Lauren was with a client on Monday afternoon and had finished lacing up the back panel on a beautiful beaded lace gown when a deliveryman arrived, carrying an extravagant floral arrangement. Her first thought was that they were from Steve, and although she considered it a bit too much after only two dates, flipped open the card and looked for his name.
Wrong.
No name. Just a message and an initial.
“Can we talk? G.”
Not from Steve. He wasn’t trying to change her mind about seeing him again. He’d texted her that morning to arrange another date. A text she’d put off replying to because she didn’t want to lead him on. Then he’d called, and she’d declined his offer to go out that week. He was nice. But that was all. He’d taken her refusal easily and wished her well for the future.
She looked at the message again. Gabe. And he wanted to talk? As far as she was concerned, she’d said all she intended saying. They were done and dusted. She tossed the note in the trash and told Dawn, the salesclerk, to take the flowers home.
There was a note pinned to her door when she arrived home. “I would really like to talk with you.” More talk? She scrunched the note in a ball and tossed it over the hedge and onto his front lawn.
Flowers arrived again the following day. Her mother and Dawn thought it was incredibly romantic. So did Cassie, when she relayed the story to her best friend. Mary-Jayne called her, too. And Grace. But she wasn’t going to be swayed. She didn’t want to talk to him. He’d had his chance, and he’d blown it.
On Wednesday, the flower deliveryman had a huge smile on his face when he entered the store. Lauren sent the young man away, flowers in hand, and felt an odd burst of triumph that she’d stuck by her guns. Of course, when she arrived home and found Gabe sitting on her porch steps, flanked by Jed, who wore a silly white bandana around his neck while Gabe held up a tiny white flag, her icy reserve thawed for a brief moment. Until she remembered he’d pushed her away time and time again.
“What’s this?” she demanded, and flung her bag over her shoulder.
Gabe smiled and patted the dog on the head. “I borrowed him from your brother. I needed an ally.”
She raised a brow and looked at the ridiculous flag. “You’re looking for a truce?”
“I was thinking more along the lines of a complete surrender.”
Her heart pounded. It was a romantic notion. But she wasn’t falling for it. “I hear your family’s still in town?”
“Yes,” he replied, and got to his feet. The dog followed and rushed toward Lauren. “My mother would very much like to meet you properly.”
“I can’t imagine why.” Lauren laughed loudly. “Since I intend to forget all about you, there’s no point.”
“You’ll never forget me,” he said, and stepped closer. “I’ll bet that you’ll remember me for the rest of your life.”
Lauren laughed again. Egotistical jerk. “Have you been drinking?”
“I’m perfectly sober. Why did you send my flowers back today?” he asked.
“Because I don’t want flowers or anything else from you.”
He reached out and touched her hair, twirling the strands through his fingers. “The flowers are just a place to start.”
“A place to start what?” she asked suspiciously as she pulled back from his touch.
“Our courtship.”
“Courtship?” She laughed at the old-fashioned word and thrust her hands on her hips.
He was drunk. There was no other explanation. And he looked as if he was thinking of kissing her. Which was out of the question. She stepped back and frowned. “Why on earth would I want to do that?”
Gabe smiled that killer smile. “How about because you’re in love with me?”
She laughed again, because she didn’t know what else to do amidst the madness. “You’re out of your mind. I’m going inside. Don’t even think of following me.”
“You didn’t deny it.”
“Because...because it’s too ridiculous, and because I’m tired of this conversation.”
She raced up the steps and fiddled with the door lock. She looked around, hoping he was gone. But no such luck. He stood at the bottom of the steps. Her body shook thinking about how handsome he looked, even holding the silly flag.
“I’ll be here tomorrow,” he said quietly. “Just in case you change your mind.”
She frowned. “Don’t you have to work?”
“I quit,” he said softly. “I’m going back to medicine. I start in the E.R. at Bellandale Hospital next month.”
“Good for you,” she said extra sweetly.
“Don’t you want to know why?”
She shrugged. “It’s not my business.”
He stared at her and didn’t bother hiding the wounded expression. But she had no intention of backing down. He didn’t have the right to simply snap his fingers and expect her to come running.
“I want to be the best man I can be...for you.”
“What’s the point?” she said flatly.
“Because I...I...”
“Good night, Gabe,” she said exasperatedly. She unlocked the door. “And incidentally, I think courtship is meant to start before two people sleep together. We’ve had this back to front from the very beginning, and that’s all the sign I need. And stop sending me flowers. I don’t want them or anything else from you.” Then she headed inside without looking back.
* * *
“Have you tried talking to her again?”
Romantic advice seemed to come out of the woodwork, Gabe discovered, when it became obvious to everyone he knew that Lauren wasn’t about to forgive him anytime soon. This time it was his mother, who’d decided to hang around in Crystal Point for another week and dispense counsel about his failures to get Lauren’s attention at every opportunity.
“Maybe it’s time I had a talk with her,” she suggested, and pushed her tea aside.
“You need another approach,” a voice said from the doorway.
It was Cameron. Great. He was in for the big-brother talk. “Your point?”
Gabe figured he’d tried every approach he knew. He’d been on her doorstep each afternoon for the past four days, and she’d simply ignored him and gone into her house and locked the door. There were calls she wouldn’t return, notes she wouldn’t read and flowers she sent back. And he had a diamond ring in his pocket he wanted to give her, but was convinced she’d toss it in the trash. Total emasculation wasn’t in his plans.
He’d wait. And hope she’d come around.
“No risk, no prize.”
Cameron again. And this time, Scott and Aaron were behind him. Gabe looked up and scowled. “What?”
“Is she worth it?”
It was a stupid question, and with his patience frayed, Gabe dismissed the question with a barely audible grunt.
“Is she worth risking everything for?” Cameron asked again, relentless.
Gabe straightened in his seat. “Yes.”
“Then tell her that.”
In that moment, Gabe realized that he’d been so busy trying to woo Lauren with flowers and dinner invitations, he’d neglected to do the one thing he should have done an age ago.
Tell her the truth. Risking everything meant telling her everything. Like she’d told him time and time again. She’d trusted him. First with her past, then her body and then her heart. It was time he did the same. Because she knew what he’d been through and hadn’t turned away. She accepted and wanted him. No questions. No prejudice. No fear. When, because of what she’d been through with Tim, she’d had every reason to run and not look back. But she hadn’t. She’d put her heart on the line and he’d smashed it. Instead of applauding her courage and embracing that love, he’d brought up a whole load of excuses and reasons why they couldn’t be together.
And one reason in particular.
Because he was scared of dying. Scared of living.
He let out a deep breath and looked at her brother. “So what’s your big suggestion?”
Cameron grinned. “Well, asking her to forgive you for being a stupid ass hasn’t worked, has it?”
Gabe thought about the flowers and the notes and the restrained effort he’d shown during the week. He talked about caring and wanting, and laughed at her attempts to ignore him. But he hadn’t told her what she wanted to hear. “Not so far.”
“Well, I reckon it’s time for you to start begging and prove to her you’ll do anything you have to do to win her heart.”
And that, Gabe thought with a weary laugh, might just work.
* * *
Lauren was ever thankful that Saturday mornings were always busy at the store. It kept her mind away from thinking about anything else. Or anyone else. Or someone in particular.
A bridal party arrived at ten for their final fittings, and when the bride emerged from the changing room in her dress, Lauren set to work, fluffing the three layers of tulle and organza before she adjusted the straps and stepped away so the client’s mother and attendants could admire her. When the fitting was complete and the bride was out of her gown, Lauren handed the client over to Dawn to process the sale and bag up the goods.
The bell above the door dinged and Lauren smiled when Cassie and Mary-Jayne entered the store.
“Hi, there,” she said, and looked at her friends. “What are you both doing here?”
Cassie grinned. “Reinforcements.”
“Huh?”
Her friend shrugged and kept smiling. “Trust me.”
“You know I—” The door opened again. The bell dinged. And Gabe’s mother walked into her store.
“Good morning, Lauren,” she said before Lauren had a chance to move. “I’m not sure if you remember me from last week—I’m Claire Vitali.” She grabbed her hand and squeezed it gently.
Lauren stared at the older woman. She had the same eyes as her son, the same smile. There was kindness in her expression and warmth in her hand. Her resolve to stay strong wavered. But she wasn’t about to be easily swayed.
“It’s nice to meet you,” she said, and withdrew her hand. “I’d like to stay and talk but I have to—”
“It can wait,” Mary-Jayne said with one of her famous grins.
The door opened again, and Grace and Evie entered.
Lauren frowned. “What’s going on?”
“Reinforcements, like I said,” Cassie explained.
Panic rushed through her blood. Something was wrong. “Has something happened? Is it my dad, or Cameron or—”
“You’re father is fine,” her mother said as she emerged from the stockroom.
“So is your brother,” Grace added.
Lauren backed up. “I don’t think—”
“That’s just it, Lauren,” Cassie said gently. “Stop thinking. At least, stop overthinking. We’re all here because we care about you.”
She stilled as realization dawned. “So this is, what, an intervention? That’s why you’re all here?”
“Actually, I think they’re all here to stand point and make sure I do the right thing.”
Gabe...
She hadn’t heard him come through the door. He moved around Evie and Grace and stood near the counter. Lauren remained rooted where she was. Her legs turned to Jell-O. Her heart raced like a freight train. She looked at her family and friends. They were smiling, all hopeful, all clearly wondering what she would do next.
I wish I knew.
It was hard not to stare at Gabe. He looked so good, and she’d missed him. But he’d hurt her. And she didn’t want to be hurt again.
“This isn’t the right time or place to have this discussion,” she said, and tried to politely ignore the bridal party hovering behind her.
“Since you won’t talk to me, I reckon it’s the only time,” he said, and flashed her customers a breathtaking smile. “I’m sure everyone will understand.”
The bride nodded, and before Lauren had a chance to protest, her mother had subtly ushered the bridal party from the store.
“What do you want?” she asked as stiffly as she could once the customers were gone.
He took a breath. “First, to apologize.”
Lauren shuttled her gaze to her mother, Claire Vitali, Cassie and the other women and saw they were all smiling. Like they knew exactly what was going on. “Okay—apology accepted. You can all go now.”
But they didn’t move.
“I mean it,” she said crossly. “Don’t think just because you’d managed to swindle everyone into coming here today that I’m going to simply forget everything you’ve said and done and—”
“They volunteered,” he said.
She looked at the sea of faces. “I don’t believe it.”
“You should. They care about you and only want to see you happy.”
“Exactly,” she said, and frowned. “Which has nothing to do with you.”
“It has everything to do with me,” he shot back. “I make you happy.”
“You make me mad,” she snapped.
“Well, I’d make you happy if you’d let me.”
She forced her hands to her hips. “And how do you propose to do that?”
“I’ll get to the proposing in a moment. Now, where were we? Oh, yes, I was—”
“What?” Her eyes bulged. “You’re going to propose?”
“Well, of course I’m going to propose. But back to what I was saying. Oh, yes...and second,” he said, and came a little closer, “I’d like to tell you a story.”
“A story?” she echoed vaguely, certain she’d just imagined that he said he was about to propose. “I don’t know what—”
“It’s a story about a man who thought he was invincible.” He spoke so softly she almost strained to hear, but she was quickly mesmerized by the seductive tone of his voice. “He thought nothing and no one could touch him. He went to medical school and became a doctor and spent his days trying to fix people who were broken. But underneath that facade of caring and compassion, he was arrogant and stubborn and always did what he wanted because he thought he knew best. And then one day he was told he was sick and everything changed. He wasn’t strong. He wasn’t healthy. Now he was broken but he couldn’t fix himself. He had the surgery and the treatment, but because he was stubborn and arrogant, he went back to work before he should have.”
Lauren’s throat closed over. Her heart was breaking for him. His pain was palpable, and she longed to fall into his arms. She had been so attuned to him, she hadn’t noticed that their mothers and friends had somehow left the store. Everyone was outside and they were alone. She could see them through the big front window. They were smiling. And suddenly, she almost felt like smiling, too. Right now, in front of her, lay her future. But she didn’t smile. Because he was opening up, and she wanted to hear everything.
“Gabe, I—”
“I went back to work too early,” he said, his voice thick. “I didn’t listen. I didn’t want to hear it. I just wanted to prove that I was the same. That I wasn’t damaged and somehow less than the man I once was. Less than the doctor I once was. But while I was in the bathroom throwing up from the side effects of the medication I was on, the woman and her baby came into the E.R. I wasn’t there. And she died, along with her baby. All because I wouldn’t admit that I was changed. That I was suddenly not just a man. Not just a doctor. I was a cancer patient. And it felt as though those words defined me, made me, owned me.”
Her entire body shuddered. The raw honesty in his words melted her. “That’s why you quit being a doctor? Because you believed that patient died because you were sick? Because you were somehow less than who you used to be?”
“Yes.”
Her expression softened. “But you’re not.”
“I know that now,” he said, and smiled. “I know that because when you look at me, I know you don’t see a patient. You don’t see a man who was sick. You just see...me.”
He stepped closer, and Lauren swayed toward him. “Of course I do.”
“Doesn’t anything scare you, Lauren?” he asked, and took her hand. “After what you went through with Tim, doesn’t the very idea of being with me make you want to run?”
“I’ve only ever seen you, Gabe. Not the doctor, not the patient. The man...the man who has listened to me and comforted me and makes me feel more alive than anyone else ever has. A man who’s kind and considerate and has never judged me. And I’m not scared.”
He pulled her gently toward him.
“The only thing I’m scared of is waking up and finding that this is a dream.”
“It’s no dream,” he said softly. “You must know that I’m in love with you.”
Did Gabe just say he loved me?
She shook her head, not quite prepared to believe him. “No, you’re not.”
“I am,” he said, and touched her cheek. “I love you. I love that you make me laugh. I love that you tell me when I’m being an egotistical jerk. And I love that you had the courage to let me into your heart when you had every reason not to.”
Lauren blinked back tears. “But...you said you had a plan and wouldn’t—”
“A stupid plan,” he said, and grasped her hand. “I was wrapped up in self-pity and afraid to get involved, and you knew it. You saw through me, Lauren, and still...still wanted me. Even when you knew there was a chance it might not be forever, or I could get sick again. Or I might not be able to give you the children you want.” He linked their fingers. “You talk straight and make the complicated simple. You told me how you felt and it spooked me. I’m not proud of my behavior these past weeks, and I promise I’ll always be honest about my feelings with you from this day. You have such incredible strength...a strength you don’t even know you possess.”
Lauren swayed, felt his arms beckoning her. He looked solemn, sincere and wholly lovable. “I don’t know...I’m not sure I can.”
He squeezed her fingers. “You can, Lauren. Trust me...I won’t hurt you again.”
“Trust you?” She looked at the sea of faces peering through the windows. “Even though you dragged my friends and family here today to give you an advantage?”
He smiled. “It was Cameron’s idea. He thought if I made a big enough fool out of myself in front of our families, you just might just show mercy and forgive me for being an idiot.” He came closer until they were almost touching. “I love you, Lauren. I think I’ve loved you from the moment I pulled you from that swimming pool. And I’m sorry I haven’t said it sooner.”
He really loves me? Her legs wobbled, and he took her in his arms. “You’re not going to completely ruin my reputation and kiss me in front of all these people who are staring at us through the window, are you?”
“I certainly am.”
She heard whoops and sighs from the people outside, and Lauren laughed. It felt good. She thawed a little more. Gabe’s love was what she wanted. All she wanted. And suddenly having the whole world know it didn’t bother Lauren in the slightest. He was right—she was strong. Strong enough to open her heart again. And strong enough to cope with whatever the future brought them. He’d pushed past his fears to claim her, and she loved him all the more for it.
“But first,” he said, and stepped back a little, “I have to ask you a question.”
“What question is that?” she teased, and grinned foolishly.
Gabe dropped to one knee in front of her. “Marry me?” he asked, and pulled a small box from his pocket. The lid flipped open and she saw the perfectly cut diamond, which glittered like his eyes. “When you’re ready, when you trust me enough, marry me, Lauren?”
Lauren touched his face and held out her left hand and sighed. “I think you’ve made a big enough fool out of yourself today for me to know I can trust you, Gabe. And my answer is yes. I’ll marry you. I love you.” She grinned. “And I kind of like the idea of being a doctor’s wife.”
Gabe got to his feet, slipped the ring onto her finger and kissed her. “I have you to thank for making me see sense, for making me realize how much I’ve missed my work. I was afraid to go back. I was afraid to try to recapture what I’d lost. But knowing you and loving you has made me stronger. You make me whole.”
Lauren returned his kiss with every ounce of love in her heart. “You’re the love of my life, Gabe.”
His gaze narrowed. “I thought—”
“You,” she said, and touched his face. “Only you. I did love Tim, but honestly, anything I’ve felt in the past feels a bit like kid stuff compared to the way I love you. And want you. And need you.”
His eyes glistened. “Thank you. And while I may not be the first man you’ve loved, I’m honored to be the one you love now.”
“Now and forever.” She pressed against him and smiled. “But, Gabe, where are we going to live? Your place or mine?”
“How about neither?” he suggested. “How about we find somewhere new? A new home for a new beginning.”
“I like the sound of that,” Lauren said, and accepted his kiss. “And I’d like to get a dog,” she said breathlessly when the kissing stopped.
He grinned. “Anything you want.”
Lauren curved against him. “And babies?”
His arms tightened around her, and he smiled. “I’ll see what I can do.”
She sighed. “I’m not worried, Gabe. I want to marry you and have your baby. But if there’s only ever us, that will be enough.”
“You’re sure?”
“Never surer.”
She kissed him again, knowing she finally had her happy ending.
* * * * *
Don’t miss Cassie’s story,
Coming in early 2015!
Available wherever Harlequin books are sold.