Proposing to Preston (The Winslow Brothers, #2)(40)

His eyes flashed open with surprise. “Yes?”

“Yes,” she said again, laughing at his shocked face as she leaned down to press her lips to his. He groaned with pleasure, rolling her onto her back and covering her body with his.

An impromptu marriage proposal! It was so passionate, it felt almost unreal—like a wonderfully dreamy scene from a beautiful movie.

“Tomorrow,” he rasped, his eyes searching hers desperately, his breath quick and panting against her cheek. “When I come home. Just you and me. Let’s just do it!”

Tomorrow?

Tomorrow felt so soon. And yet…

…they loved each other, right? And they lived together, for all intents and purposes. What was the point of waiting?

Swept away by the romance of the moment, she grinned up at him. “Tomorrow?”

“Just you and me,” he repeated, leaning back to look into her eyes.

“But your family…” she started, real life intruding. He had family. She had family. Oh, God, her family…

He read her face like a book. “I don’t want my family there if yours won’t be there, and I’m guessing that they wouldn’t come if you married a Lutheran, right?”

Feeling bad and hoping the truth didn’t hurt his feelings, she nodded.

He kissed her. “It doesn’t bother me, sweetheart. We can tell our families later. Tomorrow will just be about us.”

He was so good to her. She didn’t know what she’d done in her life to deserve him, or what debt she would owe in accepting him, but how could she say no?

“Is it possible to get married that quickly?” she asked, the excitement of his proposal overtaking any real-life concerns.

“Sure. The Manhattan Marriage Bureau only requires twenty-four hours.”

She beamed at him. “How do you know that?”

“I’m an entertainment lawyer! Do you know how many athletes and actors do quickie weddings?”

“A lot?”

“Tons,” he said. “We’d do the paperwork this morning before I head to Philly …and we’ll go back tomorrow afternoon to say…I do.” He kissed her lips quickly, then rolled off of her, swinging his legs over the bed and striding purposefully to his closet. He rifled through a few suit jackets before turning back to her with a wobbly smile.

Circling back around the bed, he knelt down on the floor beside her. Snapping open a small white box, he looked at the brilliant diamond ring for a moment, as though to ensure it was still there, before lifting his eyes to hers. She scrambled to sit up, covering her breasts with a sheet and gazing down at him with tears streaming down her face. When did he plan this? For how long? It was so romantic, tears sprang to her eyes.

“I love you, Elise Klassan.” He stopped speaking for a moment and blinked, clenching his jaw once before continuing. “And I want to spend the rest of my life with someone as brave and talented and surprising and loving and…amazing as you.”

She swiped at her tears, holding out her trembling hand so he could slip the giant diamond onto her fourth finger. He leaned forward as she reached for his face, her tears and laughter mixing as she kissed him. Rolling back onto the bed, he planted his elbows on either side of her shoulders and hovered over her, his face a study in happiness.

“You’re going to marry me tomorrow,” he said, brushing her hair from her forehead before kissing her tenderly. When he drew back, his smile was dazzling.

“Yes,” she said, smiling back at him. “I am.”





Chapter 10


It wasn’t an especially romantic service, though Preston had picked up an enormous bouquet of white flowers on his way home, from which Elise plucked three blooms to hold. She wore a simple white sundress from her closet, and Preston wore a suit and tie. They held hands as they walked up the steps of City Hall, and sat side by side on a green leather couch, holding the license as they waited for their names to be called.

It wasn’t how Elise had pictured her wedding day in her dreams—surrounded by strangers in a civic building—but Preston’s proposal and her daring acceptance had packed enough romance to imbue the afternoon with a sense of genuine excitement. Not to mention, marrying Preston served another purpose for Elise; it severed her last ties to her past. Today she would marry a Lutheran and change her name to Winslow. With her first Broadway show closing to a fifteen minute standing ovation last night and her wedding today, Elise’s transformation from Mennonite farm girl to big city actress was complete.

After an hour wait, they were ushered into a small pink-walled room with a podium at the front. Standing across from one another, they said their vows, pledging to love, honor, cherish and protect each other, forsaking all others and holding only unto themselves forevermore. They were familiar words, comfortable lines that Elise had said on stage many times, and she grinned at Preston, her comrade in this adventure, as he slipped the gorgeous engagement ring back over her finger.

That her fingers trembled didn’t bother her, though it did—for a moment—blur the line between the daring romance of a whirlwind marriage and the very real life commitment she was making. And just for that moment, she felt a stab of something like unease, like uncertainty.

“Please continue holding hands,” said the older gentlemen officiating the service, “and look at one another.”