the date? Scandalous.”
He shook his head. “Nope. Nice.”
“Feeling pretty sure of yourself,” she teased.
“Not really. I wasn’t sure you’d accept my invitation or my apology.”
“I wasn’t flirting with Ron.”
“I know that, Darcy. I’ve never experienced jealousy before, and I reacted badly. Besides, Ron and I…”
Darcy waited for him to finish. He didn’t.
And that was when she realized.
“Oh my God. It was him. Wasn’t it? He and Denise—”
Ryder nodded. “His daughter is in Clint’s class.”
“I’m so sorry.”
Ryder tightened the arm around her shoulders. “I’m not. Seeing you with him…it helped me pull my head out of my ass.”
Her Pop Pop and her dad had mentioned similar revelations in the heat of the moment.
“So you got your revenge.”
“No. I didn’t punch him because of Denise. If it had been that, I would have hunted him down years ago. It’s just what I said. I was jealous over you. Because you’re mine. Just mine. From now on.”
Darcy cupped his face with her hand. “That’s all I’ve ever wanted to be.”
He kissed her softly. “No more denials. No more secret dating. This is it. We’re a couple. Facebook official.”
She sniffled as one happy tear slid down her face. “I’m going to hold you to that.”
“Tonight is for us. Just us. Then tomorrow, if you’re willing, I want to tell Clint and Vince about us together.”
“Are you sure?” she asked, touched, excited.
“Yeah. Never been more sure about anything. But I feel like I should warn you, Buttercup. I’m the kind of guy who dates with an eye toward marriage.”
She laughed. “So noted.”
“Can we make out now?”
Epilogue
“There’s my girl. I was wondering when you would get here. How was the dance last night?” Pop Pop asked.
Darcy grinned as she entered his bedroom, winking at him as he tucked a bookmark into his romance novel and slid it under his pillow. “How dirty is this one?” she teased.
He chuckled. “It has a purple cover and an Irish heroine with long, flowing dark hair. Those never tend to disappoint.”
Pop Pop was a huge fan of romance novels, his tastes turning to the historical variety lately, though he certainly wasn’t picky. He’d also gone through paranormal and romantic suspense phases as well.
“The dance was amazing. Incredible. The hotel decorations were gorgeous, the whole place bathed in candlelight and white flowers. And the band was so good. Ryder and I danced the entire night.”
She and Ryder had joined her cousin Caitlyn, and her husband, Lucas, for a Valentine’s Day dance at one of the hotels Lucas owned.
“Well, that sounds a lot better than your senior prom. No cardboard cutouts?”
Darcy laughed. “Mercifully, no.”
“How’s the move to Ryder’s going?”
Darcy nodded. “Almost done. Clint and Ryder are actually over at the Collins Dorm as we speak, grabbing some boxes of books I’d packed up. Everything else is already at their place. I hadn’t intended for all of this to go so quickly, but once we asked everyone how they felt about me moving in, Clint was a man on a mission.”
“That boy loves you.”
Darcy smiled, recalling how excited Clint was when she and Ryder told him they were dating. Since then, he’d moved her into what Ryder was calling the “mom” role, inviting her to his Christmas program at school, asking for help with his homework, and insisting she join him and Ryder the day they went shopping for new jeans because he’d outgrown all his pants. The kid had shot up two inches in just a few months. “I’m pretty crazy about him too.”
“I’ve been waiting for you to get here. Wanted to show you my surprise.”
Pop Pop had called her yesterday to ask if she would stop by. She never said no to a visit, especially when it was just the two of them in his room. She loved the times when she got him all to herself, rather than having to share him with everyone else at the busy pub or during family events.
Darcy realized she’d been blessed—luckier than her other cousins—because she’d grown up living in the same house with the beloved man. She had managed to steal more time with Pop Pop than most, simply because he was always there when she was younger, in the same house, day after day.
“I love surprises.”
She followed Pop Pop to his special wall of photographs. Each member of their family was represented there, and it was her favorite place in the whole house. As a child, she’d sit on Pop Pop’s lap, point to a picture at random, and he’d tell her a story about that aunt or uncle or cousin. Hour after hour of family stories, and he’d never repeated a single one. She liked to tease him that he knew all of their stories better than they did.
“Wait,” she said, studying the wall. “My picture’s gone.”
“That’s the surprise.” Pop Pop picked up a frame from his nightstand. “You needed a new one.”
Her previous photo had been in the frame since high school, a candid of her with her mom, Bubbles, and Sunnie the night of her senior prom. The four of them had been standing in front of the mirror in her bedroom, laughing hysterically as Sunnie helped her fix her hair for the dance. It had been such an unguarded, joyful, fun moment, and Darcy had always loved it because it was so reflective of her relationship with the three most important women in her life.
Darcy gasped when she saw what Pop Pop had replaced it with. “Where did you get this?”
“We knew Ryder was coming to the pub that night, so I asked your aunt Nat to do a little undercover photography for me.”
Aunt Natalie was a professional photographer, and her work was always breathtaking because she managed to capture so much in just one frame.
Somehow, unbeknownst to Darcy, her aunt had taken a photograph of her and Ryder standing by the limo, the night he’d whisked her away and told her he loved her for the first time.
Darcy wiped away a happy tear as she looked at it.
“You see it too, don’t you?” Pop Pop asked.
She nodded and sniffled.
Ryder had her pressed against the side of the limo, and he’d just kissed her. She touched her lips because she could still remember exactly how amazing that kiss had felt, how wild and free she’d felt in his embrace.
In the photograph, she was blushing, smiling, and Ryder was looking at her like…
“That’s a man who sees how extraordinary you are. Who can’t imagine a single day of his life without you in it,” Pop Pop said softly. “You found your true love.”
Darcy turned then and wrapped her arms around her grandfather. “Only because you taught me what to look for. I love you, Pop Pop.”
“And I love you, my lovely dark-haired lass.”
Don’t miss out on Oliver’s story, Wild Dreams, coming April 2021. You can preorder it now!
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Have you read the entire Wilder Irish series? All the books are standalone, so they can be read in any order. Be sure to check out all of them!
Wild Passion
Wild Desire
Wild Devotion
Wild at Heart
Wild Temptation
Wild Kisses
Wild Fire
Wild Spirit
Wild Side
Wild Night
Wild Embrace
Wild Dreams
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Wild Dreams
Dream big. Dream wild.
Oliver has always longed for a love just like his parents have—all three of them. He’s certain he’s already halfway to that happily ever after. His foster brother calls it wild, but Ollie knows they can find the woman of their dreams.
Gavin has always accepted that life is just one disappointment after another. Growing up in the foster system taught him that. Oliver is one of the few people he can trust, so he prefers they stay a two-man band.
Erin is a curvy, spunky brunette neither of them saw coming. But fate has another wild card in store for the three of them, one that will test everyone’s faith in their very different dreams for the future.
Preorder Wild Dreams now.
About the Author
Virginia native Mari Carr is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller of contemporary erotic romance novels. With over two million copies of her books sold, Mari was the winner of the Romance Writers of America’s Passionate Plume award for her novella, Erotic Research. She has over a hundred published works, including her popular Wild Irish and Compass books, along with the Trinity Masters/Masters Admiralty series she writes with Lila Dubois.
Find Mari Carr on the web at