Can't Help My Shelf (His Curvy Librarian Book 3) by Frankie Love (the little red hen read aloud TXT) 📕

Nora’s eyes go wide when she sees the ring. It’s a princess cut diamond with a ring of sapphires all the way around it, the same color as her eyes.

“Where did that come from?” she asks.

“Well, I had a couple of hours to kill after I got here, before you came home from work,” I say, taking her hand. “Nora, I’ve loved you since the moment I met you, and I know we’ve only spent a couple of days together, but that’s all I need to know you’re the one for me. The one I’ve been waiting for. And I think you’ve been waiting for me too.”

She’s nodding her head, her hand shaking in mine, and she looks like she might cry again—but I’m pretty sure they’ll be happy tears this time.

“Oh Nash…” Nora’s brow wrinkles and my heart stops because now it feels like a no is coming. “I love you too. I really do—you’ve got no idea how many times I’ve wanted to reach out to you and tell you that over the last few weeks, but I didn’t want you to feel like you were trapped in a situation you didn’t mean to sign up for.”

“I would never feel trapped by you,” I say, getting off my knee so I can pull her to me. “All I want is you, and this baby—our family.”

“What about your job?” she asks. “You’re not going to quit the Army for us, are you?”

“I was kind of hoping you’d want to come with me,” I say. “Travel the world, see everything you’ve always wanted to see.”

“Raise a baby in Italy?”

“Why not? As F. Scott Fitzgerald says, you can’t live forever.” I present the ring to her again, then add, “If you hate it, we can always put in for a transfer, or I can ask to be stationed stateside. What do you say, Nora? Will you be my family?”

A smile spreads across her face, starting slowly then lighting her up from within. “Yes, Nash, let’s be a family!”

I lift her up, twirl her around again, then set her down and slip the ring onto her finger. I’m the luckiest man alive.

Epilogue 1

Nash

8 months later…

Not quite a year later, Nora and I are truly living the dream.

We got married right there in Golden Creek a few days after I proposed. It was a small courthouse ceremony, but we followed it up with a big party for all our friends and family that weekend.

Quinn and her husband Owen were there, and Chelsea was our flower girl, carrying around a huge basket full of petals and sprinkling them in front of us wherever we walked all night long. I got to meet Nora’s family—her mom and dad and all of her sisters, plus her best friend who Nora explained is like a sister.

They all promised to look after her when I had to go back to Italy a few days after the wedding, and to support us while we bumbled our way through the first couple of months as long-distance newlyweds.

Fortunately, that didn’t last long, and at the end of Nora’s first trimester, she put in her notice at the library, ended the lease on her little house, and moved to Italy to be with me. If she wasn’t so damn excited to explore, I’d have felt bad asking her to uproot her life for me… but now I’ve got everything I ever wanted right here.

If you’d asked me nine months ago, on my last leave, whether I thought I’d ever have a wife and a family, I wouldn’t even have hesitated. Hell no—the odds of finding a woman who could deal with my lifestyle, who didn’t mind moving wherever the Army wanted us, and who could quote all my favorite books on top of that… slim to none.

And yet here she is, standing in the modest kitchen in our rental house near the Army Garrison in Vincenza, the morning sunlight streaming through the window and bringing out strands of copper hidden in her dark hair.

She’s fucking stunning, even doing something so mundane as filling up the coffee pot, and lately it’s been a real struggle just to leave the house and actually go do some work.

Nora is nine months pregnant, her belly big and round with not one but two babies, and she looks like she’s smuggling a watermelon beneath her sundress. I think it’s the most beautiful I’ve ever seen her, but trust me, I only ever made one comment about the size of her belly before I learned my lesson.

That was the day I also learned that Nora has a hell of a right hook… although it ended in more of a playful swat than an actual slug.

Still, message received.

For the last nine months, I’ve been pampering my new wife and the twins growing inside her in every way I can think of. All the back and foot rubs Nora can handle. Gelato, pasta, cannoli—the best foods that Italy has to offer. And, of course, books.

There’s a little indie bookshop between our house and the base and I stop in frequently after work to see what’s new. We’ve got quite a little library at home now, for Nora and me as well as for our little ones. Our kids are going to grow up loving books just as much as their mother and father, and I can’t wait to watch Nora do storytime for our own little ones.

“Is today a jam or a Nutella day?” I ask, reaching for the cupboard.

“Mm,” Nora hums, thinking it over. “Nutella, definitely.”

I laugh and bring the jar down, as well as a couple of cornetti—sweet, flaky croissants that we’ve both become obsessed with since Nora joined me here. Honestly, most days are Nutella days, though Nora swears up and down it’s the twins making the decision, not her.

I cut our pastries and load them up with plenty of hazelnut spread, and Nora hands me a cup of coffee just how I like it,