On the Mend (Carolina Waves Series Book 1)

  “I know.” I stood and joined him on the sofa. I took his hand in mine and felt a surge of satisfaction when he didn’t pull away. “I’m sorry I freaked out.”

  “I can’t live the rest of my life worrying it’ll happen again.”

  “It won’t.” I shook my head emphatically.

  “How do I know that?” he asked.

  “Because I’m telling you it won’t,” I said.

  “How can I be sure?”

  He was determined to make this difficult. Time to pull out the heavy artillery.

  “You just have to trust me. The same way you’re asking me to trust you.” He opened his mouth to speak, but I raised a halting hand, stopping the flow of words. “I know what happened ten years ago and I’m trusting it won’t happen again.” I stared him down. “Ever.” The edges of Dan’s mouth kicked up at my not so subtle warning. “I love you more than life, and I want you and Lexi and me to be a family. I want to wake up with you every morning and go to bed with you every night. In between I want to love and laugh and raise our children.” I paused, trying to think of something else to say.

  “Are you finished?” Dan’s words cut into my thoughts. I wasn’t, but I nodded anyway, figuring I should give him some floor time. “Good.” He put his hands on either side of my face and placed his mouth on mine. I moved in to deepen the kiss, but he pulled away.

  “I love you too,” he said. “And for the record, you had me convinced with your first sentence.”

  “I did?”

  “Uh huh, but the rest was nice.”

  “I meant every word.”

  “And don’t think I won’t hold you to each and every one of them.”

  That said, he took my mouth in a fierce, possessive kiss, leaving no doubt in my mind that he’d forgiven me.

  “Come on,” Dan gasped. “Let’s get upstairs before I bury myself inside you right here.” He stood and pulled me up the stairs. “And once we’ve had our fill of each other, we have a wedding to plan.”

  I settled into the middle of his bed and watched him pull his shirt off. “So you still want to marry me?”

  “More than anything,” he said, as he stripped off his jeans. “Why would you doubt it?”

  “Well, I know your theory of women,” I teased. “And with what we’re about to do, not to mention what we’ve been doing for the past few months, I didn’t think I’d still fall into the ‘girls you marry’ category.” My eyes danced with amusement as Dan’s darted up to meet them. His frown evaporated when he saw my teasing expression.

  “You’re definitely enough women to fall into both categories.”

  Then he proceeded to make love to me until I couldn’t help but agree with him.

  THE END

  Thank you for reading On the Mend. I hope you loved Dan and Sabrina’s story! If you did, please consider leaving a review on Goodreads or Amazon.

  Stay tuned for Cal and Barbara’s story, Once Removed, available early 2019!