all it took. I still couldn’t believe all of the roads that interconnected perfectly to lead me to her. Even my parent’s divorce, though as hard as that was for us all, had brought me to Texas, to her. I was sure if I tried really hard I could credit everything to fate, or divine circumstance lending a hand. It was the new optimist in me, I guessed.

I loosened my grip on the wrench and watched it fall to my tool box as I addressed the asshole ruining my thoughts of Rose.

“I just need five more minutes. I’m waiting on one last part and she’s good to go.” I smack the side of the aluminum, two-seater duster I’d been repairing all day. But in truth, I was already done and was waiting for a delivery that didn’t have a damn thing to do with the plane. Relief washed over me as the UPS truck pulled up and into the huge garage filled with needy aircraft. I was surprised the truck had actually made it this late on Christmas Eve. I approached the driver before anyone could and signed for the package. It was, after all, for me. I’d had it delivered here instead of Rose’s apartment to make sure she had no way of seeing it until I was ready to give it to her.

I opened it, fiddled with the rubber and metal, and with a satisfied smile left it in the box.

“That it, Foster?” my supervisor Troy asked, eyeing the box with suspicion.

“Yep,” I declared, not giving him anything else.

“Five minutes,” he said as he walked past me, turning off half of the lights of the garage.

“Asshole,” I muttered under my breath as I made my way towards the plane and locked and tightened anything I might have missed. I checked and rechecked my work, hearing my father’s stern voice as I wrapped up.

“Everything is put in its place for a reason, you hear me, son?”

“Yes, daddy,” I said as I tightened the bolt as much as I could.

“Okay, now check your work.”

“Yes, sir. Daddy, why—”

“Enough with the whys for one day, son.” He smiled down at me. You aren’t looking at the big picture. One day, it’s all going to click into place for you and you’ll know the why of everything.”

“Foster, if I didn’t know better, I would say you were dragging ass just to piss me off!”

Even my moody boss couldn’t put a damper on this night. No one could. I’d finally found her, the woman who both terrified me in my feelings for her and made me a better man. Though she’d tried to make it complicated, it was really so simple.

The truth was I’d acted like a goddamn lunatic since the minute I saw her and didn’t stop until she agreed to become Mrs. Lunatic. Closing my eyes, I damn near moaned at thoughts of what I would do to her tonight, and tomorrow night, but only after I gave her what was in this box. In one week, every damned dream I had was coming to life. Well, in truth, everything I’d worked for, the land, getting back to Texas, none of it had made real sense until I figured out I wasn’t doing it for me. My father was right; it had all clicked into place, both in the mechanics and in my life.

Everything and every experience I’d ever had were leading me to this point. I had planted the seed of a future for myself a long time ago without ever really seeing the big picture. To my credit, I did have a glimpse of what I wanted, but it wasn’t until I met Rose that the future became paved, solid, and far more beautiful.

Rose made me laugh like no other woman had ever managed, and had the ability to bring me to my knees with one look. These are the things I’d looked for and failed to find in other women. No one had ever even come close. She was never really a mystery to me, but I damn sure stayed intrigued every time she opened her mouth. She was brilliant without trying to be and had a nasty bite that I loved to temper when I pissed her off. I loved her passion for her work, but knew she would drop her scalpel in a heartbeat for anyone important in her life if they needed her, for her family, for me.

Last night as we lay tangled up in each other’s arms, I asked her how she felt about marrying a roughneck. It was a bit of an insecure moment for me I admit, but leave it to my ‘tell it like it is’ fiancée to give me the perfect reply. She simply looked up at me and said she would choose to marry a man that earned everything he had rather than one who had shit handed to him because she knew he’d worked just as hard as she had. And in her eyes, it made us equals. Then she proceeded to curse me out for thinking she was any better than me. And then I pinned her beneath me and kissed her naturally red lips breathless.

She was made for me and me for her. I did the right thing by leaping out of that truck after her, even if I did make a damn fool of myself. Maybe I fell in love with the idea of her first. Either way, I’d make no apologies now for any of it because she’d captured me now, heart and soul, on every level. It was my job to protect her, but if I were being honest, I felt the safest I’d ever had in her love for me.

My idea turned into my everything and I wouldn’t change a fucking second.

Yes, she was made for me and she told me so. I’d had the proof in my wallet for the last four months, but never showed it to her.

She believed in signs and even though she’d already agreed to be mine, I knew this would solidify what we already knew. I took the piece of paper out of my pocket. The same piece of paper that had me chasing after her with an answer.

She’d been practicing her signature, I found it adorable but what got me was the bottom of the page...

I pulled out the engraved stethoscope again from the box and knew I’d answered the questions she had written on that piece of paper. Holding the circular end of it, I rubbed my thumb over the etched words, reveling in the answer.

Dr. Foster

“Foster!”

“All right you greedy bastard, keep your overtime!” I look over at Troy, who gives me a shit eating grin with an undertone of serious distaste.

“Done, and don’t think I won’t dock your pay for every minute you’ve kept me waiting.”

“Dock me,” I snapped, closing my tool box while whistling Dixie. I brushed past Troy with a “Merry Christmas, Scrooge. I sure hope there are no Tiny Tim’s in your neighborhood, for they will surely starve.”

“I have a damned Barbie house to put together and two bikes,” he groaned as he slid the hangar door shut then locked it.

I grinned at his back, hoping for the same circumstances to bitch about some day. I couldn’t wait to see whose genes won out, Rose’s or my own. If I had to guess, I was pretty sure the 5’ 6”, red haired goddess I was about to marry would win that war. I was also sure I wouldn’t give up after the first battle.

I got into my truck and blew hot air into my hands, rubbing them together while it warmed up. I couldn’t help my excitement as I pulled out the stethoscope again and tested it on my own heart. I could only hope she would understand the significance of the note.

Of course she would. She’d been just as surprised by the freight train that ran us both over as I was, even if that freight train was me.

A year ago on this very same night, I’d fisted a bottle of Jack Daniels while my father slept uncomfortably, crying out in pain every so often. It was a shitty existence to live for someone you knew was about to die and not having a damn thing to look forward to. I’d drowned my sorrows in a bottle, making my new year’s resolutions early. I’d decided, I would by the same time next year, have something to look forward to.

And God wasn’t she something.

I pull out my phone looking for any word from her as I glanced at my dash clock.

Rose: Hurry up, roughneck. I love you.

Pulling out a small gift bag and tissue paper I had ready, I carefully wrapped the stethoscope and note inside it, along with a note of my own, and then tucked the bag under the passenger seat where it would stay hidden until we got back from her parents on Christmas Day. I got her a slew of shitty gifts just to deter her from this one and I couldn’t wait to see her face when she opened the first shit gift tonight: a duck caller from the online Duck Dynasty store. I would tell her it was for our new pets. I burst out laughing as I imagined the confused face she would make when she opened it. I had to get my laughter out now before I was forced to hold back in her presence. If she seemed too disappointed, I’d race out to this truck and make it up to her.