Caitlyn squeezed my hand and then released it, pulling out her phone to check on the news. “Well, I suppose the reporters being gone is a silver lining to this whole thing. And it must be some consolation to know that he does care about you, right? He does love you. That was never the issue. There’s something noble about that, honestly. Even if I agree with you and I think he….”
Caitlyn trailed off, her eyes getting going wide.
“What?” I asked, sipping my coffee.
“Melinda James tell-all scheduled for eight o’clock tonight,” Caitlyn said, reading from her phone. She looked up at me. “Apparently your boy’s mother is going to do this huge revealing interview about her career and the scandals she’s been witness to. Holy shit.”
That must have been what got the reporters off the lawn, I realized. Instead of this scoop, we’ll give you another one. As a Hollywood actress, Melinda James must have seen quite a lot of crazy things in her time, and now she was risking the trust of all her coworkers and friends in the industry to get the reporters off my back.
My respect for her increased quite a bit. I had no idea how I’d ever be able to thank her.
As if that was the cue, there came a knock on the front door.
“If it’s a reporter,” Caitlyn whispered, “I’ll hit ‘em with the broom.”
I got up. If it really was a reporter, I could….
“I got it!” Drew yelled, streaking past us in his pajamas.
“Drew, no!” I yelled, rushing after him.
My son got to the door first, opening it wide—Cade was standing in the doorway.
“Hey, buddy!” Cade said.
“Cade!” Drew hugged his legs, “I missed you.” He lowered his voice to what he thought was a whisper, “Mama missed you too, I think. She’s been sad.”
“I’m sorry that she was sad, buddy,” Cade said. “I missed you guys, too. My arms are kind of full, though, so is it okay if I come in first?”
“Yeah!” Drew moved out of the way to let Cade in.
Cade had a bouquet of roses in one hand and a teddy bear in the other.
“This is for you,” he said, handing the bear over to Drew. The bear was dressed as an astronaut and Drew gasped in delight as he took it from Cade.
“Go on and add him to your other toys,” I said, shooing Drew out of the way.
Drew grinned. “Thank you!” he said to Cade, and then he ran back down the hallway to his room, brimming with excitement.
Cade handed me the flowers. “Very romantic,” I said, setting the flowers down. My stomach was in knots. “But why are you here?”
He took a deep breath. “I wasn’t even at the Detroit airport before I regretted my decision, even though I thought that it had been necessary. But my parents surprised me. My mom, especially. She convinced my father that they had been wrong in the way they’d raised me. I think they’re both doing a lot of thinking, about things. And so now, they’re encouraging me…they even gave me their blessing to come back here, to you. They said that they were wrong, and they want me to be with you, if that’s what makes me happy. And it is.”
Cade smiled widely, “Mom even said that she’d take care of the press.”
“Yes, I saw that. I’m grateful to her.”
“Dad’s still in a bit of shock, I think. But he’s coming around. Especially with Mom on my side. They have a lot of faults, but they do love each other.”
I nodded. I wasn’t sure what else to say.
Cade took another deep breath. “I’m sorry for leaving you. Again. Especially after I said that I wouldn’t. But I do want you to know that it wasn’t willingly. I didn’t want to leave you. I love you, and I meant it. I just didn’t see any other way to protect you.”
This last part ended with Cade doing a massive yawn, trying his best to cover his mouth. “Sorry for that. I got the first flight that I could. I’ve spent more time on planes the last two days than on the ground. I haven’t really slept.”
“You can crash in Drew’s room,” I said, leading the way. “Caitlyn, could you take Drew out to the yard while I get Cade settled in?”
“Settled,” Caitlyn mumbled. “Is that what we’re calling it these days?”
I sighed, and Caitlyn rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry, I’ll look after Drew. As long as Cade promises that he’ll never ever break your heart.”
“I promise,” Cade replied.
Caitlyn didn’t look too convinced, so I hustled Cade down the hall. She was my best friend. She was allowed to hold a grudge on my behalf, at least for a little while. I understood why she wasn’t quite ready to believe that Cade wasn’t just jerking me around again, and I appreciated her protectiveness. Hopefully, her reservations—and mine—would be proven wrong.
We got to the bedroom and I closed the door behind us. Cade immediately moved towards me, taking my face in his hands, his thumbs lightly stroking my cheeks.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “Again. I’m sorry for causing you pain, and I’m sorry for leaving you. I won’t ever do it again.”
“This won’t be the only time in our lives that this sort of thing happens,” I pointed out. “Even if you don’t want a career in politics, your father is still in the government and your mother is still a famous actress. Things like this could happen in the future. What if I got pregnant again and the press hounded us? You can’t flee from one city to another to protect me. That’s not how a relationship works. You stay, with us, and we weather it together, whatever ‘it’ might be.”
Cade nodded, his hands still on my face. “I promise. I won’t ever leave, whatever happens. We’ll get through it together, the two of us. Being without you, leaving you—it was the worst choice I ever made. Both times. I can say that my intentions were good all I want, but it doesn’t change how much I’ve missed you and wanted you, and how miserable I made both of us. I never want to experience that again. I want to be by your side, and have you by mine, for the rest of our lives.”
That was all I needed to hear. “Could I get that promise in writing this time?” I teased. “Given the last couple of times you promised and all….”
“I’ll get it drawn up and have it notarized,” Cade replied with a smile, and kissed me.
Cade had kissed me in a lot of different ways during our relationship. But I had never gotten a kiss from him that tasted so much like pure relief. More than relief though, I was feeling blissful.
I wrapped my arms around him as he continued to kiss me tenderly, his arms around me, holding me like I was the most precious thing in the world.
I’d felt this way once before, but he had made it seem like it was a lie and he had hurt me. Now, I knew that he wouldn’t hurt me again. All my fears had gone away now—it was just the two of us and our love, at last. I didn’t have to guard my heart anymore.
To my embarrassment, I cried a little. Cade stopped kissing me and wiped my tears, “Kitten, no need to cry. Don’t cry, sweetheart.”
“I know, I know.” I laughed. “I’m just so happy. I’m so relieved.”
Cade kissed me again, sweet and soft, and gently led me to the bed. It felt like the only thing keeping me weighted to the ground was the feeling of his hand in mine.
He undressed me slowly, like I was a precious gift, like he had to be reverent. He kissed my body slowly, moving his mouth from my legs up to my face, and I just felt so loved. I felt like I was worthy of worship. I got my hands on his clothes and stripped him, feeling the firmness of the muscles under my fingers. He was so sexy, so strong, and he was all mine.
“I can’t wait to do this to you for the rest of our lives,” Cade told me as he pulled me down with him onto the bed.
And oh, I believed him. I couldn’t wait, either.
33
Cade
For a moment, it was like all of my exhaustion had faded away. I wasn’t tired, I couldn’t be tired, so long as I was making love to Laura.
She was so happy, I could feel it in every kiss, see it in her eyes when I pulled bac
k to look at her face. It was enough to make me the happiest man in the world, to know that I was never going to be apart from her again. We had overcome it all, and at last, we’d get to be together.
I felt so fucking triumphant that I could have shouted it from the rooftops. But kissing Laura right now, holding her, was much more important.
We rolled over one another on the bed, laughing into our kisses, and I knew that I was riding a second wave of pure adrenaline, but I didn’t care. I just didn’t want to stop kissing her.
Laura ended up on top of me, grinding against me, grinning like the Cheshire Cat. The light through the partially opened curtains, the late morning sun, lit her auburn hair and her smooth skin, making her glow. She looked like a goddess.
My cock throbbed with desire for her. I couldn’t believe that I had let myself go so many years without her. How could I have been so stupid?
I was here now, though, and I was going to make things right. I would never leave her.
“You’re gorgeous,” I whispered, pulling her down to kiss her.
I loved looking at her and got up on my knees to be level with her, look her in the eyes as I held her body close to mine and put my fingers insider her. I kissed her neck as I dragged my fingers through her wet folds, feeling her shudder and shake at my touch. Two fingers sank into her easily, without pause, and Laura let out the most delicious little squeak.
We obviously had to be quiet, as Drew might be able to overhear us, and I did miss her loud, wanton moans, but I loved her muffled noises too, the way she squirmed and had to hold herself back. Laura could do anything—even take out the trash—and I would find it sexy.
Normally, I might have taken my time with her, teased her a little more, but I was too pent up. I wanted her badly. This wasn’t for teasing anyway. This was about joining together, the two of us as one.
I pulled my fingers out, turned her over so that she was on her hands and knees, and rubbed her nipples with one hand as I slid my cock into her. Laura made a sigh of contentment, as if having me inside her was the greatest pleasure, the thing that made her complete. Fitting, since I knew that being inside of her made me feel complete.
I kept my strokes slow and deep, not wanting to rush this moment. I wrapped one arm around her waist now, my other hand alternating between her clit and her breasts, and just enjoyed feeling her. Laura tilted her head to the side so that she could kiss the corner of my mouth, and it was so sweet and tender that I nearly lost it then and there.
At last, I couldn’t hold my climax any longer. No matter how much I wanted to stay in this moment with her forever, I knew that I couldn’t last. I rubbed her clit, pushing her farther to her limit, and we came together, two hearts beating as one.
I had never felt more content, more satisfied, in my life. I knew that I had made the right choice and that I was with the right woman.
I was exhausted. I could barely keep my eyes open. It wasn’t the traveling back and forth these past couple of days as much as it was the rollercoaster of emotions I’d been going through. But I didn’t want to sleep. I finally had Laura, and my son—my family—and it was all going to work out. I couldn’t possibly sleep now.
“Cade,” Laura propped herself up on one elbow and gently stroked my hair. “Go to sleep. Why are you fighting it?”
I blinked rapidly, trying to keep my eyes open. “I just…don’t want to waste any time with you….”
Laura giggled and kissed my temple. “Go to sleep and don’t be silly. We’re still going to be here when you wake up. It’s okay.”
“Mm.” My eyes closed as she continued to run her fingers through my hair. “Can I get that in writing?”
I could hear her laugh, and then I felt her slide into my arms and rest her head on my shoulder. I wrapped my arms around her, holding onto her tightly. Laura probably wasn’t tired and would slip away while I was asleep, starting her day, but for now, she was staying with me and letting me hold her, and that was all that mattered to me.
“Leaving you…was the worst,” I mumbled. “Leaving Drew, though…was new. I expected the pain of leaving you would crush me. Didn’t expect…how hard it’d be…leaving him. Love that kid so much already…” I yawned again. “I wanna…get to know him.”
“You will,” Laura whispered. “But I wouldn’t judge on what the worst pain is just yet. After all, your parents said that they want to meet their grandchild.”
I could hear the sarcasm in her voice and I chuckled, the joke carrying me off finally to slumber.
I dreamed of the three of us on the lake front, playing in the waves.
Epilogue: Laura
When I had been pregnant with Drew, I’d marveled at the difference a year could make. How I had gone from a young woman with a boyfriend and plans for college, to a single mother, holding her baby in the hospital, all my dreams shattered and then forced to be rearranged.
Now, it was the opposite. I had gone from a single working mother, who owned her own business, to a happily married woman with a successful career.
Drew’s tenth birthday party was also a lot better than the one he’d had last year. Cade had begged me to let him spoil Drew, and I’d finally said yes, just for this one day. I didn’t want my son growing up spoiled, and I didn’t want Cade to be the cool new parent who was only there to give treats and toys. I wanted Drew to respect him as an authority figure.
Cade was good about it, although I knew that it was a struggle for him to not give Drew every toy in existence, his guilt for missing out the first nine years eating at him. We were working on it, though. Drew had lived a happy nine years. And now he was living another happy year, and more, with a father that he loved and who loved him back. It had all worked out.
We’d set everything up at the lake house, with all of Drew’s friends and our families. There was a bouncy castle, entertainers, a big buffet…the works. Kids were running around all over the lawn and playing in the lake, Drew was with them laughing and having a ball.
Being hopped up on birthday cake and ice cream had hopped up their energy levels. I was glad that they were all outside instead of tearing through the house.
Caitlyn was everywhere, taking photographs, which I knew was a huge favor, since she was doing it for free and taking time out of her busy schedule. Her career had blown up since Gray had been to her exhibition and asked her to be the photographer for his first campaign—and every subsequent campaign since.
Gray himself was somewhere around—probably eating cake and doing magic tricks for the kids. Cade joked privately to me one day that he was glad Gray had finally learned a PG version of the magic tricks he’d been using to impress women at parties for years.
Melinda and Neil were also around here somewhere. I was in the middle of cleaning up some dishes the kids had left behind to, but I could be sure that Melinda was entertaining our adult guests. I had grown closer to her over the past year, the things I’d said to her in our phone call had been taken to heart.
That might have been the most satisfying part of this last year: watching Cade’s parents apologize to him and work to be the parents that he deserved. Cade was surprised by their behavior, I could tell, but he was growing to trust it, just as he was growing to trust that Drew didn’t resent him for not being there when he was smaller and loved that Cade was here now.
I ran into Della as I carried some dishes inside. “Hey! Be sure to have some cake!”
“Trust me, I could use the sugar,” Della admitted. “We’ve been on the trail for days! I feel like all I’ve eaten is airplane peanuts.”
Della had taken Cade’s advice and was running for office. Cade and I were actually working on the campaign for her—I was planning all the events and Cade was her campaign manager. He wasn’t sure if it was what he wanted to do full time, but he knew the business inside and out and he supported Della, both as a friend and as a member of the government. We both truly believed in her and wanted to support her.
It had done wonders
for my business, too. I had more orders and clients than I knew what to do with—I’d had to turn people down. I could never have imagined such success for myself just a year ago, and I was insanely happy about it. I’d had to hire a couple of people to assist me, so that I could continue to be personal and meet one-on-one with my clients.
As I passed down the hallway into the kitchen to set down the dishes, I paused in front of two framed documents on the wall. I smiled, my heart melting all over the place. Sure, it was a little ridiculous to some people, but I thought that they were adorable and made me smile every time I saw them.
The first was Cade’s promise, in writing, to never abandon us. The second was my promise to him, also in writing, that we would always be here with him. Both documents had been notarized.
“Babe, you’re not supposed to be carrying anything!”
Cade appeared at my side and took the dishes from me, carrying them the rest of the way into the kitchen. I laughed and followed him. “Juice is hardly a heavy object.”
“It doesn’t matter, I’m doing all the carrying from now on.”
“I’m not even starting to show yet!” I pointed at my stomach.
Ever since he’d found out that I was pregnant, Cade had been treating me like I was made of glass. It was adorable, but also frustrating. I knew it was only because he hadn’t been there the first time and wanted to make up for it. But I’d had one kid already and I was perfectly okay handling things by myself.
“You realize I have done this before, right?”
Cade set the dishes in the sink, pulled me to him, and kissed me. “I know. But I want to take care of you.”
I melted, just a little.
Cade took my hand, and we went back outside. Drew was playing with his friends, and I smiled thinking that soon, he’d have a younger sibling to play with. There would be a bit of an age gap, but I was sure Drew that would love being an older sibling. Maybe the age gap would help them have a better relationship instead of constantly being at each other’s throats, as I’d seen in many siblings who were similar in age.
The One and Only: A Single Mom Second Chance Romance (Heart of Hope) Page 21