“Bets?”
“Yeah, all of those dickbags, as you and Dakota used to call them, have a pool going for how long our marriage will last. Who does that kind of shit? And get this, they asked if I wanted to join in? Like are you fucking kidding me?”
The last thing that Tinley wants to do is remind Marek he used to be the ring leader of all of those betting pools and in fact she’s pretty sure he’s the one that started them in the first place. Sure, they were always about more innocent things like sports games and they even did them a few times for award shows, but the only time it was about people they worked with was when someone was pregnant, and they placed bets to see when the baby would be born. In those cases, the money always went to the brand-new parents, so it was much appreciated. But it sounds like since Marek has been gone from work things have changed slightly in the office gambling ring and not for the better.
He stalks toward the front window and stands with his hands on his hips just glaring into the night. The angry vibe plus the superhero pose he’s got going on is totally sexy, but that could also just be the crazy hormones Tinley has been channeling lately. She’s pretty sure the last thing he wants to do right now is have sex.
She shakes her head freeing those thoughts temporarily from her brain and calmly says to his back, “Marek, it’s okay calm down. It’s not that big of a deal.”
“How can you possibly say that?”
Ha! That’s easy for her. She gave up caring what anyone else at work thought about her a long time ago. The only person she truly cared about was Dakota, but she’s gone now so that leaves her fiancé who is freaking out over stupid office shit. If anything, she thinks it’s kind of funny.
She motions for him to come over to her when he turns around and when his stubborn ass doesn’t move she says, “I don’t like any of those people. I’m not friends with them and their opinions don’t matter to me. You and I know we’re in this for the long haul, so why does it matter what other people have to say who aren’t in our lives.”
That gets him moving and he starts walking toward the couch, but he still hasn’t released any of his anger when he gets there. “Who are you and what did you do with my fiancée?”
“Right? I’m so wise and grown-up now.”
Sliding his body down onto the couch, he lays his head on Tinley’s lap and with a smirk he says, “Oh, there you are.”
She runs her fingers through his hair gently massaging his scalp and she can feel the tension slip from his body. He closes his eyes and relaxes into her lap as her hands move down from his head and onto his neck and shoulders. She can feel the knots he built up with his stress and anger. All worked up over something so silly and small. She continues her exploration of his body rubbing out all the knots and tense muscles on her way down his arms and chest. She slides out from underneath him and his head gently bounces against the couch and with the movement his eyes pop back open.
“Hey where are you going?”
She places one of her hands against his face and slides it down closing his eyes in the process. “I’m just getting into a better position. Don’t worry just relax.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice.”
Getting back onto the couch, she straddles his legs with one knee on either side of him. She continues running her hands down the front of his body massaging and kneading all of his sore muscles. As her attention gets lower and lower she starts massaging the front of his jeans and it doesn’t take long for him to harden beneath her touch. She unbuttons and unzips his jeans at the same time his eyes pop open again.
“Hey, you don’t have to ahh—"
Pulling him free from his boxer briefs, she brings her mouth down onto him and runs her tongue down and back up his shaft.
He moans and groans as he says, “Don’t stop. Whatever you do, don’t stop.”
She listens to his command as she brings her mouth back down and uses it in tandem with her hand. She keeps to a slow but steady pace and judging by the noises he’s releasing he’s enjoying every minute of it.
“Daddy is that you?”
Tinley stands up as Luna comes walking around the corner with her blankie dragging behind her in one hand while her tiny fist rubs her eyes. Tinley pushes Marek back down on the couch as he starts to get up and she shakes her head. “What are you doing up honey?”
She brings her blanket up to her face and snuggles it as a giant yawn leaves her mouth. “I thought I heard my daddy out here. Is he home from work yet? I don’t want him to be gone for a really long time again. He promised me the next trip he goes on that I would get to go with him.”
The fact that Luna noticed how long Marek was gone to London absolutely breaks Tinley’s heart and it’s no surprise that he feels exactly the same way. She can hear as his zipper slides up and he readjusts himself before sitting up and fake rubbing his eyes and yawning. Glancing at Tinley he says, “I’m sorry, did I fall asleep on the couch?”
Just as Tinley opens her mouth a little squeal releases from Luna as she drops her blankie on the floor and charges full blast toward Marek yelling, “Daddy! You’re home!” She jumps as soon as she’s close to Marek and throws her body at him and the force and weight of her little body against his, has him falling backward onto the couch again.
“Hi Peanut, did you miss?”
She nods her head and lays down against his chest. “I did, I missed you so much daddy. I hate it when you go to work.”
“Me too.
It isn’t long before Luna’s breath starts evening out as she lays against Marek’s chest. While he carries her to her bedroom, Tinley picks up her blanket and they head down the hallway to put the little one back to bed.
Once they have her safely tucked in again and they walk the rest of the way down the hallway to their bedroom together, Tinley turns to Marek and says, “Do you want me to finish what I started out there?”
“I appreciate the offer, but I don’t think I’m really in the mood anymore.”
As bad as it sounds she’s actually relieved. She’s completely exhausted and who knows when Cedric will be waking up for his next feeding and diaper change. The only thing she wants right now is to go to sleep with Marek’s arms wrapped around her body. And that is precisely what they do.
Chapter Eighteen
Life couldn’t really get any better at this point. Tinley has exactly what she wants, and her entire world is packed together on the sectional couch in the living room. Tinley is reclining on one end with a sleeping Cedric laying on her chest. His little breaths give her goosebumps every time she hears them so incredibly in love with the seven pounds of adorableness. On the other end Luna is laying against Marek and scrolling through the kids section on Netflix.
She stops on Leap and turns around facing Marek while dropping the remote. “Daddy, do you think I can be a ballerina?”
“Of course, you’re my little ballerina.”
Luna crosses her arms in front of her while shaking her head. She gives Marek this look like she’s so completely frustrated and can’t believe she has to explain this. Compete toddler ‘tude. “No, dad that’s not what I mean. Geez. I want to be just like Fleecey.”
“Tinley, can you help me out here? What is she talking about?”
“She’s recently become obsessed with the movie Leap.” Tinley points to the television and continues, “The little girl, Felicie, is an orphan and she becomes a ballerina. Luna has been asking for weeks to start dance classes. I told her we would need to wait and talk to you about it.”
“Dance class? Is that so?”
Luna’s eyes look like they’re going to bulge out of her head as she waits for an answer. She closes her mouth and blows air into her mouth turning her cheeks bright red. She starts jumping up and down like she’s running out air and with a loud burst she lets everything free. Luna releases a giant groan and says, “Aren’t you ever going to let me become a dancer?” She then proceeds to dance around the room doing twirls and hopping aroun
d on her tip toes.
Tinley wants to laugh at the over exaggerated dramatics from the tiny toddler. She knows Marek will give in because he always does, but this is one thing she actually agrees with. It’ll give Luna the chance to interact with kids her own age and hopefully release some of her crazy energy.
“Why don’t you let me talk to your mommy first and we’ll let you know. Go play in your room for a little bit so we can talk.”
“You’re never going to let me go to ballet school,” Luna whines to Marek and proceeds to push out a couple of tears in the process.
“With that attitude, you’re right. Now go to your room like I told you before you actually do get in trouble and I say an absolute no.”
Luna’s voice gets really small and she bows her head saying. “Okay,” then she takes off running down the hallway toward her bedroom.”
“Walking feet!” Tinley tells after her right before they hear the door to her bedroom slam shut.
“When did she get an attitude on her?”
Tinley can’t even help it, she releases the biggest and hardest laugh she’s ever had. She actually bends over holding her mid-section as the hysterics rack her body and tears stream from her eyes. The time away must have made him forget how Luna can be.
“The only reason why she has gotten better with her attitude is because I’ve been working on her to get better with her manners. Babe, you’ve been gone for too long because she was heading down the road to be a giant brat. Don’t get me wrong, I love our daughter to death, but she does not run this household any longer.”
Marek narrows his eyes and frowns when he asks, “What are you talking about? She’s four years old, she’s never run anything except for on the playground.”
“Don’t even get me started with you. She has you wrapped so tight around her little finger, it’s not even funny.”
“So do you want to tell her no then?”
Tinley doesn’t even know where he got that idea from. Nowhere in any of the words that came out of her mouth did she say that she didn’t want Luna to take ballet class. She shakes her head and says, “No, I don’t think that at all. I actually think it would be really good for her to take a weekly lesson. Maybe it’ll help her release some energy and give her something to be excited for every week.”
He nods his head and says, “Okay, well I trust your judgement. If you think she should take lessons, then we’ll sign her up.” He gives Tinley a small peck on the lips and then yells, “Luna.”
Not even ten seconds later she’s running as fast she can down the hallway toward the living room and they can hear her little feet stomping toward them. Moments later she appears and has the biggest grin on her face. Oh yeah, she knows she’s getting exactly what she wanted. She walks slowly toward the couch and positions herself onto Marek’s lap and says, “What is it?”
Marek leans down to her and she’s hanging on every word out of his mouth when he says, “We talked about it and,” he pauses for added anxiety build up as Luna wiggles in anticipation of whatever he’s going to say when he finally says, “we’re going to let you sign up for dance class.”
Luna jumps off of his lap and into the air with her tiny fist punching the air and yells, “Yes!” Simultaneously with running toward Marek and throwing her body at him. With an oomph he catches her against his chest and she gives him a kiss on both cheeks and his forehead. “Thank you! You’re my best daddy.”
“Hey! I’m your only daddy.”
She snorts with laughter like a little piggy and says, “Duh, that’s why you’re the best because you’re mine.”
Tinley stays off to the side as she witnesses the adorable interaction between father and daughter. Although it’s not a love she knows about from personal experience, she knows that Luna got very lucky in that department with a pretty amazing father. Tinley couldn’t imagine having a child with any other man. Every time Luna and Marek look at each other the love in their eyes is so incredibly strong. Their connection is unlike any other one out there.
As she hops from her father’s lap and shows him all the moves she’s learned from her new favorite movie Leap including all of the fancy French words she’s learned of the names of each move and position, Marek can’t hide his complete and utter awe for his young daughter. He hangs on every word that falls from her lips and gives her his complete and undivided attention.
It even goes as far as Luna convincing Marek to get up from the couch, so she can teach him everything she knows. Because the whole purpose of ballet class is for her to show her teacher that she is a dancer after all. She doesn’t really need to be taught anything. Tinley relaxes against the couch bouncing her now awake son in her lap as Marek falls on his butt for the second time. Yeah, her life is pretty much perfection and she can’t wait to make things official when they finally get married in a little more than a week.
Chapter Nineteen
Never in a million years did Tinley think she would ever get married. It’s not that she has anything against marriages or weddings, but she simply thought there wasn’t a single person out there who would want to marry her. She wasn’t the first one to say that before she and Marek got together, she suffered from a lot of internal battles. To say she had a rough time in high school is putting it mildly. Girls especially would tease her mercilessly about her weight and one of the popular girls in school had others calling her Two Ton Tinley. That name stuck around for so long and she had a major of sigh of relief when she went to college and didn’t have to hear it anymore. She was finally able to escape the horrible abuse and found that in college nobody gave a shit. Plus, it meant Dakota wasn’t getting into fights everyday anymore.
Between her body image and low self-esteem, she’d let herself believe she would be alone forever, permanently parked on her couch, drowning her sorrows in wine and cupcakes. The highlight of her evenings drastically increased when Netflix came about she didn’t have to resort to DVDs or what was on her DVR. She was very much mistaken, and she’s never been happier to be wrong in her life.
A single tear slides down her face as she stands in front of a full-length mirror and studies her figure, the same one she used to hate and refused to look at in any mirror longer than she had to. She spent so much of her life hating the way she looked and always doing what she could to change it before finally giving in and accepting herself, though she still wasn’t happy about it. Now she can’t help but marvel at herself. The idea that she’s the reason why another human is alive is incredible. Her body grew a tiny person and made sure he was healthy before entering into this world.
Marek wanted to get married the day after she left the hospital. In fact, he mentioned stopping by the courthouse real quick on the way home, but Tinley wasn’t having any of that. She’s not the bridezilla type at all, but she did want a ceremony, something small and intimate to have a celebration with their closest friends and family, nothing too large. She didn’t really care much about the details, but her one requirement was that she wanted to be able to walk down an aisle and wear a white dress. She’s only getting married once, and she wanted at least part of it to be done right, and that is precisely the part they’re doing today.
It might be silly that she’s placed so much importance on this one particular day, but she never got anything remotely similar growing up. While all of her friends, even Dakota, were having a blast dancing the night away at prom, she sat at home with a movie marathon feeling sorry for herself because nobody was interested in being her date. Then when they went off to college and Dakota pledged a sorority, dragging Tinley along with her to things didn’t turn out so great. They picked Dakota and not Tinley. Of course, being the best friend, she is, Dakota told them to shove it and refused to join. Hell, her own mother never even cared enough to give her a single birthday party growing up. She would always say, what’s the point in spending all that money when you won’t have any friends to come to it?
So, this feels like the first time she’s really getti
ng the chance to celebrate something, and she’s going to hold on to the memories of this day for the rest of her life. Just as she’s about ready to turn away from the mirror, her sister walks in with the biggest smile on her face. She envelops Tinley in a hug and says, “Our lives may have been a shit show growing up and it took you a little bit longer to get here, but I just want you to know I never doubted for a second that this is precisely where you would end up.”
Leaning back out of Tara’s embrace, she knows what her sister means, but she can’t help but add a little snark to the conversation. “What? Getting knocked up and then roping a man in to make me an honest woman?”
“Don’t be such a smartass and your Texas accent is horrible, never do that again. No, I meant happy. If there’s one thing I always wanted for you, baby sister, it was to finally find your true happiness. I didn’t know exactly what that would entail, but I knew you would get it.” Tinley was never sure if this day would come for her, but it means the world to her that her sister believed in her enough for the both of them. As their eyes start to water, Tara gives her another giant hug and says, “We need to get you out there and married before we cry our makeup off.”
Nodding her head, she turns around where Dakota and Luna are dancing together in the corner. Giselle is downing a glass of champagne with one hand and snapping pictures of the two of them on her cell phone. Tinley hasn’t had a chance to talk to her today about how she’s doing, but if she had to guess it’s probably not going to be an easy day for her. Stuck at a wedding with Anders while they’re communication level goes in circles mostly between arguing or ignoring each other. One day maybe she’ll open up to Tinley about what happened between them, but until that day happens she’ll just give her her space. Of course, the obvious answer is to lock the two of them in a room together, so they can screw each other’s brains out. Not that Marek would be a big fan of that idea. In fact, he’d probably murder his best friend if he ever found out something like that happened. Maybe that has something to do with their issues.
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