Playing With Attraction (Playing the Game Book 1), page 19
Since that conversation, I’d written and rewritten about forty versions of the text I’d finally sent to Cole. Two hours ago.
“Mom!” Anthony yelled as he ran into my room out of breath from playing outside. “Can I see your phone? I need to add some stuff to the list.”
“Yeah.” I picked up my phone, which had zero alerts of any missed messages, and handed it to my son.
He typed for a few seconds and then threw the device on the bed before running out of my room, saying over his shoulder, “Thanks, Mom!”
“What do we have to get?” I called after him, but he didn’t answer.
Oh, well. At least he was actually adding to the list now instead of just telling me what he needed. If I could only have one of the two, I’d definitely take the latter.
Picking up my phone, I scrolled down my list and saw the entries Anthony had added. One said, “Go to the living room.” The second said, “Pick a ring.”
“Anthony?” I called out as I walked out of my room and down the hall. “What is this? Why do you need a rin—”
The phone slipped from my hand when I saw Cole in my living room on one knee, holding a black jewelry board with four incredible rings on it. Behind him stood Anthony, Megan, Cameron, Robbie—who was holding Chloe—and Cole’s mother, Hillary, who was standing with a middle-aged man I’d never seen before.
“What is…? What are you…? What the…?” I couldn’t breathe. My legs were shaking like leaves, and my hands were trembling uncontrollably.
“Sooooo, I got your text.” Cole grinned, his sexy bad-boy grin. “Sorry I didn’t get a chance to text you back. I was busy.” He motioned behind him. Then he reached into his pocket, pulled out his phone, and touched the screen.
A second later, my phone buzzed on the ground. Glancing down, I picked it up as tears filled my bottom lids and a smile spread across my face.
Cole: I love you, too. As far as trying to be together, I have one condition. Marry me.
I put my hand over my mouth as I lifted my head and looked into Cole’s emerald-green eyes.
“I’ve never been a huge romantic. In fact, I’ve never understood songs like “When a Man Loves a Woman” or “She’s Everything.” I always thought that when men declared their undying love to someone or said that they couldn’t live without them, it was cheesy and they were just saying it because that’s what they were supposed to say. I thought it was an exaggeration.
“Not even for one second did I think someone could actually feel the things that love songs were sung about…until you walked into my life, my heart, and my soul. Julianna Perez, you are my love song.
“I love you. I know that your life has not been easy, and I can’t promise that everything is always going to be perfect, but I’ve heard I make a pretty good teammate.”
Anthony laughed, and the rest of the room chuckled.
“I promise that I will live every day being the best husband and the best father I can be. I’m all in. You and Anthony are my life. These past few weeks without you have been the most miserable of my life. So I was wondering if you would make me the happiest man on earth and let me put a ring on it. Julianna Perez. Will. You. Marry. Me?”
“Yes,” I squeaked out. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
The room exploded in cheers, and Cole was on his feet and had me in his arms before I’d even gotten the second yes out. Then he spun me around and held me so tight that I couldn’t breathe. But that didn’t matter. All that mattered was that Cole was here, he loved me and Anthony, and I was going to be his wife.
As he set me down, I looked up at him. “I can’t believe… How did you… This was…”
“Good?” Cole asked, his eyes shining with tears as he brushed back strands of hair that had fallen in my face.
“Good.” I nodded, smiling the biggest I’d ever smiled, as tears flowed from my eyes.
For the first time in my life, with Cole by my side, I knew that my, and Anthony’s, future was…good.
EPILOGUE
Julianna
WEEK TWELVE
The tap, tap, tap of my heel on the hardwood floor echoed off the walls. I sat staring at a reflection that I barely recognized in front of a vanity mirror that had been set up in the media room at Cole’s—and now Anthony’s and my—house. Twisting my hair, I bit my inner lip as I tried my best to quiet the noise that was in my head.
Today was my wedding day. The day I’d never dreamed of as a little girl, and as an adult never really believed would come, was here. Cole and I were having a small, intimate ceremony in the backyard. Cole had wanted to do something bigger, and I didn’t want the fuss and just wanted to go to the courthouse, so we’d reached a middle ground. We’d both learned the art of compromise in our time together.
Everything over the last three months had happened at warp speed. It was twelve weeks ago to the day that I’d met Cole. Once he proposed and I’d accepted, he’d basically put us on a bullet train speeding toward the aisle. I’d quickly learned that once Cole Carson, who would be my husband in the next hour, wanted something, he put blinders on and plowed through any and every obstacle that stood in his way. I’d always been a take things slow kind of gal. I needed to analyze, take my time, process.
Somehow though, as fast as time had flown by, I felt like I’d known my soon-to-be husband for a lifetime. It seemed impossible, but it was my reality. Cole was my other half, and as of yesterday he was legally Anthony’s adopted father. Cole had insisted that he didn’t just want to be Anthony’s stepfather by default because he married me. He wanted to legally be his father—in addition to marrying me. His argument was that Anthony would always know Cole chose to be his father, just like he was choosing to be my husband. I’d agreed but thought that I’d be a nervous wreck handing over half of my rights as a parent to Cole. That hadn’t been the case. The second I’d written my signature on the document, a flash flood of relief had washed over me.
Anthony didn’t just have a new dad, he had grandparents. A family. Those were two things that I’d never dreamed that I could give my son. Hillary and Ralph had been at the courthouse when the lawyer had filed the adoption papers. They’d celebrated, and taken pictures and we all went out to lunch afterwards.
Yesterday I’d been as calm as could be. Today, I was a basket case.
“Put the hair down,” Megan said slowly, imitating the way that cop shows depicted police officers saying ‘put the gun down.’
I let out a nervous laugh as I unwound my finger from my hair. I could see my friend standing in the doorway in the reflection of the mirror. Megan was wearing a coral, strapless tea length dress and her curly blonde hair was pulled up in a loose bun on top of her head. Our wedding party consisted of Megan, who was my matron of honor and Samuel Maddox, who was Cole’s best man.
“You look like beyond gorgeous.” Tears filled Megan’s eyes as she walked into the room. When she reached me, she began fixing the mess that my nervous habit had made of the soft curls flowing around my shoulders. “But, you’re going to be walking down the aisle with dreads if you keep up this twisting.”
“I know.” I wasn’t sure where all of my anxiety was coming from.
Setting my hands on the wood tabletop of the vanity, I saw that they were shaking.
“Hey sweetie, I just wanted to pop in real quick and say hi before all of the excitement.” Hillary entered and shut the door quietly before she crossed to us. When she did, she leaned down and embraced me in an all-encompassing hug.
I held onto her and realized that the Carsons’ hugging ways were really beginning to grow on me. I’d never been a big hugger, except with Anthony, but there really was something comforting about the gesture that I was discovering I loved.
Pulling back, Hillary looked right into my eyes asking sincerely, “How are you doing? Really?”
I felt tears start to pool and I sensed concern that was radiating from Hillary.
“Overwhelmed,” I answered in a shaky breath.
A knowing expression crossed Hillary’s face. “I know how you feel. I had so many jitters that I almost didn’t make it down the aisle when I married Ralph.”
“What?” From what I’d seen, Ralph and Hillary were like peanut butter and jelly. I couldn’t imagine what could’ve caused Hillary to have second thoughts. “Why?”
“It just seemed so scary to tie my life to someone. Giving anyone any kind of control was unthinkable to me.”
“How did you…what did you…”
Hillary’s lips turned up in a smile as she glanced downwards. “When the panic took hold, I was about to call the whole thing off and I sat down and thought about what that would look like the following morning, and all the mornings after that, if I walked away from Ralph. And I realized that having total control of everything in my life, even though it was what I was used to, was isolating and lonely. When it came down to it, going to bed alone, waking up alone, and going through life alone was not what I wanted. Not when I had a man that I loved and trusted who was waiting to make me his wife.”
Her explanation hit me like a punch in the gut. The truth was I couldn’t imagine spending my life without Cole. As terrified as I was about tying my life to someone else, the alternative was unthinkable.
“Anyway, enough about me. Do you have something borrowed and blue?” Hillary asked.
“Oh…um, no.” I hadn’t even thought about that. In all of my wedding lists, I’d totally spaced on the something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. My dress and shoes were new but I didn’t have anything borrowed or blue.
“Well…” Hillary reached into her small handbag and pulled out a tattered piece of baby blue material. “This is the last piece of Cole’s baby blanket, the one that I took him home from the hospital in. I wore it in my shoe on my wedding day, as my something blue, to remind me how far I’d come, and I thought you might want to wear it, too, on loan as your borrowed, blue, and old.”
I nodded as a single tear fell down my cheek. I slipped off my shoe and slid the cotton square in. As soon as I did I felt an overwhelming sense of rightness. Anthony wasn’t the only one gaining a family, I was too.
The door opened, “Ready, Mom? It’s time.” Anthony stopped in the doorway and his jaw dropped. “Wow, you look really pretty.”
“Thanks, bud,” I stood up and turned toward my son. He was wearing a dark gray suit and I couldn’t believe how grown up he looked. He’d grown at least two inches over the summer and was now as tall as me. “You look so handsome.”
Megan and Hillary said their goodbyes and rushed to take their spots at the ceremony.
I took a deep breath as I stole one last look in the full-length mirror. My eyes traveled down the strapless white floor length gown with lace overlay that I was wearing. My hair flowed loosely around my shoulders and I wore a simple diamond pendant and stud earrings.
“Ready?” Anthony asked for a second time, his voice filled with excitement.
“Yes.” I wrapped my fingers around my son’s elbow.
Before we walked down the small hallway that led to the double doors we would be walking out of onto the deck, Anthony stopped. “Mom, it’s okay, you don’t have to worry.”
“I know.” I relaxed my face and stopped biting my lip as I assured my son, “I’m not worried.”
Tilting his head to the side, he gave the look he always did when he wasn’t convinced of what I was saying.
“I’m not.” I insisted. I wasn’t just trying to make Anthony believe it, I was trying to make myself get on board the ‘everything’s fine’ train as well.
Anthony grinned and pulled out his phone.
“Anthony what are—”
He pressed a button and the beginning notes of Bell Biv Devoe’s “Poison” came through a small speaker. “Cole told me to play this, in case of emergency.”
Anthony smiled as he took my hand and spun me around before breaking out his new favorite move since Cole had taught it to him, the Running Man. I laughed as I watched my son kicking his legs back and every fear and worry evaporated instantly. “Okay, I’m ready.”
Anthony’s big brown eyes stared at mine, searching for several seconds before he shut off the music and replaced his phone in his pocket. As he offered me his elbow again, I confidently and without any hesitation, wrapped my fingers around his arm.
When we stepped out the double doors and I saw Cole standing at the end of the short aisle, all of the air left my lungs. He wore a black suit with a dark gray tie. His signature bad boy scruff covered his pretty boy face. But it wasn’t his devastatingly sexy appearance that took my breath away. It was the look in his expressive green eyes. The one that told me I was his, and he was mine. The look that connected us more than any piece of paper saying that we were legally bound ever would.
The rest of the world slipped away as Anthony escorted me down the aisle to Cole.
“Who gives this woman to this man?” the officiant asked.
“I do,” Anthony dutifully answered as he placed my hand in Cole’s.
A tear slipped down my face as I leaned over and kissed Anthony’s cheek before he took his place next to Coach Maddox.
When I turned and faced Cole, I saw that I wasn’t the only one who was emotional. Cole’s eyes were watery as he breathed, “God, you look beautiful.”
I just beamed up at him, not trusting myself to speak.
Moving closer to me, he whispered, “Did the dance party help?”
I nodded and the tears formed again as I realized that Cole knew me. Really knew me, and loved me, flaws and all. No matter what life brought our way, we’d face it. Together. It wasn’t all on me anymore. I had a teammate. A soul mate. A forever-mate.
The End
Playing Dirty
Stay tuned for
Sam Maddox and Josie Walsh’s story in
Playing Dirty
Coming Spring of 2020
A Note From Melanie and Shawna
Hello party people!
Melanie and I (you do not need to adjust your screens there are two of us and we’re sisters!) LOVE getting to know our readers so make sure to connect with us on our Facebook page and join us in our reader group: Club HEA with Melanie Shawn where we hang out, talk about our love (read: obsession) of not only books and life, fitness (or lack thereof, lol), kiddos, friendships, love, food, the daily grind, wine and other adult beverages, and encourage the sharing of hero inspiration in the form of hot guy pics.
We hope you enjoyed book one in our Playing the Game series. I have a special place in my heart for Anthony who I named after a boy I used to babysit (who is now a grown man with two children, cue: tears). We loved writing Julianna and Cole’s tale of happily-ever-after and we hope you enjoyed reading it.
Check out their playlist below: (yes, it’s all 90s R&B because that is Julianna’s jams!)
That’s the Way Love Goes – Janet Jackson
All My Life – K-Ci & JoJo
I’ll Give All My Love To You – Keith Sweat
I Will Always Love You – Whitney Houston
Save the Best For Last – Vanessa Williams
Get Here – Oleta Adams
Again – Janet Jackson
Love Takes Time – Mariah Carey
Let’s Chill – Guy
I’m Ready – Tevin Campbell
I’ll Make Love To You – Boyz II Men
If I Ever Fall In Love – Shai
And to keep up with all our new releases, sales, and general book (and life) shenanigans make sure to sign up for our newsletter!
And as always we wish you love, laughter, and happily ever after!
Shawna & Melanie
Other Titles by Melanie Shawn
THE CROSSROADS SERIES
My First – Book 1
My Last – Book 2
My Only – Book 3
My Everything – Book 4
Tempting Love – Book 5
Crazy Love – Book 6
Actually Love – Book 7
Fairytale Love – Book 8
My Love – Novella 8.5
All He Wants – Book 9
All He Needs – Book 10
All He Feels – Book 11
All He Desires – Book 12
Just One Night – Book 13
Just One Kiss – Book 14
THE HOPE FALLS SERIES
Sweet Reunion – #1
Sweet Harmonies – #2
Sweet Victory – #3
Home Sweet Home – #4
One Sweet Day – Novella #4.5
Snow Angel – #5
Snow Days – #6
Snowed In – #7
Let It Snow – #8
Perfect Kiss – #9
Secret Kiss – #10
Magic Kiss – #11
Lucky Kiss – #12
Christmas Wish – Holiday Novella #12.5
Fire and Love – #13
Fire and Foreplay – #14
Fire and Romance – #15
Fire and Temptation – #16
WISHING WELL, TEXAS SERIES
Teasing Destiny – Book 1
Convincing Cara – Book 2
