by Anna Durand
Heidi's mom walked through the swinging door to the kitchen. She was carrying a roast on a platter, which she set down on the table. "At least you're here on time for dinner, Heidi."
As we got closer to the table, I saw name cards in front of each plate. I was supposed to sit across the table from Heidi.
Screw that.
I pretended not to notice the name cards and sat down in the chair next to Heidi's. She bit her lip for half a second, then settled onto the chair beside me, the one reserved for her. Ethan sat at the head of the table beside Heidi. His wife took the chair across from her daughter. I grabbed the place setting meant for me and moved it over to this side of the table.
Janice pursed her lips.
Neither of Heidi's parents had bothered with introductions.
I decided what the hell, I'd do it for them. "I'm Damian Petrescu, by the way. And you are Janice and Ethan Mackenzie. It's nice to meet you. Thank you for cooking such a nice meal for us."
The rest of the meal had already been laid out on the table before Janice brought in the roast. We had broccoli and cauliflower, mashed potatoes, and hot rolls. She really had made a nice meal, so I hadn't been lying when I thanked her for that. Now if she would only start acting like a decent human being, the night would be perfect.
"Petrescu," Janice said, pronouncing my last name as if she'd never heard anything so alien. "Is that Eastern European?"
"Romanian."
"How interesting." Her stiff tone and stiff posture suggested she didn't like having to converse with me. "Isn't that interesting, Ethan?"
"Yeah, it's damn fascinating." Heidi's dad shoved a forkful of meat into his mouth and talked while chewing, his gaze on me. "You one of those commies from the Eastern Bloc?"
"No, I'm descended from a long line of proud Ludar."
He paused in the middle of hacking off another piece of the roast. "Loo-what?"
"Ludar. My family, on both my mother's and my father's side, can trace our lineage back hundreds of years to the earliest Rom tribes."
"You're from Italy? Thought you said Romania."
I couldn't help smiling. Lots of people got confused when I talked about my heritage. "Rom is spelled R-O-M. It's not the city in Italy. It's who we are. The Ludar came from the Rom tribes, which most people call gypsies."
Janice's eyes flew wide. "Gypsies? Oh dear lord, what sort of man have you taken up with this time, Heidi?"
My fiancée slammed her fork down on her plate, making it wobble and smack back down. "Damian is a good man. The best I've ever met, way better than Grant, who you and Dad thought was the perfect match for me."
"He was. I'm sure he'd take you back if—"
"Grant cheated on me repeatedly. I kept taking him back, but never again. Damian is a thousand times the man Grant Busch will ever be."
"But this…gentleman is a gypsy." Janice spoke that word like it was the worst kind of swearing.
"Damian is a wonderful man." She raised her left hand, aiming that sparkling diamond toward her mom. "You guys didn't even notice this, did you? Damian and I are engaged."
Both her parents gaped at her.
I clasped her hand and kissed her ring.
"We know nothing about this man," Ethan said. "You can't marry a complete stranger."
"He's not a stranger to me," Heidi told him.
"Does he even have a job? Or will you be traveling around like hobos?"
"I'm the concierge at a resort," I said.
"What kind of resort?" Ethan asked.
Heidi and I glanced at each other, and I knew from her expression that she wanted me to tell them the truth, no matter how they reacted. "I work at Au Naturel Naturist Resort."
Janice contorted her face into an expression of genuine horror. "Isn't that the unseemly place where Heidi insists on taking her vacations? That's a nudist resort."
"Yeah, it is. We both work there now."
"My daughter cannot work at a place like that. Taking vacations there is bad enough, but—"
"Stop it, Mom," Heidi said. "I work there, and I'm marrying Damian. Get over it."
I was so proud of Heidi that I wanted to hug her.
But she wasn't done yet. The powerhouse hidden inside that easygoing exterior had lots more to say.
Chapter Thirty-One
Heidi
I pushed my chair back and got up, needing to stand tall while I told my parents all the things I should've told them a long time ago. Damian had helped me see how much I'd let my mom and dad affect my life and my choices, and he'd shown me I was done with that garbage. I loved him so much for getting the ball rolling, but now I needed to finish it.
"Yes, my favorite place on earth is a nudist resort," I said, my voice calmer than I could've hoped. I felt calm too, surprisingly so considering what I intended to do. "I feel more at home there than I ever did here with you two. The friends I've made at the resort have become like family to me. Honestly, they are my family now, more than my own parents have ever been."
"Heidi—"
I cut my mom off with a raised hand. "Let me finish. You're my parents, and I love you despite all the ways you've made me feel unworthy of your love. Every time you put me in the middle of one of your arguments, I thought it was my fault you couldn't get along. I thought it was my fault you got divorced. No boyfriend I ever had was good enough for you except for the creep who slept with every woman he met and told me it was my fault for not satisfying his needs."
My parents stared at me like I'd grown five extra heads.
But I had a bit more to say. "I should've told you all of this years ago, but I was afraid you'd never speak to me again if I did. Well, I don't care about that anymore. Cut me out of your lives if you want. You've pretty much done that already, but I'll keep the hope alive that one day you will take a hard look at your behavior and decide to end the cycle. When you do that, I'll welcome you back into my life."
They still stared at me.
Good. Maybe that meant I'd shocked them enough that they might actually think about what I'd told them.
"Let's go, Damian," I said. "I'm not hungry anymore."
He got up. "Neither am I."
From my purse, I pulled out the little pad of paper I always carried with me. After scribbling my new phone number and address on the pad, I tore off the page and set it on the table. "This is where you can find me. Good night, Mom. Good night, Dad."
Damian and I walked out of the house and drove to our hotel. We didn't get much sleep that night, though not because of stress or anxiety. He made love to me for hours, and in between each session, we talked and ate snacks and sipped wine. Confronting my parents should have been the most stressful thing I'd ever done, but instead, it had turned into a cathartic moment. The fears I'd lived with for so long melted away. Whether my parents ever wised up didn't matter. I was free.
The next morning, we flew home and got back to our life. And it was "ours" now, not mine or his. We shared a room in the guest house and wound up hunting for a house to buy in tandem with Ollie and Mara. Joint house hunting was a lot more fun than doing it by ourselves. Ollie and Mara found their dream house first, but then Damian and I realized we'd found ours too without even thinking about it.
We bought the house next door to theirs.
The two homes were separated by a few hundred feet, but it seemed appropriate to live so nearby considering that Ollie was Damian's best friend and Mara was mine. The houses sat on the outskirts of town, bordered by woods and fields on three sides, so it felt a lot like how we'd lived at the resort. The commute to work didn't bother us at all. The four of us carpooled.
A few weeks later, I handled my first event for a guest. I organized a birthday party for Ruth Norris. It was a hoot and a half, and it gave me more confidence in my ability to coordinate events for strangers since I'd managed to do two for my friends. My family. That's what they were. Not just friends, but the family I'd chosen for
myself.
I still held out hope for my parents, but I didn't dwell on them. I had too much of my own life to keep me busy—and happy.
One day, Eve found me in the resort office. She marched straight up to the desk, where I was sitting while I plotted out a calendar of daily events for our guests. Eve bounced on her toes, biting her lip while she seemed to struggle not to grin. Her eyes shined with excitement too.
"What's up, Evie?" I asked. "You look like you've got amazing news. Are you pregnant?"
"No, not yet." She clasped her hands in front of her chest, bouncing even more. "We have a huge opportunity that could boost the resort's image and expand our demographics big time."
"That's amazing." I stood up. "What is this huge opportunity?"
"A wedding. Here at the resort." Though she still seemed excited, her almost grin turned slightly anxious as she bit down harder on her lip. "But it relies on you. I know you're still settling into your new job, and you haven't done anything this big yet, but…" She grabbed my hands and stopped bouncing. "Please don't say no until you've talked to him."
"Who?"
"The groom. He's British, and his fiancée is Scottish, and they have lots of relatives and friends in America and the UK." Eve gripped my hands tighter. "They have a lot of relatives on the bride's side. I mean a lot. They want to get married here, but we'll need to arrange for accommodations in town too since we don't have the capacity for this big a gathering. Then there will be events in the week leading up to the wedding, but the bride's sister wants to help out with that. The rest is up to us—and you."
The bride and groom had so many relatives and friends that we'd need to put some of them up in town. How many people would there be? Sheesh, it must be one enormous family.
"Um, well," I started, biting my lip much the way Eve had bitten hers, "you know I'm new at this event coordinator stuff. This sounds like a huge deal, and I don't want to screw it up. Maybe you should hire a professional."
"I have hired one. You." She grasped my shoulders. "You can do this, Heidi. We all believe in you. Plus, Mara and I can handle the logistics. The boys can help out too, with the heavy lifting and stuff. You will be the big boss, the one making the plans that we execute."
"Well… I don't know. What if I screw up our big chance to expand our demographics?"
"You won't. Talk to Damian. He'll convince you." Eve hugged me. "You can do this, Heidi. Trust me, you can."
How could I say no? Eve and Val had given me a job that I had no experience or training to do and trusted me to do it right. So far, I had. But a huge event like this ratcheted up my anxiety. Still, I refused to shy away from a challenge. And I had my new family to stand by me.
"Okay," I said. "I'll do it."
Eve, the level-headed resort owner, shrieked and leaped up and down. She dragged me into a bear hug, then bolted out the door.
Wow, this event must've been a doozy. Maybe it would flush the resort with cash so we could make even more improvements.
I found Damian at the gypsy wagon. He'd just finished up with a young couple and was standing outside the wagon shaking their hands and wishing them a good stay at the resort. When they walked away, I approached him.
"Did you hear about the massively huge event Eve set up?" I asked.
"Yeah, Ollie told me. You're nervous about coordinating the whole thing, aren't you?"
"Of course I am. But I'll do it anyway. I need to do it, to prove I can handle this job."
He slung an arm around my waist and tugged me close. "You can deal with anything, baby. After the way you stood up to your parents, I know there's nothing you can't handle."
"I really, really love you."
"Good. Because it's time to arrange our wedding."
Maybe I should've felt anxious about that since I had this other huge event to plan, but thinking about our wedding relaxed me. I couldn't wait to organize that. Couldn't wait to marry Damian.
Eve came running up from the direction of the guest house. She stopped a few feet from us, breathing hard. "Almost forgot. That British guy is coming tomorrow to check out the resort and talk to us in person about what events he and his fiancée would like to have here."
"We'll be ready," I said. "The Au Naturel Reserve Army is ready for action. And by that I mean me, Damian, Ollie, Mara, and Val."
"Guess that makes me the general."
I saluted her. "Yes, ma'am."
Eve grinned and sprinted for the caretaker's house.
"Ready to plan two weddings at once?" I asked Damian.
"Absolutely. I'm your slave, so order me to do anything you want." He bent his head until his nose bumped mine. "And I do mean anything. I'd love to be your personal masseur, strictly for stress relief."
"You are fantastic at relieving my stress."
We headed back to the office and got to work.
The next morning, we hosted our own little British invasion. Our guest didn't sing pop songs, but he was from that other country over there. He arrived in a rented car. Though Eve had offered to pick him up at the airport, he had declined their offer, saying he preferred to drive himself. His fiancée wasn't coming with him, Eve had said.
Val, Eve, Ollie, Mara, Damian, and I waited in the driveway as our guest parked and got out.
Wow, if all Brits were as hot as this guy, I'd have to drag Damian over to the UK for our honeymoon just so I could enjoy the eye candy. This Brit had a muscular body and a beautiful face, with whiskey-brown eyes and hair to match.
He strode up to our little army. "Which of you is Eve?"
"I am," our fearless leader said. She offered the man her hand. "Welcome to Au Naturel Naturist Resort, Dr. Thorne."
"Call me Alex." He shook her hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Eve, after the phone discussions we've had. Catriona would've loved to meet all of you too, but I haven't told her about this place yet. I wanted to see it for myself first and surprise her with the news."
"Let me introduce you to everyone." Eve turned sideways to us. "Guys, this is Dr. Alex Thorne. He's an archaeologist, and so is his fiancée. Alex, meet the Au Naturel team."
Eve introduced us one by one, starting with Val, and we had a group chat before Eve and Val took Alex Thorne on a tour of the grounds. That gave the rest of us a break before we would be asked to chat with our guest about what he and fiancée might like for their wedding and when that would be.
Since we had free time, Damian and I headed for the horse pasture. While I brushed the boys, Damian went over to the shed that held all the horsey stuff. I got engrossed in my grooming duties and didn't notice what he was doing until he came up beside me.
"Ready for a ride?" he asked.
I glanced at him. He was holding a saddle in his arms.
For two seconds, I panicked on the inside.
"You don't have to if you're not ready for it yet," he said. "But you've gotten comfortable with Lenny and Georgie. You lead them around and make them back up and stop. They love and respect you almost as much as I do, so I know you're ready for this. But it's up to you."
The panic had evaporated almost as quickly as it set in, and I knew one thing for certain. I was always safe when I was with Damian.
"Sure," I said. "It's about time I tried riding."
Damian put the saddle on Georgie and did up all the complicated doohickeys that held it in place. He would need to teach me about all that eventually, but for now, I just wanted to overcome my last remaining fear. I wanted to ride a horse.
Georgie nuzzled me when I approached him, like he wanted me to climb onto his back.
Damian half crouched and cupped his hands, linking his fingers. "I'll give you a boost."
I stepped into his waiting hands, and he pushed up while I grasped the saddle horn and swung my leg over. I slipped my boots into the stirrups and picked up the reins.
"How's it feel?" Damian asked.
"Good. A little weird, since I've never done
this before. But mostly good."
"I'll lead him around until you get comfortable with everything."
Damian took hold of the reins and guided Georgie around in the paddock.
I was on a horse. Holy cow.
After a few minutes, Damian let go. He gave me advice on how to make Georgie do what I wanted, and I rode him around and around inside the paddock, feeling more at ease with every passing moment. Maybe I wasn't an expert rider, not yet, but I had the best teacher to guide me. And the sweetest horse too.
Whatever life threw at me now, I could handle it.
And as for the massive wedding… Yeah, I could deal with that too.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Damian
After Heidi's first ride, we returned to the resort for the big meeting with Alex Thorne. This was when we would all present our ideas for his wedding and listen to his thoughts so we could hash out the details. We had two months to get it done, but Eve wanted to have as much nailed down as possible before our guest flew home tomorrow. To accommodate all seven of us, we gathered in the dining hall and pushed two tables together.
Our guest sat at the head of the table. The ladies occupied one side while the guys took the other.
I'd never met a British person before, or a Scottish person either. But soon, I'd meet more Brits and a whole honking horde of Scots.
Eve and Heidi took the lead in our discussion.
Alex Thorne seemed to like that.
"Aren't I a lucky bloke?" he said. "Two beautiful women ready to cater to my every whim." He winked at me. "Don't worry. I have my hands full with a fiery Scots lass, so I don't have time to seduce your fiancée away from you."
"What about Eve?" I asked. "She's not your type?"
He chuckled. "Every woman is my type, but I'm strictly a window-shopper these days. I've waited fourteen bloody years to marry Catriona MacTaggart, and I won't bollocks it up. Not that I have eyes for anyone but her. She is my soul mate, which is something I used to think was rubbish."
"But now you're into it. I get that. Never believed in soul mates either until I fell for Heidi."