** Please follow the instructions at the end of my blog to enter to win the giveaways. You have a little homework to do but it will be worth it! **
by Christian Ramos
I’ve
never been in love.
I’ve
been engaged twice. And been stranded at the altar both times. But it wasn’t until
after I’d tucked my tail between my legs, drank an assload of Jack, and sorted
through the BS once my binge-soaked brain functioned normally again that I
admitted both women had done me a favor. Who thought getting married ‘til death
do you part was a good idea anyway?
My
big, fat, Latin family did. My father wanted grandsons to carry on the Ramos
family name. My mother wanted grandchildren to spoil rotten. And hell, I'd tried
my best. But after two humiliating trips up the church aisle and right back
down it again, marriage, kids and love weren’t on my radar anymore.
Not until
I was staring 40 in the face. Then those things were back on my radar. Big time. Suddenly, having kids and a woman to share my
life (and bed) with had moved from dead last on the Chris
Ramos bucket list, to the top. But holy hell, the thought of trying to find the
future Mrs. Christian Ramos made me break out in a cold sweat and shrivel my
balls.
When
my college roommate, Jackson Castillo, asked me to be his best man at his
wedding, I rented the tux and flew out to Vegas, although I had every intention…no,
I had an obligation, to talk him out
of the marriage. He’d met his bride through some online dating service, 1Night
Stand. The whack job owner, Madame Evangeline, had coerced him into going on a
date with a woman who wanted someone who looked like her dead boyfriend. Or
something. Who cares, it was crazy and I had zero intention of letting Jackson
ruin his life. Friends don’t let friends marry crazy bitches.
Leah
was anything but crazy and Jackson, the stoic, uptight, career-driven bastard
that he is, had fallen for her in a big, hard way. It was painful and more than a little nauseating to watch them
together.
So,
naturally I contacted the whack job owner, Madame Eve. What the hell, I had no
real hope to have what Jackson and Leah do, but if all I got out of it was a one-night
stand, I didn’t care.
A
few weeks later, I got the email I’d been waiting for from Madame Eve. But she
hadn’t found me a date. She’d found me a wife. Queue my best WTF expression as
I stared at the screen. I groped for my cell phone in an incredulous panic (if
there is such a thing).
Me:
“Dude, I got a response from your whack job friend, Eve.”
Jackson:
“Oh yeah? Who’s the lucky date?”
Me:
“You mean, who’s the lucky wife?”
Long
Pause from Jackson, then: “Bwahahaha!”
I
thought I was going to have to send the asshole a case of Depends because I’m
pretty sure he pissed himself laughing so hard.
Long
story short. I agreed to marriage. I don’t know why. It seemed like a good
idea? I wanted to have children before I was old enough to be their
grandfather? I was tired of my parents pushing me to settle down? I was tired
of being alone? All of the above….
I
flew out to Las Vegas with the asinine hope that my future wife, Beth, and I
would be, if nothing else, compatible. But when we met, I didn’t like her….
I
fell in love.
**Tell me about your first love, or your second-and-even-better love, or something you love, even if it's not human. I love to hear a good how-we-met story, so please share yours. One lucky commenter will win a $10 Amazon gift card from me and a copy of Jackson and Leah Castillo's story, To Feel Again**
Valerie
Mann is the superwoman every woman tries to be…mother of five attractive,
successful children, vixen in and out of the bedroom, runway model fashionista,
extreme gardener, and just recently crashed on bestseller lists as a romance
author.
In
real life, Valerie is the mother of five lovely, but ordinary children. Sure,
she’s a vixen in and out of the bedroom, which explains the herd of kids. The
closest she gets to a runway is an airport, and while she thinks gardens of all
sorts are wonderful, she figures that hobby can wait until retirement, if her
knees last that long. And that crashing you heard was Valerie collapsing on the
couch at the end of a very long day. As for romance, she writes and likes to
think she can tell an amazing tale of love or two. Her husband of nearly thirty
years won’t read her stories because they make him blush but is content in the
knowledge he’s the inspiration for every one of them.
Valerie
currently works as a managing editor for an electronic publisher and is the
co-owner of a company that provides editing services for writers.
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