by Stacy Gail
“I was never your enemy, and now that we’re officially together, I have the right to feed you healthy food.”
“Twist—”
“I do, Angel.”
She sighed before smiling at the fierceness of his expression. “Yes, baby. You do.”
“Because I’m the love of your life,” he went on, searching her face as if it was the only thing he was capable of seeing. “Right?”
“Right.” She knew he needed more as he continued to watch her intently. She was more than happy to give him what he needed, what only she was capable of giving him—her heart. “I love you, Twist. If I spend the rest of my life showing you how much I love you, it’s still not going to be long enough. Not even close.”
For only a moment his eyes closed before he crushed her to him as if he feared some universal force would try to rip her out of his arms. “I love you, too, little girl. I’ve wanted to tell you that for so long. So fucking long. I’ve been suffering without you.”
Her heart convulsed in pain. “Don’t say that.”
“Suffering,” he repeated, his voice thick. “I thought I’d never be able to tell you. I thought you’d never wake up and see that everything I’ve ever done—or will ever do—is because I love you so much I can’t even think straight. I wasn’t lying when I told your mom that you’re the center of my universe. You always have been. You always will be.”
The liquid warmth in her eyes overflowed as the hand cradling the back of her head guided her to meet his cherishing kiss. Her beautiful man loved her. He loved her, with an unwavering ferocity that was so pure it had persevered through the years when she’d hated him, had even wanted to leave House Of Payne in order to get away from him. It had remained true even when he had called it “insanity” when he’d described what it was to be tangled in a case of unrequited love. She had unintentionally given him that suffering.
Now, it was time to give him joy.
With all the love in her heart pouring forth, Angel dedicated herself to that task, because at long last, she had woken up to the world that Twist offered her.
Epilogue
Ten months later
“Okay, little girl, there’s a step right in front of you.”
“A step up or a step down?”
“Step up.”
With her hands out in front of her while Twist had his plastered firmly over her eyes, Angel tentatively scouted a foot out, found the curb, and stepped up onto what felt like springy soft grass. She knew it was a curb because Twist had driven her into North Chicago before pulling over by a sun-dappled park to tell her to close her eyes for a surprise. Since today was her birthday and Twist loved to fill her life with surprises, she’d been expecting some kind of treat from him, so she’d complied readily enough.
But after what she’d estimated to be about five minutes and they still hadn’t reached their destination, she did the smart thing and conked out.
She’d been doing that a lot lately.
Twist hadn’t let her see where they were when he finally came to a stop, but she knew they were still outside, as she could feel a faint breeze as well as the heat of the late summer sun relentlessly beating down from high overhead. It had been a hellishly hot summer, one she normally would have spent lazing about in the pool at the condo. But shortly after she and Twist had gotten together last fall, she had moved in with Twist and given up the lease on her much-adored condo. It was funny—in a sad kind of way—how she hadn’t given a damn about moving out of her parents’ home way back when. But moving out of the condo had torn her apart. Leaving Joey and Novak was like leaving parts of herself behind, and she’d cried about it for days.
That, she supposed, was the truest measure of what family really was. It wasn’t just a blood bond that ensured a genetic connection. It was about belonging, and loving the people she belonged to.
Of course she still tried to see Joey and Novak every chance she got. Along with attending Novak’s games as often as she could, she’d gone house-hunting with them since they’d also decided to leave their condo now that she was no longer there. But it wasn’t the same. Though she never told Twist, she missed her boys.
In the long run, however, it was more than a decent trade-off, since she had the privilege of falling asleep with Twist every night and waking in his arms every morning. He completed her and gave her life a kind of depth and purpose it had never had before, and she fell more in love with him with each passing day. It still amazed her that they had fallen into a routine of living life together as naturally as breathing, waking midmorning to snuggles that eventually grew to slow, perfect lovemaking that started her day off with a smile. Then as she showered, Twist would make breakfast, or sometimes join her and then they’d make breakfast, before eventually heading off to work like they did everything else—together.
She still wasn’t awesome in the kitchen, but she’d learned so much from Twist’s mother in the past year. Lynette was, quite simply, all sorts of awesome, as far as Angel was concerned, and told anyone who would listen that she would have gotten together with Twist years sooner if she’d known part of that payoff was getting Lynette and the rest of the Santiagos. They were loud, intrusive, opinionated, and practiced oversharing like a religion. And she loved each and every one of them.
Her own parents were enjoying their new golf-oriented life in Arizona, and she was happy for them. Shortly after Twist had lain down the law with her mother Emily, Angel had been stunned when her father had shown up at the condo, alone. Considering that this had never happened—on the rare occasions when her parents had visited her, they had always been together—she’d been both stunned and curious to find Jackson Taylor dropping in for a visit.
Once she’d invited him in, she’d introduced Twist and watched each man take the other’s measure, before her father had asked her, with genuine concern, if she was all right. He’d seen the damage the hammer had done to the pantry door, and after Twist’s harangue—that her mother had conveyed while crying hysterically, according to her father—he’d simply needed to see if their daughter was still in one piece. The entire story had come out then, including Twist’s time in prison, who the Hildebrandts were, and how proud she was of her man.
Her father had listened intently, without comment or question until the very end, when he said quietly, “You still haven’t answered my question, honey. Are you all right?”
For the first time since she was twelve, she voluntarily hugged her father.
Shortly thereafter, Twist took her father out to his car to show him the doorframe that held her growth chart, as her father had noted that it was missing. The men then proceeded to talk for about half an hour, standing shoulder to shoulder in the way that men did as they leaned casually against the Mustang, hands in pockets. She’d given a thought—or several, as curiosity had eaten her up in good-sized chunks—to joining them, but in the end figured they didn’t need her screwing up their male bonding time. And the more her father got to know Twist, the greater comfort Jackson Taylor would have when it came to her choice of life partners.
When her father had finally left for home, he did it with Angel’s assurance that she would call her mother in the morning to allow Emily a chance to mend that fence. Twist had been in an exceedingly mellow mood after that, and as they’d settled in for the night he’d revealed that her father had been so touched that the growth chart had been saved, he’d almost cried.
That was when it occurred to her that it might be time to mend some fences with her father as well.
“We’re almost there, just a little farther.”
“Wherever we’re going, there had better be balloons,” she muttered, mincing her way across what felt like slightly uneven ground. “Birthdays should always have balloons.”
“I think you’ll be happy with the birthday balloon ratio I’ve got going on here.”
“And where is here, exactly?”
They came to a stop. “Why don’t you open your eyes and find o
ut?”
With that, he dropped his hands.
Blinking hard against the harsh glare of the hot August sun, Angel looked up. And promptly felt her mouth drop open.
“SURPRISE!”
“What in the world…?” Stunned, she stared at a wide open corner lot of about an acre with a scattering of mature trees around the edges, but had otherwise been cleared in obvious preparation for construction. A vibrant, life-sized outline of a house’s floor plan had been sketched out on the large lot, along with the familiar sign of her father’s architectural firm and the construction company he used to build his creations. The floor plan was completely outlined in rainbow hues of balloons at ground level and held in place by rocks, and she could only imagine how long it must have taken to blow up that many balloons.
Then again, considering the size of the crowd that stood in what appeared to be the center of the floor plan, it might not have taken that long at all.
Payne and his very pregnant wife Becks were front and center, along with Scout and her husband Ivar, and Rocket and her old man, Fisch. Joey and Novak were grinning like idiots at her, as were all the Santiagos including the dark-haired and gorgeous Essie. To her surprise, her parents were also there, glowing with golden tans undoubtedly earned on the links in the Arizona sun.
“Well?” Hugging her close from behind, Twist bent so that his mouth was close to her ear. “What do you think? Are there enough balloons?”
She could barely find her voice. “Is… is this…?”
“Our new home? Yeah. Your dad says we can be in it in four months or so.”
“Hi, neighbor!” Joey bounded over, all smiles, with Novak close behind. “Do you recognize the neighborhood? Or what will be a neighborhood,” he added with a careless shoulder lift. “We’re the corner lot right across the street from you.”
Realization hit her hard, and as the flood of joy hit her so hard it punched the air out of her lungs, she looked from them to Twist. He’d known. Even though she hadn’t told him how much she’d missed them, he’d known, and had done something about it. “Seriously?”
“Seriously.” Novak grinned so widely at catching her flat-footed, he looked borderline-crazed. “And since you guys are gonna be blocking our view of Prairie View Forest Preserve, the creek and Lake Forest in the distance, I say all barbecues happen at your place.”
Angel laughed. “Just as long as you’re not the one assembling the grill, I’m good with that.”
Twist turned her to face him, his dark eyes velvety soft as he smiled down at her. “Does that mean you’re okay with this? Because if you’re not, unringing this bell is going to be one monumental pain in my ass.”
“Baby, I love it!” She launched herself into his arms with a shout of laughter, and that broke the ice. There was a chest full of champagne, along with another full of beer, sodas and water, and soon bottles were popping. Twist had called in an order from their favorite Italian place, Lou And Lulu’s, for a delivery of several pizzas. As Ed and Nick set up tables and chairs, and champagne, beers and sodas were all passed around, her father and Twist took her on a tour of their “house.”
“I made a list of what I thought my girl should have in her very first family home,” Jackson said, looking like he was doing all he could not to burst at the seams with excitement as he pantomimed opening the front door for them. “First off, I talked this over with Twist, Joey and Novak. They all agreed that parties have a tendency to just sort of spontaneously erupt around you—”
“That’s my girl,” her mother piped up happily, trailing behind them. She turned to Essie and confided, “She was always so popular in school.”
“So,” her father continued, moving through a balloon outline of a circular foyer, “that means you need room for entertaining. This calls for a free-flowing floor plan and no formal spaces. The kitchen looks out over a large living-slash-dining area, which also opens to an outdoor living room complete with an outdoor kitchen and fireplace. The interior kitchen was designed to Lynette’s specs—”
“In a kitchen like that, you’ll be cooking like a pro in no time, sweetie,” Lynette assured her, also tagging along and pulling Ed behind her. Ed, God love him, was simply doing his best to chow down on a slice of pizza in one hand, while sipping a Goose Island Summer Ale from the other. “There’s gonna be room for a conventional oven and a convection oven, can you believe it? Ooooh, wait until Christmas! We’re having that over here, by the way. Just so you know.”
Her mother, Emily, squealed and turned to hug Lynette. “How exciting! I can’t wait!”
“Uh, okay,” Angel said, still reeling.
Essie laughed. Her voice was a rich contralto made slightly husky by vocal chords damaged in the long-ago assault, but Angel thought her new sister-in-law’s sultry voice sounded like pure hot sex. “You should see your face, girlfriend. You look like Bugs Bunny after an anvil’s been dropped on his head.”
“Packs,” Twist muttered under his breath to his little sister. “This family runs in fucking packs.”
Her father continued to grin as he displayed imaginary appliances like a hostess revealing grand prizes on a game show. “Here will be your fridge and beside that a space for a corner desk that’ll be wired for everything imaginable, from cable to the internet and everything else we can think of. You can have your tablet or laptop ready to go here for your event calendar, or recipes, or streaming video, or whatever you want. Oh, and that reminds me—the house will be completely wired to be a smart house, including warming tiles in all the bathrooms that you can digitally program yourself, along with the water temperature for not just the showers, but for the pool and hot tub, which will be situated off of the outdoor living area, obviously. Oh, and did I mention the solar panels? Because there will be solar panels.”
“Wow,” Angel breathed, rocking just a little before she looked to Twist. “Can we afford this?”
“Considering what we’re both pulling down from the House, plus your folks offering up the down payment as a housewarming gift and a free architect building you a custom home, this is coming out less than what I’m selling my house for.”
Her eyes filled as she looked to her parents. “Daddy. Mom…”
Emily’s eyes were bright with both happy tears and excitement as she squeezed Angel’s outreached hand. “Just wait until you see how insanely gorgeous your master bath is going to be. That’s the dream room I wanted for you. Honey, show them what you have planned in the master. Oooh, and tell them about the great deal you’ve found on that closeout of white-veined black marble tiling that’s just been sitting in a storage unit for a year. Baby girl, I’m going to be flying in from Scottsdale to take baths in your bathroom.”
“Wow, black marble tiling,” Kara breathed, clutching her chest and looking past her husband Nick to make googly eyes at Becks. Angel had no idea when they had joined the tour, but there they were. “I wanna get me come of that drama, girl.”
“Right? Honey, maybe after the baby comes, we can do a tiny bit of remodeling?” With a hopeful air she turned to Payne, who slung an arm over her shoulders and kissed the top of her head.
“Whatever you want, baby, you got.”
Somehow the entire party had decided to come along for the tour, and as Angel turned to watch the huge glut of friends and family funnel and shuffle into a balloon-marked “hallway” without simply stepping over the balloons and going around, she realized that every single person in her life was completely crazy.
And she adored them for it.
“This master bedroom is going to have coffered, twelve-foot-high ceilings with recessed lighting, a separate sitting area with a multi-paned bow window for maximum natural morning light exposure. On the other side of the house will be your official art studio drawn up to Twist’s specifications,” Jackson added, smiling at her. “But I know my little girl. The first thing you like to do when you wake up is capture whatever fantastic images that have come to you overnight, so you need good morning l
ight for that.”
“That’s so perfect and so thoughtful, Daddy, thank you.” Though what he didn’t know was that now her morning routine started with her new husband’s hands on her, which led to some pretty spectacular fireworks. But this was something a daughter didn’t share with her father, especially in front of half the population of Chicago tagging along.
“Right here will be a spiral staircase leading up to a workout room directly above the master,” he began but Angel held up a quick hand, and he looked to her questioningly.
“Does it have to be a workout room?”
He glanced at Twist. “It can be whatever you want, honey, but I know Twist likes to keep in shape.”
“True.” Heaven knew she was thankful for the body his fitness hobby gave him. “I was just wondering if it would be possible to put a nursery somewhere close to the master, so I can hear the baby when it cries in the middle of the night.”
Dead silence greeted this announcement before she was turned by Twist, who looked like he’d stopped breathing. They’d decided to forego using contraceptives less than two months ago shortly after their small wedding held in the church Twist had been baptized in. It had been a little scary, opting to let nature take its course, but her confidence grew when they’d promised each other that they would be happy with whatever outcome would be achieved.
Now, however, with his eyes wide and burning and his face oddly pale, she wasn’t as sure of his reaction as she had been a minute ago.
Maybe doing this in front of an audience wasn’t the best decision she’d ever made.
Twist bent down to look her right in the eye. “What did you say?”