Authors: EC Sheedy
“What’s going on?”
“Noah’s going riding with her this afternoon.” He held up a hand to stave off the protests he knew were coming. “Noah knows his limits, April. It’ll be fine.” He hoped. Because if Cornie asked Noah to ride a hungry croc, the man would do it. Noah didn’t just dote on his newfound daughter, he was certifiably gaga. He’d told Joe that finding Phylly and Cornie made his life complete. It was as if a circle had closed around everyone he’d ever loved, he’d said, adding, “I’d die for them, Joe—and I’ve never felt anything like that in my whole life.” Joe knew the feeling.
They walked a few steps before April said, “You know that old saw, about there being ‘fortune in mis
fortune’?”
“Uh-huh.”
“After all that horrible mess with Quinlan Braid, have you ever seen a situation where that saying fits more? There’s been so many good things. Not just you and me— but you and your mother, Noah and Cornie . . . Phylly and Noah.” She shook her head. “I mean, really, if those two came from different planets, they couldn’t be more different. Noah with his attachment to the wilderness and Phylly with her love of . . . just the opposite.” She chewed her lip briefly. “Do you think it will work out for them? Over the long-term, I mean.”
They were at his car, so he took the time spent opening the door for her and walking around to the driver’s side before he answered. “I think it will work—because they both want it to work, and they’ll do what it takes to make it happen.”
“You mean that living-in-two-places thing they’ve got planned.”
“Yes.”
“I guess.” She didn’t sound convinced. “But it’s hard to visualize Phylly in hiking boots for six months of the year.”
“Or Noah in a town that never turns the lights off?”
She nodded, smiled at him. “But it’s going to be damned entertaining to watch.”
“That it will be,” he agreed.
Like it will be entertaining watching you in the next hour—and for the rest of my life.
It wasn’t until they took the last step leading to Jules’s massive front doors that April noticed how uptight Joe was. The closer they’d come to Julius Zern’s place, the quieter he became. Now his lips were one straight line, and he looked as if he were heading for surgery rather than lunch at his best friend’s home.
Not that April didn’t have a worry or two of her own. She had a few things to say to Joe Worth before she headed back to Portland. But it would have to wait until they were alone. For what she needed to say—they needed privacy.
The door opened, but it wasn’t Jules who answered it; it was a redheaded woman wearing jeans and a white shirt. Her too-curly red hair tied back with a—yes, atrocious— yellow scarf.
“Hi, I’m Keeley Farrell,” she said to April. “Julius asked me to welcome you.” Her blue eyes, oddly dark for a fair-skinned redhead, skipped from Joe to April—and filled up with questions. “And you’re April.” She shook her head. “I still can’t believe it.” Her eyes misted.
April glanced at Joe—who appeared to have donned an unreadable mask—but all he did was shrug. She looked back to Keeley Farrell, not sure what to say.
“Come in, come in.” Keeley brushed at the moisture under her eyes and moved aside to let them in. “And don’t mind me. It’s just that I know he’s been waiting so long.” April stepped into Julius’s grand front hall. “You’ll have to excuse me, but I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Again she looked at Joe, and this time he smiled.
“Not exactly how I had it planned, Keeley,” he said to the woman. “But let’s do it.”
When he took April’s elbow, she dug her heels in. “Do what? What’s going on here?”
“There’s someone here for you, April. Someone waiting for you.”
“I don’t understand. Who? Who’s waiting for me?” Her heart did a sudden unexpected lurch.
A voice came from the study doorway. “That’d be me, April. And I’ve been waiting one hell of a long time.”
She spun around to see a tall dark man standing in the doorway. His face was scarred on one side, and he was taller and leaner than she’d imagined him, but she knew him instantly. “Oh, God . . . It’s you. Gus. It’s really you.” Her heart pounded crazily, like a hundred dogs throwing themselves against a cage.
Gus. My brother. . .
Her eyes saw him, her heart recognized him, but her feet refused to move. They were as heavy and solid as the marble she stood on. “Gus,” she said again. “I can’t—” The tears came in a rush, spilling from her eyes, blinding her. She thought of Phylly fainting on first sight of Joe. No, she wouldn’t . . .
Gus closed the distance between them. Clasping her shoulders, he lowered his head and looked into her eyes. He looked as though he might say something, instead he pulled her roughly to his chest. “Christ, April, I was beginning to believe this would never happen—that I’d never find you.”
She hugged him fiercely, never wanting to let go. Over Gus’s shoulder she saw Julius Zern, his face closed and stoic. Inexplicably sad. When their eyes met he smiled fleetingly, nodded, and went back into the kitchen.
Joe, grinning as if he’d bought all of California for a dollar, stood beside Keeley who wept openly. Pulling a pack of tissue from her pocket, she handed Joe one. He took it, but looked at it as if it needed instructions.
Keeley touched his arm. “Let’s go into the kitchen, keep your partner company. I think those two”—she gestured with her chin toward April and Gus—“have a lot of catching up to do.”
“Just a minute,” April said, pulling away from Gus long enough to wrap her arms around Joe’s waist and say, “You did this, Joe. I know you did. And I’ll never forget that. I’ll love you forever for it.” The hug she gave him was even fiercer than the one she’d just given her brother. If she’d been holding back even the smallest piece of her heart from Joe Worth, in this moment, it was lost forever. “Thank you. Thank you.”
“And Julius. I couldn’t have done it without him,” Joe said and grinned. “But I’d appreciate it if you’d make that love part exclusive.” He kissed her forehead, held her away from him. “Now go. Keeley here—who by the way is soon to become your sister-in-law—is right. You and Gus have a lot of ground to cover.”
With that Joe and Keeley went into the kitchen. April took Gus’s arm, looked into his chocolate-colored eyes and said, “It was you, wasn’t it, who came to my apartment looking for me? You talked to my landlady?”
“She said you’d skipped.” His mouth tightened. “To think I was so close.”
April swallowed, then breathing deeply, happily, she said, “That doesn’t matter. Nothing matters except that we’re together. I want to hear everything, Gus. Absolutely everything.”
Morning came, bringing crisp autumn air, sunshine, and the salt scent of the ocean coming off Puget Sound. Waking, the only problem Joe had was not having April in his arms. But he did have her in his line of vision. She was standing on his deck, leaning on the rail, and looking at the water— wearing one of his big ugly sweat sets that was miles too big for her slender frame. With the sun making her hair gold and her skin all pale and soft looking, she made his heart stop.
He pulled on some jeans, didn’t bother with a shirt and went to join her. Coming up behind her, he wrapped her in his arms. “It’s cold out here,” he whispered in her ear.
She melted back into him. “Not anymore.”
For a time they stood there, caught in the morning quiet, content with each other’s silence, content in each other’s arms.
Finally, she turned to look at him. “I’ve been thinking how in the past few months just about everything in my life has gone right, Phylly being so happy, meeting my grandfather—”
“Who you didn’t like a whole lot.”
Her brows knit briefly. “Yeah, well, I’m working on that.” She paused. “Finding Gus again—”
“Priceless.” He quoted the old MasterCard commercial and she smiled.
“Definitely. And that brings me to you. To us.” She put both her hands on his chest, rubbed idly.
“What about us?” he asked, stilling her hands so he could keep his mind on the subject—instead of what her hands were doing to his heart rate.
“I love you, Joe. Seriously and crazily love you.”
“That’s a two-way street, April. You must know that— God knows I’ve told you often enough.”
She nodded again, slowly, thoughtfully, before saying, “If there’s one thing Phylly taught me, it was to go for what you wanted in life. Up ’til now that’s been simple, college, my design work, the internship—”
“And now?”
“It’s not so simple. Because I want you, Joe. I want you to marry me. I want it to be you and me against the world, loving and legal—forever and always.”
Joe closed his eyes. “You
cannot
do this to me.”
“I can’t ask you to marry me? There’s a law?” She smiled. The woman was damn sure of herself. And he was glad of it.
“I thought you didn’t want to talk about ‘serious stuff’ until you were done in Portland.” Her words exactly, which he’d set about choosing to ignore.
“I changed my mind. Last night when you closed the door behind us and had your way with me against the wall.”
“The wall? That’s when you decided you and I should get married.” Okay, so his male brain wasn’t getting this. The smart money was on keeping his mouth shut and his ears open.
“Uh-huh.” She pulled down the gaping neck on the sweat top she was wearing. “And I’ve got the bruise to prove it. See.”
He leaned in, looked hard. She was bruised all right, a tiny little square bruise the color of lilacs. Right at the top of her breast. She touched his chest, left side. “It was right about there, I think.” She extended her right hand, did her gimme thing and raised a brow, her green eyes glowing with one-upmanship
She had him. But then she had since the day she’d walked into his life. “I guess branding you with the ring box was a bad idea, huh?”
“I love you, Joe. You branded me when you tossed me out of your office.”
His breathing pooled low in his chest. “And I love you, April. Just not enough to hand over a ring . . .”
She tilted her head, waited.
“Without the accompanying champagne and violins.”
“You’re making me wait?”
“I plan on making us both a memory.”
“Plans don’t always work out,” she said, inching closer and putting her hands on his bare chest, kissing where she’d touched.
“So I’m told.” He thought of Riggs’s horoscope, or tried to while April locked her arms around his neck and kissed his throat, under his chin . . .
“I have ways of getting what I want, you know,” she whispered into his ear, her breath warm against his jaw.
“Yeah, you sure do.” He exhaled. “And I’m more than willing for you to try all of them.”
She laughed. “I’ll bet you would. But you still haven’t answered my question. Will you marry me, Joe Worth?”
It was his turn to smile. According to Riggs, there was only one answer to her question—one word that carried the promise of a lifetime and the weight of his heart. He lifted her chin and looked into her eyes to say it.
“Yes.”
Note from EC Sheedy
Dear Reader:
Thank you for buying and reading KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE, The Bliss Legacy – Book 3. I hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, you'll check out my other e-titles—and maybe leave a review, if you're so inclined.
The Bliss Legacy is a trilogy of stand-alone romantic suspense novels, linked by characters:
KILLING BLISS – The Bliss Legacy, Book 1 is the love story of Addy and Cade. Years ago Addy ran away when she became a suspect in the brutal murder of her foster mother. She’s been living successfully under the radar for years—until Cade finds her, and she decides to risk everything to discover the truth about the night that changed her life forever.
Addy is an unschooled runaway. Cade is a renowned criminology professor
OVER HER DEAD BODY – The Bliss Legacy, Book 2 is the love story of Gus and Keeley. Finally cleared of old murder charges, and no longer forced to live a life he detests, Gus renews his search for his long lost sister and plans a new life, but some dead bodies get in his way—as does falling in love among the gravestones.
Gus is a cool ex gigolo. Keeley is a fiery ex nun.
KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE – The Bliss Legacy, Book 3 is the love story of April and Joe. Sold by her drug-addicted mother and lost to her brother, Gus, since she was a child, April loves and is indebted to the unconventional woman who saved her from a terrible fate—and now that woman has disappeared. The same woman who chose to raise April as her own abandoned her real son Joe as a toddler. So when April asks for his help, he gives it reluctantly. Within days they find themselves caught in a web spun with murder, money, and power.
April is a one-time Vegas showgirl. Joe is a high-level bodyguard.
I also write contemporary romance, and all my books are available online.
And if you want a quick email notification when I have a new release, you can sign up here:
http://authoralarms.com/EC_Sheedy
(All you get is a notification of a new release—fast and short.)
“We don’t need a list of rights and wrongs, tables of dos and don’ts: we need books, time, and silence.
Thou shalt not
is soon forgotten, but
Once upon a time
lasts forever.” — Philip Pullman
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