"Then it's a deal."

They shook hands, but when she started to pull back, he didn't let go. "I was serious," he whispered

gruffly, kissing her fingertips.

"And I said yes."

"But I want more than a work partner. Will you take a chance on me?"

Her heart leaped when she realized what he was asking. "On a bad boy?" she asked, with a teasing

smile.

But he didn't smile back. His expression grew fierce.

"On a man who loves you. On a man who didn't realize he had the capacity to love so much. Not

until-" His voice cracked, but he forcefully shook the emotion away. "When I saw Sonja turn that

gun on you ... when I thought I might lose you-"

She pressed her palm to his cheek, cutting him off, her charm bracelet falling down her wrist, jangling just as it always had. "Just as you said to me, nothing happened. Everyone is safe. And I love you. As I have since the day I first saw you looking like the baddest bad boy I had ever seen."

He gathered her in his arms and buried his face in her hair. "Is that a yes? Will you take a chance on me?"

She pulled back enough so that she could look at him. Then did what she had wanted to do for days. She kissed him, long and deep, filled with bold passion. "Yes," she breathed against him. "If you can take a chance on a bad girl who didn't quite figure out how to be good."

Epilogue.

Julia sat with her best friends around the kitchen table. For a second, they were silent, comfortable and happy. In the last nine months, each of their lives had changed irrevocably. But for all the changes that had gone on during that time, a lot had stayed the same. Julia was back in her leopard pants and stiletto heels. Chloe still had her bangs framing her startling blue eyes. Kate, with her froth of curls, wore pleated pants and a prim cotton sweater set. And the men they had chosen to love adored them just as they were.

As far as Julia was concerned, everything was perfect.

When they started to talk, they all leaped into conversation at the same time.

"Has Ben asked you to marry him yet?" Chloe demanded.

Kate leaned forward. "Did he pop the question last night? Surely it happened last night. And if not, I think it's time you asked him!"

Julia took a sip of her tea and smiled at her friends. "No, he didn't ask. And no, I'm not going to ask him."

Chloe sighed her frustration. "Sorry, but I just don't get it," she stated.

Kate agreed. "It makes no sense. It's clear he adores you, and you adore him. But here it is four months later, and at night, he goes home to his apartment, and you stay here-this after he lived with you for a month! You're not engaged and not even living together!"

Julia smiled, and despite her leopard-print clothes, she felt amazingly shy about this discussion. "I guess this bad girl is actually an old-fashioned girl at heart."

The thought surprised her, and also sent a thrill down her spine. She loved the idea of a true period of old-fashioned dating, which was exactly what she and Ben had been doing. After they had been thrust together while Chloe and Sterling went on their honeymoon, now Ben was being the perfect gentleman, calling her up, asking her Out. For candlelit dinners, horse rides along the river, picnics in the mountains. He was courting her. And she loved every minute of it.

It had been four months since the first Primal Guy had become a hit. Partner Productions had several promising shows in the pipeline. The second mortgage on the house was paid off. Julia had gotten her life in order.

And she had Ben by her side.

She knew in her heart they would get married. She knew he would propose. She looked forward to that

day with anticipation and certainty that they had a wonderful future ahead of them. But it would happen when the time was right-not rushed or forced as they had been with each other in the beginning.

The sound of some sort of shoveling work outside caught the women's attention.

"What's that?" Kate asked.

The friends hurried to the back door. What they saw was all three of the men they loved circled around a place in Julia's yard just beyond the driveway. Ben was digging in the warm March heat. Jesse and Sterling offered unnecessary instruction.

Kate, Chloe, and Julia came outside.

"What's going on?" Chloe asked.

Sterling extended his arm, then pulled his wife to his side. Jesse took Kate's hand and curled her close.

Julia hung back, taking in the scene. Her friends and their loves. Ben digging that hole. And something

wrapped in burlap sitting on the ground.

Ben straightened and leaned on the long wooden handle of the shovel skewering the ground. He looked at Julia as if there was no one else around.

"What is that?" Kate asked.

Ben looked only at Julia. "It's something I've been trying to find for months now."

"A rosebush," Julia whispered.

"It's not the original," he admitted, never looking away. "But it's closer than the glass rose I gave you

before I entirely understood what that bush meant to you."

Her heart hammered in her chest and she felt tears threatening in her eyes. "You brought me a new rosebush." "Not just any rosebush. With Jesse's help, I found the exact same grower, the same sort of bush. Just like the one your father gave you. Only this one doesn't have red blooms." He smiled at her with a wealth of love, more than she could imagine. "This one produces pink flowers instead."

"Oh, Ben," she whispered.

He dropped the shovel and reached out, taking her hand after she took the steps that separated them.

Then all three women gasped when he kneeled down in front of her.

His voice was hoarse with intensity when he spoke. "I wanted to find a way to make sure I'd be able to give you a lifetime of wild pink roses."

She felt her heart expand, and she understood something then that she hadn't before. About love and giving, about understanding another person at the deepest level.

She kneeled down in front of him and placed her hands on either side of his face. "I love you, Ben."

She sensed the grip that loosened around his heart at her words, like some sort of freeing. She felt the last traces of darkness leave his face, maybe even his soul. And with a laugh rilled with his joy, he pulled her to him, kissing her hair. "Will you marry me?" he asked, his voice gruff with feeling. "Will you be my wife?"

She had been waiting for this, that perfect moment when they both would know it was time. She laughed through her tears, relishing all the emotion she felt, no longer afraid of the intensity. "Yes! Yes, I'll marry you. I'll marry you because I love you, and because you love me ... and because you really do understand me." She leaned back and smiled at him. "Besides, how can I resist the sweetest and the sexiest man I know."

end.