Read Bigger Than the Sky (Serenity Point) Online
Authors: Harper Bentley
Bigger Than the Sky (Serenity Point) (27 page)
“Fuck you so hard you’ll want to come back,” he growls, grinding his cock up rough and deep.
“I will,” I breathe out. “I love you,” I whisper, hoping he knows it by now.
~~~
Being back is strange. I can’t believe I spent five years here and thought I liked it. The city, like any other large city, is so busy and everyone’s so focused on their own lives it makes me miss the simplicity of home. Makes me miss people saying hello to me on the street or Mags’ hollering out a greeting when I enter the diner. But mostly it makes me miss Kade.
When I go to my condo each night, the silence is deafening and I wonder why I even chose to live here. I’ve arranged to end my lease at the end of the month which is perfect timing.
I’m sitting at my table eating the takeout Chinese I brought home, hating that Cass won’t come bebopping in without any notice or Brody won’t stick his head in the door and tell me to come have a beer with him. Or Kade won’t come in smirking at me as if he knows a secret that I don’t. And I realize I’m crying.
God. Five years I lived this way and didn’t even know I was a dead woman walking. But if someone would’ve told me even three months ago that I’d want to move back to Serenity Point I would’ve laughed in their face. But now I know it’s home and it’s where I want to be.
~~~
I sneak into Kade’s store on the last Friday I was scheduled to work. I’d given several of my accounts over to different people who’d wanted them, Sydney included, and my replacement would pick up the ones I hadn’t. Just after lunch, Mr. Rawlins had come into my office to wish me well then told me to get the hell out of there. I’d smiled and given him a hug and thanked him for everything. Then I went by Sydney’s office to tell her goodbye. We’d promised to keep in touch and I really hoped we would. She’d been a good friend during the time I’d worked there and I didn’t want our friendship to end.
I’d left work then gone to my condo, grabbing up the few bags I had. I did another check around the place, looking in the dishwasher and washer and dryer, places where one tends to leave things when moving, then giving the place one last look, I’d closed the door and got in my car. I put my keys in an envelope addressed to the landlord and on the way out of town, dropped it in the mail.
The hour drive to Serenity Point seemed to take forever, but it was because I was excited to see Kade. Now I walk to the back of his store, putting a finger over my mouth to shush Mike when I see him, at which he grins, and find Kade working on the books in his office.
“Ever had sex in here?” I ask and his head pops up in surprise. And then I’m surprised because he’s wearing glasses. Hot glasses. And he looks even sexier than he normally does. God help me.
“Baby,” he says with a grin and stands, coming around his desk to kiss me.
When he pulls away I blink up at him. Then I do it again.
“What?” he asks with a frown.
“Ever had sex wearing those?” I say, pointing at his glasses.
He laughs and takes them off. “It’s called getting old, Mill. My eyes need ‘em to read the numbers.”
I don’t give a damn why he needs them. He’s
so
wearing them tonight when I jump him.
~~~
A week later, things are pretty much back to normal. I’ve found an office in town I can rent to set up my firm. I mean, I call it a firm, but it’s just me for now, but whatever. On top of the ten people who’d asked earlier for me to do books for their businesses, I’ve had another five from bordering towns come in and hire me which is fantastic. I’m still running the station, not wanting to sell anymore. I can handle it and my accounting business easily, so I’m all set for my future here, I believe.
Saturday night I’m helping to close the garage when I get a text from Kade.
Kade: Gazebo. One hour.
Me: Jeez Mr. Bossypants
Kade: Never and I mean never call me that again
Me: I’ll call you that and you’ll like it
Kade: Mill…
Me: Kade…
Kade: Guess you want my hand across your gorgeous ass
Me: o_o
Kade: You’ll be making that face when my cock’s buried so deep inside you tonight you can’t speak
Me: You’re making me wet
Kade: Good. Get your ass to the gazebo
Me: Bossypants
Kade: That’s two
Me: Two what
Kade: Two swats. We going for three?
Me: Why’s this making me hot right now?
Kade: Fuck
After changing into a heavy sweater, jeans and my Ugg Adironback boots, it’s now November and the wind has gotten much chillier, I drive out to the gazebo. I park next to Kade’s truck then walk through the trees to see the gazebo all lit up and it’s just beautiful.
I get there and he’s waiting for me, standing in the center.
I climb the steps and go to him, tiptoeing up for a kiss. “So what’s going on?” I ask smiling up at him.
Then he gets down on one knee and I almost faint. Oh, God.
He takes my hand and looks up at me, so handsome in his thick cream-colored fisherman’s sweater, the collar of his blue plaid shirt at the top. His gray eyes are the lightest I’ve ever seen them, silvery like the moon we’d watched set last night and I suck in a breath at how beautiful he is. “Love you, Mill. Loved you a long time. Never stopped. Was lost without you those five years. Don’t even know how I kept breathing, but somehow I did. And now here you are.
“Long time ago, Dad told me when I found a good woman, I should do everything in my power to keep her by my side, but I didn’t do that. I failed you. Never thought I’d get another chance, but I’m lucky. So damned lucky that you came back, that you let me in, loved me again. Told you our love was bigger than the sky. Like to believe that’s the case and that it’ll go on forever.”
I start crying now as I look at him gazing up at me so earnestly.
“Wanna spend the rest of my life proving to you that you didn’t make a mistake in loving me. Want you to know I’ll do all I can never to fail you again. That being said, Amelia Danielle Hale-Chapman, what are you doing the rest of your life?”
At that surprise ending, I start laughing through my tears. Kade smiles up at me then asks, “Will you marry me?”
“Yes,” I sob my answer. “Of course.”
He stands then pulls a ring out of his pocket, taking my hand and putting it on my finger. I look down and see that it’s stunning, all beautiful and sparkly and diamond-y. Then I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss the fool out of him.
Epilogue
Kade and I married on a beautiful October Saturday a year later. Instead of a church, this time I chose to get married in the gazebo. It was held in the early evening so we could have the lights on, of course, and it was beautiful. Magical.
And guess what? I didn’t even run this time (sheepish grin right here).
Frank, Maggie’s husband, walked me down the aisle and when I saw Kade waiting for me I couldn’t help the silly grin that covered my face. He grinned back looking so handsome in his tuxedo and I couldn’t wait to get to him.
I’d chosen very fall colors, and I know it might sound weird, but the oranges, reds and browns looked fabulous. Cassie wore a satin floor-length dress that was strapless and ruched from the top to the waist and was gorgeous in a beautiful mocha brown. Lacey and London wore the same style of dress but Lacey’s was burnt orange (go with it, it was beautiful) and London’s was scarlet.
Kade’s tux was black with a champagne vest and black and champagne striped ascot tie over his white shirt and, holy God, I wanted to jump him right there. All the guys’ vests and ties matched the girls’ dresses with Brody wearing a mocha vest and mocha and black striped tie as he was the best man. Mike’s vest was burnt orange, his tie striped in black and orange (again, go with it, it looked great) and Ezra’s vest was scarlet with a black and scarlet striped tie.
And with the forest for the backdrop, it was just wow. That’s the only way to describe it.
And my dress. Well, my dress was spectacular. It was champagne colored and it, too, was strapless, the bodice ruched and beaded and that ruching blended down into the ball gown skirt. It had a corset back that was just as lavishly embellished with beading as the front. There was sparse brocading at the waist and on the skirt, sparse because the dress was so fabulous it didn’t need a whole lot of bells and whistles. I wore my hair in a chignon, and my veil that was attached to a beaded comb was pushed in over it and it flowed all the way to the floor.
God, I loved that day.
When I’d gotten to Kade he’d leaned down and whispered, “Most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen,” before taking my hand from Frank.
Now, I’d like to say I didn’t cry because what bride wants to screw up her makeup? But, alas, I can’t. Because after we’d said our vows, after we’d kissed (and, boy, did Kade make sure I’d never forget that kiss. Gah!), after the preacher had announced us as husband and wife and after everyone had stood and clapped, when we’d turned to leave the gazebo, the sky had been brilliantly decorated with purples and crimsons, fuchsias
and golds. I’d turned and looked up at Kade and he’d smiled down at me.
“It’s a gift, Mill, from your grandparents.”
And I knew it was.
Papaw had once told me when I was little when we were lying in a field looking up at the clouds, that the sky was endless, that it went on forever just like his and Meemaw’s love for me. And I knew that’s what I was being told as I walked back down the aisle arm in arm with my husband to the whoops and hollers of our friends and family and that gorgeous sunset displayed before us.
The love I’d so been so fortunate to receive in my life, from my grandparents and my friends, from the Kellys and finally, mostly, from Kade, was extraordinary.
It was never-ending. It was unfathomable.
It was bigger than the sky.
About the author:
Harper Bentley has taught high school English for 22 years. Although she’s managed to maintain her sanity regardless of her career choice, jumping into the world of publishing her own books goes to show that she might be closer to the ledge than was previously thought.
After traveling the nation in her younger years as a military brat, having lived in Alaska, Washington State and California, she now resides in Oklahoma with her teenage daughter, two dogs and one cat, happily writing stories that she hopes her readers will enjoy.
You can contact her at
[email protected]
, at
http://harperbentleywrites.com/
, on Facebook or follow her on Twitter @HarperBentley
Discover other titles by Harper Bentley:
CEP series:
Being Chased
(CEP #1)
Under the Gun (CEP #3) coming later in 2014!
True Love series:
http://harperbentleywrites.com/