Chapter 15

Shelby was running scared. She had been for the last two days.

Noel wasn't sure if that was a good sign or a bad one - he hoped it was good. Not for the first time he wished he had his sister Summer's sense of strategy. Not one of them had ever been able to defeat her at board games or even cards. If ever there was a campaign that needed to be won, it was Noel's battle for Shelby's heart. She was meant to be his, damn it. She just didn't know it yet.

Noel had grown up in a household filled with love. His parents were practically stupid with it, even after thirty-five years of marriage. Okay - thirty-five and a half. Noel would be hitting that birthday on Christmas and his parents had been married a whole six months when he was born. Yet never once had either of them hinted that they'd been forced, or that they regretted it - or him - for a second. Nope, they'd just loved each other and all their kids with a warmth that colored every aspect of their lives. His father might put on his