Page 68 of Burning with Desire (Forbidden Heat 1)

ng through my chest in a very slow, gushing wave. It sounded so loud, as if there were bombs being dropped right outside. But at the same time, it felt like it was literally flying and I was about to take off like some kind of a rocket towards the moon.

Several of the patrons were now watching us and cheering. We already had supporters. That was fantastic.

“Yes!” I exclaimed. “Yes! I will marry you.”

Ricky stood up and placed that beautiful ring on my finger. We looked at the ring and then each other before we kissed. The whole thing seemed magical, like it was not really happening to me. I was watching this happening to someone else. It was all too surreal. It couldn’t have been real.

But it was. It was real. I was going to marry Ricky.

I ended up selling seven pieces of art that night and becoming engaged to the man of my dreams. This was truly a miracle. Yet, as the evening wound down, I couldn’t help wondering if I really deserved it all. I mean, what were you supposed to do after you had everything you ever wanted?

What was next in line?

Epilogue

Julie

Three Months Later…

“Wow, that is a gorgeous sunset,” Ricky said as he placed his arm around me.

“Honey, not right now. I want to finish this,” I said.

Ricky laughed and walked over to the door to our room. I was trying to sketch something just right, but the slight motion of the ship kept interfering with my work. This was enough to drive me bonkers, but I wanted to finish this last sketch right away.

“Honey, are you going to work the whole honeymoon?” Ricky asked as he poured himself a scotch on the rocks.

I laughed. “No, but this came up unexpectedly. I want to get these sketches in.”

“I thought they were rewriting the story? Are they even going to be able to use any of your sketches?”

“It is just to give them a good visual guide of how everything should look once it is done. And when they change things completely around—because they will—they will at least have some solid visual references. They are doing this comic book old school and trying to steer clear of the modern day graphic novel approach.”

“That sounds wonderful,” Ricky replied. “But you should have told them that this week was a bad time for you. They need you badly enough, they will wait for you.”

I laughed and shook my head. “That’s not the way it works. If I tell them I’m not available, then they just go get another artist. That’s how that actually goes. I don’t want that to happen. This is a big opportunity for me.”

I’d been contacted by a comic book publisher to draw an issue of a Mighty Berry’s comic book. They were supposed to be some kind of family of superheroes. It was a big throwback issue, so they wanted everything to look like comics used to. There were no computer graphics in this one. It would all be drawn by hand. That was the golden era. It just had such a nice charm to it. I missed it.

“I think you are underestimating your talent, but ok,” Ricky said. “I was hoping we’d get to walk around on top of the ship together for at least a little bit tonight.”

I sighed and looked up at him. He was right. This was our honeymoon, and I could get those sketches done tomorrow and still be alright. This was one of the most important weeks we would ever spend together. It was our first official week as husband and wife.

Husband and wife… those words kept echoing in my brain. I was so excited to be officially married to Ricky. I still had to pinch myself to make sure I was not dreaming all this. It had all happened so quickly that it was like a big whirlwind that hadn’t stopped quite yet.

The night with the gallery show that Ricky set up was the start of my career. I sold several paintings and the gallery owner wanted me back for another show in two months. I agreed to come back and I sold even more paintings that time. I worked daylight until dark for eight straight weeks and the hard work had paid off.

Around this time I got my website set up and I was now selling paintings for a much bigger price online than I had been able to in the gallery. And I got to keep one hundred percent of the profit. That was such a game changer for me. It was all happening almost on autopilot. I was selling paintings faster than I could paint new ones.

This was around the time that my YouTube channel started to really take off. I would film tutorial videos on how to draw or how to paint and surprisingly, people started to watch them. There was a big market for this and it all grew, and this funneled back to my website and helped me command an even higher price for my paintings.

Then the call came to me that I found very interesting. This publisher for this comic book series wanted me to draw some illustrations for it. This was very different work, but it was lucrative, so I dove into it head first. I was a bit obsessed with doing a great job.

I closed my sketch pad and left the room with Ricky. We made our way up to the deck and there it was, the beautiful sunset Ricky was talking about. I had to agree that it was quite spectacular, but my mind was still on my work. Ricky was used to that. He expected my mind to always be there at least partially, and he claimed he loved me for it.

He placed his arm on the small of my back and we watched the sunset and inhaled the sweet, salty ocean air. The Alaskan Cruise idea was Ricky’s. It was one of the things he’d always wanted to do. And it was amazing. Sailing on the ocean, the wind at your back, the bright sunshine on your face, and your beloved at your side—who could ever ask for anything better than that?

The really cold air had not quite hit Alaska yet, but it was starting to get a little bit cool in the evenings. I’d had enough of the cold in Chicago, and I would have loved to move to a warmer climate, like Florida. But Ricky did not want to move. There was his job and of course Zoe’s school. She’d made a lot of friends recently and she was doing so well that I never would have dreamt of uprooting that. She had also grown very attached to me. We did everything together. I’d always wanted a daughter, and gotten one. A stepdaughter technically, but none of us really thought of it that way. Zoe was amazing. She was just the sweetest little thing.

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