Forever Saved - Kathleen Brooks Page 0,18

candles lit. He was checking the champagne chilling in the ice bucket when Addison walked through the door and onto the patio.

“Oh, candles, how lovely. How did you know I had such a hard day?”

Addison wrapped her arm around him and laid her head against his chest. Gone were the sword and the military medals his father had passed down to him. Instead, he was in slacks and a white button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up.

Addison straightened up and kissed him. He ran a hand down her back as he kissed her, willing her to feel how much he loved her.

“I wanted to do something special for you,” Draven told her as he turned them to look at the purple, pink, and orange painted sky.

“You’re so sweet. Thank you, Dray. Isn’t this beautiful?”

“Not nearly as beautiful as you.” Draven paused and looked at the woman in his arms. Everything he’d planned to say went right out of his mind. “I had something fancy written for you, but that’s not us. Together we’re just Addy and Dray. Two people who are madly in love with each other. Do you have any idea how much I love and adore you? I never knew this type of relationship existed until I met you. You make me a better man by loving me and believing in me. I’ve known since the first time I saw you and you turned me down that we were meant to be. Together, I feel as if we can accomplish anything because of our love.”

Backlit by the sunset, Draven dropped to one knee as he held the ring up between his fingers. “Addison Rooney, you are the best woman I have ever met. You are beautiful, kind, caring, intelligent, and driven to help others. Will you marry me and let me love you for the rest of our lives as you use your kindness, intelligence, and love to rule Bermalia by my side as our queen?”

“Oh my stars,” Addison gasped and Draven didn’t know if that was good or bad.

He looked up nervously at Addison who was smiling down at him, her hands clasped together over her heart. “Draven, I love you. King or not, it’s that simple. I have no idea what to do or how to be a queen, but I’ve got a surprise for you.”

Draven held his breath as Addison told him in his own language that she would marry him. “You’ve learned Bermalian?”

“I’ve been studying it since you dropped me off after our first date. Cassidy has been helping me. I knew then you were the one for me.”

Draven slipped the ring on Addison’s finger and noticed that his fingers weren’t the only ones shaking. She cupped his cheeks with her hands and then kissed him. Everything in this moment was perfection. The woman he loved was going to marry him.

6

Stella loaded the feed for the ducks that had begun to visit her and April at the pond into the back of her pickup truck. She looked down Main Street, and as the sun dipped lower in the sky, Stella decided to walk to find the café. She hadn’t really spent much time in downtown Keeneston yet. She’d been living at the garden center getting it ready or at her house in Lexington.

Stella walked down the street and stopped to look into the window of a cute hat shop. The display was filled with hats just waiting to be worn to the Kentucky Derby.

Stella looked down the side of the street and saw the bank. She decided to cross the street to check out some of the shops there. She saw the Rooney Law Office and felt good knowing that she was starting to make friends in town. She browsed the window front of an antique store and then stopped as she found herself looking into the lobby of Jace’s doctor’s office.

She checked her phone and saw that it was almost six. As if it were a sign from above, Jace walked into the front with a teenager. He said goodbye and held out the patient file to the woman at the front desk. At that moment he looked up and their eyes met.

Stella felt as if she’d been caught spying. She gave him a wobbly, embarrassed tilt of her lips and he motioned for her to come inside. The door opened and the teenage boy held it open for his mom and then waited for Stella to go inside.

“Thank you,” she told the