Freeing Destiny (Fate #2) (37 page)

Thank you, Lord.
I almost lifted her up and swung her around the courthouse steps. But instead of rejoicing in any part of this shitty day, I kissed my girl and showed her, without words, what she meant to me. “Come on, Sunshine. Time to get this show on the road.”

Stella’s family piled out of the courthouse in a gaggle of emotions and shaking heads. They joined us at the bottom of the steps with questions and comments and too much at once. Gina spewed more legal shit that Stella seemed to understand. But when all was said and done, she had the ultimate say in how things went down.

“You sure you’re okay with all of this?” Gabriella asked her daughter as she tucked a few strands of loose hair behind Stella’s ear.

“I’m positive. I would have loved to punch her, just once, but I have this vision of her in a straitjacket and a white padded cell that’ll keep me smiling for a while.”

Despite the prelude and the outcome of this eventful week, everyone was able to laugh at Aubrey’s expense. Hand in hand with Stella, she led the way as we walked to our cars.

“Need me to help you pack?” Caleb brushed his shoulder with mine. He was the first to stray off topic and back to a normal conversation.

“Nah, I think I need some alone time with my girl first. But after a long nap and some one-on-one with this beautiful lady right here, I’ll kindly accept your offer to help me get the fuck out of here so I can join the rest of you and your happy little New York family.”

Caleb laughed and Stella beamed. “I didn’t know either of you less than six months ago and now look at us. We’re so inseparable we’re uprooting our entire lives to move to the same place together. I think we’re the crazy ones, don’t you?”

“Crazy about you.” I was quick to chime in.

“Crazy stupid.” Caleb played along.

“Crazy in love.” Stella hooked her arm in mine and snuggled against me.

When my best friend took a chance on his professor and then swept her off her feet, I never imagined
his
destiny would bring me to
mine
. Looking back on the way things played out, I should’ve known my days were fated to be brighter the second I laid eyes on her. My purpose. My love. My future. My Sunshine.

Stella

“Did that thing pop up yet or do we need to order Chinese food for dinner?” The bird was taking forever. I’d never exactly cooked Thanksgiving dinner on my own, but if I could survive
last
year’s . . . festivities . . . I would get through this.

“Stop worrying,” Jack mumbled through a mouthful of food he wasn’t supposed to be eating yet.

“Hey! Get outta there!” I ran over to him and slapped his hand with the spoon I’d been stirring the mashed potatoes with. “You’re a freaking animal, you know that? There’ll be nothing left by the time they get here. And speaking of my family—where the hell are they?”

I stared at the clock, worry nagging at me. Mom had promised to get here early to help me cook, but she was over an hour late. I didn’t take tardy arrivals lightly anymore. Not since what went down the year before.

“Sunshine, this stuffing is fucking In. Sane!” Jack ignored my fretting and continued to stuff his face.

“You’re insatiable, you beast.” I couldn’t help but laugh. We’d spent the past three hundred and sixty five days—give or take—getting to know the ins and outs of each other. While he was greedy for the food I prepared, I was a glutton for his love. I was certain I’d never get enough.

Reading my mind, Jack swallowed his heaping helping of my grandmother’s time-honored recipe and danced—yes,
danced
with a jolly umph to his step—over to me. “You bring it out in me, what can I say?” His lips tickled my neck as he growled against my goose-bumped skin. I absolutely adored that over a year into our relationship, the flame he sparked inside me every time we touched still burned with unrelenting intensity.

I could easily melt in his arms, but I had a feast to prepare. And company bound to walk in at any minute. “Jack, if you don’t get your greedy paws off me, I’m pouring cereal into everyone’s bowls and calling it a day.”

“Oh, stop it.” He continued groping and kissing; his mouth trailed a delicious path down my neck to my chest. “You’ve been cooking and prepping for days. We have enough food here to feed the entire Duggar clan and then some. Forget about stuffing that turkey . . . it’s time for
me
to stuff
you
.” Strong and eager fingers manipulated my skirt, worked their way up my leg and into my panties.

“Ew! That’s—” Deep, and hot, and . . .
wow
. “Oh my God, don’t stop.” My legs were more wobbly than the Jell-O shaped cornucopia I prepared and left to set in the fridge.

My man knew how to work every facet of my body as if he’d been practicing an instrument for years. His skillful fingers played me with precision and care. He made love to every inch of skin, worshipped each bone and muscle until there was no choice but to surrender to his touch.

“God, so good, Jack. Always so good.”

“Yes, baby. Come on. Let’s move this to the bedroom. Something about screwing with the food watching—I don’t know. It’s—”

The rolling laughter that escaped me was unexpected and uncontrollable. “What the—? You’re too much!”

His fingers left my body and I immediately missed them. I supposed I could make some time to play with Jack. I’d worked hard all week and I definitely deserved some TLC before we said grace and chowed down.
What had this man done to me?
It was wonderfully refreshing. “Okay, but this has to be super quick. They could be here any minute.”

“Quick’s my middle name,” he teased. He grabbed my hand and dragged me to our bedroom.

“It’s so not.” I giggled. He probably hadn’t realized his blunder.

“You know what I mean. You got me all ruffled, Sunshine. Just get on the bed and hike up that skirt. I’m hungry for so much more than whatever’s left cooking back there.”

I obeyed without a moment’s hesitation. Untying the apron from behind me, I chucked it to the floor and backed up onto the comfortable mattress we purchased almost a year ago. Like everything else in the apartment, it was a joint effort. There was nothing the two of us didn’t do together, and not in the sickening attached-at-the-hip, dependent-on-each-other sort of way. We were fused by our hearts and scarred by past separations. There was no longer a single person, place, or thing that could keep us apart.

Except of course, our house guests.

“Hello? Stella? Jack? Where are you two?” My mom’s voice sounded from the front room and stopped Jack’s hands in their attempt to rid me of my panties.

“Damn it!” Jack collapsed on top of me, his face buried in my stomach.

“Party’s over.” I laughed and tried to nudge him off, but he was relentless. His teeth nipped and pulled at my clothes, his hands forever roaming. “Come on. She’ll barge in any second and you know it. I promise you a special dessert . . . later.”

At that, Jack jumped to attention and a smile replaced the blue-ball pout on his handsome face. “I’m holding you to it, you know?”

“I’d be upset if you didn’t.”

“Stella! The turkey’s overcooking. Get your ass out from underneath your boyfriend and help me finish this up!” It wasn’t the first time Mom had caught us red handed and it wouldn’t be the last. Funny thing, and as gross as it was to think about my Mom approving of my sex life, I think she was happy for me.

“You heard her. Time to make the donuts.” I shimmied out from under him and fluffed my hair back to life.

Before I could make my way to the door, Jack tugged at my arm again. “Hey!” I squealed. “What are you—”

“Before this day gets hectic and the rest of the guests arrive and steal you away from me, I need you to know how much I love you.”

A year ago Jack feared we’d overuse the phrase and get sick of those three little words. While we had definitely abused the term, I would never get tired of hearing them fall from his lips.

“I love you, too. You know that.”

“Damn straight I do, but this time it’s different. This time I’m telling you because I want you to know that you’ll be the last woman I ever say those words to. Stella—”

Oh my God. No, he wasn’t! I didn’t see a ring and he wasn’t down on bended knee, but hearing him say those words. Was he—“Don’t tell me you’re proposing, you crazy man. We spoke about this. It’s too soon. We have too many plans. Too much to do. So much time ahead of us.” I rambled on like a foolish coward. I wasn’t prepared for this. I mean, I wanted it, but just not yet. I was still young. We’d only been dating a little over a year. I didn’t want to rush.

Jack’s face remained impassive as he watched me go from flustered to panicked to confused.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I don’t know. You’ve got it all figured out, so I thought I’d just sit back and listen to you tell me how
not
to propose to you even though that’s
not
what I was doing in the first place.”

Epic fail. What a jerk. I felt so stupid and small and . . .”I’m so sorry, Jack. I feel like an idiot. I didn’t meant to assume, I just . . . the way you said it, the way you were looking at me—”

“Is no different from all the other times. When are you going to get used to it, babe?”

“Get used to what?”

“Me ogling you like you’re the end all, be all of humanity? Because you are, Stella. And what I was saying before you ruined my non-proposal, was . . .” He paused for a second and grabbed my hands in his. “You know what, never mind. We have guests to greet. We’ll talk about this later.”

That’s it? He was dismissing me? I must have bruised his ego or something because Jack was not the type to not finish something he started. “Really?” I asked, sullen. “You sure? You’re not . . . mad?”

“Nope.” He shook his head as he led the way and I could swear I heard him mumble something along the lines of, “but you’re gonna be.”

I shrugged it off and followed closely behind. I was excited to get my first hosted holiday underway and to see what Mom thought of all the food I’d prepared. But when I opened the bedroom door, I was met with a loud and shocking “Surprise!”

My Mom and Caleb, Aunt Gina and the new guy she’d been seeing for the last few months, Nina and Ryan, and even Jack’s sister Emma startled me still with their thunderous shouting.

It wasn’t my birthday and there was no reason to celebrate other than to feast like the rest of us Americans did on the third Thursday of every November. I was utterly confused, and then dumbfounded when I spotted Jack, who had been right beside me just a second ago.

This time he stood underneath a pre-printed sign that read, “You are the Sunshine of my life.” I hadn’t noticed it before, so someone must have hung it while Jack and I were in our room. Not only was everyone gaping at me as if I was the main character who’d forgotten her lines in this strange impromptu performance, but the music that played in the background seemed to fit as a soundtrack to what was taking place around me.

Here Comes the Sun
echoed through our tiny flat and even though I was disoriented by the unexpected surprise, a huge smile spread across my face as the lyrics to the song warmed my heart. “It’s our song,” I hummed, locking eyes on Jack.

“Yes, it is. This is all for you and everyone here has this tiny little question they want to ask you.”

Everything fell into place as if it had been written in the stars, mapped out to perfection, signed, sealed, and delivered by fate herself. As tears pricked my eyes with the realization of what was happening, Jack dropped to one knee and our most beloved family and friends shouted over the song, “You’re his Sunshine. He’s your Flame. Promise him forever by taking his name.”

I should’ve been angry. He’d done what I’d told him
not
to. When we started out a year ago, it was at Mach speed. Even still, it hadn’t taken very long to know I’d love him for the rest of my life. But with all the tumultuousness—my kidnapping, Aubrey’s mental breakdown and being institutionalized, the move, starting school again—I wanted to take things slowly and savor each day before we had to grow up and face reality. Unfortunately, I was so determined to do things my way that I’d failed to realize that time waited for no one.

Flattered by what was taking place around me, I let it sink in. Ever since I laid my eyes on him time had seemed to stand still. And here he was, offering me a lifetime of the love I’d become so helplessly addicted to. I couldn’t say no to this. Not in a million years.

“My beautiful, beaming Sunshine, I know you think it’s too soon and your stubborn albeit perfect ass needs to be in control of all our future plans, but . . .” He hung his head and took a moment. When he met my gaze with his again, his blue eyes sparked with the hope I’d grown to hold on to during darker days. “This day marks one year since I thought I’d never see you again. I want to erase all the bad from this date and replace it with something far better. Today is the day I offer up my heart to you. It’s been yours since I stood at that altar and watched you walk your mother down the aisle to marry my best friend. But now I want what they have. I want it all. Please don’t hate me for going against your wishes, please understand that I can’t wait a second longer to ask you . . . Stella Edwards, will you marry me and make an honest man outta me?”