Two days later, Merrick was scheduled to be released. He’d been out of the wheelchair and walking around the floor, antsy to leave the hospital and be with his girl.
Jana had been anxious about Merrick’s homecoming, and Tony had moved out of the beach house, so Merrick and Bombshell could have a place to themselves.
Per hospital rules, Merrick reluctantly got back into the wheelchair for the trip down to the front entrance. At Tony’s suggestion, Holly brought over a second wheelchair, and Jana amiably agreed to sit in it.
When they arrived on the bottom floor, Tony and Holly pushed Merrick and Jana, not to the front doors where she expected, but down a hallway.
“Where are we going?” Jana wanted to know. She looked at Merrick, who didn’t seem surprised at all. In fact, he was avoiding her gaze. What’s going on?
At the end of the hall, Mama G. was standing in front of a large door. She pushed it open and waved the wheelchair caravan inside.
The room, a plain conference room, had been decked out with plants and bird cages, a table covered in white linen in the center. Jana’s heart flipped in her chest. It looked just like the garden room at the hotel, where she’d been with Merrick the morning Holly had shown up. There were no chairs, so Holly and Merrick were pushed so that they faced each other over the candlelit table.
Linda walked into the room, a huge smile on her face. She carried a tray and set it down in front of them. The largest, freshest, sweetest-looking strawberries Jana had ever seen swirled in white chocolate. Her mouth watered and her heart thumped in her chest.
&n
bsp; Around her, the room began to fill up. She recognized everyone—people from the Hotel, all of Merrick’s cousins, everyone.
“Merrick?” Jana asked. “What’s going on?”
Merrick pushed himself out of his wheelchair and came around to her side. Holly turned Jana’s chair so she was facing Merrick. Tony and Holly both moved to the edge of the room as Merrick got down on one knee. From his pocket, he pulled out a small velvet-covered box. Jana’s throat went dry as her body went numb, her chest expanding to large she could hardly breathe.
“Jana Peters, Mona Lisa Van Dyke, Bombshell, and love of my heart, will you marry me, please?” he said. She stared at him, his sapphire eyes moist and round, pleading, wanting, needing her.
Any doubts Jana had about whether he could possibly love her considering her sins, flew out of her mind. She got up, pushing the wheelchair out of her way, and with a loud, “Yes,” she threw herself into Merrick’s waiting embrace, taking him by surprise and the two of them fell over and rolled onto the floor, laughing, kissing and loving each other as the room erupted into joyous applause.
Epilogue
Merrick and Bombshell, as he insisted on calling her, were married six months later in a tasteful but very expensive ceremony. Her name was legally changed to Jana Bombshell Flynn, and Holly was of course her maid of honor. Charlie and Joann flew out for the ceremony, and Merrick gave them the deed to their house as a thank-you for their help, and also because he didn’t need their services anymore.
The performance center he’d designed, which had once been his primary obsession, no longer mattered to him. He sold it to a rival casino owner for a very good price and let the man worry about finding the opening performer. Bombshell, it turned out, had no desire to be a star. Despite her amazing talent, she was more like him and had no desire to be in the limelight. When she told him that she’d only performed that strongly the night he’d seen her at the talent show because it was the only way she could think of to leave Misty Falls, he realized that the place was somewhere she never wanted to go back to again. Knowing that his cabin would only bring bad memories to his beloved wife, he put the place on the market and used the proceeds to buy a stunning waterfront home on St. Bart’s, a place Bombshell fell in love with after they went there for their honeymoon.
They lived together in the beach house and Tony got a permanent room at the hotel. Jana suspected, it was because Holly had taken a position at the casino, developing a Vegas style dance show, for their small theatre. But, Holly didn’t acknowledge that she and Tony were a thing. And Tony still acted like he was the playboy, but Jana had her doubts.
Six months after the wedding, Merrick and Jana invited Mama G, Holly and Tony over for a special dinner at the beach house.
“That was wonderful, Jana,” Mama G. said after they had eaten. Jana was so proud. Mama G was the best cook in the world, and Jana had tried so hard to make the linguine in clam sauce as perfect as it could be.
“Mom,” Merrick said in a somber and serious voice. “We have an announcement.”
He got up and stood behind Jana, who looked up at her gorgeous husband with love in her eyes.
“You’re going to be a grandmother, Mama G,” they both said together.
Holly squealed and Mama G grabbed her heart.
Everyone hugged everyone else. “Way to go, bro,” Tony said, slapping Merrick hard on the back.
Holly grabbed Tony’s hand. “We should go,” she said.
Jana saw the look of lust in her friend’s eyes. She could relate.
It had been days since she and Merrick had slept together, and Jana was horny as hell.
She ran upstairs as Merrick walked their guests outside. She dug out that negligee and threw it on the counter. She started the bath and dumped a whole bottle of bubble bath in it.
“Hurry up,” she said, trying to will the water to come out quicker.