Make Me Yours (Bellamy Creek #2) - Melanie Harlow Page 0,119

bag I’d just packed.

“Into what?” she asked suspiciously.

“A suit. What do you want me to wear, tight shiny pants?”

She giggled. “No. You’d look terrible in tight shiny pants.”

I gave her a dirty look. “Are you and Buddy ready to go to Grandma’s?”

“Yes.” Then she sighed. “I wish I could come with you.”

“We’ve been over this, honey. We love you very much, but—”

“I know, I know.” She flipped her hand in the air. “Some things are better in private.”

“Right. Plus she’d be suspicious if you were there. I don’t want her to know what’s coming.”

Mariah pouted. “But call right afterward, okay?”

“I will.”

“And I get to help plan the wedding,” she whispered.

“Of course. You and Cheyenne can plan it all.”

“And be in it too.”

“Other than the bride, you will be the most important girl there.”

She beamed at me. “Got the ring?”

“Got it.” I’d picked it up from the jeweler that morning, and the box was tucked inside my bag.

“And you’re going to do it tonight at dinner?”

“That’s the plan.” I’d enlisted April Sawyer’s help in booking what she called the most romantic booth in the restaurant at Cloverleigh Farms for nine o’clock tonight. “But we better stop talking about it now.”

“Right.” Mariah mimed zipping her lips, which had been our secret signal over the last month, ever since I’d told her that I wanted to ask Cheyenne to marry me.

Finally, she’d said.

We’d gone to the jewelry store together and she’d helped me pick out a ring, for which I then sought Blair’s approval, just in case a nine-year-old girl and thirty-three-year-old man did not have good taste in diamond rings. But Blair had taken one look and said it was absolutely perfect. I was worried she was going to let the cat out of the bag, since she and Cheyenne were so close and talked almost every day, but somehow she’d managed to keep the secret.

The jeweler had said he could have it ready for me by Valentine’s Day with no problem at all, “our” room at the Cloverleigh Farms inn was booked for the entire weekend (again, thanks to a little assistance from April Sawyer), and my mother—who knew but had been sworn to secrecy on pain of letting Buddy track mud on her new white living room rug—had happily agreed to watch Mariah and the dog at her house while Cheyenne and I were away. Last night I’d told Griffin, Moretti, and Beckett about my weekend proposal plans over beers at the pub, and they were happy for me—for both of us.

The only other person who knew was Liza, my therapist. We’d discussed it a lot, in fact, and I felt good that she’d been supportive of the idea. Not because I was “cured” or anything, but because I was openly talking about how taking such a big step might affect me and what I could do to cope with the panic attacks that still occasionally snuck up on me. I can’t say that I enjoyed putting all my emotions out on display and dissecting them the way she liked to at our sessions, but I could see how it helped to stop pretending they didn’t exist and take steps to anticipate and mitigate the negative stuff. I liked having a process for dealing with it, and best of all, Cheyenne could see that I was willing to do the work on myself in order to be a better partner to her. I could even see how it made me a better father—more patient, empathetic, and understanding.

Everything was in place.

All I needed was the love of my life.

Cheyenne

I gasped. “You got our same room!”

“Of course I did,” Cole said, opening the door for me. “After you.”

I moved past him into the beautiful, familiar room, my heart thumping happily. On the table by the window was a champagne bottle in an ice bucket and two glasses. The drapes were pulled open to reveal a winter wonderland—a pasture and red barn, the rolling hills of the vineyard, the rows of bare trees in the orchard—all blanketed with snow. Removing my coat, I laid it over the back of a chair and stood in front of the glass, taking it all in.

“God, this reminds me so much of Blair and Griffin’s wedding day. Remember that blizzard?”

Cole came up behind, wrapping his arms around me. He kissed my temple. “I remember everything about that day. And that night.”

Smiling, I placed my arms over his. “Seems like yesterday, doesn’t it? And yet it seems like