Chapter 3

Sam still took his breath away when she walked into the room in a sexy dress, and on that evening, nothing was different. Samantha walked out the front door in a light blue flowing dress that made her look like an angel as she made her way across the driveway.

“Damn,” Drake said as he waited for her by the car. “On time and dressed like the woman of my dreams.”

“I couldn’t disappoint you since this is the first time you’ve ever wanted me ready on time,” she said with a smile.

Drake loved Samantha’s smile. The joy that she exuded when she was happy was palpable, and he wished he could bottle it up and carry it with him all the time. Sam wasn’t just pretending to be a great woman—she truly was one of the greatest women he had ever known.

Because of Sam’s involvement in LeBlanc Enterprises, they were more active in charitable groups than they ever had been before. One of the newest charities they had contributed to was Allison’s pageant program for girls with disabilities. When Samantha heard about everything that Allison was doing for those girls, she instantly offered to contribute money, not just money from the business, but her own money.

The side effect of being involved in a pageant charity was that Sam also loved to buy fancy dresses so she had a reason to donate them to Allison’s group. Before they started dating, Drake could probably count on one hand the number of times he had seen Sam in a long gown, but once Sam got involved in Allison’s charity, she was always wanting to get dressed up; then she would wear her dress once and give it to the charity. Drake loved that about her.

“You are stunning,” he said as he opened the door and helped her into the vehicle.

“Thank you, darling,” Samantha said. “Now why is tonight so important? I’m sure the people at Romani’s would have held our table if we weren’t on time.”

Sam was right. The owners of Romani’s would have held a table for Drake without question. They loved him just as much as he loved going to their restaurant. But Drake had a lot planned for the evening and didn’t want to throw the timing off for any of it. His proposal was going to go off without a hitch, and he couldn’t risk the timing being the cause for something not working out the way it was supposed to.

“Well, thank you for being ready; I really appreciate it,” Drake said, leaning in and gently kissing Sam.

He knew that she didn’t like her lipstick messed up after she had gotten ready, so he left his kiss gentle. Drake knew a lot about what Sam liked and didn’t like, and that was going to make the night’s festivities even more exciting.

Sam reached over and held onto Drake’s hand as they pulled out of the driveway. She didn’t feel the need to talk constantly as they drove, just another reason Drake and Sam got along so well. On that night especially, Drake didn’t want to risk giving any clues to the night he had planned, so he didn’t want to talk too much before they got to the restaurant.

For five years, Sam had been one of his best friends. She was the one he went to when he had great ideas, and he could hardly keep a secret around her at all. Drake knew if he talked too much, Sam was going to know something was up purely because he was so horrible at keeping secrets from her.

They pulled up in front of Romani’s, and the valet opened Drake’s door, then Drake went around and opened Samantha’s door. He held his hand out to help her out of the vehicle, and she wrapped her arm around his as they walked into the restaurant. He knew how much she enjoyed going to dinner. It had been one of their favorite things to do together since they started to date.

“There’s just something so magical about a dinner out in L.A.,” Sam said as they walked toward their seat.

She had said something very similar on previous nights when they had gone to dinner. It was exciting to be out in L.A. in the evening mostly because the energy of the town seemed to come to life. But Sam had also loved to see celebrities out and about, eating and having normal lives. She wasn’t a celebrity stalker or anything like that, but Sam just enjoyed seeing how real celebrities were. So many people put celebrities up on pedestals, but they were just like everyone else.

“Yes, tonight does feel pretty magical,” Drake said with a smile.

His secret was bursting at the seams, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to hold it in for very much longer. He wanted to see Sam’s face when she realized what was going on. He couldn’t wait to see how she would react when everything started to unfold right there in the restaurant.

The waiter came over to the table, and Drake ordered them some wine and an appetizer while they looked through the menu. Despite coming to the restaurant several times before, Sam always wanted to try something new when she was there. She liked the excitement of not knowing exactly what she was going to get.

“Oh, my God,” Samantha said as she looked over Drake’s shoulder. “It’s Julia Roberts. She’s right there with her husband and kids. Right there, Drake,” Sam said as she nodded in the direction of the celebrity.

“You should go ask her for an autograph,” he teased.

Drake knew that Sam didn’t like autographs, and that wasn’t why she liked celebrities so much. She liked them because they followed their dreams and went after what they wanted. Celebrities were the ultimate in dream followers and that inspired Sam more than anything else about them.

“Oh, she’s walking over here. Oh, my God, Drake, she’s coming over here.”

Drake just sat looking forward as Julia Roberts joined them at their table. This was all part of the plan, and he tried his best not to let himself give in and smile.

“Drake LeBlanc, thank you so much for your generous donation at the Playboy Mansion charity event. I’m looking forward to lunch with your friend.”

“It was my pleasure and my friend Emily is looking forward to her time with you as well. This is my girlfriend, Samantha,” Drake said as he introduced the two of them.

“Oh, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” Julia said shaking Sam’s hand. “I better get back to my family. Enjoy your night.”

Just as quickly as she had come over to the table, she was gone and back sitting with her family. Sam was left holding four small wooden letters that looked like they had come from a scrabble game.

“She handed me these,” Sam said with a puzzled expression.

She held out her hand and in it were two ‘L’ letters, one ‘I’, and one ‘W’. Drake just smiled at her as he watched the inquisitive nature of her expression. Sam looked at the letters and then back up at Drake.

Scrabble was the first game she and Drake had ever played together. He could still remember the night he was waiting for a big client to commit to a project, and they had set the game up in the conference room. Sam had kicked his ass with words that he was convinced weren’t actually words at all, but he didn’t care because it was so fun to watch her excitement as she beat him.

“Maybe she knows how much you love Scrabble,” Drake said with a smile.

But before Sam could say another word, she looked up and saw another of her favorite celebrities standing right next to her table. Harrison Ford was holding the hand of his long-time girlfriend and didn’t say a word to either of them; he just handed Sam three more letters.

“What is going on?” Samantha said with a grin that shone across her face.

She placed the new letters in a pile and moved them around to form the only word that would work. ‘Y’, ‘O’, ‘U’ were the letters that she laid out on the table. Then she reorganized the first set of letters to form the word ‘W’, ‘I’, ‘L’, ‘L’. Suddenly Sam knew exactly what was going on, and her face turned bright red as she looked up at Drake with tears in her eyes.

He couldn’t have wished for a better response from Sam as she realized he was going to ask her to marry him. But it wasn’t over yet, and the next celebrity that walked up to their table was one that Drake knew Sam had loved for many years. She wasn’t the biggest named celebrity in the world, but Demi Lovato was one of Sam’s favorite celebrities. She had fought against a lot of odds and made music that Sam loved.

“Hey, dear,” Demi said as she handed Sam some more letters. “I think you are about to have one hell of an amazing night. Come see my show tomorrow, and we can talk backstage.”

Demi reached down and hugged Sam, who was in total tears by that point. Sam couldn’t even talk as she wrapped her arms around Demi and nodded her head yes to the offer to come to her concert.

Drake felt his own eyes tearing up as he watched Samantha. He couldn’t have hoped for the day to be any better as he grabbed the letters out of Sam’s hand and placed them on the table to spell ‘M’, ‘A’, ‘R’, ‘R’, ‘Y’. Everyone was watching them as Drake pulled the last two letters out of his pocket and slid the ‘M’ and ‘E’ across the table to Sam.

He then got down on one knee and pulled out the diamond engagement ring that he had Harry Winston rush for him that day. Sam could hardly keep her eyes open, they were so full of tears. She nodded her head yes before Drake had even asked the big question.

“Samantha Marie Holt, you are the love of my life, and nothing would make me happier than if you would agree to be my wife,” Drake said as he pulled the ring out of the box and presented it to her.

The whole restaurant erupted into applause as Drake held the ring up to Sam’s finger and slid it on. She was shaking and in tears as she bobbed her head up and down to say yes, but then finally found the words to actually talk.

“Yes, yes, yes!” she screamed as she pulled Drake up off the ground and he wrapped her in his arms.

She could hardly see straight from the tears, but she was happy, and Drake saw that in her eyes. He had made her happy, and he hoped to be able to continue to do that for the rest of her life. He couldn’t wait to get started on planning their wedding because he wanted it to happen as soon as possible.

Drake had spent almost forty years of his life working on his business and putting his personal life second. Now that he found Sam, and she had agreed to be his, he wasn’t about to waste another moment before they started their life together.

He hugged her and spun her around as the restaurant continued to cheer. Drake couldn’t have been happier than he was at that moment, and he expected his life would only get better and better now that Sam would permanently part of it.

“Julia Roberts, Harrison Ford, and Demi Lovato just proposed to me,” Sam said through her tears as she laughed. “Thank you, Drake. I love you so much.”