Page 50 of Fool Me

He knelt to pick up her coveralls as she stepped out of them. She expected him to stand right back up, but after balling up and tossing her work uniform to one side, he remained on one knee.

The rest of the party continued in full swing as Grant tilted his face toward hers. It was the simplest of movements, but the sight of him on one knee, his hand held out toward her and his eyes filled with hope, started alarm bells clanging in her heart.

“What are you doing?” she asked through the quick succession of half-breaths that were all her lungs could offer.

“I’m no movie star,” he said, reaching out and taking hold of both her hands. “I can’t promise you red-carpet entrances or a house like this, but I can promise you’ll bemymovie star for as long as I live. I know it’s sudden and I want you to take all the time you need. We’ve only been on three dates, and they were fake. But I’ve known in my heart for six years this day would happen. I did doubt it sometimes, but the afternoon you showed up with those sandwiches—and now with you standing here in the exact clothes you had on the first time I saw you—well, I do believe in love at first sight, and I do believe in fate, and I hope you do too. Sadie Heppner, you have stolen my heart forever. Will you marry me?”

Sadie was grateful for the five or six feet separating them from the pool’s edge, because her swirling vision and weak knees might otherwise have toppled her right back into the jostling waves. She’d driven here to apologize and end her Hollywood career and wound up with Grant Mason asking for her hand in marriage. She swallowed hard and would have pinched herself if she’d had use of her hands.

Grant’s expression switched from fervent hope to pained panic. “I’m just letting you know that that’s what I want if it’s what you want. I’ve waited six years, and I’ll wait sixty more. You take all the time you need.”

Sadie needed less than a second to evaluate her heart. His earnest face, sincere words, and really, everything about him, would be so easy to love the rest of her days. No matter what happened with their acting careers, she would be blissfully happy by his side. She only needed one more second to consider the spinster pact. In her mind’s eye, she saw the disappointed looks on Monique and Ginny’s faces—well, really only Monique’s—and the million dollars from Great Aunt Lydia’s estate.

As the band struck up “Little Surfer Girl,” she squeezed Grant’s hands back. “I’ve taken all the time I need, and my answer is yes, with one condition.”

31

Grant braced himself for Sadie’s condition, but only a little bit, because with Sadie Heppner as the prize, he would meet any condition. “Name it.”

“We have to have the ceremony right now.”

His ears must be broken. “Right now? As in here, at Ronny’s house?”

“Right now, right here. Six years is long enough to have wasted. I refuse to spend another minute not being your wife.”

“Now I know I’m dreaming,” he said, and wobbled a little on his bent knee.

She tilted her head. Her perfect curls, the reason for their reunion, still dripped with pool water. “Are you asking me to dunk you again?”

Grant smiled, remembering how she’d pushed him under right after the most incredible kiss of his life. The feel of her melting against him, of her hands caressing the nape of his neck and her lips warm and sweet against his, had woken every nerve-ending in his body.

Marriage was infinitely more serious than a kiss, though. He stood, still holding both her hands, and leaned his forehead down toward hers till they touched. “Are you sure? Your sisters aren’t here.”

She closed her eyes and let out a breath. When she reopened them, their ice blue depths shimmered with dancing light reflected from the pool’s waves. “It’s a long story, but my sisters are the reasonwhywe have to do it now.”

“I don’t want to upset them though. I’ve never even met them.”

She slipped her hands from his and placed them on his cheeks. “You’ve got to trust me. They will understand.”

Grant nodded. “Then now it is, my darling. All we need is a minister.” He turned and walked back to the edge of the pool. At the deep end, people sat on each other’s shoulders as they attempted to dislodge similarly arranged couples in a splashy game of chicken. Nearest to where Grant and Sadie stood, a conga line led by King Neptune himself snaked past the stairs. Grant hated to interrupt the raucous, riotous fun, but it had to be done.

Between a childhood of talking to his dad over the din of a tractor and his years of theatrical training, he knew a thing or two about voice projection. Taking a deep breath, he boomed, “Is there a minister in the house?” Despite the live band and the incessant splashing, the conga line stopped mid-kick, and the game of chicken paused mid-topple. His face flushed. “Or,” he added at a more normal level of yelling, “in the swimming pool?”

Ronny, still at the head of the conga line, made a motion toward the band to cut the music, then spoke into the jarring silence that remained. “A minister? Does somebody need last rights at my party? Because no one is allowed to die at one of my parties.”

Grant balked at announcing the real reason they needed a minister. The idea of marrying Sadie Heppner bent his brain and heart into knots. Had he pushed her too fast? Did she really want this wedding at all, let alone right now? He stood there, tongue tied before those hundreds of quizzical faces, until Sadie leapt forward.

“It’s because we’re getting married!” she cried, raising her arms and spreading her fingers wide as she bounced up and down on her toes.

It was the old Sadie, the Sadie game for anything, who’s passion and excitement inspired others to new heights wherever she went. Seeing the spark in her eyes, in her beautiful body, sent a wave of joy through Grant. He was sure now, not just that getting married was the right thing, but that it was right for Sadie. They were meant to be together, as he’d always known, and he saw no reason why that togetherness should be delayed another minute.

Grabbing Sadie by the waist with one arm, he raised his other hand in a fist, pumping it in the air as he beamed at the crowd. “Yeah! We’re getting marriedright now!”

The crowd let up a whoop of congratulations and Ronny’s face spread into a goofy grin. He smacked the water with his hand, sending up a spray of drops that caught the rainbow colors of the lanterns. “I knew it! I knew it!” Wading toward the stairs, he climbed partway up, straightened his crown, and faced his people. “Isthere a minister here?”

Hands shot up all around, dozens of hands, but Ronny lowered his eyelids as he shook his head. “I don’t mean a minister as in you once sent fifty bucks to getordainedtoday.com. This is arealwedding, and we need arealminister!” Every hand slunk back down. Ronny sounded vexed. “Really? Nobody?”

Grant was calculating how long it would take to find a minister willing to drive to the party, when a quiet but confident voice spoke up.

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