Here With Me Page 25

  It’s a serious matter, but it can also be kind of fun. And I’ve got something I’ve been wanting to do since Christmas. Sleeping under the stars in the middle of a potential frost oddly seems like the perfect setting for it.

  “I’ll send my boys over.” Wayne Doucet stands, holding up a finger. “I know Ed will send over his kids.”

  “That’s great. Thanks, guys. I’ll get Noel and Taron and Leon in on this.” I stand, ready to head to Lewis’s to pick up the item I ordered the day after Mindy was discharged from the hospital.

  “Don’t say it like it’s some kind of treat.” Noel is indignant, marching through the house. “It’s cold, the ground is hard, and it’s freakin miserable. You should say give up a night’s sleep in the rows.”

  “I want to sleep with the trees, Mamma!” Dove bounces on her toes beside me. “Miss Tamara says Boo could come over, too!”

  My sister narrows her eyes at me, and I lean forward, whispering in her ear. “I’ve got something special planned for Mindy… It’d be cool if you considered helping out… in case I’m occupied.”

  Light hits her eyes, and she claps her hands, bouncing on her toes. “You’re going to propose in the orchard? Oh, it’s going to be so romantic!”

  Stepping forward, I hold my hand lightly over her lips. “Little pictures.”

  The rest of the day is spent testing the heaters and arranging sleeping bags and cots throughout the hills.

  “We can take shifts sleeping, especially as the night wears on.” I’m walking with Leon, who stops every few paces to look back at the last station.

  “Think this is close enough?”

  We’re trying to make sure the guards are spaced evenly to hear if anything goes wrong while still covering the orchard.

  “It has to be.”

  By ten o’clock, the temperature is already dangerously cold. We waited as long as we could to start up everything not wanting to run out of fuel for the night and the morning. Luckily, it’s a fast-moving front, and it’s supposed to warm up again by tomorrow evening. We’ll still use the turbines to be safe.

  “I don’t see why I need to sleep out here in the trees.” Mindy holds my waist, and she’s as whiny as my sister.

  Still, she kisses the side of my neck, and I’m ready to wrap up the business part of this event and get to the good part.

  “I set up a tent for us, and we even have a double air mattress.” Her cute little nose wrinkles, and I kiss the tip. “It’ll be like camping.”

  “What if you camp out here, and I sleep in the house with Noel and Dove?”

  “Dove and Boo set up a princess camp with pink air mattresses and purple sleeping bags over by Taron and Noel.”

  “Kids have no nerve endings.”

  I chuckle tugging her along with me.

  We have a brief meeting with the volunteer helpers. Everyone is equipped with their phones and a two-way radio for backup. We’re all assigned to our stations, and following a quick thanks, we walk slowly to our places.

  My sister almost spoils my surprise when she sidles up to me. “I’ve got you covered, boss. Make me proud.”

  Mindy’s brow arches. “What was that all about?”

  “You know Noel.” I exhale, trying to think of how to end that and coming up blank.

  Mindy lets it pass, which is odd. She’s like a bird dog when it comes to secrets these days. Come to think of it, she’s been pretty quiet all day herself.

  “You okay?” I lean my head back to inspect her pretty face.

  “Of course! Why would you say that?” She blinks fast as if I’ve caught her hand in the cookie jar.

  Now I’m really suspicious, but we’re at the tent. Inside, I’ve got the place prepared for my big moment, so I choose to let it go for now.

  “You know, it’s not as cold as I expected with those heaters going.”

  “Hang on, before you go inside.” I turn her to face me, looking down on her pretty face so full of love. I don’t know if it’s the yellow light of the heaters, but she seems to glow. Taking both her hands in mine, I smile. “I want you to close your eyes.”

  Her nose scrunches, but she does as I ask. I guide her carefully through the doors of the tent to where I’ve arranged a small table with LED tea lights and a bucket of champagne. A bouquet of red roses is at her place, and I lead her to sit on the large pillow on the ground.

  Digging in my pocket, I take out the black velvet box and take a knee in front of her. “Now open your eyes.”

  She ducks her head just before doing what I say, which makes me love her a little more. When her eyes open, they go wide, and her hands cover her mouth.

  “Sawyer!” She gasps. “It’s so beautiful! Did you do all this?”

  Shrugging, I confess. “Noel helped me.”

  Her wide eyes return to mine, and tears glisten in them. She’s too smart for me, so I step up the pace.

  “Melinda Claire, I’ve known you all your life, but it wasn’t until just recently I discovered you are my life.” A crystal tear hits her cheek, and I slide it away with my thumb. “I put you through a lot, but you never wavered. You’ve always been my constant.”

  She smiles, putting her hands over mine.

  “For a long time, I didn’t think I’d ever be able to say these words to you. I thought I was too damaged, and I decided I’d rather lose you than chain you to a man who would only break your heart.” Dropping my chin, I laugh bitterly. “I nearly broke both of us with that stupid decision.”

  “No.” She whispers, kissing my cheek. “Don’t say bad things about the man I love.”

  Our eyes meet, and it’s a flash of love so true, I cut the stalling. “I’m better now. I waited to be sure, and after the fire I knew.” Taking out the black box, I open it. “Will you be my wife? Will you stay here with me?”

  She’s nodding before I even finish the question. “I will.”

  It’s strong and firm, and I pull her to my chest, covering her lips with mine and kissing her soft and true. Lifting my chin, our cheeks are pressed together, and I listen to her breath, the sound of her heartbeat. My wife.

  I’m thinking how perfect that sounds when she starts to wiggle. Relaxing my hold, I lean back, looking down at her amused. “What?”

  “Can I see my ring now?”

  “Shit.” I start to laugh, taking out the box again and opening it. I remove the shiny platinum band with a large, square diamond right in the center and slip it on the third finger of her left hand.

  “Oh, Sawyer!” She holds it up, turning it side to side. “How did you do this? It’s perfect!”

  The band is decorated with a tiny platinum anchor. The rope swirls around the diamond and runs down the other side. It’s the logo for the farm, but it’s also the symbol of us—hope, salvation, security, steadfastness…

  “Let’s celebrate.” I lift the bottle of champagne and pour us each a glass. “Then I want to test out that air mattress. Maybe with you on top, riding me.”

  I look back, and her face is beaming. She holds up a hand and tilts her head to the side. “None for me, thanks.”

  “What?” I frown, looking at the bottle. “This is expensive shit…”

  “I have a little surprise for you, too.” She stands, taking my hand and putting my glass and the bottle on the block of wood we’re using for a table. “Come with me.”

  We walk to the air mattress, and I sit down. She climbs onto my lap in a straddle and puts both her hands on my shoulders. “I’m glad you decided you want to marry me, because earlier today I got some news I hope will make you happy.”

  My brow furrows, and she leans forward, tracing her lips along mine softly. It sends heat racing below my waist. “You’d better tell me fast, because I’m ready to fuck my future wife.”

  “Better work on your patience.” Her eyes are glowing, sultry, and she leans down to whisper in my ear. “You’re going to be a daddy.”

  It takes a second for that news to register, and as soon as it d
oes, I’m hit with an avalanche of emotions, gratitude, joy, excitement, disbelief.

  Turning her quickly, I lay her back on the mattress, pulling up the sweater she’s wearing and unbuttoning her jeans. When her stomach is exposed, I slide my palm over her smooth skin, kissing her right below her navel.

  Her fingers thread in my hair, and when I look up, she’s gazing down at me with love in her eyes. “You’ve got my baby in here?”

  She laughs quietly, nodding. “Dr. says I’m about nine weeks along.”

  I turn my head to rest my cheek against her skin. “Nine weeks, that’s pretty far.”

  “I looked at the calendar, and it seems like Valentine’s day was a lucky day for us.”

  “Every day’s a lucky day for us.” I whisper the words, pressing my lips against her skin.

  “I hope I’m about to get lucky now.”

  I’m still thinking about her incredible news when I realize what she said. She props up on her elbows, smiling down at me with a heat I know well. Rising up, I whip my jacket off followed quickly by my sweater, then I dive into her arms.

  She shrieks a laugh, wrapping her arms around my bare shoulders and meeting my kisses with her smiling own.

  “Keep it down, the kids will hear.”

  “I’m not very good at that.” She kisses my neck, and I can’t argue.

  We chase each other’s mouths, landing kisses as we discard clothing, underwear. I kiss her belly, spending time a little farther south until my beautiful future bride is moaning and rocking her hips. Like old times, my hand is over her mouth as I plunge deep into her core. She meets my thrusts with her own until we’re flying on waves of ecstasy, soaring through the heavens into a future I can’t wait to begin.

  Holding her in my arms as she sleeps, I don’t remember a time when I felt so whole and satisfied. I do recall the day I found a small girl in a field who’d end up changing my life.

  It was on the second worst day of my life. A day so cold, I thought my heart had frozen.

  They say you can’t fall in love as a kid, not real love, but I’ve loved her all my life. It took almost losing her for me to know it was a loss I’d never survive.

  She keeps me in my place. She holds me steady. She’s my anchor, but she’s more than that. She’s my morning star, guiding me through the darkest night and leading me home.

  We’re starting a new tradition on this hill. One of laughter and sunrise, of shoots of new growth under a sky full of stars. A place where love will surround us, and she will stand by my side always, here with me.

  * * *

  Thank you for reading HERE WITH ME!

  I hope you loved Sawyer and Mindy and all the gang as much as I did!

  Deacon’s book is coming Aug. 17, 2020!

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  In the meantime…

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  Keep clicking for a short sneak peek… Also available on audiobook (link).

  OR…

  Want MORE from this band of military brothers?

  Patton’s story is a sexy, enemies-to-lovers office romance you are going to LOVE.

  Read BOSS OF ME (link) free in Kindle Unlimited Today!

  Keep clicking for a short sneak peek… Also available on audiobook (link).

  Wait for Me

  by Tia Louise

  Dear Taron,

  I should have told you this a long time ago…

  Dear Taron,

  Is there a time-limit on forgiveness?

  If there is, I haven’t reached it…

  Dear Taron,

  I still love you…

  A letter never sent.

  Heck, I never even finished it.

  Taron Rhodes was my brother’s best friend.

  He was sexy as sin.

  But he was more than that…

  He was ponytail-pulling, ice down your shirt teasing, throw you in the lake screaming…

  Strong, tanned arms and bright green eyes over a heart-stopping, naughty grin…

  Did I mention his tight end?

  I gave him my first real kiss, my heart, my everything.

  I said I’d wait for him…

  I’m still waiting, because Taron Rhodes is still the man of my dreams,

  And I have a secret that has his bright green eyes.

  Noel LaGrange stole my heart when she was only eighteen—pushing me off a flatbed and calling me a city slicker.

  Her brother Sawyer would kick my ass if he knew how many times we made out that summer, how close we got.

  Everything changed when Sawyer and I joined the military.

  We were honorably discharged, but I didn’t go to her.

  Instead, I went back to the city… where no amount of money, no amount of pills can heal this wound.

  Only her whiskey eyes and dark hair, her slim arms and her sweet scent, give me hope.

  I broke her heart just as surely as I broke mine, but I’m going back to make it right.

  If she’s still waiting…

  (WAIT FOR ME is a STAND-ALONE small-town, second-chance romance. No cheating. No cliffhangers.)

  Prologue

  Noel

  My momma was too beautiful to die.

  At least, that’s what everybody said.

  Penelope Jean Harris was the scion of our town’s founder and prettiest girl in three parishes. She was head majorette in high school and homecoming queen and prom queen and every other queen. She was Peach Princess, Teen Dixie Peach, and Miss Dixie Gem. She would’ve gone on to be Miss Louisiana if my daddy hadn’t made her a Mrs.

  I was eleven—that strange age between too big to play in the creek in only my panties and too little to sleep without the closet light on. I loved Dolly Parton and butterflies and picking peaches straight off my daddy’s trees and eating them, jumping in the lake and running after jackrabbits with my little brother Leon.

  In the summer the trees were rich green, and the sweet scent of peach juice filled the air. In the winter they were sparse, bony hands, reaching palms up to heaven. Branches like fingers spread, grasping for hope.

  Momma’s hazel eyes crinkled at the corners whenever she looked at me or my brothers or my daddy. Her sweet smile was warm sunshine when I got cold.

  She would wrap me in her arms and sing an old sad song when I was sleepy or cranky or “out of sorts,” which is how she’d put it. I pictured “sorts” as ivory dominoes I could line up and knock down or slap off the table, across the room. I’d pull her silky brown hair around me like a cape and close my eyes and breathe…

  Then she was gone.

  She went for a walk one crisp winter evening along the narrow, dirt road that runs past our orchard out to the old house on the hill. Frost was in the air; bonfires were burning. The man driving the truck said she came out of nowhere.

  He never saw her.

  She never saw him.

  Six weeks later, in that same orchard with peach blossoms on the trees and dew tipping the grass, on the very spot she died, my daddy took his life with his own gun.

  I guess sometimes love makes you forget things can get better.

  I guess he didn’t see a bend in the road up ahead.

  I guess he only saw a straight line leading deeper and deeper into black.

  My daddy was the star of his high school football team… but Life threw him a pass he couldn’t catch with Momma’s death.

  Our world changed forever that winter.

  Dolly says love is like a butterfly, soft and gentle as a sigh, but from what I’ve seen of love, I think it’s more like a tornado, shocking and violent and so powerful it can rip your soul out of your mouth…

  It’s faster than you can run, and it blows one house away w
hile leaving the next one peacefully standing.

  I didn’t know which way love would take me, quietly or with the roar of a freight train. I should’ve known. I should’ve realized the moment I saw him.

  It was both. It was quiet as the brush of peach fuzz, but it left my insides in splinters. It twisted my lungs and lifted me up so high only to throw me down with a force that rang my ears and flooded my eyes.

  It all started the summer before they left, a month before my brother was sent to fight in a war everybody said was over.

  It all started in the kitchen of my momma’s house…

  * * *

  Get WAIT FOR ME (link) and fall in love with this brother’s best friend, military romance today—free in Kindle Unlimited!

  Also available on audiobook (link).

  Boss of Me

  Patton Fletcher is

  ✔Demanding,

  ✔Driven,

  ✔Sexy AF, and

  ✔My New Boss.

  My sister says don’t fall for him. I say don’t worry

  I’m not about to let some arrogant, young CEO derail my dreams.

  Or insult my wardrobe.

  I don’t care about his deep brown eyes or the way the muscle moves in his square jaw when he’s pissed.

  I won’t fall for his power or how sexy he fills out that suit.

  I said I could resist him.

  I was wrong…

  Raquel Morgan is Trouble.

  She’s stubborn, independent, and a fighter.

  She has long, dark hair, crystal blue eyes, and freckles…