Second Chances (Dreams Come True #2) (20 page)

“Oh, I only have one: why?” Marisa shook her head.

When he was done questioning us, the detective shook his head. “You two really do have the worst luck.”

“It’s all over now. Renard is dead.” Marisa shrugged. “He was everything that was wrong in your life.”

“Not exactly,” I reminded her. “Your father was the one who wrecked the gallery. He’s not going anywhere.”

“Yes, but I thought you told me since it was the reason we met, you considered it good luck.” Marisa batted those amazing eyelashes at me, a surefire way to get me to agree to any of her demands.

“True. Best bad luck ever.” I grinned and planted a kiss on the tip of her nose.

The detective had begun to walk away, but Marisa stopped him. “Wait! The shop. When can I get back to work?”

He frowned. “It may be an open and shut case, but we still need to process every bit of it. This will take some time.”

“Gah!” Marisa pouted. “Now what do I do with myself?”

“I have that all figured out.” I pulled her close and waited for her prompting.

Sure enough, she looked at me with narrowed eyes and had laughter bubbling up inside me. “And just what is that, Sebastian Boucher?”

“Well, everything is mine once more.” I shrugged. “I think our course is obvious.”

“Not to me.” She crossed her arms over her chest and set her jaw.

“We should go consummate the marriage.” I nodded while trying to keep a straight face.

Marisa burst out laughing. “We did that last night.”

“Not at the condo,” I reminded her.

The sparkle returned to her eyes. “What about the mansion?”

“Yes, we’ll have to go consummate it there too,” I agreed.

“No! I meant now we can get to work on remodeling the mansion!” She danced around excited. Apparently the pain medicine had kicked in.

“You love your projects.” I shook my head at her, pretending to be dismayed.

“I love them so much, I married one,” she teased.

I couldn’t help but grin. “First, we pack.”

“What?” Her mouth formed a pout. “We can’t go anywhere at a time like this. I have a shop to run.”

“You heard the detective. Your shop is a crime scene. Again.” I crossed my arms over my chest and raised an eyebrow. “Now if Mattie could just stop shooting people…”

“In her defense, it was the police who finished him off.” Marisa frowned. “Oh, and the police may need to question us. Again.”

“We’ll talk to them when we get back.” I lifted her up and spun her around.

“I see there’s no dissuading you.” Marisa sighed. “Where are we going?”

I leaned down and looked her in the eye, hoping she’d be as excited as I was when I told her. “Switzerland. We have a bank to visit, and a honeymoon to take.”

“I’ve heard good things about their chocolate.” She nodded quietly.

I could feel her holding back. For some reason she wasn’t as enthusiastic as I had expected. “Come on! It could be nice.”

“We’ll come back all rested.” Marisa shrugged.

“You’re half right. I doubt you’ll be resting much.” I chuckled.

“Why’s that?” She frowned at me.

I had said everything I could think of to spark her enthusiasm and seemed to be failing miserably. I decided to make one more effort. “We need to work on growing my treasure.” I waggled my brows at her.

“Oh, like we should search Switzerland to find more artists? That could be fun.” Marisa offered a smile that didn’t come close to reaching her eyes.

Quietly, I pulled her close and sighed. “Yes, but that’s not what I meant. My father had the right idea. Family is the best treasure. We should definitely work on growing ours.”

For the first time, Marisa smiled shyly up at me. “You should know…I’m late.”

“Sunshine, no you’re not. We’re not on a time schedule.”

She buried her forehead in my chest. “I can’t even right now.”

“So, no pressure, but I’d love for us to consider trying for a baby. You know, as soon as you’re ready. I’m looking forward to watching your belly outgrow your overalls.”

Marisa smirked up at me. “Well, then I have yoga pants.”

“God, I love your ass in yoga pants. I think you should wear nothing but yoga pants from now on.” I nodded and hoped I’d get an agreement from her.

“We’d never get anything accomplished,” she warned.

“Please, what do we have to accomplish? I was kinda thinking we’d cured the curse and it would be all sunshine and happiness from here on out. Maybe we’ll just relax and focus on feeling this amazing all the time.” I shrugged.

“I can live with that,” Marisa agreed. “But first, let’s eat.”

“You’re hungry again? We ate a huge breakfast a few hours ago. You sure you’re not already growing a little special something for us to love?” I was joking, but her response floored me.

“I might be. I
told
you I was late.”

I slapped my forehead and started imagining all the incredible years ahead of us, how wonderfully this could change our lives. “Yeah, I missed that.”

“Obviously. Now don’t get too excited. I mean, what are the chances I’d get pregnant the first time?” She didn’t even wait for a response. Instead, Marisa started walking toward the back of the shop to grab her jacket and purse.

I followed along behind her, trying to hide my excitement. “Yes, but then we made love a second time…”

“Good point. So lunch and then the pharmacy to satisfy your curiosity.” Marisa practically bolted for the front door, giggling.

“You’re going to make me wait that long to find out if I’m going to be a daddy?” I felt completely bewildered. What could be more important than learning if we were going to be parents?

Marisa stopped, whipped around to face me, and threw her hands up in the air. “Seriously, Sebastian? You’re going to be waiting a hell of a lot longer than that. It takes ten months to bake a baby.
Feed me
.” She made a solid point.

“Well, okay then.”

We wandered out into the cold winter day and climbed into the car. After I started the engine, I glanced in the rearview mirror as I prepared to pull into traffic and didn’t so much as pause. For the first time in as long as I could remember, I wasn’t scared of whom I’d find in the mirror. Reaching out, I laid a hand on Marisa’s thigh and exhaled, reveling in the realization I truly had it all. I’d married my everything. She gave me a second chance at life, love, and joy. Finally, the demons of my past had been laid to rest. This peace and happiness was only possible because my beauty had tamed my beast.

***

Don’t miss Ben’s story.

Three Wishes will be released in March of 2016.

Blurb:

With his gift for storytelling and his degree in film making, his plan had always been to see the world. A semester from finishing his graduate degree, Ben was assigned to make a dying girl’s wish come true. If he could hold it together, he might just fulfill one of his own. The problem was he’d never been good with kids and even less comfortable with beautiful women.

Life hadn’t been easy for Charlie after being kicked out of her parent’s house and dumped by her high school boyfriend when she refused to have an abortion. Now, six years later, Charlie’s daughter had leukemia and all she wanted was the same thing she’d wanted since she took the pregnancy test so long ago: for her baby to live.

After two long years of treatment, and news it hadn’t helped, Olivia had one last wish: to leave a legacy for her mother. As she worked on the documentary with Ben, it seemed to be working and Olivia felt better than she had in a very long time. Then the father she’d never met showed up.

Three people. Three wishes. One chance to make all their dreams come true.

about emma nichols

What made her decide to be a romance author?

Simple.

How else was she going to parlay her two favorite past times into a career?

Emma is single and loving it. Like her first character, Alysin, Sin for short, she doesn't believe in settling or in settling down. She loves to indulge in her passions whenever the mood strikes and enjoys keeping all of life's cliché moments spicy.

Known for her sense of humor, Emma surrounds herself with friends whose antics often become the source of book fodder. Her ideal situation would be to explore the Caribbean while writing. She pursues that dream daily.

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Acknowledgements

First, let me begin by thanking the best beta readers an author could ever have. Renee Giraldy, Danielle Matthews, and Steph Brady, I seriously couldn’t have done it without you. You can’t imagine how much I appreciate the way you gave your time and attention to this book when I really needed you. So much love. <3

Second, thank you to my amazing cover artist, Marisa Shor. You inspire me. You also inspired a character. Hope my Marisa is someone you can be proud of. Thank you for the incredible cover and all your hard work. I couldn’t do this without you.

A special thanks to CP Smith of Affordable Formatting, who always manages to squeeze in my last minute formatting project. I don’t know where you find the time, but I’m so glad you do.

Finally, many many thanks to all the bloggers who read, review, share and promote my work. I appreciate all your hard work. Thank you for giving your time to this and all projects.