Nobody Does It Better(24)

Vanessa laughs. “You’re not asking? You’re telling me?”

I roll my eyes. “Woman, you’re going with me, you want to, and that’s that.”

She grins, smacking my chest. “Fine. If you insist.”

I look back at Perri. “Cancel Jamie. Call off that blind date. Whatever you need to do. Vanessa is mine, and I’m a hundred percent serious about that. And you need to know I will treat her right; I will do right by her. I will treat her like the queen she is to me. So you can just stop worrying and talking shit about my balls.”

Perri’s mouth parts in an offended O. “I do not want to discuss your balls. Now or ever.”

I grab my crotch. “Good. The balls are off-limits. And so is Vanessa. No more setups. No more anything.” I drape my arm around my woman, tug her closer, and plant a quick kiss on her lips. “She’s taken.”

Perri’s smile is huge and surprises the hell out of me. She jumps up and wraps her arms around both of us. “I love you guys. Just be good to each other. Always, okay? Or I’ll hunt you down and break your arm, Shaw.”

I laugh. “It’s always something with you, isn’t it?”

“Always,” Perri adds.

The three of us separate, and I return to the final matter at hand. “You’re going to uninvite Jamie now?”

Perri furrows her brow. “He’s a guest. That’d be rude.”

“Then uninvite him from the blind date.”

Vanessa chimes in. “I should let Miriam know too. It’s the right thing to do.”

Derek coughs, cutting in. “I can handle that.”

I turn and stare at him quizzically. So does Vanessa. And Perri.

He shrugs, an impish grin on his face. “I might have played a part in the whole thing.”





15





Derek





Sometimes you have to take chances.

Last year, I took a chance to be with Perri.

And this past week, I took a chance for Shaw.

Even though there were risks. Like pissing off the woman I love.

Perri marches up to me, slams her hands on my chest, and quietly hisses, “What did you do?”

But I’m not worried. I know how to smooth things over with this fiery woman I adore to the ends of the Earth and back. I smile and run a hand through her hair. “Kitten, it’s all good. I knew he was in love with her.”

She squints. “How did you know that? I didn’t know that.”

I scoff. “You didn’t want to know that! But I’ve been trying to tell you for months. He’s so damn crazy about Vanessa. I could barely handle him mooning over her every time he saw her.”

“So you did what exactly? Arranged a snowstorm?”

I wiggle my eyebrows, pleased at my machinations. “I’m good, but I’m not that good.”

Her eyes don’t let go of mine. “So what did you do, McBride? Don’t make me cuff you and bring you in for questioning.”

I loop my arm around her waist and raise my eyebrows. “That might not be so bad. But you won’t, because I’m not the bad guy in this story. There is no bad guy. I’m one of the good guys, and I did a good thing for everyone by making all this love happen.”

“And how did you do that, Mr. Matchmaker?”

I smile, pleased as the dickens. “I talked to Miriam at the library when I was there with my niece. We chatted about a bunch of things. Her son, Vanessa, Shaw, and oh yeah, someone else.”

“Who?”

I whisper in her ear.

“What?” Shock covers Perri’s face when she draws back.

“Indeed. And look, Vanessa and Shaw needed a kick in the pants to get together. So I gave them one.”

“What if it had gone south?”

“But it didn’t. Because we engineered it brilliantly. And besides, these two,” I say, gesturing to the new lovebirds, “are so in love that it simply couldn’t go wrong. So Miriam and I arranged the whole Jamie-Vanessa thing to get the two of them moving. It worked. I knew Shaw would only get his butt in gear if someone serious seemed to be going after Vanessa. I also knew she was crazy about him.” I run my fingers over Perri’s cheek, giving a smile just for her. “And I knew you’d forgive me.”

She breathes out hard. “That’s a lot of assumptions.”

“But you forgive me?”

“Hmm.” She’s softening. “Why should I?”

“Because I pushed all the right buttons to engineer true love.”

She turns to look at Shaw and Vanessa, who seem sickeningly happy, then she turns back to me. “Fine. I forgive you.”

“Good, because I fucking love you, and I also knew you’d be happy if Vanessa was finally with the man she wanted.”

Perri sighs contentedly. “She does seem to like him.”

I shift my gaze to the hallway. “How many bedrooms does this cabin have?”

“At least two, I think.”

“What do you say we claim one for the rest of the day?”

“I’d say that’s a deal.”





Shaw



Later, we tromp outside in the snow for a snowball fight, and the ladies make snow angels as the sun shines brightly on a carpet of white.