Snatched (Coronado Series Book 2) (31 page)

“How did you know what to do?”

“I spoke with Birdie, and she told me what you would like. I’m smart enough to ask if I don’t know the answer.”

“I think you are very smart and I’m lucky I married you.”

“We are lucky.”

“Let’s go upstairs and look around.” They made their way up the wide stair case, and Rory stopped for a moment. “Just think, someday we are going to watch our daughter walk down these stairs when she is getting ready to go on her first date and we’re going to hear the loud footsteps of our son when he is on his way outside to play. Everything important in our lives is going to happen in this house.”

“I don’t think our daughter is going to date until she graduates college.”

She patted his arm as they started walking again, “Whatever you need to tell yourself to get through the next twenty years.”

He followed, “I’m serious about the dating thing.”

“I know honey….I know.”

They walked into the master bedroom and looked around, “Would you care to guess about all of the memories that we are going to make in here?” He sat down on the floor and held his hand for her to join him. They sat with their backs against the wall facing the big set of windows that looked out over the backyard. “Just think … we are going to make more babies in here.”

“Can I deliver the two we have, before we talk about anymore?”

“Sure sweetheart, we are going to practice a lot in here. Does that sound better?”

“Yes, practicing is good.”

“Do you want to change anything on your top five list yet?”

“No, I think I’m happy with it. What about you?”

“No, I’m going to keep mine as well.”

She turned to him with a serious expression on her face, “I want to thank you for making me realize that loving someone could be easy…. loving you is easy.”

“I hope I never do anything to change your mind about that. Remember, you have to tell me if anything starts to change.”

“I will…. I promise. You make me feel beloved Mr. Bishop and I didn’t even know that was possible.”

“You are beloved Mrs. Bishop… you are my beloved and I plan on spending the rest of my life making sure you know that.”

THE END

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Birdie’s Matchmaking

This is the story of Ed and Amelia’s first date….

He opened the gate and walked up to the front door and wondered again how he’d let Birdie talk him into this. He couldn’t quite remember why he had agreed to ask her friend out, but felt it might have had something to do with her relentless personality. He wondered if Mark had any idea what he was getting into, maybe they deserved each other. He remembered a couple of times that Mark had displayed a similar personality. They could drive each other crazy and leave other innocent people alone.

He knocked on the front door and waited, he heard a loud sharp bark and footsteps. As the door opened he got his first glimpse of Amelia and took back everything he thought about Birdie in the last week. In fact he was going to try and to come up with a gift to thank her for giving him this opportunity.
 

Amelia looked up from her dog Lilly and smiled at the man in front of her.
Thank you Birdie, you are my new favorite person.
She let her eyes run up his long legs to his slim waist and broad chest. She continued to smile as she admired his face and fell into his beautiful brown eyes. “Hi, you must be Ed?”

“Hi Amelia, nice to meet you.” He put his hand out and heard her dog growl in his direction. She looked down and gave her a command, “Friend – Lilly.” He watched the dog relax and start wagging her tail. “She won’t give you a hard time now – she’s a little overprotective.”

He took her hand and felt her soft skin against his as he looked into her eyes.
Yes, Birdie was definitely getting a present.

“I’m sorry to leave you on the porch, please come in.” She slipped her hand out of his and stepped back to let him in.
 

He got down on one knee and put his hand out flat to let the dog smell, she gave him an approving look and licked his hand. He petted her head and rubbed her chest a little. He looked up, “I thought I’d better make friends with your dog if - I ever want a chance with you.”
 

“Lilly is a big sweetheart …. until she’s not. She seems to like you, which is probably a good sign.” The dog gave him one last look and then turned around and walked over to her bed and laid down. She rested her head on her paws and tracked his every movement. “Please come in and have a seat. Can I get you something to drink?”

He walked into her front room and noticed how comfortable it looked. She obviously had spent time on making a home for herself. “I’m fine, thank you.”
 

She walked to one of the couches and sat down in the corner and tucked one leg underneath her as she watched him move around the couch, he took a seat on the opposite end.
I have a feeling that whatever question he asks…. the answer is going to be yes.
 

He looked around the room for a moment taking in the details, “I like your photographs – who took them?”

“I did. I’m guessing that Birdie didn’t tell you anything about me.”

“Your right, she gave me your number and very clear instructions to call you.”

“What does she have on you? She must have something good….. for you to agree to a blind date?”

He laughed, “Nothing. When she gets an idea in her mind, she doesn’t let it go. She’s pretty relentless.”

“Oh… so she wore you down, until you agreed.”

“That sounds bad.”

“But… true.”

“A little, I’m going to have to thank her though. I might even get her a present.”

“We haven’t even gone on our date yet…. it could be a disaster.”

He looked at her as a sexy smile played on his lips, he reached for her hand, “I don’t think a disaster is what’s going to happen.” He watched as Lilly lifted her head when he took Amelia’s hand. He noticed the dog was highly trained and wondered why she needed a dog like that. “What do you like to photograph most?”

Amelia felt the dry heat from Ed’s enormous hand and couldn’t remember the last time she felt so strongly attracted to someone. She gazed at his face and realized that she liked beards, at least she liked his. She continued to study his face and noticed his mouth and wondered if he would kiss her goodnight. He had a great mouth, she realized that he’d asked her a question. “I’m sorry, could you repeat that.”

He smiled when he noticed that she was staring at his mouth when she zoned out. “What do you like to photograph most?”

“I’m a food photographer. I take pictures for magazines, cookbooks, websites and some advertising campaigns. Apparently, I have a gift for making fruit and vegetables look appetizing.” She watched him laugh and noticed that his eyes crinkled up when he did. “But to answer your question, my favorite subject to photograph are people – I like to catch the moment that no one else is aware of.” She swept her hand up towards the wall, “I took those at my friend’s party last year and I think it’s some of my best work.”

He looked over and noticed the black and white photographs, he pulled her hand as he got up. “Tell me what you noticed, when you took them.” She stood up and followed him over, as she walked behind him she noticed that his jeans fit him really well. She stood next to him in front of the pictures, “This was a going away party for a friend that moved to Virginia. She graduated from medical school and was going to start her internship.” They stood close to one another, and she noticed that he smelled yummy. It was a combination of laundry soap, something woodsy and maybe soap. Whatever it was seemed to be a perfect combination.

Ed pointed to a picture of a couple who stood facing each other with cheerless looks on their faces, “What happened to these two?”

“They stayed in their relationship too long. They broke up a month after this picture was taken. They had been dating for so long that they had become habit to one another. They forgot to pay attention and make sure it still made sense for them to be together.”

“Why did you want to catch that moment?”

“I thought it was one of the most honest moments of their relationship. I think they denied what was going on for a long time, neither one of them wanted to make the effort to break up. I took it, because I never want to let that happen.”

He looked down at her, and smelled oranges and baby lotion. He noticed that her light brown hair had about a thousand colors mixed together, it looked soft and he wanted to run his hand through her long curls. He looked into her whisky brown eyes and felt himself tumble into them. He noticed a smile played at the corners of her mouth as they stood side by side barely a breath between them. Time slowed down as he became aware of every small detail about the moment. He felt the breeze coming in though the patio doors and saw the shaft of sun that created a pattern against the wall. He lifted his eyes and pointed to another one, “Tell me about these two.” It was a picture of a man with his arm around a woman. The woman’s face was buried in the man’s chest as his head rested on the top of hers. The man’s eyes were closed and his forehead was wrinkled in intense emotion. He looked completely lost in the moment and in love with the woman in his arms.
 

“These two have one of the best relationships that I have ever seen. Brad is completely in love with Denise and she feels the same way about him. I think this picture captures the intensity of their feelings for one another. They have been together for five years and they just keep getting better. I took this picture so I could remember never to settle. I want someone to have feelings like that for me.
 

He nodded as he studied the picture, she had captured a moment of raw uncomplicated emotion. He looked at several more pictures and then took her hand, “You are very talented.”

She looked down at their hands, “Thank you. Tell me what you do for work?”

“I work for a security firm downtown. I’ve been there for two years.”

“Do you like it?”

“I like the people I work with, I’ve know most of them for a long time. I enjoy the work we do…. most days.”

“What did you do before that?”

“I was on the Teams for ten years until my shoulder gave out.”

“What Teams?”

“Birdie didn’t really tell you anything – did she?”

“No, she just told me that you are a nice man and someone I should get to know.”

“I’m a retired SEAL. I was on Team One, based in Coronado.”

“Oh… your friends with Mark?”

“Yes. We have worked together over the years and have been on a couple of ops together. I work with Max Bishop.”

“The man who is helping Rory?”

“Yes, I work with Max at the Security Alliance.”

“Did she talk you into this - the night she and Rory got drunk at her house?”

“Yes, she and Rory started matchmaking and I was one of her targets. I didn’t enjoy it at the time, but I have a feeling she is going to get a big ‘I told you so” out of this.”

“You realize that she’s never going to stop now, I feel sorry for the guys.”

“I don’t. In fact I may encourage her to keep doing it.” He ran his thumb over the pulse point on her wrist and grinned into her eyes, “Are you ready to go out to dinner? I chose a restaurant down at the Embarcadero.”

“Yes. Let me get Lilly her dinner and I will grab a jacket.”
 

He watched her walk into the kitchen and admired how pretty her legs looked. She was everything that he found attractive in a woman, he noticed how slender her ankles looked in her sandals. It wasn’t something that he’d ever noticed before. He felt his phone vibrate and pulled it out to look at it. He regretted it immediately as he read the text, his ex-girlfriend was sending out another SOS single.
Shit… this was not something that he wanted to deal with when he was out on a date.
He quickly texted her back that he was unavailable and she should call someone else. He pushed his phone back in his pocket as he watched Amelia come back in the room with her jacket on her arm. His phone buzzed again and he ignored it. She gave him a questioning look and he simply smiled back. “I hope you like Mexican food?”

“It’s one of my favorites. Where are you taking me?”

“I found this little place that has great food with local ingredients and amazing margaritas.” His phone buzzed again and she looked at him as he ignored it.

“You’re going to ignore the buzzing phone?”

“Yes, that’s my plan.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s my ex-girlfriend and she’s sending out SOS signals.”

“Please don’t ignore it. I don’t want to feel responsible, if she needs help.”