Page 25 of Boss' Obsession

“Champagne? What are we celebrating?”

“I’m celebrating how wonderful it is to have you in my life and commemorating this amazing day. What are you celebrating, baby girl?”

I put my finger up to my lips and say, “The same thing that I celebrate every day, Daddy. You.”

The waitress returns with two bubbling flutes on her tray. She sets one glass in front of Bryan and the other in front of me. The look on her face confuses me. She’s practically beaming. Bryan raises his glass and waits for me to do the same.

“Here’s to us, baby girl. This is just the beginning.”

He sips his champagne and watches as I bring my glass to my lips. I’m about to take a sip but something shining in the glass catches my eye.

“What is this?” I ask, tipping the glass slightly to get a better view.

“Is there something in your glass? Let me see.” He takes the flute from my hand, sticks his fingers in my glass, and pulls out a diamond ring. The lights hit the huge stone, which sends back a prism of rainbow colors. Bryan pats the champagne off the ring with his napkin before he drops to one knee in front of me.

“I’d like to have more adventures with you, Beth. I want to bring you everywhere and let you experience everything. Will you do that with me? Will you marry me, baby?”

At this moment, time stands still. I look down at the brilliant diamond then back up at Bryan’s face. Can this be true? Is he really asking me to marry him? Time begins to move again but now at hyper-speed, and I grip the table to keep from falling off the edge of the world. This is not what I expected and the very thought of being Bryan’s wife leaves me breathless.

“Baby?” Bryan asks and I realize I haven’t answered him yet. My heart pounds in my chest and I think about the wonderful life Bryan and I can have together.

“Oh my god, yes! Yes, I’ll marry you!”

He slides the ring on my finger. “I love you, baby. I’ve loved you from the first time I laid eyes on you. I promise I’ll make you happy.”

“I love you too, Daddy and I know that you will. You always do.”

EPILOGUE

BETH

Brianna is three months old now, and it’s high time she meets her family in Sleepy Hollow.

I collect the diaper bag and survey the room to make sure we haven’t forgotten anything. Bryan likes to poke fun at me for this very thing. He says, “You act like there aren’t stores on every corner. If you forget something, we’ll just stop over and buy a new one.”

Having children changes you. I reached out to my own mother when Brianna was born, but her number had been disconnected. Seeing my concern, Bryan employed the company’s private investigator to locate her. When he did, we discovered that her new husband had already left her. He’d taken all of their money and her car when he did.

With no transportation and no rent money, she realized that she finally hit rock bottom and went in for treatment. She’d been sober for almost a year and living in a group home when I called her there. It’s crazy but she didn’t even sound like the woman who raised me.

There was such a tenderness in her voice when she found out about the baby. It made me think that Bryan was right as usual. You never know what tomorrow will bring.

The trial for the former professor, John Milton, was held when I was three months pregnant. He had a decent attorney, but when I took the stand, the jury saw right through their story. Milton was found guilty of attempted kidnapping and assault and is currently serving ten years behind bars.

With the way he looked at Bryan in the courtroom and the memory of his beating fresh in his mind, I don’t believe we’ll ever see or hear from him again.

We load the baby in the SUV and take off for Sleepy Hollow. Bryan holds my hand as he drives like he always does. It doesn’t matter how long we’re together. His touch still ignites a fire inside me.

“What are you thinking about, sweetheart?” he asks me.

“I was thinking about how nice it will be to take this trip when the baby is older. How cute will it be when she can jump in the leaf piles and pick her own pumpkin for Halloween?”

“It will be very cute. You’re right about that. Then, she can teach all of her little brothers and sisters how it’s all done.”

“All of them? How many are we talking here, Daddy?”

“As many as possible, baby girl.”

“Give me some time to recover from this one. I’m still as big as a house.”

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