My Brother's Best Friend (24 page)

“I’m just looking after you like a big brother should. You’re my little sister and he’s my best friend.”

“You’re not losing either of us, man,” Devin said. “You know I’ll take care of her.”

“Yes, I guess I do owe you for saving her.”

“You don’t owe me anything. We both would have lost something important to us that day.” Devin’s arm unconsciously held me tighter and I knew they were talking about my attempted suicide and for the first time I wasn’t uncomfortable. Everyone knew the truth, there were no secrets. I was a different person now. I was confident in myself and happy to just be me.

“Exactly how much did that phone cost you, if you don’t mind me asking?” Megan asked.

“Um,” Devin hesitated. “It cost enough.” He looked down at me. “This phone was a favor of a favor. Terry knew somebody who knew somebody who knew who to get in touch with. We drew up a contract and had the phone made.”

“So it cost you an arm and a leg.”

He smiled and tapped my nose. “Maybe just an arm.”

“You had to draw up a contract?” Mitchell asked.

“Yeah, about that, we might have to tell our story for their website. They are thinking of opening it to the public. It won’t be as snazzy or customized as yours, but they are thinking of producing plastic colored versions. Android phones are taking a lot of the market and they are trying to find new ways to keep their market share. But if they don’t go public, we have to keep it low key, no public statements or interviews or tipping off the public in any way that we have a customized phone.” I nodded my head slowly, a bit confused and overwhelmed. “I’ll explain it better later.”

About that time someone else walked into the building and Devin and I separated. He took my hand in his and nodded to the man.

“Morning, Reggie.” Megan smiled. He was from MBR apparently.

He stopped briefly. “Congratulations on your marriage. I heard about it from Nancy.”

“Thank you.” She smiled.

“Are you going to be at the Grant briefing?”

“Yeah, I’m on my way now,” she said. This man, Reggie—I had never known him by face—nodded and walked off. Megan turned to us. “I better go. We have an important meeting in a few.” She kissed Mitchell and then hugged me. “I knew it would work out. I’m happy for you,” she whispered in my ear.

I smiled as she walked away. “I better go, too,” Mitch said. “Don’t stay too long, Malone,” he said, pointing at Devin.

Devin chuckled, “Of course.”

I watched as they walked away, leaving me and Devin alone again.

“I can’t believe this is real,” I whispered.

“Believe it, beautiful. I’m never leaving you again. Maybe you should take Terry up on his offer.”

I laughed. “Sure. Then maybe we can get attached at the hip.”

“No, that wouldn’t work. How would I love you?”

I blushed and looked down at our clasped hands.

“I have another present for you,” Devin said, lifting up my chin to look into my eyes.

“You need to stop showering me with gifts. People are really going to think I love you for the gifts.”

He chuckled. “Come on, admit it, you like the gifts.”

I smiled shyly. “Yeah, I guess I do, but it doesn’t mean you should waste your money. You should save it.”

“Would it help to say I won them at a work raffle?”

“Did you really?” I believed him completely.

“Well, you did say you wanted to take part in the next raffle I won,” he said, pulling out a long rectangular box. “Even if it was a—”

“— honeymoon trip to Hawaii.” I finished his sentence as I opened the box, revealing a ticket to Hawaii. I looked up at him. “Are you serious?”

“I know you said we might be moving fast, but hear me out.”

“You didn’t really win this at work, did you?”

He smiled sheepishly. “No. We don’t actually have raffles at work.”

“So the Vegas trip for Mitch and Megan?”

“I bought it for them for two reasons. First I knew Mitchell would propose and secondly, I wanted to spend some time with you alone.”

“You planned the whole thing?” I asked incredulously. “So you let me win the marriage bet? I bet you even planted the idea into Mitch’s head that I needed you to stay at the house for safety.” He shrugged his shoulders. “You did! I can’t believe you. You’re a natural miscreant.”

“I did it out of love. I needed you to see what you were missing.”

“Your plan worked well.” I smiled up at him then remembered the tickets and his implication. “Do you really mean what I think you mean?”

“I know some may see it as moving too fast, but I look at it as long overdue. If we’re moving in together, I would like it to be as man and wife. I want you for myself. I want to know you’re mine and I’m yours. I love you, Chris. Nothing is going to change that so I figure why wait when we know it’s right?”

I looked down at the ticket in the box and placed it on the desk. Devin looked morose and I almost laughed at his expression. “I love you, Devin—”

“But. There’s always a but.”

I smiled this time. “I was going to say, when do we leave?”

He didn’t respond, only kissed me, and I didn’t mind. I kissed him back with all the love I felt. He was mine. I was his.

I was laughing and crying all at the same time.

“Happy tears?”

I nodded as he kissed them away.

He pulled away. “I have flights booked for tomorrow. I figured you could talk to your boss, get the time off and we could go home, pack your things and bring them over to my place and get ready to leave tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? That quick?”

“I can’t wait. I want to love you as Mrs. Malone tomorrow night.”

“Well, in that case,” I kissed his cheek and walked to my desk and dialed a number. “Cathy, are you free for a quick appointment? With me. Yes. Okay, I’ll be right there.” I hung up and dialed another number and waited for it to be picked up.

“This is Shelly.”

“Hi, Shelly, could you cover the phones for a few minutes?”

“Sure. You know I love it when I can cover for you. I’ll be right out.”

I hung up and turned to Devin. “So how long are we staying in Hawaii?”

“How much time off can you get?”

I shook my head and smiled at him. “And if I said a year?”

“I would say it’s not long enough.”

“How about three weeks?”

“Could you really take that much time off?”

“I can try. What about you? Who are they going to get for the show?”

“We’ve finished recording all the shows up to the finale. The cast is going to tour the country for a month and then we resume for the following season. If Rob or Terry need something, they can get someone else for that time. But they shouldn’t need anything unless Terry decides to scrap a whole scene and rerecord again,” he said, smiling down at me.

It was what started this whole thing. A scrapped scene and a new musical number had caused us to come together, caused me to see what was really going on between us.

“I love you,” I said, leaning into him.

He hugged me and kissed the top of my head. “I definitely will never tire of hearing those words uttered from your mouth.”

I laughed and pulled away slightly. “Well, I need to go face the boss lady. Are you coming?”

“Don’t you think it would be better if I don’t come?”

I looked him over and noticed his smirk. “No, it would definitely be better for you to join me. How could she say no to a honeymoon with you?”

“She won’t be the one going.”

“A minor detail.”

Shelly walked out and came up to the desk. “How long are you going to be?”

“Not more than ten minutes,” I told her and pulled Devin along with me.

I knocked on my boss’s door and opened it when she called out to come in. She only looked slightly surprised when Devin followed me. “You wanted to talk to me?”

“Yes. I’m going to just tell you straight out. I know you don’t care for hedging around the subject.” She nodded and inclined her head to the chairs in front of her desk. “Well, I’m going to elope and I need some time off.”

“Is this your fiancé?” She looked him over and a momentary prick of jealousy jabbed me. Devin squeezed my hand he hadn’t stopped holding. “Well done, Christy.”

“So is it possible to have time off?”

She looked toward her computer monitor. “Let me just see what I can do.” She began clicking and scrolling and made a few noncommittal noises then suddenly looked up brightly. “When would you like to leave?”

“That’s the thing, he bought the tickets for tomorrow. It was a surprise, to say the least.”

She narrowed her eyes slightly. “And if I say you can’t leave for another two weeks?”

“Regretfully I would have to resign.”

Devin squeezed my hand and I squeezed back, assuring him.

Cathy paused briefly, before resuming her bright smile. “Well then, in that case, I will see you May ninth. Have a good time and I sincerely hope that you realize what I’m doing for you. Though it wasn’t hard, considering you’ve only had two sick days this whole fiscal year. So just to give you a heads up, you’re using two weeks’ vacation and the rest of your sick days.”

I stood up and shook her hand, smiling. “Thank you, Cathy. I will bring you back a little bit of Hawaii.”

She smiled. “I look forward to it.”

Devin took her hand. “Thank you. I’m Devin, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you, Devin, and take care of the future Mrs. Devin.” She smiled. “We need her organizational skills. Just promise me next time you let me know in advance about any surprise trips! Ok?”

He nodded.

“I just want to thank you again for this,” I said before we left. “If anyone should fill in for my absence, I think Shelly is the most talented. She can handle the calls and the visitors.”

“I’ll take that into consideration. And if you two would like the time to pack, feel free to take the rest of the day off. Just let Shelly know she’ll be covering for you at least today. I’ll give the news to Judy.”

I nodded and walked out with Devin. As soon as we were out of Cathy’s office, I turned to him. “May ninth? That’s like three weeks and a little extra!”

Devin chuckled, “Just what we wanted, right?”

“You think you can handle vacation for three weeks?”

“Well, considering I was going to be on vacation anyway, you are the one I’m worried about. You’re the one who hasn’t had a real vacation in several years.”

“There was never anything worth taking time off for,” I said, looking up at him. “You know Mitch is going to have a coronary, right?”

“He’ll be fine. He’ll probably be more upset that we got a longer honeymoon than he and Megan did.”

I smiled at his words. “You really want to marry me?”

Devin wrapped his arms around me. “I’ve wanted this for years now. I love you, CJ. Always have and always will. And just so you don’t forget it,” he said as he reached into his pocket, “this is for you.” He grabbed my hand and slipped an intricately designed sapphire and diamond ring onto my finger. I gasped at the reality of the situation. We really were going to get married.

I smiled and kissed him briefly before pulling him along toward the front entrance. “I love you, Devin, I hope you realize what you’ve gotten yourself into.”

He smiled, tightening his grip on my waist. “Believe me, I can’t wait to see what we get ourselves into.” We walked down the hallway toward my desk and Devin whispered, “Do you think we can make it to Hawaii before anyone finds out?”

“You mean before Mitch finds out? Sure, if we’re discreet.”

He squeezed my hand. “I’ll meet you at my place then. You can leave your car there and we can drive mine.”

“Excuse me, if we’re moving boxes, then my car is more practical. Your car would probably only hold three boxes. It would take us all day and night to move my stuff.”

He smiled. “Fine, I concede. Just come by and pick me up at my place and we can pack your things together.” He leaned down and kissed me before letting go and waving goodbye.

I couldn’t keep the goofy grin hidden, it was plastered on my face.

“So am I staying up here for the day?”

I turned to Shelly. “Oh, yeah. If that is all right with you.”

“Of course. You know I prefer this to Judy’s projects. Are you moving? I heard you talking about boxes.”

“Um, yeah. I’m just moving a few things. If anyone calls for me like my brother or Megan, they can reach me on my cell,” I told her as I grabbed my bag, my new phone and the box with the plane ticket off my desk.

She smiled. “I peeked at your present. I thought it was a bracelet, but a ticket to Hawaii is so much better.”

I looked at her seriously. “Don’t mention the ticket to anyone yet. You can blab all you want to tomorrow.” I smiled then made a show of displaying the ring on my finger. “I have a feeling you will be covering for me for more than today.” She gasped at the ring and I quickly left before she could ask anything more.

I made it to the car before my phone chirped.

You made it out of there?

—————————————————-

Sent from an impatient fiancé.

Yes. Slowly on my way to you.

—————————————————-

Sent from the fancy phone given to me by my fiancé

You better not be on your way slowly.

—————————————————-

Sent from the gift giver

No. I’ll be there in ten minutes. Wait outside for me.

—————————————————-

Sent from the one who loves the giver

Just get your cute behind over here.

—————————————————-

Sent from the only one allowed to see said behind

I laughed at the message and put my phone down before pulling out of the parking lot. And true to my word, it took just over ten minutes to reach his place.

“You’re late,” Devin said as he climbed into my car. He leaned over and we kissed. It was as if we had just reunited again after a long time apart. “I’ve missed you,” he murmured as his mouth moved down to my neck.