Beyond Ruin by Crystal Cierlak

and as far as dream homes go it sets the bar quite high. You couldn’t want for anything here. Eight bedrooms. Ten bathrooms. Two bedroom guest house. Pool. Pool house. Tennis court. More than I can even list in one breath. All of it on three and a half acres of land with the most beautiful views money can buy, the best of which are on the second floor terrace off the master bedroom.”
    Natalie looked at the short balcony hanging high above the gated front door and tried to imagine where on the property this other balcony was. Indeed, it all looked like something out of a fantasy. Real people didn’t live in places like Villa Montecito, surely.
    “From up there you can see almost the entire property as it stretches out toward the horizon and ends just below the line where the Pacific ocean meets the sky. Of all the property I own and the places I’ve visited, there is nowhere that can even touch the beauty of that terrace or the land it overlooks.”
    Natalie slipped her sunglasses off her face and turned her attention again to James, whose own attention was still on the dreamy edifice. “Why are you telling me all of this?” Her voice came out in a tremble, but she hoped it was too soft to notice.
    “Because on Thursday I made an offer on Villa Montecito, and yesterday the owners accepted it. In less than thirty days this house will be mine, and when I have the key in my hand I’m going to bring you here. I’m going to take you up to that second-floor terrace-” James turned to look at Natalie, his blue-green eyes burning with an intensity that could render her speechless. He never looked more determined, more sure of anything in his life. “And I’m going to ask you to marry me.”
     

CHAPTER TWELVE
    “Hey, you’re back,” Joe greeted Natalie from his makeshift desk at the dining room table as she stepped through the front door of their shared home/office. The windows were wide open to the fading late autumn sky outside, darkness imminent. She felt like she was returning from another life completely. “How was lunch?”
    "It was nice,” she responded quietly as she joined him at the table. The car ride home from Montecito was long and quiet. What was she supposed to say to the man who told that her in thirty days he would be asking her to marry him? What could she say? She was stunned, and the purring of the Bugatti’s engine was their only companion on the return trip. Their goodbye was awkward but brief, and Natalie was happy to be away from him to give her mind time to process everything.
    Joe eyed her curiously. Even in the few short months they’d partnered together in both business and home life Joe had come to know her pretty well, and she him. There was an easiness to being around him, and Natalie appreciated that quality on more than one occasion. But she couldn’t talk to him about James and his startling revelation that afternoon.
    “Where’s Quinn?”
    “San Diego. She said she’ll be back tomorrow afternoon.”
    “Ugh. We have so much work to do,” Natalie groaned.
    “Says the girl who left for half the day to go have lunch with her ex-boyfriend,” Joe ribbed her. He was right. And it was the weekend after all.
    “What are you working on?” She peaked around the open lid of his laptop to attempt a glance at the screen.
    “Staff restructuring ideas. Boring stuff,” he dismissed with a shake of his head. “We can talk about it when Quinn returns.”
    Natalie made a soft humming noise and looked around the condo, searching for some form of inspiration. She had no desire to work but was too tired to leave home and go anywhere. All she wanted was distraction. Her problems would still be her problems tomorrow.
    “I don’t suppose you want to order takeout and watch movies all night?” Joe's raised eyebrows were accompanied by his surprised smile. She tried for a nonchalant shrug. "Unless you've got plans tonight?"
    "Uh, no. No plans," he said. "What do you feel like?"
    Natalie