A Very Merry Mess (Cider Cove Sweet Southern RomComs #3)

Elliott

ELLIOTT

The familiar scent of paper, ink, and office supplies fills my nostrils as I step into Paper Trail, Luna padding faithfully by my side. Things have been going pretty good for the past few weeks, since I returned from Michigan with my momma, Luna, and Ryanne all on the same flight. It honestly felt like winning the lottery and getting told it’ll be Christmas every day.

Luna and I have been figuring out how we work together at Paper Trail, and I put a dog bed at the end of the couch right behind my desk. But Luna didn’t like it there. She kept coming over and curling up at my feet. So now the bed is there, because I can’t stand her lying on the cold tile without a pad.

Whenever I have to leave the office, she comes with me. She wears her white harness with the rigid handle, indicating she’s a guide dog, and everyone who works at Paper Trail knows about my vision issues. Thankfully, only a couple of people have treated me differently, and I simply remind them that I can still see, despite the degenerative condition. And they’ve stopped; Luna is a staple now, and everyone we work with loves her.

I love her more than I thought possible. Surprisingly, I put her bed next to Peppermint’s, and she squeezed herself on the feline’s instead of using her own. So I put Peppermint’s bed inside Luna’s, and they snooze together all night long.

I approach the office, noting the door is closed, and I say to my guide dog, “Luna, open the door.”

Luna doesn’t leave my side, because that’s not what she does. At home, she does go around and get me what I want her to, but when we’re out together, she is glued to my side. So we get to the door together, and Luna jumps up on her back feet and uses her front paws to catch the door handle and push it down.

Doorknobs are tricky, and I’m in the process of replacing all the fixtures in my house so they’re the handle-doors Luna can open by herself. This one at work was already the right kind, and Luna settles back to my side in a sit as the door drifts open.

“Hey,” Ryanne says from within the office, and I head inside.

“Afternoon,” I say. Her presence grounds me, reminding me that I’m not alone in this new chapter of my life. We’ve been inseparable since she surprised me at Paws For a Cause, and the thought of spending the rest of my life with her fills me with joy.

Once inside, I close the door behind us, my hands shaking slightly as I reach to unleash Luna. “Lay down,” I tell her, and she goes under the desk and curls into her bed. “What’s the news?” I ask Ry, because I need a minute to gather myself together.

I have a plan for today, and I need Ry to head back out to the retail floor at some point, so I can decorate the office appropriately and go over my recording one more time. Luna and I have been working on this surprise for Ryanne since the first day she came to work with me.

“Well, we got the Valentine’s Day decor today, so I called our stocking team in to help you get it all up tonight.”

I nod as I pull open the fridge and put my dinner in there. Then I sit down, letting my chair slide across the tile to the whiteboard above the couch. “So Jake, Jimmy, and Riley?” Only Riley was scheduled for tonight, but when we have to change over seasonal decor, Ry calls in more people to knock it out in one night.

Since I’m the evening manager, the job falls to me, and I’ve decorated for every holiday so many times, I could probably do it in my sleep. Or blind.

“All right,” I say. “We can get it done, I’m sure.”

“You’ll like the endcap displays,” she says with a grin. She slides back into her desk, and her desktop has no less than thirty-four windows open, as per her usual. “They put big dogs on them.”

“Holding hearts?” I gasp. “Or wait. The hearts will be on greeting cards, and we’ll put them on the endcaps of our greeting card section.”

“Don’t act like you don’t love it,” she says without even looking at me. In fact, she takes a slurp of her soda, and it’s almost gone so it makes a rattling noise as the straw tries to find liquid and can’t. “Ugh, I need more Diet Coke.”

“Go dirty it up,” I say, hoping she’ll take her foam cup and walk halfway down the block to the convenience store she likes. They have a whole wall of flavored syrups, and Ry likes to do half Diet Coke and half cherry Slurpee, then two pumps of coconut. Dirty diet cherry-coconut Coke.

“I’m going to.” She gets to her feet with her cup, gives me a so-there look, and leaves the office without closing the door. My heartbeat throbs against the top of my mouth, and I force myself to wake my computer and put in my password before I get up and close the door.

Then I lock it.

I need maybe ten minutes, and I hurry to get the recording set up and made as big as possible. I position the mouse just-so, then turn and pull down my own decorations for Ry’s surprise. It’s not hard to slap up a poster on the fridge, and I smile at the green M&M wearing a wedding dress and a sultry expression. I put the plush blue M&M on the couch like a big corner pillow, and I lay out all the flavors of M&Ms I’ve managed to gather in only twenty-three days.

I got the candy apple ones, which are seasonal, and some of her favorites, including the minis, the coffee nut, red velvet, and the strawberried peanut butter, among others.

My original plan was to hang streamers from the ceiling tiles too, but I nixed them in the name of time. Instead, I bought these sort of firecracker-looking things normally used for a Fourth of July party. They lie flat, but I open them up to three-dimensional, and the silvery “fire” comes spewing out the top.

They make me smile as I clasp the two sides together, and I place one on my computer tower, several on the filing cabinets, a few on top of the fridge, and the rest on Ry’s desk.

Then, the only thing I need is the diamond ring. I get it out of my desk drawer, where I’ve hidden it in the back. Ry only ever grabs paper clips or my stapler from my desk, so I figured it would be safe there.

Now I just need her to come back, and preferably with her favorite drink and happy as a clam. Even if she doesn’t, I’m asking her to marry me today. I’m not in a hurry, but Ry’s the kind of woman who wants movement once she has a plan. And she wants to start figuring out how we live together, with a guide dog, and without my vision.

She says her plans are never reality, and she wants to know the reality. I hadn’t lied to her when I’d said I’d marry her tomorrow, so I’m fine to propose now and get married whenever Ryanne tells me.

I crack the door so I can hear her when she’s getting close, and then I start to pace in the office. Luna comes out from under the desk, where she’s been watching me, and she cocks her head at me as if to say, You okay, Ell?

I am and I’m not.

“…let you know.” Ry’s voice comes closer, and I spin to face the door. She enters the office as she says, “Okay, Mom, I’m back. I have to go.” She lowers the phone immediately, which means the conversation is about something she doesn’t want to talk about. “You will not believe ?—”

She cuts off and comes to a complete stop. “What is going on here?”

“Luna,” I say. “Close the door.”

My yellow lab moves to do exactly what I told her to, and then she trots by all the laid out bags of M&Ms and comes to my side. Ry stares at me, blinking rapidly with those gorgeous eyelashes.

“Luna,” I say. “Start the video.”

Luna looks up at me, and I look down at her, my pulse pounding against my ribs. “Start.” I point to the computer. “ Start . The. Video.” I speak in crisp, clear commands, and Luna takes one more moment to process the request before she blessedly moves over to my desk chair.

“If you could…” I say to Ry, nodding to my chair. It rolls, and Luna needs help keeping it steady. Ry’s hand shoots out to hold the top of the chair only a split second before Luna arrives. She jumps up into the chair, and Ry grunts and scoffs as the chair moves. Luna does weigh almost seventy pounds, so I probably should’ve given Ryanne a better warning.

Luna looks at me again, and I bark at her, “Start the video.”

It’s right there, and everything is ready. All she has to do is drop her paw on the mouse. By some miracle, she does it, and I hear the click as it echoes through the office.

I’ve given myself ten seconds in the beginning of the recording, and I say, “Luna, come.”

She jumps down from the chair and comes to my side once again. I bury my hand in her neck fur and use her to steady myself as I get down on both knees and hold up the diamond ring.

Ry pulls in a sharp breath and clasps her hands in front of her. They start to wind around one another just as the recording I’ve made starts to play. I’ve got the speakers all the way up, so it’s not quiet when the robotic voice begins with, “Every day is a new adventure,” in the voice of the Opportunity rover.

“And I’m feeling good. I’ve discovered something amazing, because this is a special place, and I’m exploring new horizons,” the robotic voices continue. I’ve spent hours combing through the quotes and transmissions sent back to earth from the Mars rovers, and I grin and grin at my genius.

Ry’s eyes fill with glassy tears as my proposal continues with, “My new home…is breathtaking…and I’m not sure if you’ll believe me, but…”

I raise my eyebrows at her as she shakes her head, a slow smile of her own coming to her face. Then my voice comes into the recording. “I love you…” I’ve said it in the most Marsy-robotic voice I can muster. “And I’m having a blast, living the dream… It’s a wild ride…but I’m loving every minute of it. We’re ready…to explore…”

My knees are starting to ache, and there’s just a little bit more to go. My voice comes in again with, “…the rest of our lives together. I think you’re…”

The robots come back in, and I’ve put the words really close together now. “Interesting.”

“Amazing!”

“Spectacular…”

“Really interesting.”

“A beautiful sight.”

“…pretty cool.”

Ry starts to laugh-cry at that one, and I’ll admit, that was hard to cut out the last word, and the initial sound can be heard, though the recording continues with, “Exciting!”

“In good health.”

“Valuable.”

“Fascinating.”

“A charmer!”

Only a couple more things now, and my voice comes back on. “You’re my favorite person in the whole world, my very best friend, and I would love it if you’d agree to be my wife.”

Pause. Ry lifts her eyebrows, but I shake my head.

The Opportunity rover has one more thing to say. “No pressure!”

The recording ends, and I look at Luna. “Luna, speak your mind on whether or not you think Ryanne should marry me.”

Luna barks, and I say, “Again.”

She gets to her feet and barks, barks, bark-barks , and then circles around me before sitting down again. We both look at Ryanne, and this time I hold out the diamond ring and say, “That’s all I’ve got, sweetheart. Will you marry me?”

Ry holds my gaze for a moment, then looks at the sparkling firecracker decor, the bags of M&Ms, and the big green bride on the fridge. She starts to laugh and laugh, and then she says, “Yes.” She comes toward me and drops to her knees too. “Yes, yes, yes! Of course I’ll marry you.”

I slide the ring on her finger and take her face in my hands and kiss her.

“That was the best proposal ever,” she whispers against my lips.

“Took me forever,” I say. “That’s why it’s been so long since we got back until I proposed.”

“I wondered what was taking you so long.”

I simply kiss her again, because this is a memory I won’t need my sight for. I can play that recording and visualize Ry’s every reaction, taste the cherry-vanilla cola on her lips, and hear the way she says, “I love you so much, ,” without having to see a single thing.

Mm, yes. ’s my official favorite. I love how he makes non-sight memories, and I love how he celebrates Christmas—and Ryanne! I hope you do too! Leave a review for them here!

Read on for a couple of sneak peak chapters at the next book in the Cider Cove series - A VERY DISASTROUS DARE - and enjoy spring and summer with Emma and Aaron in Cider Cove as they compete for a pretty major prize!