Page 29 of Truly (Peachwood Falls #2)

L aina

Six months later …

“Hey, Laina! Do you still have my pink boots?” Kennedy calls from Maggie’s mudroom.

“Yikes. I think so. Do you need them?” I ask.

She pokes her head around the corner and grins. “Not until this weekend. Dad finally agreed to let me go to a party, but only because Megan intervened on my behalf. But it’s behind one of my friend’s houses. It’s supposed to rain the day before, so I thought boots might be smart.”

“Yours smell like horse shit.” I wince. “How about this. I’ll buy you a pair and have them shipped to your house by Friday?”

“Yes!” she says. “I freaking love you, Laina.”

Gavin waits until Kennedy’s gone before lifting a brow. His arms cross over his chest.

“What?” I ask innocently. “Why do you look so mad?”

“You’re playing dirty.”

“Excuse me?”

“You can’t try to get to the top of the favorites list by buying her shit.”

I shrug. “I don’t know. It seems to be working.”

He narrows his eyes. “When do you leave again?”

“Two weeks. I have a mini tour in Europe. Why?”

“Because I have to figure out how to sabotage you while you’re gone.”

“ Gavin !” I say, laughing. “Don’t threaten me. I could always fly her to London.”

Chase walks in, shaking his head. “You aren’t flying my daughter to London just to get higher on the favorites list.”

“Chase, you are no fun,” I say.

Gavin walks by him and winks.

I gasp. “You can’t do that! You can’t work covertly with Chase to shut me down.”

Gavin shrugs. “I don’t know. It seems to be working.”

The door opens, and the noise level goes up a hundred points.

Megan and Kate, both women whom I’ve grown to absolutely adore, come in laughing.

Maggie and Kennedy, who must’ve gone out the back door and then around the house, follow.

Lonnie trails them by a few steps, yelling at Gavin to get the rest of the groceries from the car.

Luke brings up the end with his arms full of bags.

It’s beautiful chaos.

“What can I do, Maggie?” I ask, meeting everyone in the kitchen.

“Oh, sweetheart. You made it.” Her face lights up as she pulls me in for a hug. “Luke said your flight was delayed due to bad weather.”

“We were stuck on the tarmac for a while, but it was fine once we got in the air.”

Luke slides in for a quick kiss even though he picked me up from the airport and hasn’t really stopped kissing me since.

The past six months have been a little bumpy.

Overhauling my management team while starting a relationship with a man who lives hours away from the office has resulted in many long nights, plane rides, and shifting schedules.

But now that the team is set with Hollis Hudson at the helm—a professional relationship flourishing beautifully—everything has started to smooth out.

It’s taken restraining orders and cease and desist letters for Tom and my father to finally leave me alone, but the past month has been peaceful.

Hollis discovered that my father was getting kickbacks on many of my deals and was investing a lot of that money into various business arrangements with Tom.

Sucks for them.

On the other hand, Luke has adapted well to fortifying his home with security cameras.

He didn’t even object to the fence Landry Security insisted be placed around the property and a guard house at the base of the driveway.

He rolls his eyes about it a lot, but I think he secretly thinks it’s amusing.

“Did you ever make that lasagna, Laina?” Maggie asks, busying herself with putting groceries away.

Kate gives me a look and tries not to laugh.

Maggie and this damn lasagna.

“Yeah,” I say, without telling her I made it so that I could say I did when she inevitably asked. “It was good. Luke loved it.”

“Luke will eat anything,” Lonnie says.

My cheeks flush. If they only knew …

“Are you going to be in Nashville next week?” I ask Kate. “Did that meeting get set up?”

“Oh, yes! I am. I get there on Wednesday. When do you go back?”

“Tuesday. Why don’t you stay with me? I have a great view and lots of wine. And you can get your sweater back that I borrowed last month.”

“Sold!” she says, laughing.

Kennedy sits at a barstool and plucks a cookie off the peanut butter board that Megan is putting together.

“Dammit,” Luke says from the dining room. “Where the hell did I put it?”

“Put what?” I ask.

“I had a box in my pocket, and it’s gone.” He frowns. “It could be anywhere.”

“Do you need help?” I ask.

“I can’t see under the table. It’s too dark.”

“Here. Use my phone as a flashlight.”

I go into the dining area and hand him my phone. But instead of taking it, he takes my hand instead.

The whole family stands silently around the kitchen with big smiles. Megan gives me a sneaky thumbs-up.

Oh. My. God.

Luke takes the phone from my hand and sets it on the table. Then he gets down on one knee.

There’s no buildup. I just cry .

He gazes up at me with a sincerity that hits my heart so hard that I can’t breathe.

“First, I want to point out that I realize we have a crowd, and I know you explicitly hated the last proposal you got in front of a crowd,” he says. “But my mother would’ve killed me had she not gotten to witness this since Chase proposed in a mud puddle outside of The Wet Whistle.”

Everyone laughs, including me, through my tears.

“I love you,” he says. “I could try to add on a bunch of random phrases like more than the moon and stars or more than the universe. But none even begin to capture how I feel about you.”

“Oh, Luke. That’s so sweet,” Maggie says before getting shushed by our family.

“You don’t have to marry me soon,” he says, rubbing his thumb over the top of my hand. “And you don’t have to marry me in public. We don’t even have to get married if you don’t want to.”

“Doesn’t that defeat the point of asking her to marry you?” Gavin asks.

Luke sighs and looks at his brother. “You’re missing the point. I want her to know I’m not pressuring her to do anything. I’m just stating my intention that I plan to be with her forever. And she can do what she wants with that information.”

“Stop talking to Gavin. Talk to me,” I say, laughing.

He clears his throat. “Right. Sorry.” He takes a small wooden box out of his pocket and opens it. The most beautiful, simplest, most perfect ring I’ve ever seen sits proudly in the center. “Laina Kelley, will you marry me?”

“I love you,” I whisper, getting a shy grin in return.

“Is that a yes ?”

I laugh, shaking my finger at him. He slides the ring on just before I launch myself in his arms.

“ Yes ,” I say, kissing him. “Yes. I will marry you.”

Our family cheers, and Maggie pulls out bottles of champagne that she had run to the grocery store to pick up, unbeknownst to me. And I thought she was getting stuff to make lasagna.

Luke holds me tight in his arms and kisses the shell of my ear. “Mom is making dinner. Eat fast. I want to get you home.”

Home.

I want to get you home.

Doesn’t he know that home is right here, in his arms?

I take my fiancé’s face in my hands and kiss him again.

“Did you make this ring?” I ask, inspecting the craftsmanship.

“Yeah. I looked at some stores, but they all looked the same. I couldn’t sleep one night without you and got the idea to make you one myself with my blacksmith tools.” He bites his lip. “If you don’t like it, we’ll get you something else.”

I smile, shaking my head. “If I could have my choice, this is what I would’ve chosen.”

“Really?”

“Really.” I kiss the shell of his ear. “It will take your mom at least an hour to make dinner. If we act fast, we could sneak home for a quickie and be back before it’s time to eat.”

I giggle as he stands and pulls me behind him.

Guess he liked that idea.

I guarantee he’ll love what’s to come.

He doesn’t know I have a surprise of my own. It’ll just take another eight months to arrive.

If you loved this series, you’ll also love the Carmichael Family Series! Check out chapter one of Flirt next!