Bad Bridesmaid (Billionaire's Club Book 11) by Elise Faber (important books to read txt) 📕

“Wh—?”

But she didn’t get to finish the question because his lips were on hers, and then he was kissing her until she was loopy, until her heart pounded and her pulse was skittering through her veins.

Then he took her inside to play a board game.

As though it were a normal night and not one where her heart had seemed to grow three sizes.

“Hey,” Jaime said as they started to walk past him.

She glanced up, but he was looking at Brad, smiling in that paternalistic, older brother way he just exuded.

“For the record, Mom just told me she’s not going to worry about you anymore.”

Brad went still, so still.

Then his body relaxed, a long sigh escaping him, and he clapped Jaime on the shoulder. “Love you, bro.”

“Love you, too.” Jaime nodded, and after Kate popped her head into the hall, he hustled into the dining room.

“What was that about?” Heidi whispered as they followed him.

He slowed down, tugging her to a halt with him. “That—”

“Ticket to Ride!” Marabelle called from the dining room.

His lips curved up into that special, slow, sexy smile that he reserved only for her.

“I’ll tell you—”

“Now!”

Lips on hers for the briefest moment. “Some other time.”

Heidi’s heart grew another size. “Sometime in our long, happy future together?”

Another smile—this one hot, tinged with sweet. “Yes.”

Marabelle’s head poked in through the opening. “Ticket—”

“To ride!” they finished in unison.

And then they went into the kitchen. To finally play that board game.

On a night that felt extraordinary, but would become commonplace as the years went by, her heart growing and growing until it seemed to take up all the space in her body.

But that wasn’t scary any longer. All the love she felt for them made her stronger, instead of weaker, built her up instead of tore her down.

Because she had her family—the one she’d made, the one she’d chosen.

And she had this man.

Who’d turned normal into extraordinary.

Epilogue

Brad, six months later

Pink-painted nails digging into pale white sand.

A lusciously curved body curled up next to his.

A paperback propped on his chest as she read her latest historical romance.

It was funny, but in all his travels, he had never been one for sitting on a beach all day, having cocktails delivered at his elbow, the hot sun shining down through an umbrella overhead.

But with Heidi at his side like this, he was hard-pressed to picture another type of vacation.

Of course, it might also be the sex.

He could now say with complete authority that he didn’t mind getting sand into all sorts of crevices when it meant that he could be with this woman.

Tomorrow they would be going back home to the Bay Area, to Heidi’s condo with his newly finished—and exceptionally organized thanks to his woman—office, and they’d be heading back to reality.

Except, reality was . . . heaven.

So they might be leaving the gorgeous beach and warm sand. They wouldn’t have cocktails delivered to their cabana, left at their sides by friendly attendants. They’d be back in the fog, in the traffic, in the long hours at the lab and long hours behind a computer.

But they’d also be going back to movie nights and popcorn, to coffee while cuddled up in bed, and blustery trips to the beach.

They’d be going back to the life they’d built.

The huge, wonderful, amazing life they’d built.

Only . . . Heidi didn’t know it, but she would be going back with one additional souvenir.

The diamond ring currently taking up space in his pocket because he hadn’t been able to let it out of his sight.

He had it planned for dinner. He’d made all the arrangements, a moonlight stroll on the beach, a private dinner at a table perched just above the waves. They’d have the stars and the moon, and then he’d get down on one knee and—

“I was thinking.”

Blinking, he glanced down at her, at the woman who held his heart in the palm of her hand, who was so fucking strong and smart and beautiful, and smiled. “About what?”

She set her book down, shifted so she could rest her chin on her folded arms that sat on his chest. Then she smiled.

And damn if his heart still didn’t skip a beat.

“Uh-oh,” he teased. “That’s a very calculating look. What am I about to get myself into?”

A splash of pink on her cheeks. “I was thinking.”

He smirked. “You said that already. Thinking about what?”

“Well, our flight home connects through Vegas,” she said. “So, I thought we could extend our trip for one more day and . . .”

“Go gambling?”

She sighed, narrowed her eyes at him. “Brad,” she warned.

“What?” he asked innocently.

She huffed. “We could do the most Vegas-y thing ever and take a page out of Kels and Tanner’s book—”

And then he decided to forget the dinner, forget the moonlight and crashing waves and proposal under the stars. Placing a finger over her lips, he used his other hand to reach into his pocket.

He didn’t skip the one knee—which required him to do a fair amount of maneuvering, he had to admit—but then she was sitting up and he was on one knee, and he had the ring box open.

“Heidi, my love, my heart, my everything—”

“Yes!”

Laughter bubbled up in his chest. “I haven’t even asked you yet.”

“You don’t have to.” She launched herself into his arms, making him fumble to grab her, hold on to the ring, and not end up on his ass. He was only successful in two of the three, but since they were the most important two, he didn’t mind the sand getting up his swim trunks. Especially when she said, “The answer to any question you ask me will always be yes.”

“Any?” he asked, tugging at a strand of her hair. “Are you sure you want to commit to that?”

A glare. “Stop teasing and kiss me.”

“In a minute,” he said, then looked deeply into those beautiful hazel eyes and asked her the most important question of his life. “Heidi Greene, will you marry me?”

Her expression