After a few days in the hospital I'm released. Derek is there to take me home and he looks absolutely gorgeous today. He helps me into the wheelchair and grabs my stuff and we head toward discharge. Once I'm fully discharged Derek wheels me out to the car even after my insisting I can walk.

"The house is almost cleaned up from the incident." Derek says as we drive away.

"Good. So are we going to stay with your grandparents until then?" I ask.

"Actually there is a room at the bed and breakfast. Ethan had the room finished for us and he's taking care of the damage at our house."

"Oh ok!"

"Ella you'll be surprised to see what Ethan has done to the bed and breakfast. He says we should be able to open it within the next few months."

"That's awesome Derek! I can't wait to see it!"

"Hopefully our life settles down a bit now."

Turning into the vineyard. Courtney and Brad are standing outside of the B&B. Courtney turns around and sees its Derek and I and her face lights up with excitement.

"She missed you a lot Ella." Derek says as Courtney yanks open my door and squeezes me.

"Ouch" I yelp.

"Oh sorry Ella! Welcome home!"

"Thanks Courtney. How's Brad doing?"

"He's ok. The funeral for Ivan and Nancy was yesterday."

"Oh no one told me."

"Ella that was on purpose. We didn't want you try and rush out of the hospital." Courtney explains.

"Ella!" Brad shouts bending over me to lay a small kiss on top of my head. "How are you feeling."

"Much better now that I'm out of the hospital."

"You think we can lay low on the hospital visits for a while?" Derek asks me.

"I sure as hell hope so. I went from being stabbed, to a car wreck that I almost died in and then shot." I try to chuckle.

Derek leads me inside of the B&B and I'm astonished! The whole hallway has been redone, soft beige carpet has been installed and the walls are a warm light brown. The trim has all been painted white. Ethan comes down the stairs. "There she is!"

"It's absolutely beautiful Ethan!

He smiles. "Come see the rest."

The dining room was done the same way the entryway and hall has been painted with the same soft beige carpet. He pulls me into the kitchen and all new stainless steel appliances. The kitchen looks like something from a DIY country theme magazine.

"Lastly down here we have the music room. There's instruments, a dance floor and a corner for reading with a floor to ceiling book shelf." Derek says.

Looking around the room it is breath taking. Grand piano in one corner a small stage, guitars lines the wall and a box with tambourines, bells and such. The dance floor is by the stage and the corner reading area is charming. Courtney goes onto the dance floor and does a twirl.

"Can you imagine the parties we can have with our guests!" Courtney says.

"Seriously we are about 2-3 weeks from opening day." Ethan states.

"Wow I thought you said 2-3 months." Derek says with surprise.

"Well we getting working on our grand opening plan!" I say peppy.

Courtney and I head into the office and get planning. She had already taken pictures of the rooms and the house for the B&B. I go online and start a group page on FaceBook to get people following the progress.  Within 3 hours there's already 23 people following and 3 people wanting to know if they can get on a waiting list.

Derek comes into the office. "Hi babe. You look exhausted how about you rest a bit."

"I'm ok. Just have to get back in the swing of things."

He walks over and starts massaging my shoulders and kisses my cheek. Moments like this I wish I could just drift away into our own little world. I wonder why I never even thought about him in the past 3 years. Would have been nice if he would have told me sooner that he was in love with me.

A car pulls into the drive and Derek releases his hands from my shoulders, walks out of the office and opens the front door.

"Hello!" He greets the people who pulled in.

"Hi! Was wonderin if you had any rooms for rent?" A woman says with a southern accent. "I seen on Facebook that ya'll were opening back up."

"We are not officially open but I do believe we have a finished room, let me check." Derek says and walks back into the office.

I grin and squeal. "Our first visitors! They can take the room 2 doors from ours."

Derek exits the office again and I follow behind him. "Have you two eaten?" I ask.

"As a matter of a fact we haven't. It's been a long trip!" The woman says. "Oh where are are my manners? I'm Suzanne and this here is Gary."

I reach out to shake their hands. "Nice to meet you. I'm Ella and this is Derek." Courtney and Brad come bouncing down the steps. "This is Brad and Courtney. Courtney is my best friend and helping get this place up and running."

"Well nice to meet ya'll. This place is pretty cozy!" Suzanne says.

"While Derek shows you too your room I will head into the kitchen to start dinner. We will let you know when it's ready."

"Thank you Ella." Gary says.

Derek leads them to their room and I head to the kitchen. Courtney follows me and said she will help. We whip together stuffed chicken breast with lumpy mashed potatoes, gravy and peas. Courtney throws together a baked apple pie and after Derek comes downstairs I ask him to grab a bottle of wine from cellar. Brad must be upstairs working with Ethan because I hear a lot of pounding. Cammie has been over at our house painting all day.

"My! Dinner smells delicious!" Suzanne says barging into the kitchen. "Ladies need any help?"

"No we have it all under control. Go ahead out and have a seat. We are going to bring out the salad." Courtney says grabbing the salad bowl, following Suzanne out to the dinning room.

Derek comes back with the wine and I have him yell up too Ethan and Brad. Once Ethan comes down he hops on the golf cart and drives over to our house to get Cammie.

"Brad will be back in a few minutes. Do you mind that we wait for him?" I ask.

"Not at all!" Gary and Suzanne say in unison.

"Did you ask Mama and Papa if they wanted to eat?" I ask Derek.

"Yeah and they said no. Seems like they are trying to have a quiet evening."  He says.

I nod my head. "How long do you two plan on staying?"

"Well maybe about a week, if that's ok?" Suzanne asks.

"Sure! Stay as long as you need." Derek says.

It's been about 20 minutes since Brad left. I wonder what's taking so long. Suddenly the hotel phone rings and Derek goes to answer it.

"Hello? It's Derek."
"You're kidding?"
"How bad?"
"Is she ok?"
"I see. Ok I'll be over in a minute."

Derek nods me over and we head into the office.

"Ethan went through our living room wall. Thought the golf cart was in drive and it was in reverse. Cammie got banged up a piece of the wall hit her in the head." He explains.

"Is she ok?"

"She was knocked out for a few minutes but she's ok now. I told him I'd come over to see how bad. He said he can fix it." Derek says.

"Well that's good. As long as everyone is ok. I thought it was going to be way worse." I say chuckling.

"You're a dork. Ha there's only just a hole in our house."

"Yeah but no ones seriously hurt, no one was shot, no one was killed, no one is going to hurt us."

"Ella baby, no one will hurt us. I'm going to protect you. Not that it isn't a shame what happened and how it ended but our biggest obstacle is gone."

"I know." I agree allowing Derek to take me in his arms.

We both go over to the house and sure enough there's a giant hole in the front of our house. Ethan swears up and down he can fix it and he will start it tomorrow. Ethan and Derek put the tarp up to cover the hole and we head back to the B&B to eat dinner. 

"They probably started without us." Cammie laughs.

"Well they better have saved some for us." Ethan answers.

Ethan and Cammie are cute. Ethan throws his arm around her waist and pulls her into him. Derek looks down at me a winks.

"Better without that boot?"

"Yes tons! Now these stitches can go. These buggers hurt!"

"Soooo I uhhhh kind of um talked to your parents."

"Derek? Why?"

"Don't worry I didn't tell them anything that happened. I wanted to do this right I wanted to have their permission to make you my wife."

"Oh? What did they say?"

"Believe it or not they are excited. Get this ha. Your mom called me normal!"

"Ha Derek this must get to know you then." I smile intertwining my fingers in his.

Surprisingly no one ate the food. They waited for us to get back. We all sit down and enjoy the first meal at the B&B!