hand flew to her mouth.
“Ha! Oh yes. I know we said we were going to wait, but this thing is burning a hole in my pocket.” He pulled a black box out of his pocket. “Tonight, I had arranged for the boats, but I didn’t know your mom and aunt were going to do the gift and party thing. I had it all planned. After they left early, I was going to give you the ring and then have a candlelight dinner for you with a fire in the fireplace. All romance.”
“Aw, and instead we had family time. I’m so sorry, Justin. My mother…”
“It’s totally okay. It was fun. So anyway, I know you said you’ll marry me next year. But now it’s official if you’ll accept my ring.”
She stuck out her hand. “Let’s see if it fits.”
He slid it on her ring finger for a perfect fit. “It’s just beautiful. I love you so much, Justin.” But the ring meant he was thinking about that end result; marriage, and it made her nervous.
“We’re still going to wait, right?”
Wrapping her arms around his shoulders, they kissed. He pulled back and looked down at her grinning.
“You are under no obligation.”
Taking a deep breath, she smiled at him in the moonlight. “I promise to love you and be faithful to you, and to keep providing the best lovin’ I can whenever you want it.”
“That’s my dream come true. I can’t complain then, can I? It’s a deal.”
Justin looked out at the horses, who were settling down to spend the night in the yard at Bayou Cottage. “The horses are going to sleep, so I guess it’s bedtime,” he said, grinning at her. “What do you think about that?”
“Well, it might be bedtime, but it’s not time for sleep,” she said in her sultriest voice. “Let’s go upstairs to bed.”
She stood up, taking one last look at the lighted tree on the dock and the horses in the yard, loving her life and the cottage and everything it represented. Wrapping his arms around Maggie, Justin kissed her, then whispered in her ear, “Merry Christmas, Maggie. I love you.”
She kissed him back, squeezing him tight just a horse whinnied.
“I love you, too. Merry Christmas, Justin.”
The End
I hope you enjoyed Bayou Christmas
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stories.
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Sweet but steamy romances set in the Louisiana Bayou.
Bayou Cottage
Bayou Christmas
Bayou Mardi Gras
Bayou Baby
Bittersweets
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Terry Loves Alex always FREE
Brenda Loves Larry
Oscar and Lisa
The Bride Wore Leather: The Sequel to Oscar and Lisa
Resisting You
Law of April
Doctor Knows Best
Christmas-Arvin&Tina
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Jen Talty - The New Order
Natalie Ann - Passionate Vision
Judith Lucci- Seer of Evil
Suzanne Jenkins - Secret Royalty
Anna Celeste Burke - Kitchen Magic
SR Mallery - Endangered Spells
Margaret A. Daly - Wickless
Tamara Ferguson – Enchantress
Girls in the City Series
Four Girls and a Guy: Prequel to Girls in the City
Girls in the City: Alison
Girls in the City - Joan
Girls in the City - Laura
Girls in the City – Samantha
Hot Hunks – My Everyday Hero - Eddie
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The Saints of San Diego
She’s Having a Baby
Special Delivery
Burning for the Nanny
Charlie Saint
Joey’s Christmas Miracle
(Hot Hunks Holiday Collection)
A Little Change of Plans
Marty’s Blind Date Mystery
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Fire Ball
Wedding at Firehouse Ranch
Addicted to You
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The Greektown/Detroit Detective Stories
The Greeks of Beaubien Street is the First book in The Greektown Stories.
The Donut Shop Murder A prequel to the series. Four days before Thanksgiving, the dead body of a paralegal is found dumped on a residential street in Midtown Detroit.
The Princess of Greektown Jill investigates the messiest crime of her career, while her family suffers a loss that changes the way life will be lived in Greektown.
Christmas in Greektown As Christmastime approaches, the family prepares for another get-together in Greektown.
A Greektown Wedding After Christmas was over, the family could finally focus on other things, like love!
Apollo’s Other Daughter Gaia Parnassus reads palms in back of her father's Greektown pizzeria, when a chance encounter with Detroit Homicide Detective Joe Young guides Gaia to help solve a murder he’s investigating, and to romance.
Pam of Babylon Series
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The rest of the Pam of Babylon Series, including 22 novels and 7 novellas and short stories.
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Boxed Sets
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Hot Hunks
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Love, Christmas 2 - 25 stories Sprinkle a little Christmas magic into your life with 25 ALL-NEW, never before released romances, including Suzanne’s Christmas with the Clouds, exclusively in the set!
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The Burn District Science Fiction Series
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Burn District 1 The family flees to Steve Hayward’s ranch in the desert at the Mexican Border, outside of Yuma, Arizona to build an encampment.
Burn District 2 After the New Year, Jenna Hayward regretfully accepted that she had waited too long to leave Jacksonville for her father’s Arizona ranch.
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Stronger - Karen Calder’s FBI ex Michael puts a mobster behind bars and no one in his family is safe. Will she be able to forgive him when his job threatens her life?
The Jade Emperor After a stranger appears on their doorstep, a picture-perfect family takes a side trip to crazy town in this story of a soldier's last chance at love.
Perfect for Him . Perfect for Him is a tale of two lovers whose lifetime romance sustains them, as an unwanted ending looms in the near future.
Alice’s Summertime Adventure
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The Liberation of Ravenna Morton Captures the small-town dynamic of a family’s private secrets being exposed to the world.
Ravenna’s Dream As Christmas approaches, family discord upsets Ravenna Morton’s plans for the usual holiday gathering at her cabin on the Kalamazoo River
Friends to Lovers Gorgeous Pipi Wiener’s family changes forever when their dad is tragically killed in the Vietnam War.
Mend Me Mend My Heart A sweet, clean story. Charlotte Baker, a thirty something widow raising two children, is holding on to the memory of her late husband, Steve. The idea of dating again has never crossed her mind, until she takes a fall at the cemetery where Steve is buried which brings the handsome caretaker to her rescue.