Page 433 of Tormented Billionaire Romance Series

Dad faced Mom, Sarah, and Leo, and he actually laughed out loud. He called to Mom, “You hear that?Sir!The girl’s polite!” Back to Corinne, he said, “Your father’s a pastor, then, is that right?”

“Yes, Sir,” Corinne said, a bit bashfully.

Chuckling, Dad said, “Well, Pastor Gordon knows how to raise a daughter.”

My father took Corinne by the arm and walked her over to introduce her to Mom, who was just beside herself with delight, and Sarah, who gave her a hug and me a thumbs-up. Dad took Corinne’s arm again and started to walk her towards the dining room.

Corinne looked over her shoulder and grinned at me. I shrugged and followed, and the rest of us followed them. Dad said to her, “You know, it all feels very much like a time for fresh starts for all of us.”

I couldn’t have agreed more.

EPILOGUE

Corinne. Six months later

“We’ve found your next career,” said Elijah. “You’re going to be a matchmaker.”

Everyone was dressed to the nines on the ground floor of that five-star hotel where Elijah and I almost had dinner that one night. The hotel where he suggested that after our meal he could get us a suite and we could spend the night doing the most wickedly, wonderfully sexual things to each other.

But, that was not what we were here for today. The hotel had this nice pavilion which was all made up with flowers and bows, where there was now a chamber music quartet and a minister — and my father and Barbara, walking in together, arm in arm while the music played.

The place was filled mostly with people from work, and everyone was thrilled for Barbara. Elijah and I were likewise arm in arm, standing near Ben and Leanna, watching the fruition of a brainstorm that I’d gotten during one fateful lunch with the bride. I looked up at Elijah and whispered, “You’ve got to admit I’m two for two, here. Ben and Leanna, Daddy and Barbara…”

“We ought to make your services available to everyone at the company,” Elijah suggested. “I hear Steven at the Call Center is looking for a husband, and since I’m not on the market…”

“Oh, shush,” I said, giving his arm a squeeze.

After the vows were said, the rings exchanged, Dad kissed the bride, and the musicians broke out into “Here Comes the Sun” by the Beatles — an unexpected number that Barbara had chosen, that somehow felt exactly right — we all started to walk with Pastor Gordon and the new Mrs. Gordon to the private dining room that Elijah had insisted on renting for the occasion as a wedding gift.

I came up next to Daddy, took him by the arm that wasn’t locked with the bride’s, and whispered to him, “Barbara might be the only person I would have ever let you be with, Daddy.”

He softly laughed and whispered back to me, “I knew she must be special when my girls actually wanted me to meet her.”

After that, it was all over but the dining, wining, toasting, and dancing with a playlist on iTunes and speakers with songs that Leanna, Sarah, and I had carefully picked out — or so I thought.

The sun had gone down when Elijah tapped a fork on his wine glass, making a pinging tone to get everyone’s attention.

“As it’s starting to get late and the bride and groom would like to take their leave, the new Mrs. Gordon would like to toss her bouquet. If the single ladies present are ready…”

On cue, all the unmarried women jostled themselves into position. Elijah nodded at me to join them, and I did so, humoring him, in spite of the fact that I’d never put much stock in this old tradition about tossed bouquets at weddings. Thinking nothing of the whole business, I smiled crookedly and shook my head as Barbara turned around and sent the bunch of flowers sailing over her shoulder and into the air…

I found it coming down right to me. Without even thinking about what I was doing, I grabbed it. Only when it was in my hand and a chorus of gasps and squeals went up around the room did I realize what I’d done.

I looked up and over at everyone. “Oh no,” I murmured, clutching at the bouquet. And that was when I felt something strange about the stems of these flowers in my hand. There was something attached to them. I took a closer look and found a card held in place by a piece of golden elastic.

Glancing up at Daddy, I said, “Did you have a card to give Barbara?”

My father said, shrugging, “I didn’t. Who’s that from? Open it.”

“I shouldn’t,” I said. “Shouldn’t you…”

Barbara, smiling mysteriously, shook her head no. “You open it, honey.”

I did, and I nearly fell over.

The card said,If anyone but Corinne catches this bouquet, please give it to her. And, Corinne, however you may get this, please say YES.

Totally bewildered, I looked up, muttering, “Say yes to what?”

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