Becoming the Whiskey Princess Read online

  In my ear, he whispers, “I’ve sung that with your da many times, my dear. Let me just say, he raised one hell of a singer, and what a beauty she is.” Pulling away, he meets my gaze and wipes away my tear. “He’d be very proud of ya.”

  “Thank you,” I say softly.

  “Simply stunning.”

  I whip my head to the side to see Declan standing there, a grin on his face. “Hey!”

  I hop off the stool and into his arms. Pain explodes across my chest, and I scold myself for that dumb move, but I’ve missed him. He’s been a constant presence since I got shot, and I don’t think I like being apart. As I kiss his lips softly, he smiles against mine, and I know it’s because we are in front of the whole pub, but I don’t give two shits. He’s my man!

  Parting, I smile up at him, running my finger along his jaw. “They threw me a little welcome home party.”

  “It was Declan’s idea,” I hear Fiona say, and my grin grows as his cheeks warm with color.

  “Oh, really?”

  He shrugs. “Sure. Everyone’s missed ya.”

  I grin and he sends me a grin back before he unlocks my arms from around his neck. My brows come together as he says, “Sit down, sweetheart.”

  I do as he asks, and then he takes my hand in his. “I heard this song a couple years ago. I saw the artist perform it here, right, Fiona?”

  Fiona grins as she nods. “Yeah.”

  He meets my gaze again and kisses my knuckles before saying, “And yeah, he was amazing, but I never thought about this song until about an hour ago.” He pauses, lacing our fingers together, and I can feel the nerves coming off him in waves. He hates crowds, and I am surprised he is saying this much, but I appreciate it. “I was in my library and the thought of you was heavy on my mind. Like always,” he says, sending me a grin that I return. “And all of a sudden, this song comes to mind. This is how I feel for ya, and it describes ya perfectly. So, yeah, let’s have at it.”

  Richard starts to play and I fully expect him to start singing, but to my surprise, it is Declan who starts to sing. It is a lovely sound too! Deep but with a little bit of a softness to it. I recognize the song almost immediately as Ed Sheeran’s “Fall.” It is one of my favorites, and hearing Declan sing it has my heart coming out of my chest. While he doesn’t have the voice Ed Sheeran has, his voice is beautiful just the same, and I am in complete awe of him. The song lyrics talk about how much he loves falling for the girl he loves, and it rattles my soul seeing my boyfriend, I mean fiancé, sing so beautifully. Just for me.

  The whole pub has fallen silent again, and everyone is in total shock. As am I. Out of the corner of my eye, I see someone hold up their phone but Fiona takes it away, shaking her head. She really is so amazing. I meet Declan’s gaze again and can see that he is nervous, but my God, he has no reason to be. He is beyond amazing. Squeezing his hand as his voice fills the pub, I am flabbergasted.

  As the song ends, I stand up, wrapping my arms around his neck as I kiss his lips while everyone claps and hollers out for him. Love explodes in my heart for him, sending tingles through my body as we share a long kiss. His fingers are tight at my waist, and I can feel his heart beating against my chest, almost in time with mine. Parting, we share a smile, but when I go to say something, he shakes his head before falling down to one knee.

  Holding my hand in his, he looks up at me and my heart kicks into hyperspeed. I know what he is doing, but seeing him down there just makes it extremely real.

  “I would have never done that before,” he says softly. “Sing for ya like that.”

  “Sure the hell wouldn’t,” I hear Kane call out, and I hadn’t realized he was here, but he is, wrapped around Fiona like a glove.

  Smiling, I look back down at Declan and cup his jaw. “It was beautiful. Thank you.”

  “Anything for ya, Amberlyn. Really. Anything and everything you want, you’ll have because I honestly can’t live this life without you. I can’t believe I found ya, across a lake, looking so gorgeous. You stunned me. First glance, I was a goner. When I first talked to you and you poked me in the middle of my forehead, I knew I was going to love you my whole damn life. You’ve taken over my thoughts, my heart, and brought me out of the shell I’ve lived in for so long. I became alive when I met you.”

  Tears burn my eyes as I hold his gaze. “Oh, Declan,” I say softly, and he smiles.

  “Nothing feels like you. Nothing can add up to what you give me. I want to say I chose ya first, but I didn’t. My heart did, and by the time my brain and the rest of my body caught up, I was gone with ya. I never want to let ya go. So,” he says, pausing. I glance over to where he is looking as Fiona hands him a book. Meeting my gaze again, he says, “I want you to have this.”

  When he places it in my lap, I look up at him in shock. It’s his Pride and Prejudice first edition.

  “No, this is your great-times-ten-grandma’s,” I say, running my fingers down the front of it. I love this book and would love to say it was mine, but it isn’t, and I can’t allow him to give it to me. No matter how much I want it.

  “Yeah, it was and so is what is inside.”

  Intrigued, I open the book but don’t see anything. “Huh?”

  He pulls on the little string bookmark, and at the bottom of the fabric is a ring tied to it. Blinking in complete shock, I pick it up and gawk at the gorgeousness of this ring. A huge oval diamond sits on a gold band that is encrusted with smaller diamonds. It is stunning and beautiful, very vintage. So completely me. I meet Declan’s gaze, and he smiles as he takes the ring from my fingers and unties it. Holding it out, he looks deep into my eyes, and I can see the tears welling up in his own eyes. He is so beautiful, his ice-blue eyes burning with love for me. I can see every single one of his emotions, and I can’t believe that, so quickly, I can read him like this. He is nervous but completely in love with me, just the way I want him.

  “My grandma who wore this ring and bought this book was married for forty-six years to my grandda. They were mad for each other, and she loved this ring and this book, but I want you to have them.”

  A tear escapes my eye, and I try to hold in the others, but it doesn’t work well. He smiles as his fingers thread with mine while his other hand holds the ring out to me. “These things are part of my history, and I want you to have them because you are my future.”

  “Declan,” I gasp, my lip wobbling as I hold his gaze.

  “I love ya, Amberlyn, and I would like nothing more than for you to be my wife. To make this life worth living because without ya, I’m nothing. So will ya have me?”

  I don’t even answer him. I let my lips do the talking and ignore the sting in my chest or the exclamation of the audience. I mark the pain off as my heart exploding in my chest, and I couldn’t care less about the people in the room. The only thing that matters is the fact I’ll never love anyone the way I love Declan O’Callaghan.

  I am finally feeling like myself.

  It’s been almost four weeks since I was shot, and I feel fantastic. Yeah, it still hurts a bit here and there when I do things, but I know that I am healed. My wound is scabbed over and isn’t swollen anymore. The doctor gave me a clean bill of health, which is such a blessing since they thought I would die when it all first happened. But like my mom said, it wasn’t my time. Which is fine with me. While I miss her and my dad so much, I am about to spend the rest of my life with Declan.

  Swoon...

  It’s been a week since he proposed “the right way,” as he says. I still can’t believe how extraordinarily romantic it all was. I never expected that from him. I was fine with the way he did it in the hospital and thought that was how he operated, but then he blew my flipping mind with his real proposal. I swear I’ll never forget the way his eyes sparkled as he looked deep into mine. The way he sang to me, only for me. Or the way he held the ring up to me as his eyes pleaded for my forever.

  Which he already had.

  He’s changing right before my eyes, and I love