He ran his hand through my hair and the humorous moment turned into a romantic one as the two of us laid there together, breathing in sync.
A newly engaged couple, deeply in love, and content to just be there together in silence, and think about the future.
Would you like to read about how Matt, Will and Stephanie are doing one year later?
Click HERE to read the EXTENDED EPILOGUE to A Bossy Temptation
* * *
Are you ready for David (Matt’s older brother) and Lily’s (Stephanie’s best friend) story?
Here is a sneak peek into this book -
SNEAK PEEK INTO “A BOSSY NIGHT”
Bret was late for dinner.
Again.
I wasn’t sure what annoyed me more, the fact that he hadpromisedme he wouldn’t be late, or the fact that Michelle was right. I hated when she was right because she never held back from saying, ‘I told you so’ and lording it over my head the next time we disagreed on something. Though, I think what frustrated me the most was the fact that Bret and I were getting married in exactly one week, and he knew how important this dinner was to me, and yet he still couldn’t bother to show up on time.
“Do you think I should call him again?” I asked, looking around the table at my four closest friends, all of whom were in my bridal party and had flown into San Diego a week early to help me with all the last-minute wedding details.
“No,” Michelle said. “I think you should put your phone away, and we should order another round of drinks.”
“He’s only twenty minutes late,” Stephanie added. Ever the conflict-avoider, one could always count on Steph to come to the defense of whomever the rest of the group was mad at. “Maybe he got stuck in traffic. That can happen in California, you know.” She smiled.
I nodded. “That’s true. But he can’talwaysbe stuck in traffic. Even in California, that excuse is starting to wear on me.”
“Maybe his boss made him stay late at work?” It was Gina who said this. “I thought you’d mentioned in the past that his boss can be kind of a hard-ass.”
“Also true.”
I looked at Rose waiting to hear what she had to say, but she wasn’t paying much attention to the conversation. She had her eyes glued to her phone and she was texting away. I let her off the hook, however, since I knew this was the first time she’d traveled without her six-year-old daughter, Jess; and even though Jess was staying with her grandmother, I could tell Rose was more than a little anxious about the whole thing.
Phone in hand, I looked at Michelle. “Are you going to judge me if I call him again?”
She smiled. “You know I don’t judge.” Of course, this made everyone at the table laugh, since Michelle was by far the most judgmental of the group. “Do whatever you want, he’s your fiancé, and this is your marriage we’re here to celebrate. I just think it could be fun to forget about Bret for a while and have a girl's night!”
“But I wanted you guys to spend some time with him,” I said. “Most of you have only met him a couple of times, and Rose hasn’t spent more than five minutes with him. I was just… really looking forward to having you all become friends.” Sighing, I took my phone out and called him once more. It rang four times, then went to voicemail. Right after I hung up the call, the waiter came by and asked if we were ready to order. I looked down at the menu to make a quick decision, and instead, I realized that I wasn’t all that hungry.
“Can we have a few more minutes?” I requested.
“Sure thing,” he said, walking away.
I put my menu down slowly and winced. “Okay,” I said, as a sort of preamble to what I was about to announce. “Here’s the thing… Our apartment is not that far away from here. What if I let you guys order, get another bottle of wine,on me, and meanwhile I am just going to run home and see what’s taking Bret so long.”
“Lily, no—” Michelle started to say, but Gina cut her off.
“How do you even know he’s at home?”
I sucked air through my teeth, peeling my lips back in a guilty sort of smile. “I may or may not have put a tracking app on his phone.” I threw my hands up in self-defense. “But it’s just for this week! We have so many things that we still need to get done for the wedding, so many appointments we need to keep, and people we need to see, and since Bret has recently adopted this chronically late persona of his, I wanted to have a way of knowing where he was.” I looked down at my lap. “Please don’t lecture me. I know this type of thing is like the number one no-no of being in a committed relationship with someone, but I swear, I am going to take the app off his phone the morning before the wedding and will never track him again. For the rest of our betrothed life.”
Gina laughed. “Oh Lily, it’s cute that you think you’ll be able to resist.”
“Yeah,” Michelle added. “I love you girl, but you’re crazy if you think you’ll get around to deleting that app.”
“I will!” I said. “I swear I will. I don’t want to be the type of wife who checks in on her husband all the time. I know I can be a little controlling, but honestly, I’m working on it. I trust Bret, this is more about making sure the wedding goes perfectly than about shaming him for being late or whatever.” I took my napkin off my lap and dropped it on the plate. “And keeping that in mind, I am going to go see what he’s up to, but I’m not going to yell at him or scold him for being late. I am just going to pick him up and bring him here, and then I’ll even offer to be the designated driver on the way home so he can have a few more glasses of wine with dinner.”