Dangerous Curves Ahead: A Perfect Fit Novel (40 page)

Lesson of the day: Try to love yourself, even if it’s a little hard sometimes.

“Ellis!” Belinda screeched her name from the storeroom, and Ellis sighed.

What now?

She put down her needle, rubbed her aching head, and met Belinda in the next room. “Yes, darling?” she answered wearily.

“Um.” Belinda stared down at the large white envelope in her hand. “I think you need to open it right away. It says it’s from some law office.”

“No fucking way,” she cursed as she took it from Belinda. What now? All of her dresses had been completed on time. Her bills were paid. Her customers were happy. Unless these people were offering her a job, she couldn’t see an upside to opening it. “You open it.”

She handed it back.

“No way.” She shoved it back. “You open it right now, Ellison Garret. You’re the boss!”

“I don’t wanna be in charge,” she whined. Her feminist mother would be horrified to know this, but it was times like this Ellis missed Mike.

Yeah right, dummy. You miss him every waking hour.

Oh shut up!

You shouldn’t have let him go.

He was so good at the business stuff. All Ellis wanted to do was create. “Fine. I am woman. Hear me roar.” She tore open the package and scanned it. As a lawyer she knew what a lawsuit looked like, and the papers usually didn’t come in the mail.

“Oh.” She looked up at Belinda. “We have a new landlord. It looks like they bought our store and the one next door.”

“Really?” Belinda peered over Ellis’s shoulder. “Who are we paying rent to now?”

“I don’t know. Probably some corporation.” She flipped to the second page and scanned down. Her mouth dropped when she saw a familiar name on the document. “No.”

“What?” Belinda pulled the papers from her hand and looked. “Shut up!”

“Hey, guys.” Cherri walked in, her arms full of hangers. “What’s going on?”

Ellis took the papers from Belinda, who was still staring in disbelief. “I’ve got to go.”

*   *   *

Ellis pounded on Mike’s door. His car was in its space. The lights inside were on. He’d never officially given up his place even though they had lived together for those few weeks. Part of her was surprised that he was still in town. A bigger part of her was relieved he hadn’t left.

“Yes.” He opened the door and blinked at her as if she were a stranger, as if he hadn’t pulled some major crap and interfered with her life.

“You bought my store!”

“No.” He folded his arms over his massive chest. “I didn’t buy your store. I bought the building it’s housed in.”

Unsatisfied with his answer, she picked up a wad of snow and flung it at him. “Don’t screw with me, Mike Edwards. What the hell are you playing at?”

“Hey!” He ducked and then grabbed her arm and yanked her into his apartment. “I’m not playing. I thought real estate was a good investment so I bought the building.”

“Bullshit! Why did you do this, Mike?”

“You broke up with me,” he said, as if his move was the logical next step.

“I broke up with you, so you buy my store?” She couldn’t believe him. “Are you insane? Where did you get the money from?”

“Yes, I’m insane, but only because you made me this way. And I borrowed the money from my father.”

“Keep talking.” She slapped his chest, forcing him backward. “I want to know why.”

“You know why! I’m in love with you and I can’t understand why you keep pushing me away. I’m not going to give you up, Ellis. I love you and if I have to buy your store to get your attention I will, because every time you write out a rent check you’ll think of me. Or if the heat goes you’ll have to talk to me. Every day you’ll have to walk around knowing that I own the place where you spend most of your time. And every day you’re going to have to think about me loving you.”

“I already think about you loving me all the time,” she said more to herself than to him.

“Then why did you leave me?”

Good question.

“I don’t know.” She turned from him and placed her head on the wall. He was behind her instantly.

“Yes, you do!”

“I—I…”

“What?”

“I’m a nut job! And I’ve been hurt before. I don’t know if I’ll ever be sane. I don’t know if I can ever let all of my baggage go. So I push you away because it’s easier than waiting for you to push me away first. You have no idea what it’s like in here, Mike.” She pointed to her head. “I keep waiting for the day when you look at me and think,
She’s fucking insane. Why am I with her?
”

“I already think that, baby,” he said gently as he spun her around to face him. “But then you smile at me, or kiss me, or say something that makes me laugh and my question gets answered. I’m with you because I love you.”

“Why, Mike?” She looked into those fierce blue eyes. “Why do you love me?”

“I don’t know why.” He put her hand over his heart. “But I can’t seem to function without you. I’ve been with so many women—”

“Not helping!”

“Listen. I’ve been with so many women and you’re the only one who has ever made me feel anything. You’re the only one I love. You’re the only one I would quit my job and put myself into tremendous debt for.”

“You quit?”

Holy shit! He’s nuts, too. Breathe, damn it. Breathe.

He had given up everything for her. For her. He had put her first. If she couldn’t let him love her now, then she didn’t deserve to be loved.

“Yeah, I’d rather spend my days helping to make your dreams come true than investigating stupid crimes. And I don’t think you should sell the rights to your designs. I bought the shop next door because I believe in you and I think we can expand on our own. I could help you with all the business stuff, and Belinda can do all the front-of-the-house work. All you would have to worry about is making dresses. All you have to do is say yes.”

It was exactly what she wanted.

“What happens if I don’t say yes?”

“Then I will spend the rest of my life hounding you. I’ll be unemployed so I won’t have anything better to do. This is your dream. It’s so easy to grasp. What’s holding you back?”

She stared at him for a moment. “I don’t want to be your girlfriend anymore, Mike,” she said, choking on the words.

“Why?” His face fell. “Just tell me why?”

“I want to be your wife,” she shouted. “I want to be married to you, okay? I want your last name. I want you to love me like my father loves my mother. I want it all from you, Mike. It may be selfish but I want everything with—”

“Stop!” He walked out of the room, and she slumped against the wall feeling miserable. She knew that saying all that might push him away, but she wanted forever. She had known that for a long time. It was the only thing that would make her feel better about them. Partnership sounded wonderful but if she was going to risk her heart it had to be for keeps.

He stormed back in, a little black box in his clenched hand. “I’ve had this for over a month.” He got on his knees, opened the box, and showed her a large round-cut diamond in a vintage setting. “I was planning to propose but you dumped me and ruined everything. And now when I’m busting my ass to try to get you back, you jump three steps ahead and force me to rush my proposal. Are you happy now? Are you going to call your mother and tell her that we got engaged during an argument? How romantic!”

She looked at the ring and back up at him.
Astonished
was not a big enough word to encompass how she felt.

A month? You’re an idiot.

“You’ve got great taste, Mikey.”

“Ellis,” he growled.

She bit her lip to keep herself from grinning. “Ask me nicely. And make sure you tell me how pretty I am. And make sure you promise to still love me even if I get really fat and need to be weighed on a truck scale. And—”

“You’ve got to be a ball buster even during my proposal.” He stood, palmed the back of her neck, and brought his lips down on top of hers. “I’m not going to ask.” He kissed her jaw, the underside of her chin, the place behind her ear that made her quiver. “I love you. I don’t tell you enough but if I have to spend every day of the rest of my life making you believe that, I will. You have to marry me. Life is no good without you.” He crushed his mouth to hers, giving her one of those sweet hot kisses that made her fall for him in the first place.

“Tomorrow,” she said when he came up for air.

“What?”

“I want to get married tomorrow. Let’s go to city hall.”

He looked at her disbelief. “The bridal-wear designer doesn’t want to have a wedding?”

“No. I wasted enough time with you. I was stupid. I was wrong. I’m so sorry.”

He pressed her against the wall and kissed her. “Do you know how much I love hearing that I was right?”

“Don’t get used to it. You only get one of those every ten years.”

He grinned at her. “I’d marry you right now but our parents wouldn’t appreciate that.”

“Fine,” she relented. “But I don’t want a cake. I want Black and White Cookies.”

“Okay.”

“And you’re going to do the electric slide.”

He hesitated for a moment. “Fine.”

“Oh, and I want our first dance to be to Baby Got Back.”

“Ellis,” he groaned.

“I love you, Mikey.” She smiled as she hugged him.

“I love you, too.”

Epilogue

Ellis lay beside her husband in their new bedroom. They’d found an old Victorian in Durant and spent months remodeling it to make their home. She smiled even as exhaustion seeped into her bones. Tomorrow she would be celebrating two years of marriage to the man of her dreams and she barely believed how her life had turned out. From lawyer to designer. From not knowing how to love to being filled with it.

“Ellie?” Mike wrapped his arm around her and kissed her forehead sleepily. They were tired from the move and had just sent their families home for the night.

Mike’s mother recovered from her stroke and did end up remarrying Harry, but only after making him chase her for a year. They settled in a beautiful condo on Lake Erie but spent most of the year traveling the world. Her parents were still essentially the same, except her mother had recently made the
New York Times
best-seller list with her book
Woman Up: A Feminist’s Guide to Life, Love, and Happiness.
She now spent her off days lecturing around the country, doing talk shows, and dragging Walter with her.

As for Dina, apologies had been made and accepted but they were distant. Dina moved to California, where she met a nice older man and moved in with him. A year later they were still going strong.

“Hmm?” Ellis snuggled closer to Mike, sliding her hands up his bare chest. “Wanna fool around?” Two years later and she still couldn’t get enough of him.

“Yes.” He reached under her nightgown and gripped her behind. “But I wanted to talk to you about something first.”

She opened her eyes at the seriousness of his voice. “What is it?”

“I know we decided a long time ago that we weren’t going to have kids but I want to reopen that discussion.”

Ellis gulped.

Shit.

She turned away and pulled the comforter over her head to cover her burning face. “No.”

“No?” He yanked the blanket away from her. “You don’t want to have kids or you don’t want to talk about it.”

“Mike, please,” she begged. “We cannot talk about this right now.”

“Why not? We don’t have to decide tonight, but I want to discuss it.”

“Ugh!” She turned over. “There is nothing to discuss because I’m already pregnant.”

“What!” His eyes bulged. “When the hell did this happen?”

“When I stopped taking my birth control two months ago.”

“WHAT!” He gripped her shoulders. “You’re two months’ pregnant.”

“Yeah.” She grinned. “You’ve got quick swimmers, buddy.”

“Ellis, why didn’t you tell me? What if I didn’t want to have kids?”

“Well, you were going to have to suck it up. I wanted a baby with blue eyes and dark hair and I was going to get one.” She grew serious for a moment. “I know you want to be a daddy. I see it in your face every time you look at a kid. And I know that I wanted to give you that gift.”

“But—but … Is this what you want?”

“Do you think I would voluntarily subject myself to pounds and pounds of weight gain if I didn’t?”

“A baby?” He stared at her in amazement and then shoved the comforter down to bare her body. He pushed up her nightgown to cup her belly with his large rough hand. “You’re going to give me a baby.”

“Yes…” Her eyes grew misty. He looked so damn happy.

“When were you going to tell me!” he yelled.

“Tomorrow on our second anniversary, jackass. You ruined the surprise.”

“Oh.” He grinned at her. “Sorry.” He bent to pepper kisses on her stomach. Then in a move that shocked the hell out of her, he jumped up on the bed and screamed, causing her to jump.

“Ah! What the hell was that for?”

“I’m happy,” he said when he returned to her. “You’ve given me all I ever wanted.”

Don’t miss Sugar Jamison’s next delightful novel

Thrown for a Curve

Coming in 2014 from St. Martin’s Paperbacks

More praise for Sugar Jamison’s

Dangerous Curves Ahead

“Sugar Jamison’s
Dangerous Curves Ahead
is a funny, sexy, and touching debut—just delightful!”

—Susan Donovan,
New York Times
bestselling author

“Fresh, fun, and insanely sexy. Jamison juggles snark, sensitivity, and to-die-for chivalry with dazzling success.
Dangerous Curves
Ahead
is candy for the soul.”

—Award-winning author Beth Ciotta (author of
Fool for Love
)

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