Shelly stopped where she was, waiting to see what he was going to do, but Josh didn’t do anything at first. He merely looked her over from head to toe, and when his eyes came back to hers, he smiled slowly. She could have sworn she felt that smile reach inside of her and hug her heart.
Josh wasn’t sure what he had been expecting, but as Shelly stood in front of him, dressed in a billowy blue blouse and simple faded jeans, he knew that this was his Georgia who had shown up.
In a move that was so simple and yet so incredibly important, he lifted a hand and held it out to her. He took a deep breath and waited to see what she would do.
He watched the woman he had fallen so deeply in love with step forward and take his hand without even a moment of hesitation. She gazed up at him as he squeezed her hand, tugging her forward. When Shelly put a hand up on his chest to steady herself, he swore she must have been able to feel his heart beating at a hundred miles an hour.
“You came,” he whispered down to her.
He watched as those incredible eyes of hers smiled at him, and her mouth tipped up at the corners to match.
“Nothing could have stopped me,” she answered.
Josh finally let go of the breath he had been holding in, and he shook his head. He reached up with his free hand and stroked it down the back of her head over her silky blonde hair to cup the nape of her neck, bringing her closer. Then, he leaned down and did what he’d wanted to do all week. He kissed her.
Shelly sighed as she felt his lips finally brush against her own.
He was so gentle in his persuasion for her to open to him. He had no need to worry though. Shelly was ready to give herself over to him, body and soul. And, if he wanted anything else, he could have that, too.
As he lifted his lips from hers, he leaned his forehead against hers, and their noses brushed as he closed his eyes. He still had a hand on her neck, and the other one was holding hers. She could feel his heart thundering beneath her palm.
“Josh?” she questioned softly. When she got no response, she moved and kissed his cheek. “Josh?”
He blinked as though he was pulling himself out of some kind of daze, and then he smiled at her.
“Stop it,” she told him.
“Stop what?”
He watched her move back, leaning down to pat Mutley’s head. When she straightened, she bit her bottom lip and gave a nervous laugh.
“Looking at me like that.”
“Like what?” he asked as he stepped closer again. Before she could answer, he raised a finger and laid it across her lips gently. “Like I love you?”
Is that a question I’m supposed to answer?
Apparently not because then he continued.
“Because I do. Love you, that is. I have never loved someone as much as I love you, Shelly.”
Shelly felt her heart starting that strong gallop inside her chest, but she tried to remain steady as he reached up and cupped her face in his palms.
“I love the Shelly that made an outrageous deal with me one night in a club. I love the Shelly that brought me here to this very spot and showed me that she has a soft side that is so damn appealing I would never be able to look anywhere else ever again. I love the Shelly that was confused and angry and who kicked me out of her life because she was honest. She didn’t hold onto me and make me stay only to stray elsewhere.” He stopped, kissed her nose, and leaned down, whispering, “But, you know what, Georgia? I couldn’t leave you behind.”
Shelly looked up at Josh with tears shimmering in her eyes.
What a stupid woman I’ve been! Why did I wait so long to discover what kind of man he is?
As she was about to talk, she stopped as he stepped back, leaning down on one knee. Shelly felt her eyes widening and her mouth parting as she watched with something close to absolute wonder when he reached out and took her hand in his.
Josh stared up at Shelly from down on his knee.
He had thought about this moment for months. He had gone over and over in his head exactly what he wanted to say to her. As he knelt at her feet, looking up at her shocked face, he felt a slight shiver of anxiety run down his spine.
Josh watched as she shifted her eyes to Mutley, who thankfully was sitting on his haunches like an obedient dog, and then they came back to rest on his.
Well, Josh thought, it’s now or never.
“Over the past ten months, I have met and fallen in love with three different women.” He paused and watched as Shelly took a deep breath and swallowed. “A man-eater, who is gutsy, bold, and so scary she almost made me walk away. A professional, who is so smart and sophisticated that her brains and sheer knowledge of certain things in life leave me breathless and in awe.”
Shelly finally smiled down at him then, squeezing his hand. The shock had left her face, and he could see a tear sliding down her cheek.
Thatis definitely a good sign, Josh decided.
“Lastly Georgia. I met and fell in love with a sweet hometown girl, who has a terrible brave face and who sings the worst rendition of Shania Twain’s songs I’ve ever heard. Yet, she still managed to make me fall madly in love with her.”
Josh kept his eyes on hers as he dug into his jeans pocket with his free hand, pulling out a small box. Looking up at her, he let go of her hand, unsnapped the black velvet, and then looked once again at the most beautiful face he had ever seen.
“Georgia, will you marry me?”
Shelly was finally rendered speechless.
There was Josh, down on one knee with his big beast of a dog beside him, asking her to marry him.
As he waited patiently for her answer, Shelly kept running over all the important things she wanted to tell him. Like how much she had missed him when he had left Saturday night. Or how hard it had been to see him with his ex-girlfriend all those months ago. Or how the thought of him leaving her life when he’d moved away had ripped her heart out.
However, as she gazed down at the man before her, holding out his hand with a little black box, none of that was important.
All Shelly could do was whisper. “Yes.”
She watched as that sexy smile, that was all Delicious Daniels, spread across his lips, and those warm brown eyes lit up. Then, he stood, and she reached out to wrap her arms around his neck.
He gripped her around the waist and hauled her up against his body, kissing her mouth with a sweet desperation born of fear and finally ending with sweet joy of the outcome he had wished for so hard.
When Josh finally put her on her feet, he looked down at her and asked, “Yes?”
Shelly laughed and nodded before saying softly, “Yes, yes, yes!”
Then, as she moved in close to kiss him, the huge bells in the church behind them tolled loudly.
Both of them looked over their shoulders as the church doors opened, and a wedding party spilled outside into the street, making their way across to the park.
Shelly felt Josh reach out and take her hand, pulling it up to his lips where he kissed the knuckles and slid the beautiful diamond onto her finger.
“I want that to be us. Whenever you’re ready, I want to bring you back here and marry you in that church.”
Shelly turned to look up at him and asked, “Why here? Why not Chicago?” She paused, and then rushed on, “You are moving back to Chicago, aren’t you?”
Josh leaned in, kissing her softly. “I plan to be wherever you are, so I can go to sleep with you at night, and—”
“Wake up with me in the morning?” she finished.
Pecking her on the lips, he nodded. “Yes, and wake up with you in the mornings.” He paused, and then told her, “This is who you are to me, Georgia. You’re the girl in the faded jeans, who grew up in a small Southern town. The one who dreams under a tree. That’s my Georgia, my little slice of heaven, and I want to marry you in the church you grew up in.”