Page 83 of The Billionaire Love Match

The questions continued and Casey grew more comfortable. With the encouragement of her agent and Amanda, she’d learn to really embrace her quirky humor. People did seem to love it. Even though she didn’t love the people. Or, at least, being in front of them. She had a few more big appearances, then would start on a book tour. She’d just be meeting fans in book stores and doing some smaller local spots. She could handle that. Amanda was coming with her, and it was actually pretty exciting. She’d never traveled that much other than the drive from Texas to California.

“Casey, we have to know. How are things with Colt?”

Casey swallowed. This question was always hard. She had prepared an answer that Elizabeth helped her write and memorize: There are no hard feelings, but we aren’t together. I wish him the best. But today she didn’t feel like saying that.

“I really miss him,” she said. The audience grew still and Anna leaned forward, as though she knew this was something new and not the usual party line.

“What do you miss about him?” she asked.

“How long is your segment?” Casey asked. People laughed. “I mean, Colt and I didn’t have the traditional relationship. I often wondered if it was just all chemistry or something fake from the weird circumstances. The cameras, the setup, the physical chemistry between us. It’s easy for me to tell myself that none of it was real. Or at least not the kind of real that you marry.”

The last word just popped out.

“So you wanted to marry Colt?”

“I did,” Casey said.

“What would you say to Colt right now, if you could tell him anything.”

Casey knew she should look at the camera, the way he did on all those appearances. But instead she looked at her hands, twisting together in her lap. “I would tell him that I’m sorry. That I wish things had gone differently in the end. That I still miss him and wish that he would ask me what he wanted to ask me that night after filming.”

“What did he want to ask you?”

Casey felt like she had been in a trance, but the spell suddenly broke. She smoothed out her skirt and looked up at Anna with a tight smile. “It doesn’t matter now,” she said. Anna had a huge goofy grin on her face. So did Greg.

“It does matter,” a voice said from behind her. Colt.

She jumped to her feet and turned, seeing him walk onto the stage in a tux looking...completely perfect in the very best way.

She stood stock-still, staring. Unable to speak or move, she hardly registered the excited squeals and cheers in the audience as Colt cross the stage to her. He touched her hand and a pulse of electricity moved up her arm. She was already crying.

Amanda knew. Amanda had made her wear waterproof mascara today, even though Casey hated it because it was so hard to get off and made her lashes fall out. Amanda knew that Colt was coming today. She could see Amanda now off to the side of the stage, clapping. She was crying too.

She zeroed back in on Colt. His eyes looked green today and she could only see one emotion in them: love.

“Casey, I screwed this whole thing up. I ran when I should have stayed. I believed lies about you when I could have taken one look at you and seen the truth. Will you forgive me?”

Casey tried to get out a yes, but she was too choked up with emotion. When she nodded, the audience said, “aww.”

“I’ve learned so much from watching you—you’re strong and you’re vulnerable too. It’s beautiful. When you were asked on the show about your history with men, that crossed a line that shouldn’t have been crossed. I was really angry, but I think I was partly angry with myself for not being brave like you.

“I’ve been waiting too. For the right person—the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I should have said that then, but I didn’t and I’m sorry. I only hope it’s not too late for us.”

Casey swallowed. Her hands were trembling and Colt squeezed them, then began tapping on her palm.

I L-O-V-E Y-O-U

She smiled through the tears that were starting to make things blurry. Colt got down on one knee and pulled something from his pocket with one hand.

“Remember this? I showed this to you the night we finished taping. I bought it after our dinner at Marco’s and it’s been burning a hole in my pocket ever since. Casey, I can’t promise what’s next. But I will promise you this: no more cameras, no other women to compete with, no studio audience, and no one pulling all the strings. Just you and me, forever. Oh, and your dad said yes.”

“You called my dad?” she said in a small voice. This one detail meant so much to her.

“No, I flew them to LA,” he said. “Depending on your answer to this next question, I thought we could all go to lunch.”

She resisted the urge to grab him and plant a kiss on his lips.

“Well, are you going to ask or are we going to stand here ‘til commercial break?”

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