A Date with the Other Side (Cuttersville #1)(63)
Author: Erin McCarthy

He could be part of that. He could give Shelby the home and the family and the love she wanted. And he could have it for himself. He could be a husband and a father, and he could be good at it. That was much more important and satisfying than climbing to the top rung on the corporate ladder.

He would mourn the loss of good coffee and Thai food, but the city wasn’t that far off, and Shelby was worth the sacrifice. She really was.

Boston stood up and grabbed the ticket, earning a yip from the fluff resting in the palm of Amanda’s hand. He leaned over the desk and kissed her on the cheek with a loud smack that had her eyes widening.

“Amanda Delmar, you are brilliant. Let’s go to Cuttersville.”

Shelby was putting the last of her possessions in a brown box and taping it shut when Gran walked into her bedroom. “You look like you’re all set.”

“Almost.” Shelby took a deep breath, her stomach bungee jumping up into her throat. “Are you sure I should just show up at Boston’s? Shouldn’t I call first?”

Gran had Boston’s Chicago address from his lease agreement and that morning it had seemed like a great idea to surprise him, but now she was thinking all manner of awful things. Like maybe Boston would have a woman with him, or he’d be annoyed at reopening a discussion he’d assumed was closed. Both seemed ridiculous, but she wasn’t feeling rational at the moment.

“And have a heart-to-heart over the phone? I don’t think so.” Gran was firm, a stack of self-stick mailing labels in her hand. She started slapping them on each taped box.

Shelby’s anxiety increased when she saw they had her name on them, but Boston’s Chicago address. “Gran! Isn’t that a bit presumptuous?”

“What? You go up there, tell him you’re willing to give Chicago a chance, he scoops you into his arms, you call me the next morning after makeup sex, I mail the boxes with your stuff. I’ve got it all covered, honey, you just trust your gran.”

“Are you sure you’re not biased about this? You’ve had your eye on Boston for me since he got to Cuttersville back in June.”

Gran paused over the fourth box stacked lopsided on the bed. “I know this. That man loves you.”

Shelby’s heart did a cartwheel. She reached out and hugged her grandmother. “Oh, Gran, I want this to work out. And I love you.”

“I love you too, hon, and it will all work out, don’t worry.”

The doorbell rang downstairs.

“Who could that be?” Shelby pulled back and started for the door.

“It’s probably just Brady, though I didn’t think I locked the door.”

They had agreed to have Brady accompany Shelby to Chicago for a few days, so she didn’t panic in the airport or in the cab. Not that Brady was worldly, but he had the cocky arrogance of youth to see them through, and he was tall for his age. Shelby had also figured if Boston turned her out, she didn’t want to be alone in a strange place. A fifteen-year-old boy wasn’t her first choice of a shoulder to cry on, but she’d take what she could get.

“Brady, why didn’t you come around the back?” Shelby asked as she opened the front door.

Brady grinned at her. “Hey, Shel, look who I found pulling in the drive.”

Her mouth dropped. The room went hot. She had the sudden and embarrassing feeling that she was going to faint right there, with Brady, Amanda Delmar, and Boston staring at her on the front porch.

He’d come back.

And it seemed like whenever she planned something, thought it through to every angle, the actual occurrence was entirely different.

Boston reached out a hand out, alarmed at the way the color drained from Shelby’s tan face.

She took a step back away from him, and his confidence wavered. Not that he’d had much to begin with. On the flight down from Chicago he’d been a mass of spineless nerves, sure Shelby was going to reject him all over again. He hoped to God he was wrong.

Her voice quivered. “Boston . . . what’re you doing here?”

Something shifted in him as he felt and saw and recognized the love she had for him shining in her eyes. Stepping into the hall, he turned back to Brady and Amanda. “Stay outside,” he told them, and shut the door in their faces.

Shelby’s lips fell apart.

Boston allowed himself a second to sweep his gaze over her. Shelby looked different, and he realized what it was immediately. He touched the strands of her hair brushing over her shoulders. Her hair wasn’t as long as it had been, or as thick, the rich waves having been tamed into straight stylish strands.

“You cut your hair.”

“I let Harriet at it finally. She was so happy she gave me the cut half price.”

Boston remembered all that glorious hair pouring over her bare br**sts in the moonlight. “I liked it the way it was.”

Her nose wrinkled up. “Did I ask you?”

He realized he’d sounded rude. “It looks pretty now, I just liked it down over here”—he brushed the tips of her ni**les—“when I was making love to you.”

Her breath caught as she grabbed his wrists and held him still. She licked her lips, studied the wall behind him. “Why are you here?”

The feel of her tight ni**les, the scent of her warm skin, nearly made him forget his own name. He focused on her again. Then he did what he had never in a million years expected to do with any woman.

He dropped to his knee in front of her.

“Shelby Louise, I’m here to ask you to marry me.” He took her hand, which was shaking a little, and added, “I’m that man who loves you. I want to give you that home here in Cuttersville. I want to raise children with you in our white Victorian house in Ohio’s most haunted town.”

“Oh, Lord,” she said.

A plea to a deity wasn’t the answer he’d been hoping for. Boston’s palms were clammy and his heart sick with love and worry that she’d tell him to take his proposal and stick it, but he still managed to rummage around in his pocket and pull out the velvet box that had brought him equal anxiety.

Amanda had helped him pick the princess-cut ring out, assuring him Shelby would like it, and that the size would definitely fit on Shelby’s finger. He would hang Amanda by her handbag if she was wrong on either count.

He took the diamond ring out and stuck it on Shelby’s finger before she could say no. “I love you,” he said, and waited like a man sentenced to lethal injection.

“Yes, I will marry you,” she said, a smile starting to split across her face.