“Wait until you see Jacob,” Matt said, and suddenly that was all Rasul could think about.
His heart beat triple time as he filed into the community center, trying to peer around the crush to find his boyfriend. There were just so many people.
Murmuring apologies, he slipped around a clutch of people talking instead of walking and ducked around a pillar and into—
Into a veil of stars.
He couldn’t breathe.
The entire main room of the community center had been draped in netting, and inside it were thousands and thousands of tiny white lights. It was his novel come to life. Except the veil wasn’t isolating. It overflowed with the people he’d come to know and love, the messy, wonderful members of the community he now called home.
In the center of it, standing in the middle of the dance floor watching him, was Jacob.
He was so handsome and dashing Rasul felt dizzy. His suit was absolutely bespoke—the burgundy felted wool of his vest was the whole of Jacob’s outfit, except for the silky tan vest and tie. He had a blue checked pocket square, and his coffee-colored shoes gleamed in the sparkling light.
Smiling, he held out his hand to Rasul. “May I have this dance?”
Before Rasul could melt completely, music started from the far side of the room. He started laughing when he recognized it.
“You’re a bad guy, huh?” he said as he let Jacob pull him into his embrace.
“The worst,” Jacob promised against Rasul’s ear.
This time Jacob didn’t hesitate or blush as they ground against one another. They moved in perfect synchronization, wrapped up in one another as if they were the only people in the world. Rasul couldn’t stop smiling, but with the way Jacob’s heated gaze bored into him, he couldn’t stop blushing either.
This is why it’s okay for you to stop running. You can afford to feel all your feelings now, because this man will be there to fish you out if you slip into the sea.
Rasul drew Jacob’s head closer and pressed a heated, brief kiss against his neck.
And I’ll be there to catch you too.
When the music switched to Air Supply’s “Even the Nights Are Better,” Rasul wasn’t surprised. He simply downshifted, following Jacob as he led Rasul into a soft sway. As the town looked on and more than a few people snapped pictures, Rasul spun around the room with the person he loved the most, singing softly along with the music.
When the song wound to a close, he felt something small and metal pressed into his hand. Jacob closed Rasul’s hand over it and Rasul recognized what it was, his heart soaring into the sky.
“I love you, Rasul,” Jacob said into his ear. “Marry me. Stay with me forever.”
Unable to stop grinning, Rasul lifted the ring, pressed it to his lips, then caressed the side of Jacob’s face with it.
“Yes,” he said, then felt his soul fly as Jacob kissed him and the whole room cheered.
More from Heidi Cullinan
I’ll marry you.
Professor Valentyn Shevchenko isn’t sure how to react when, after months of ineffective flirting, the cute barista’s first words to him are a proposal. In many ways, Peter Grunberg is the solution to all his problems. With his work visa inexplicably denied, Valentyn is running out of options to keep from being deported. But is a green card marriage really the answer? Is it still a marriage of convenience when he’s this attracted to his potential spouse?
Peter came to his uncle’s coffee shop in Boulder, Colorado, to reset his life after his struggles with selective mutism returned with a vengeance. He never meant his first words to the handsome ecology professor to be an offer of marriage, but he’s not backing out now. It doesn’t matter that Peter struggles to find words. He can say everything he needs to with his body.
Though this relationship may have started out back-to-front, Valentyn and Peter are determined to make their fake marriage real. But one misstep in their immigration interview could bring everything crashing down. They’ll have to hope that their love is enough to overcome all their obstacles and give them the prize they’ve both been dreaming of: a certified happy ever after.
Copper Point Medical: Book One
The brilliant but brooding new doctor encounters Copper Point’s sunny nurse-next-door... and nothing can stand in the way of this romance.
Dr. Hong-Wei Wu has come to Copper Point, Wisconsin, after the pressures of a high-powered residency burned him out of his career before he started. Ashamed of letting his family down after all they’ve done for him, he plans to live a quiet life as a simple surgeon in this tiny northern town. His plans, however, don’t include his outgoing, kind, and attractive surgical nurse, Simon Lane.
Simon wasn’t ready for the new surgeon to be a handsome charmer who keeps asking him for help getting settled and who woos him with amazing Taiwanese dishes. There’s no question—Dr. Wu is flirting with him, and Simon is flirting back. The problem is, St. Ann’s has a strict no-dating policy between staff, which means their romance is off the table… unless they bend the rules.
But a romance that keeps them—literally—in the closet can’t lead to happy ever after. Simon doesn’t want to stay a secret, and Hong-Wei doesn’t want to keep himself removed from life, not anymore. To secure their happiness, they’ll have to change the administration’s mind. But what other secrets will they uncover along the way, about Copper Point… and about each other?
Sequel to The Doctor’s Secret
Copper Point Medical: Book Two
The hospital’s least eligible bachelor and its aloof administrator hate each other… so why are they pretending to date?
Dr. Owen Gagnon and HR director Erin Andreas are infamous for their hospital hallway shouting matches. So imagine the town’s surprise when Erin bids an obscene amount of money to win Owen in the hospital bachelor auction—and Owen ups the ante by insisting Erin move in with him.
Copper Point may not know what’s going on, but neither do Erin and Owen. Erin intends his gesture to let Owen know he’s interested. Owen, on the other hand, suspects ulterior motives—that Erin wants a fake relationship as a refuge from his overbearing father.
With Erin suddenly heading a messy internal investigation, Owen wants to step up and be the hero Erin’s never had. Too bad Erin would rather spend his energy trying to rescue Owen from the shadows of a past he doesn’t talk about.
This relationship may be fake, but the feelings aren’t. Still, what Erin and Owen have won’t last unless they put their respective demons to rest. To do that, they’ll have to do more than work together—they’ll have to trust they can heal each other’s hearts.
Sequel to The Doctor’s Date
Copper Point Medical: Book Three
Once upon a time Nicolas Beckert was the boy who stole kisses from Jared Kumpel beneath the bleachers, but now Jared’s a pediatrician and Nick is the hospital CEO who won’t glance his way. Everything changes, however, when they’re stranded alone in a hospital elevator. Ten years of cold shoulders melt away in five hours of close contact, and old passions rekindle into hot flames.