Imogen and I are a pair that could never be found in any database.
We weren’t a match made by a service, we are a match made in heaven. Her and I, we’re the real thing. The forever.
A work in progress, a goddamn piece of art.
“What is it, babe?” I ask, finding the love of my life in the bathroom.
“Uh, uh, I think … holy shit, Neil…”
My heart pounds, and I reach for her waist, drawing her to me. Her hands are stiff and rigid behind her back. The worry on her face the last thing I want to see right now. This should be the happiest time of our lives. We are headed for a cruise to Cancun, where we are having a destination wedding. Her parents will be there, my entire family is coming, heck, my secretary Linsey will even be joining us.
“Babe, you’re scaring me.”
She licks her lips. “I know we got engaged fast … and we haven’t even talked about it yet…”
“About what?” I ask, terrified.
She pulls out her hand and offers me a white applicator … a pregnancy test. “How do you feel about having kids?”
I swallow. Completely caught off guard. “We’re pregnant?”
She nods. “Are you shocked?”
“Of course I’m shocked!” I laugh, kissing her, tears in my eyes.
She winces. “Bad shocked?”
I shake my head. “Imogen, this is everything. Not only are we getting married, but we’re starting a family. It’s more … more than I ever imagined for myself.”
She nods, a tear falling across her cheek. “I can’t believe we’re going to be parents.”
“You’re going to be an incredible mother.” I pull her to me as someone begins knocking on our door.
“My parents,” she says.
“Your mom is going to be thrilled.”
She holds onto me a moment longer. “Not as thrilled as me.”
I look down into my bride-to-be’s eyes. “Thank you,” I tell her.
“For what?” she asks, her eyes glistening with devotion.
“For making me a husband and a father. And for teaching me that expressing myself is more than a gift I can give on Valentine’s day. It’s a gift I can give every day of my life.”
Imogen grins. “Look at you, Neil, becoming such a sap,” she teases.
“You know you love it,” I tell her.
She nods, swallowing. “I do love it, but not as much as I love you.”
HIGH SCHOOL SWEETHEARTS
A SWEETHEART, COLORADO ROMANCE
By Frankie Love
Prom Queen and King.
The cheerleader and football captain.
Voted Most Likely to Marry.
We were in love, and at graduation I was naive enough to believe it would last forever.
But then my boyfriend, Baxter Ryder, was gone.
Rumors circulated: His parents were in the mafia, he was actually an AI prototype for the CIA, his family was in witness protection.
I didn’t know what was fact or fiction, but I did know this: the guy I gave my heart to was gone and he never even said goodbye.
Now, ten years later, I’m back in Sweetheart, Colorado, for our class reunion.
My life hasn’t gone as planned. I’m broke, single, and clearly peaked in high school.
But rumors are floating again. They say Baxter’s back in town.
This Valentine’s Day it’s time to confront the man who broke my heart.
Let’s hope he actually shows.
Dear Reader,
Baxter has a good reason for skipping town — it was to protect the girl he loved.
Now he’s back in Sweetheart and ready to prove to Bailey that he meant every I love you, every I’m Yours, every Forever.
This one’s full of sugary-sweet V-day heat… a love story over ten years in the making!
xo, frankie
1
BAILEY
As I stand here in front of the mirror, I try to remember the last time that I felt so insanely nervous.
"You okay?" Liv asks, brushing past me with a make-up bag in her hand. I nod.
"Yeah, I’m fine," I promise her. I want to believe it. But in truth? I have no idea what this reunion is going to bring.
It’s been nearly ten years since I left Sweetheart, and there was a good reason for getting out when I did. In high school, I had been sure that I would end up staying here, with the man that I loved; maybe we would do a little traveling of the world first, maybe we would explore and get out and have fun, but we would come back here, to where it all began, and start our lives properly once and for all.
But that had been before the man I adored with all of my heart vanished off the face of the earth. Leaving me with no choice but to rework all of the plans I had put together for myself.
I couldn’t stay in Sweetheart, I knew that much; the memories of the two of us were too fresh in my mind, too sharp and cloying in my head. I might love this small town, the way the neighbors nod at me as I pass by their yards as though I never left, but that doesn’t mean that I am planning to walk into my little white-picket-fence house and pretend like my heart didn’t shatter the last time I lived here.