The Accidental Engagement (23 page)

Maybe that was for the best. This was buying him some time to figure out what he would say. He had spent the past twenty-four hours doing nothing else with no success, but hell, maybe twenty more minutes of driving in circles would do the trick.

The Sinclair home was a modest ranch house with white clapboard siding, dark green shutters, and an immaculate lawn. He stared at it intently for about five minutes before he became aware of the attention he’d unintentionally brought to himself.

Daniel smiled at the young neighbor boy, who was gawking at him—or rather, at his Jaguar. He suspected sports cars were not the norm in this middle-class neighborhood.

He climbed out of the car and a voice stopped him. “Are you lost?” It was an older man with silver hair who was watering the hedge between the Sinclair house and what Daniel assumed was the man’s home.

“No, sir, I don’t believe I am. I’m looking for the Sinclairs.” An elderly woman popped out of the neighbors’ house and she ignored Daniel to address the man with the hose. “Who is it? Another one of those reporters?”

“I don’t know, he didn’t say.” They were talking about him as if he wasn’t there and Daniel was well aware of the young boy who was still staring at him, now with an open mouth.

A minivan slowed to a stop behind him. “Everything all right here, Mrs. Ferndale?”

Daniel tried not to let his exasperation show. “We’re fine.” He gave the man his best look of innocence, which only caused the bald, red-faced driver to squint at him with suspicion. “I was talking to Mrs. Ferndale.”

“Right.” He tried to maintain the polite smile but knew he was failing when all of the questioning faces around him turned to scowls. Daniel was half convinced he was about to be run out of town when he was saved by an older woman who cracked open the screen door of the Sinclair house. “What’s going on out here?”

The woman was an older and taller version of Ivy with dark auburn curls that were pulled up into a ponytail. The woman held a broom in one hand and was shielding her eyes against the sun’s glare with the other.

She pointed the broom handle at him in a not so welcoming manner. “Are you one of those damned reporters?”

Daniel shook his head. “Worse, I’m afraid. I’m that damned Daniel Gladwell.”

By the look on her face, Daniel figured he had been right to assume that his name was the new curse word around the Sinclair house. “How do you do, ma’am?”

* * * *

“Ivy! Ivy, you’d better get in here.”

She wiped away a bead of sweat that was trickling down the side of her nose.

“Ivy.” It was her dad calling for her this time. He’d probably come up with another laundry list of chores for her to tackle. She had a feeling he was taking far too much pleasure in her punishment.

“I’m coming, I’m coming.” She was still muttering to herself when she walked into the kitchen.

She froze in the doorway.
Daniel.
Like an oasis in the desert, he looked too good to be true standing in the kitchen of her parents’ simple home. Ivy’s heart threatened to leap out of her chest as her body began to tremble. Relief and joy rushed over her at the sight of him but they were quickly replaced with boiling hot rage.

“What are you doing here?” It came out so screechy that even her parents flinched at the sound.

Daniel looked quite calm. It was that cool exterior she knew so well. The sight of that perfectly poised charm made her that much angrier and she had visions of physical violence. That awful smile begged for a good punch.

“Don’t smile at me like that,” she said. She was horrified by how wobbly her voice sounded. That did the trick though. The smirk faded.

There was the real man. There was the man who had broken her heart.

Ivy didn’t know whether she was going to scream or cry or leap into his arms. Before either of them found out, their little tableau was interrupted when Holly came barging into the kitchen, took in the scene before her and let out a little shriek of horror.

But it wasn’t Daniel she was staring at, it was Ivy. She whirled around to face her parents. “Really? You are really going to let her stand there looking like that?”

Ivy looked around in confusion and that was when she caught sight of her reflection in the mirror above the kitchen table. She gasped aloud at the sight before her. There were streaks of mud and dirt all over her face and neck and her hair was a jumbled mess of curls atop her head with stray locks sticking out in every different direction.

Ivy saw Daniel’s lips twitching as he struggled not to laugh. That was it. That was the last straw. She swatted her sister’s hand out of her face before she could wipe her down with a washcloth.

Pointing a finger at Daniel, she glared at him with all of her might. “Don’t you
dare
. Don’t you dare laugh right now.”

Daniel raised his hands in mock surrender. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

She dropped her finger and took a step back. She refused to glance in the mirror lest she lose the anger that was holding her together.

“Ivy, please let me—”

“I don’t want to hear it,” she snapped. She clenched her hands into fists to stop their shaking.

He was silent for so long she didn’t think he’d speak. All she could hear were his last words to her, the last conversation they had. “Why are you here, Daniel?” she repeated. “Do you need me to lie to the press for you? Come up with some excuse for why the wedding never happened?”

He flinched. “Ivy, I told you that we have choices—”

“And you made yours,” she said. She hated how weak her voice sounded, how incredibly sad.

“I chose wrong,” he said.

Ivy’s chest tightened painfully. She heard Holly’s intake of breath but other than that, their audience was watching in wide-eyed silence.

His eyes held hers for several long moments and in them she saw every emotion. For the first time since they’d met, he was completely unguarded. She saw fear, and heartbreak…and love.

Her breath caught in her throat as hope warred with fear. She could not take another blow to her heart.

“I asked you a question. What are you doing here?”

“I came here to ask your parents’ permission.”

Her eyes widened to the point where she felt them bugging out of her skull. “Permission for what?”

“To marry you.”

Ivy stopped breathing. “What did you say?”

All eyes were on him but he only had eyes for her. She thought she might drown in the love she saw there—the pure, genuine, raw, unconditional love. Her heart ached with joy but she was struggling to hold on to her anger.

“You hurt me.” The words came out haltingly, pulled from the depths of her pain.

He took a step closer and drew her into his arms. “Can you ever forgive me?”

She looked down at her hands that were trapped between them, keeping them apart. He used one finger to tip her chin so she was looking into his eyes and could see the honesty and emotions that no charming smile could hide.

“You told me once—you said, true love meant forgiveness and that everyone deserved a second chance.”

She nodded a bit, tears threatening to spill. “Sometimes that’s easier said than done.”

He leaned down to drop a gentle kiss on the tip of her dirty nose. His words were so quiet she could feel her family moving in to try to hear him. “I solemnly vow that ‘til my dying day, I will do everything in my power to make you happy.”

“Why?” It came out as a whisper. She had to hear the words.

He pulled her closer and looked her straight in the eyes. “Because I love you, Ivy Sinclair. I love you more than life itself.”

She heard her mother sigh and Holly start to whimper. Even her father sounded like he was sniffling, but Ivy was beaming. “I knew it! I knew you loved me. I knew I wasn’t wrong about you.”

Daniel laughed and she wrapped her arms around his neck. He planted a quick kiss on her lips. “And?” he prodded. “Now it’s your turn.”

She rolled her eyes with an exasperated sigh. “See how you’re always ordering me around? When we get married, you’ve really got to work on that.”

“Ivy,” her name came out as a growl and he scooped her up into his arms so she was trapped against him. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. She never wanted to let go.

“I love you, too, Daniel.”

She barely heard her family tiptoe out of the kitchen as Daniel’s lips closed over hers and she found her new home.

Almost nine months later…

Ivy was curled up against Daniel on the veranda, tucked away in the corner for a moment of peace and quiet in the midst of all the revelry.

“Your grandfather looks happy.”

“He is happy. His grandson has finally stopped acting like an idiot.”

Ivy grinned. She never got tired of hearing him admit how wrong he’d been.

From where they were perched, they could see all of their family and friends laughing and dancing under the twinkling lights strung across the veranda. The hills of Tuscany were silhouetted against the twilight sky.

“Take a look at your parents,” Daniel said. “Looks like they’re fitting right in with the Italians. Who knew your mother could dance like that?”

“Who knew my husband could move like that?” Ivy teased.

He lightly kissed the top of her head “I can’t believe the Brunellis made all of this happen so quickly.”

Ivy nodded in agreement. The industrious Brunellis had come through with a last-minute wedding plan that would have put Martha Stewart to shame. She and Daniel had planned on having a lengthy engagement so they could fake her breakup with Jack and let the media circus die down a bit. But even Daniel’s careful planning didn’t take into account the fact that Ivy would get pregnant.

“Are you ready to head back out to the dance floor?” Daniel asked.

Ivy patted her rounded belly. Lucia had custom-tailored the gown to include room for two. It was still the wedding dress of her dreams just…bigger. “I think me and baby need a little more time to rest, if you don’t mind.”

Daniel settled back in his seat and moved her so she was perfectly fitted against his side. “There’s no place I’d rather be, my love.”

Ivy breathed in the fresh air and took in the scene before her. “It’s like my own personal heaven.” Ivy sighed. “Have you seen Brunelli? I want to thank him again for organizing all of this.”

“Are you kidding me? He loved every second of it. Last I saw him, he was telling anyone who would listen how he orchestrated all of this. And he wasn’t just talking about the wedding.”

“I’m glad he’s enjoying himself.”

Daniel leaned over so he could whisper in her ear, sending shivers down her spine. “Don’t look now but I think Brunelli found his next matchmaking challenge.”

Ivy followed his gaze and laughed aloud at the sight before her. Jack, looking extremely debonair in his best man tuxedo was twirling Holly, who looked incredible in her maid of honor gown. They seemed to only have eyes for each other as they danced, laughed, and flirted the night away.

“No,” Ivy said with disbelief. “You don’t think...that would be so perfect.” She sat up so quickly, she nearly whacked Daniel in the chin.

He gently tugged her back in his arms. “If it’s meant to be, they’ll find each other. Just like I found you.”

“But you had help from the people who love you. Otherwise who knows how long it would have taken you to come to your senses and make me your wife? You could have lost me forever.”

Daniel’s arms closed tighter around her. “But I did come to my senses and now you are my family.” He buried his face against her neck. “And I’m never letting go.”

Ivy snuggled against him, reveling in the pure magic of her wedding day and the unconditional love she’d found. “But maybe if I tell Jack that he should—”

“Oh no, you don’t,” Daniel said with a laugh. “They’re on their own. I don’t want that big mouth of yours meddling in the course of true love.”

While Ivy took offense at the big mouth comment, she did agree to keep quiet—if possible—it didn’t last long.

Maggie Dallen
is a huge fan of happily-ever-afters. She writes contemporary and YA romance and has been known to rewrite the endings to classic love stories to ensure that they end on a happy note. In Maggie's version, Ingrid Bergman does not get on the plane. She lives in Northern California and works at a yarn store to support her knitting addiction. For more info please visit maggiedallen.com.

Follow her on Twitter @Mag_Dallen.

Or connect with her on Facebook

Keep reading for a special sneak peek of the second book in the Chance Romance series by Maggie Dallen.

Available May 24, 2016 by Lyrical Press.

Learn more about Maggie at

http://www.kensingtonbooks.com/author.aspx/31712

Crayon drawings covered every inch of Holly’s classroom walls. They needed to be taken down, but instead Holly sat cross-legged atop her desk, surveying the mess her second-graders had left behind.

Summer vacation technically started twenty minutes ago but she still had hours of cleanup and paperwork ahead of her before she was done for the school year. Picking up the stack of cards her students had given her as they filed out, Holly sifted through them with teary eyes. She stopped when she came to a hot pink card with a picture of Cinderella and Prince Charming on the cover.

One of her students had drawn an arrow to Cinderella and in big block letters wrote “Miss Holly” underneath. Holly’s laugh sounded loud in the empty classroom. She had come to loathe the word ‘princess’, thanks to the girls in her class with their rabid obsession for all things Disney, but
this
...this was adorable.

And so very fitting.
Clapping a hand over her mouth, Holly smothered a near-hysterical giggle. It was true, for one night she had actually thought of herself as Cinderella.

Her breathing slowed as the memory of that night came back in vivid Technicolor. Her very own Prince Charming held her in his arms beneath the twinkling lights and twirled her in time with the music on the Italian veranda. The crowd was a blur to her because she only had eyes for one man, the man she’d had a crush on for years—Jack Everett.