Page 87 of Rainstorm

“Chase?” She stared at me as if I were a mirage.

Yes, my love, you are my oasis after a long walk in the desert.

“What are you doing here?”

I couldn’t help kissing her quickly on the lips, just because I had missed her and needed to make contact with her.

But I never lost sight of my objective.

I was there on a mission.

I dropped to one knee in front of her, and taking the little black velvet box from my pocket, I opened it to present the ring I’d had made especially for her.

“Roselynn, you know how much I love you. I’ve dreamed about you so many times, even before I saw your face,” I began, having prepared my speech very carefully, with every single word coming straight from my soul.

Rose’s hands were covering her mouth, as if she were trying to hold on and not mess up the perfect proposal.

My heart was drumming so hard inside my chest, it was galloping toward a heart attack. Emotion was burning in my eyes, pride was in my words, love was filling my entire soul.

“Fate may have brought us together, but it was our choice to allow our hearts to guide us forward. I want to have babies with you, I want to grow old with you. I want to live my entire life with you. I want to take care of you, to make you happy. To make all your dreams come true, to support you and allow you to reach all your goals. You own my sunshine, you always will. Will you please do me the great honor of agreeing to be my wife?”

She bent her beautiful slender body down to grab my face in her hands and kiss me softly on the mouth.

“You are all my dreams, Holland,” she murmured, her words only for me. “I’d be honored to be your wife.”

“What did she say?” someone shouted—I thought it was Mandy Sue—bursting our little bubble.

“She said yes!” Rose cried out, and the entire studio went crazy, with everyone clapping and whistling.

I stood to hug her, to kiss those pouty lips that had delivered the answer I was waiting for.

“If my father is watching the show today, he’ll be having a heart attack right about now,” she laughed, still in my arms which were refusing to let her go.

“Your entire family is watching the show. I talked with them yesterday evening. They’re cool with it,” I informed her smugly.

That made her gasp.

“You talked with them yesterday?”

I nodded. “Of course. I wanted to do this properly. It’s the traditional thing to do, my parents raised me well.” I winked. The truth was I’d gladly gone to the dragon’s den for her.

Her father had heard me out without a single interruption, just tears misting his eyes as he’d told me to take good care of their most precious treasure. That had been an easy promise to make and I intended to fulfill it whole-heartedly.

Half an hour later, after being swamped in a sea of congratulations and hugs, and after giving a quick interview, which had been the condition imposed by the producer in allowing me to propose live on their television show, we left the studio.

We were ready to go home to celebrate.

I’d got everything planned out—hopefully I’d thought of everything.

Robert Wayne, Mandy’s fiancé, who’d also become embroiled in my plans, had been at home to oversee the chef who’d been hired to prepare us a cold lunch, a tray of chocolate coated strawberries, with a bottle of champagne chilling in the refrigerator and yet more flowers in our bedroom, to continue with the celebrations, with hopefully all angles covered.

My phone rang, and I smiled when I saw my mother’s name appear on the screen.

My folks were aware of my plans, and of course they were excited to make Rose an official member of our growing family. My mother never missed the show anyway, and I was certain this morning would be no exception.

“Did you see it?” I asked, without even greeting her.

For a couple of seconds, all I could hear were her panicked breaths over the phone line, and I instantly knew something was wrong.

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