Page 27 of A New Chapter in Rosewood Beach (Rosewood Beach #7)

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Faith pushed open the front door of her home and froze. She had expected to come home to a dark, quiet living room before heading into her kitchen to begin preparing dinner. Instead, however, her home was aglow with flickering candles.

“What on earth?” she murmured, noticing the pink rose petals that were spread across the floor.

The air smelled heavenly, as the aroma of flowers blended with the scents of the candles. Her home had been transformed into a place of captivating beauty and tranquility. She gazed in awe at the flickering gold of the candles for a few moments, and then she turned toward the dining room.

Ryan was standing there smiling at her. On the table were more candles, set in silver candlesticks, and there were two plates of pasta set on either side of the table.

Wine glasses in front of the plates were filled with white wine, and there was a basket of garlic bread resting in the center of the table.

“What on earth?” Faith breathed, walking toward him. “What is this all about?”

Ryan handed her a bouquet of roses, a gorgeous mixture of both pink and red. “These are for you,” he told her, and kissed her.

“Thank you,” she said, her voice soft. She didn’t know what he was up to, but she knew that she absolutely loved it.

He pulled out her chair for her. “Sit down, please,” he said. “I don’t want your pasta to get cold.”

She sat down, looking up at him in confusion. “You still haven’t answered my question,” she told him.

“Shh,” he told her. “Pasta.”

She laughed and watched as he took his seat across from her at the table. She noticed that he was wearing a becoming dark green dress shirt for the occasion, and she was glad that she’d happened to choose a purple floral dress for her outfit that day.

They began to eat the meal together, and he asked her how her day had gone.

“Um, fine.” She laughed. “Now it’s going really, really well. But I’m still confused about why all of this is happening.”

He smiled at her, and the look in his eyes made her stomach do a somersault. She could see how much he loved her, and she thought to herself that she was going to treasure that moment forever.

“I just wanted to show you,” he said slowly, his eyes on her face, “that I don’t want you to doubt for a minute that I see a future with you.”

Her heart stopped for a moment, and then she felt an ache of happiness fill her chest. She could hardly believe that not that long ago, she had been beside herself with worry that the two of them were going to have to break up.

“I don’t want to move overly quickly,” Ryan continued, “since I know we haven’t been dating for all that long, but I want you to understand just how deeply I care for you, and how you have changed my life.”

Tears filled Faith’s eyes. “That’s all I needed to hear.” She smiled at him, feeling her love for him like a glow that filled her whole body. “I’ll be patient while we navigate what we want our future to look like.”

He stood up and walked around the table toward her. She stood up to meet him, and they wrapped their arms around each other for a tender kiss.

“This is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me,” she told him, nuzzling his nose.

“Wow, that makes me feel pretty special.”

“Um, it makes me feel pretty special.”

He rocked her back and forth a little bit, and then they kissed again.

“Pasta,” she told him. “We don’t want it to get cold.”

“Pasta,” he agreed.

They sat down again, and Faith felt a wonderful certainty that everything was going to turn out all right.

“Does anyone want more tea?” Vivian asked, standing up to get herself a second cup of peppermint tea.

Her daughters and Faith looked up from where they were working around her kitchen table.

“I’d take some,” Hazel said.

“I think I’ll make some coffee, actually,” Julia said, standing up. “I want some serious caffeine.”

“What, sending out your wedding invitations isn’t giving you enough of an adrenaline boost?” Alexis teased.

Julia shook her head. “No, it’s giving me a headache. What if some of these addresses are wrong?”

“Don’t worry about that, sweetie,” Vivian assured her. “We’ll double-check all of them. Most of the addresses on our side are in my address book, and the ones that aren’t we can check using your phone’s contacts info.”

Julia, ever the organized one, had printed out sheets with the addresses of all of her and Cooper’s wedding guests on them. Each of the girls had a stack of envelopes and a pen, and they were getting ready to address all of the envelopes before putting the invitations in them.

“Besides,” Hazel said, “if an address is wrong, it’ll come back in the mail, so we’ll know. Or, worst case scenario, it does get lost in the mail but you realize that it did because you never get an RSVP from the guest.”

“Ah, true.” Julia sighed. “I just want everything to be perfect. I’d hate for anything like that to happen.”

“It won’t.” Alexis laughed and stood up. She took her sister by the shoulders and sat her back down at the table. “You just sit there, and I’m going to make everyone chocolate milkshakes. You don’t need caffeine, you need comfort food.”

“I would definitely not say no to a milkshake,” Faith said with a grin. “And I agree—don’t make yourself more jittery when you’re stressed, Julia.”

Julia chuckled. “You’re right. I just usually tend to ride the waves of the nervousness on the tide of extra caffeine jitters.”

“I don’t know what that means,” Alexis said, shaking her head, “but I know it’s a bad idea.”

Vivian laughed and went to get herself and Hazel second cups of tea.

She felt sure that nothing was going to go wrong with Julia’s wedding invitations.

They’d already double-checked the addresses since they’d sent out the “Save the Date” postcards months ago.

As she waited for the tea kettle to heat up again, she looked at the table, where the women of her family were clustered together, looking over Julia and Cooper’s beautiful wedding invitations.

She looked at the way the gold letters on the invitations gleamed in the light and thought of the way she’d felt when she’d sent out her own wedding invitations many years ago.

Instead of making her heart ache, however, the memory was purely a happy one.

She realized with a jolt that she no longer felt as though excitement and romance had passed her by.

The whole world had opened up in front of her, full of potential and wonderful uncertainty.

Thank you, Terrence, she thought, feeling her heart stir.

Although she didn’t know what was going to happen between her and her friend, she felt grateful that he had changed the way she felt about her life. She now knew that romance was still possible for her, and the thought of everything working out between them filled her with butterflies.

She was just sitting back down with her tea after handing Hazel her mug when her phone began to ring. She pulled it out of her pocket and froze when she saw that the caller was Terrence.

“Who’s that?” Faith asked gleefully, even though it was clear from her tone that she had already seen Terrence’s name on the screen.

“It’s Terrence.” Vivian cleared her throat. “I can call him back?—”

“No, answer it,” Julia said, also sounding gleeful. “We don’t mind.”

Vivian felt a little awkward about answering the phone in front of the girls, but she decided it would be more awkward if she left the room to take the call. And the truth was that she didn’t want to have to call Terrence back. She wanted to talk to him right away.

“Hi, Terrence,” she said, surprised by how eager her tone sounded. She noticed the girls exchange delighted glances and started laughing, and she blushed a little.

“Hi, Vivian. How’s your night going?”

“Oh, fine. I’m just here with Faith, Hazel, Alexis, and Julia.

We’re getting ready to send out the invitations for Julia’s wedding.

” She thought to herself that he could easily conclude that she was lying about that, because the room had suddenly gone as silent as the bottom of the ocean.

The girls pretended to keep working on the envelopes, but she knew that they were listening to her conversation.

The room was quiet enough that she guessed that they could hear what Terrence was saying as well.

“That sounds nice.” She could hear the smile in his voice. “How is Julia feeling about it? Excited?”

“Excited but a little stressed. I guess Alexis is going to make us all chocolate milkshakes.” She gave Alexis a look, since her daughter had stopped running the blender and was leaning against the counter pretending to be entranced by one of the fridge magnets.

“That sounds great.” Terrence cleared his throat. “I called because I was wondering if perhaps you would be available to go out on a date with me tomorrow night.”

Vivian’s heart lifted, and then it sank again. “Oh, I wish I could, Terrence, but I can’t. I’m working the late shift at The Lighthouse Grill tomorrow.”

“We can get it covered!” Julia blurted out, loud enough for Terrence to hear. He started laughing, and everyone else around the room started laughing too.

“Julia!” Vivian shushed her daughter, her eyes wide, and the girls giggled even more.

Julia grinned, unabashed. “We can. So you’re free tomorrow night, Mom.”

“Well.” Vivian cleared her throat. “The pub’s second in command assures me that we can get my shift covered tomorrow. So I guess I am free tomorrow night after all. I’d love to go out with you, Terrence.”

The girls all squealed with excitement, and Vivian waved her hand through the air, trying to shush them.

“Wonderful,” Terrence said. “I’ll let you go—we can talk details sometime when you don’t have an audience.”

She laughed, appreciative of his thoughtfulness. “Sounds great. Have a good night, Terrence.”

“You as well, Vivian.”

They hung up, and she let out a brief sigh of contentment before turning to the girls.

“Honestly.” She put her hands on her hips, laughing. “I distinctly got the impression that you four were eavesdropping.”

“What?” Alexis pretended to be aghast. “We would never.” She winked at Julia, who winked back, and then she went back to work blending the chocolate milkshakes.

“So you have a date tomorrow,” Julia said gleefully, leaning forward across the table. “That’s amazing, Mom.”

Vivian smiled, feeling a rush of excitement again. “I do have a date tomorrow.”

The girls all exchanged ecstatic glances, and Vivian thought to herself that it meant the world to her to have their approval.

“You’re going to have a wonderful time, Mom,” Hazel said warmly.

Faith nodded. “Terrence is such a sweet man.”

“He is,” Alexis agreed. “And we’re also going to have a great time right now. Who wants milkshakes?”

Every hand shot up around the table, and Alexis laughed and began to pour the creamy frozen drink into tall glasses.

Vivian smiled to herself the moment attention was taken off her. She couldn’t wait for her date with Terrence, and she was even looking forward to when he called her again to talk about it.