Just Add Heat (23 page)

“That’s
fine, she would probably be mad if you kept it from her anyway.” He grabbed a
tee shirt from the closet and pulled it on. I felt a moment’s regret that he
was covering his glorious body from me but my need to speak to Cheryl overcame
everything else.

I looked
over to the bedside table and saw only my kisses, iced tea, and my book from
the night before.

“Where’s
my phone?” I wondered aloud.

“It’s in
the kitchen.” He said the words almost guiltily, but I didn’t even care as I
took off to the kitchen. When I got under the kitchen light the ring sparkled
into my eyes almost blinding me with its radiance. I smiled and snatched my
phone dialing Cheryl at breakneck speed.

“Justine?
Is everything okay? It’s late.” Oops, in my fever to tell her my news, I forgot
to look at the clock. Cheryl and Paulo went to sleep early.

“Carter asked me to marry
him. I’m getting
married!
” I
practically screamed into phone.

Cheryl’s
shriek made me pull the phone away from my ear. I could hear her rousing Paulo
from his slumber.

She came
back down to earth a second later. “Wait. Juss, what about your memory? Did you
get it back?”

“Yes Cheryl. I remember
everything
.” She shrieked again and I
could imagine her bouncing up and down on her bed. Poor Paulo.

“Oh my god. Oh my
god
. You’re really going to be my
sister
. We’ve got to get planning your
wedding. I have so many ideas.” Whoa, I needed to slow the Cheryl freight train
down and fast.

“Wait. I
can’t think of any of that right now. It just happened. I just wanted to tell
you right away.”

“Oh okay.
Is my brother with you?”

I turned
around and noticed Carter standing beside the refrigerator with a smile. “Yeah
he’s right here, do you want to talk to him?”

“Please.
I’m so happy for you, Juss.”

“Okay,
I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” I handed the phone to Carter and sat down on my
stool to further admire my new ring. As beautiful as the emerald was, it really
didn’t hold a candle to Carter’s eyes. They were glowing as he looked at me
while talking to his sister.

I got up
and walked over to him mouthing “Hang up” when I got in front of him.

“Cheryl
I’ve got to go. We’ll talk tomorrow.” He hit the end button before she could
say another word and I took his face in my hands and pulled him down to me.

“I love
you so much. I have never felt even close to this wonderful in my whole life.”
I kissed his lips lightly before I closed my eyes and sunk into him. I could
feel myself branding this memory into my psyche forever. My kitchen would be
linked to the happiest moment of my life for all time. How fitting.

I felt
Lucy’s claws digging into my shin and looked down to see her standing on her
hind legs waiting to be picked up. She could feel our happiness and wanted in
on it. I reached down and scooped her up.

“Mommy and
Daddy are getting married. Aren’t you excited?” She licked my face in response
and I hugged her tighter. I put my other arm back around Carter and we stood
there, our happy little family unit.

Chapter Twenty Five

The doorbell’s incessant
ringing was making my soufflé fall during a Food Network Challenge. My god,
there was ten thousand dollars at stake, couldn’t
someone
get up and answer the damn door? Wait. Huh? I lifted my
head and the sparkle from my gorgeous engagement ring caught my eye in the dim
light. Oh yeah. My mind was fully alert now, and I could feel the smile
stretching the morning-tired muscles of my face. All traces of my dream
evaporated as I looked over to Carter and saw him struggling to wake up, too.

“Who the
heck would be mashing the doorbell so dang early?” My voice sounded hoarse to
my ears.

“One
guess. I’m surprised she waited till dawn. She was probably dressed and
counting the minutes until she felt it was a reasonable time to come over.”
Carter stopped talking for a moment and gave me a look so overflowing with love
that my stomach fluttered. “Good morning, my lovely fiancée.”

I smiled even bigger and
threw my left hand out in front of me so that Carter could admire the ring on
my finger as well. “Good morning, future husband.” Ooh, that sounds good.
Carter was mine. It was pretty much official now, I was wearing this chunk of
emerald on my ring finger, and there was no way anybody was going to pry it
off.

The next
assault on the doorbell started again so I sat up. “Let yourself in, Cheryl,” I
screeched at the top of my lungs, only belatedly realizing that Lucy was also
barking at the front door. A second later the chimes and barking stopped and Cheryl
and Lucy came barreling down the hallway together.

“Let me
see it!” She bounded up onto the foot of the bed a second before Lucy, bouncing
up and down. “Let me see it!”

“You
already saw it.” Carter was hoisting himself up on one elbow. “It hasn’t changed
since the last time you looked at it.”

“I know, but I want to
see it
on
.” I dutifully held up my
hand to Cheryl’s face. “It’s beautiful. Oh my god, Juss, you’re really going to
be my
sister
.” She leaned forward and
grabbed me around the neck for a hug. I threw my arms around her and we
squealed for a second before I pulled back.

“I need
coffee.” I wasn’t as groggy as most mornings, surely the result of a fantastic
night, but I still wasn’t at my best before caffeine.

“I’ll make it.” Carter
pulled himself out of bed and walked out of the room after raising his brow and
giving me a suggestive look. Wow, he can make my girly bits zing silently and
from across the room.
Impressive
. I
gave him a saucy wink in return and he walked out of sight. Cheryl was back to
inspecting the ring. She was moving my hand from side to side to try to catch
the light from different angles, much as I had done continually last night from
the time he slipped it on my finger until I turned off my bedside lamp well
after my usual bedtime.

“Okay, he’s gone, you can
tell me
everything
.”

“There’s really not much
to tell, Cheryl. I got my memory back and then we talked about what happened
and then he asked me.” I left out the sex because even though Cheryl knew I had
sex with her brother, it still weirded me out a little. The Elisa part I left
out because it just made me feel bad.

“Details,
Justine. I need details. How did he ask you? Where were you? What were you
wearing? Were you surprised?”

“Uh, he
just asked me. We were in the kitchen eating sandwiches.” It didn’t seem
romantic when I said it, at least not as romantic as it felt.

Cheryl
looked confused. “In the kitchen? Did he just pull out the ring and propose in
the middle of dinner?”

“He didn’t
have the ring on him; it was still in the bedroom.” Hmm. It was sounded even
less romantic upon retelling.

“He didn’t
have the ring? Was he at least on one knee?”

“Not
really. He was on his stool and I was on mine. He asked me and I started
choking on my sandwich.” Nah, it was still romantic. It was totally us. Me
choking was a lot more normal and natural than some over the top proposal
surrounded by flowers and candles.

“My brother is such an
idiot. I can’t believe he didn’t do something romantic for you. He had booked a
private lake cruise with dinner and everything. He had the whole thing planned
out. You would have loved it.”

I was taken aback by
Carter’s grand plans. I was infinitely happier with the kitchen proposal in my
pajamas. He told me last night that he was overcome with love for me and
couldn’t hold the words in. That confession made me feel magical. He loved me
so much the words just exploded out of him.
He
was so much like me
. Sure, he was super-hot and pretty smooth, but he could
still dork out occasionally. I don’t think I could be with someone who was too
cool. It wouldn’t be natural.

“No,
Cheryl. It was awesome. It was perfect.”

“Well, I guess he caught
you by surprise if you started choking. Did you even have a
clue
?” I didn’t want to tell her about
Elisa, but this was Cheryl and she would surely browbeat me until she knew
every detail.

“Actually,
I knew he was going to ask me. I found the ring on Friday.”

“What? Why
didn’t you tell me? I was trying to be all stealthy by taking you shopping with
me to find you the perfect outfit and you knew all along?” Cheryl seemed
exasperated that I blew her covert shopping trip.

“I found
it after I saw you. Elisa called me and told me Carter had a ring for me.”
Fresh anger at Elisa’s bitchiness flooded through me.

“
What?
That heifer told you and ruined Carter’s surprise? Let’s go
find her and kick her ass. She wouldn’t stand a chance against the both of us.”
I smiled but Cheryl was deadly serious. Cheryl was tons of fun and a ball of
energy, but when you crossed her or anyone she loved the gloves came off. She’d
cut a bitch.

I was instantly
transported to our first month as roommates and the creepy dude who lived next
door to us. She totally beat him with her umbrella when she saw him skulking
around our front door for the second time. That guy never gave us another
second’s problem and moved out after Cheryl told everyone on our street that he
was a pervert.

“I know.
That was a shitty move wasn’t it? I don’t know what I’ve ever done to her to
piss her off. I’m nice to her every time I see her. See if she gets invited to
one of my dinner parties again.” I was so angry that for a second I considered
Cheryl’s idea. I quickly discarded it when I thought about how mad Carter would
be if his sister and fiancée got thrown into jail for assaulting his coworker.
Yeah, that was probably too over the top to consider, but she deserved
something. I had to put that thought on the back burner when I saw Carter
coming back down the hall and veering into the bathroom. A fresh smile bloomed
on my face.

“Isn’t he
dreamy?”

Cheryl
rolled her eyes. “Yes, he’s the dreamiest. Now, on to the important stuff. I
brought a whole stack of wedding magazines and all of my catalogs. Most of the
stuff is the same, and it will be a good place to start.”

I shook my
head. There wouldn’t be any stopping her, and I fully intended to sit and pore
over every single publication with her, but not without my morning Carter fix.
The coffee smelled good and it was calling me, but at this moment, nothing was
as important as seeing my fiancé.

“Cheryl,
you can bring all those magazines to the kitchen, I need to brush my teeth and
get some coffee. I’ll meet you in five minutes.”

“Okay.”
She bopped out of the room and I made my way to the bathroom where Carter was
wiping water off of his face.

“Hey.” He
turned toward me and pulled me close to him. “Sorry Cheryl came so early, I had
a different morning planned.”

“That’s
okay. I expect she already had everything planned out; she was just waiting for
me to say yes so that she could haul everything over here. I’m surprised she
didn’t bring your mom along.”

“Oh, I’m
sure she’ll be over here before the day is out. Maybe I’ll go into work after
all.” Last night Carter decided that since he had the days off anyway, he’d
take advantage of the next few days at home with me.

“Don’t you leave me alone
with those two. They’ll have me choosing between six shades of lilac for
centerpieces or something. Besides, you have much better taste than I do.” It
didn’t pain me to admit the truth. Carter was a fashionable dude with an eye
for color. I would trust his choices much more than I would my own.

“Are you set on a big
wedding?” he asked tentatively.

“Of course
not. We’ve talked about this. I want a fun party, but I’m not into the poofy
dress and becoming a Bridezilla over the font of the invitations.” The very
thought of a big church wedding where everyone would be staring at me was about
the last thing I wanted, but Carter came from a pretty big family and Cheryl’s
wedding had been like a circus. I didn’t think I had much hope of a tiny
backyard affair.

“I’ve been
thinking since I got up. I’m off, you’re free, let’s fly to Vegas and get
married today.”

“Get
serious. Cheryl would kill us if we didn’t let her plan our wedding.” That was
only partially true; she would probably torture us first.

“It’s
our
wedding. Our day. We can still let
her plan a party. Hell, I’d love a party, but I just want to marry you. I don’t
care about any of the other stuff.”

I really
was
marrying the perfect man. I didn’t
have to think about it. I was ready to pack my bags right now. “Can we have
Elvis marry us?”

“Absolutely.
So, are we doing it?”