Sitting them both down, I take hold of Beth’s hand again, and kneeling in front of her, with her father as a witness to my request, I formally ask that he give us his blessing, not his judgment.
And I ask the woman I know I truly love, with all my heart, to spend the rest of our days together.
“I want you to be my wife, Beth. Nothing less. I know it’s happened so quickly but just say you will… just tell me yes.”
Her dad groans as she pumps her head, stammering the word ‘yes’ before I pick her up and spin her around, holding her tighter than ever now that I know she’ll be mine forever.
Arnold looks gutted, but I don’t want him to feel bad. This is the happiest day of my life and I know that although it’s a shock, in time he’ll come to see how much I love Beth and how much better all our lives will be.
“Don’t look so glum, Arnold,” I tell him, holding out my hand to shake his, which he takes feebly.
“I want you to give me something I’ve never had either… a dad.”
His puzzled face turns to a smile as Beth whispers something in his ear.
“Jarrett and I will both be the parents we never had, before you came along,” Beth says. “But you’ll always be my dad, no matter what.”
“You’re an orphan too?” Arnold asks me and I nod in the affirmative. He gets a little redder, a little more emotional too as he kneads his hands in front of himself, shifting his weight in his seat.
“I never told you why I adopted you Beth… Apart from how beautiful you were, how beautiful you still are,” he tells her.
“I know what it’s like to grow up feeling alone too. I was adopted myself at an early age, and I swore I’d do the best I could, in the place of someone who thought they couldn’t. I just don’t want you to think I didn’t try, Beth. I love you so much.”
Both of us on our knees, Beth and I put our arms around him, a new family where moments ago there were only three grown orphans.
“You did good Arnold. You did good,” I tell him, choking back my own tears as both his and Beth’s make me feel more welcome than I ever have, anywhere in my whole life.
After lunch together in the restaurant, I take Beth and Arnold back to my office and draft the new lease agreement for his two buildings.
I also draw up some statements for those three thugs of Camberwell to sign, which they do.
Each one fully listing their involvement in his shady dealings. Eyewitness and incriminating statements for both sides, which I assure them I’ll keep safely locked away, as long as they straighten out and start acting like real men.
Camberwell signs off on the leases, announcing he’s taking my advice and taking a break from his business dealings in the area, deciding to try his luck in another state.
Arnold can breathe easy. He has his workshop and his home, rent at a bargain rate for some time to come and he’s gained a son in the same week that he’s found out just how good a job he did raising his daughter just right.
“So… you don’t see yourself as my new secretary?” I ask Beth, hooking my thumbs together behind her waist and pulling her towards me.
She screws her face up.
“Nah. I don’t think you telling me what to do all day would work,” she says, smiling. A thoughtful twinkle shines in her eye.
“Hmmm. Then I think I just went out of business, no more new clients at least. I’m terrible at typing,” I tell her. “Any ideas?”
“There is an empty building next door,” she suggests. “I noticed it has a big kitchen.”
“Yes, I know the place,” I murmur. I should, I own it.
“You did say my brownies were pretty good,” she says thoughtfully, pecking my cheek.
“And I do look pretty fetching in an apron,” I add.
I think I know where she’s going with this, and it's fine by me. Anything that keeps my woman happy and close to me, anything she wants.
It’s hers.
It’s all for her.
Forever.
“I love you, Beth,” I tell her, after letting her know that next door has a bedroom upstairs too.
“And I love you more,” she says, biting her lower lip, whispering in my ear, asking me to show her the bedroom upstairs next door.
EPILOGUE
ONE YEAR LATER
Beth
“I told you that you needed the shark,” Tiffany says, taking credit once again for my perfect life.
“What I need is those muffins and bagels ready before the next rush,” I tell her firmly, and we both giggle at me trying to sound like a boss. Even though we’re both the boss now.
“I got this,” Tiff says. “And in case I haven’t told you lately, thank you,” she chimes before disappearing in a whirlwind of flour, trays and baked goods.
She doesn’t have to thank me, or Jarrett, but she does. Every day. She won’t let either of us forget the opportunity to join me as partner in our own diner. A dream she says she’s had since she was a girl.
Weird.
She does most of the work out front. I do some baking, but mostly look after the upstairs bedroom. Especially after the lunch time rush. It always leaves me feeling so tired, I usually need a nap.
Luckily, hubby Jarrett works right next door and he often comes to see how my napping is going.
I caved in eventually too, playing secretary for him when he feels rushed off his feet, which is almost never, but he does like to chase me around his desk occasionally.
I don’t expect him to remember… okay, he’d better remember. But he hasn’t mentioned it all day so I’m hoping my nap time today brings a little more than my regular surprise of Jarret’s magic inside me.
I hear the last of the lunch rush dying down, I’ve picked out and put on a see through ensemble for my nap. I’m waiting upstairs for him, just like every other day, but no Jarrett.
He did mention something about maybe seeing dad today, to help him with something. But I’m sure he was in his office a little while ago, last time I looked in on him.
I’m not mad, just curious. And also in desperate need of my lunch o’clock dose of my man Jarrett.
Taking a look out the window, just to check if his car’s still here, I see him lugging something carefully from out of the back of his car.
Something wooden, and heavy.
A gust of wind picks up the packing blanket covering whatever it is he’s carrying.
When I see it, I let out a little squeak of joy, and feel my heart about to burst. Then I ‘aww’ to myself.
Straight away I can tell it’s a combined effort. Jarrett’s idea and dad’s handiwork. Or has Jarrett been working on it all this time? All those visits to my dad. I knew they were up to something.
It’s a solid timber bassinet.
But I’m not even…
I do the math, it’s a year to the day, sure but I’m working out something else.
With a gasp, I rush to the bathroom, unwrapping a fresh test from the cartons I have stowed away under the vanity unit.
I went through a stage of testing myself almost every day. I think it was making Jarrett feel like he wasn’t performing once I hadn’t fallen pregnant after our first few months together, even after the wedding and honeymoon, which I spent pretty much horizontal.
I figure I have to go anyway, and hope Jarrett will be up any minute.
I remind myself to overlook the fact I’ve already accidentally seen my ‘surprise’.
I’ve always wanted to be a mom. To know what it feels like and to have someone growing inside me. Someone I could teach as well as learn from as we both grow older and wiser.
But as I sit on the edge of the bath, watching the test turn from white to blue, I only think of Jarret. How proud he’ll be of his daughter or his son. How much love he’ll shower them with, how much of his strength he’ll shelter them with, just by being himself. No special effort required.
I know he’s going to be the world’s greatest dad for our child.
O
r children.
The sound of his steps break me from my reverie and I notice I’m bawling hot tears of happiness as I sit there.
I hear the door, and he calls my name, rushing into the bathroom once he hears me crying and I just manage to slip the positive test out of sight from him.
Wanting suddenly to have my own surprise for him.
For us both on our anniversary.
“Beth? What’s wrong? I didn’t forget, honest. I was just picking something up. A surprise,” he says, looking so hurt at the thought he’s upset me by thinking I thought he’d forgotten our special day.
“What is it?” I ask, sniffing as he moves over, hugging me to him as I sit on the edge of the bath.
“I was gonna ask you to come see… but… if you’re upset… Aww. I’m sorry Beth, I didn’t forget, honest I didn’t!” he insists, and my tears of joy have some laughter mixed in with them now.
I have to show him. I can’t stand the sight of him thinking he’s upset me when he hasn’t.
“Jarrett,” I whisper, holding out the test for him to see.
“Happy anniversary… daddy.”
EXTENDED EPILOGUE
THREE YEARS LATER
Jarrett
“I’ll go,” I tell her, kissing her head as she murmurs something before drifting back to sleep.
If she wasn’t so tired, if it wasn’t the early hours of the morning, she’d tell me I always go.
I try to anyway. Any chance I get to hold my beautiful babies, I’m there.
Any chance I get to give their mommy a break, give her the rest she deserves, I’ll take it.
“It’s just a tooth,” Beth keeps telling me. “He’s a little late but that’s what’s making him so crabby.”
I spent so long thinking something might be wrong, worrying without wanting to worry his mommy, but when little Rex nearly took my finger off, I had to admit it might be his teeth coming through.
“Just a little shark, eh? Just like your old man,” I whisper to him, breathing in how good he smells as I pick him up, grateful when he stops crying so hard.
It hurts me when they cry. Makes me feel helpless. Beth’s stronger with that sort of thing, but I don’t like it when I can’t stop their reason for crying or if I don’t know what it is.
But for now, Rex is settling down, sucking and gnawing on my finger. Living up to his namesake.
He’s not due for a feed, but just as I feel Rex giving in to sleep again, I hear the stirrings of somebody who is.
Matilda’s breathing gets faster, than she kicks off her blanket and before I can get Rex settled in his own cot, she’s bawling which wakes Rex up. Startles him and in no time I have two beautiful, screaming babies to make happy again.
Rex’s sister, a bit like her mom, loves her sleep but when she needs to feed, there’s no way of getting out of it.
I scoop her up, and trying to keep as quiet as I can, make my way down to the kitchen when we all meet mommy in the hallway. She’s smiling a yawn, stretching a little as she holds out both her arms.
“Trying to have all the fun to yourself, eh?” she teases as she gives me a soft kiss, then kisses both Rex and Matilda.
Straight away, they’re both silent.
Always perfect angels for mommy, until they know they’ve got what they want, then they usually start up again.
But I’m still worried about Rex.
“Matilda was never this bad with her teeth,” I whisper, both of us creeping into our own kitchen like a couple of prowlers.
I fix Matilda a bottle while Beth settles herself into a chair to feed Rex, even though he’s not due.
“This’ll help,” she yawns, then jumps a little, wincing as the baby shark tries out his new jaws.
“Jarrett? Bottle,” she reminds me, noticing me standing there, staring slack jawed at her exposed chest.
“Roger that,” I murmur, and set about getting Matilda’s bottle, just in time for her to be fast asleep again once it’s ready.
“You want something?” I whisper softly to my wife.
She narrows her eyes thoughtfully, trying to prophesy what might be in the refrigerator that she actually wants.
“Chicken or brownie?” I ask her, helping her out.
“Both,” she says with conviction, and in a moment, there’s a plate of brownies and cold chicken on the table.
I hover, jiggling Matilda as she sleeps and watch with wonder as my son feeds from his mother, who I’m glad to see enjoying her fill of her own cooking for a change as well as nourishing our son.
The silence of the dimly lit house. The stillness of the night broken only by our own soft sounds, the subtle mechanics of raising a family, feeding and bonding at all hours.
“Whatcha thinking?” Beth asks.
“What I did to deserve all this… to have the three most precious things in the world all to myself,” I tell her without even having to think.
“I love you baby,” she tells me, and motions me over for a kiss.
“And I love you, Beth. I love all of you.”
I get chicken, brownie and Beth, all in one go. It’s the best kind of kiss, these late night feedings. The shallow little puffs of breath from our two kids. The dreamy look in her eye as she feeds one or both.
It’s the closest thing I think there is to true peace. Real love.
It's home and it’s all ours.
My darling wife and my two babies, our daughter and our son.
My family.
The one thing I thought I’d never have turns out to be the greatest treasure I get every day. Made all the more special by the distant memory of the time I had to serve without it.
Waiting for what was truly mine.
Beth. Rex. Matilda.
Forever.
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A MAN WHO KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS
Book 1: Baby Lust
Book 2: Veteran
Book 3: Built
Book 4: Bambino
Book 5: Rescued
Book 6: Leader
Book 7: Professor
Book 8: Burned
Book 9: Worldly
Book 10: Pistol
Book 11: Policed
Book 12: Driven
Book 13: Lucky 13
Book 14: Lumberjacked
Book 15: Protector
Book 16: Carpenter
Book 17: Italian Stallion
Book 18: Gardener
Book 19: Budapest Billionaire’s Virgin
Book 20: Billionaire’s Babysitter
Book 21: Cocky CFO
Book 22: Fireman’s Filthy 4th
Book 23: Mechanic
Book 24: SEAL’s Secret
Book 25: Police, Pooch, and Smooch
Book 26: Fireman’s Fake Fiancée
Book 27: Billionaire’s Virgin Ballerina
Book 28: Bitcoin Billionaire’s Babysitter
Book 29: Veterans Day Daddy
Book 30: Cowboy’s Christmas Carol
Book 31: Police Officer’s Princess
Book 32: Statham
Book 33: Bodyguard
Book 34: Greek God
Book 35: Billionaire Single Dad's Babysitter
Book 36: Mountain Man
Book 37: SEAL’s Justice
Book 38: Royal Romance
Book 39: Doctor Mountain Man’s Special Delivery
Book 40: Crocodile Dan D
Book 41: Mountain Man’s Secret Baby
Book 42: Doctor Bad Boy’s Secret Baby
Book 43: Cop’s Babysitter
Book 44: Nanny for the Cop Next Door
Book 45: Small Town SEAL’s Saving Grace
Book 46: Cop’s Fake Fiancée
Book 47: Billionaire’s Nanny
Book 48: Cowboy’s Babysitter
Book 49: Steamy
Book 50: Brother’s Best Friend
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Book 51: Possessive Professor
Book 52: Firefighter’s Babysitter
Book 53: Soldier’s Secret Baby
Book 54: Ward’s Independence Day
Book 55: Doctor Next Door
Book 56: Possessive Policeman
Book 57: Coached by the MMA Fighter
Book 58: Boss’s Babysitter
Book 59: Virgin in New York
Book 60: Rock Star’s Baby
Book 61: Possessive Protector
Book 62: Possessive Australian
Book 63: Best Friend’s Brother
Book 64: Possessive Cowboy
Book 65: Summer Romanced
Book 66: Possessive Prince
Book 67: Lovers’s Enemy
Book 68: Cop’s Best Friend
Book 69: Possessive Firefighter
Book 70: Football Next Door
Book 71: Doctor December
Book 72: Possessive Canadian
Book 73: Blue Collar Billionaire
Book 74: Possessive K-9 Cop
Book 75: Possessive Brazilian
Book 76: Hockey Obsession
Book 77: Possessive Boston Irish American MMA Fighter
Book 78: Halloween Next Door
Book 79: Possessive Russian
Book 80: Baseball Mine
Book 81: Cop’s Caribbean Captive
Book 82: Instalove Island
Book 83: Dad’s Best Friend
Book 84: Thanksgiving with Dad’s Boss
Book 85: Possessive Italian Neighbor
Book 86: Possessive Portuguese
Book 87: Possessive Christmas Cop
Book 88: Russian’s Obsession
Book 89: Possessive Doctor’s Christmas
Book 90: Possessive Parisian Pilot
Book 91: U.K. Boxing Day
Book 92: Jealous Russian Stalker
Book 93: Italian Mountain Man
Book 94: Aggressive Russian
Book 95: Possessive Valentine
Book 96: Possessive Hunter
Book 97: Dad’s Russian Mafia Friend
Book 98: Russian Teacher
Book 99: Australian Obsession
Book 100: Russian Next Door
Book 101: Dad’s Irish Friend
Book 102: Nanny for the Russian Mafia
Possessive Lawyer: An Instalove Possessive Alpha Romance (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 183) Page 8