CHAPTER 20
Braden
The next day
I pull my car right in front of her house, get out, march right up to the door and knock.
Truth be told I’d rather come by when Adam’s here. It’s not that I’m out looking for conflict, but I’m definitely not one to run from trouble. That and it would send a stronger message about just how serious I am, and what we have is.
A few minutes later the door opens a bit. I can see her face back there. It’s shaded by the door. Oh how much I missed it. It was only a day, but even a day is too long to be without her.
“Ready to go?” I ask.
“Ready to go?” she says. “What are you talking about? You left me?”
“Never. I would never do that in a million years. As a matter of face I’ve spent the last day setting up everything so that we’ll be together forever.”
“You’re not making any sense right now.”
“I’ve moved. I’m out. I’m not going to try and continue this relationship here one door down from your dad. He’s still like a brother to me, but the most important thing in my life is you. And I want you to be comfortable.”
“Comfortable? I’m anything but comfortable right now.”
“That’s why it’s time to go.”
“Go where? Are you crazy?”
“Crazy about you.”
“You just want me to pack up and leave? Ride off in the sunset with you or something on your white horse? Are you delusional?”
“You know I plan everything through, even if it doesn’t seem like it. Don’t think this doesn’t make sense just because I was able to execute my plan so fast.”
“What plan? I don’t see any plan other than to hightail it out of town.”
“Not hightail it out…to start a new life just down the road.”
“Just down the road? Do you think that’s going to solve anything?” She pauses. “What life are you talking about?”
“There’s only one life. A life with you.”
“How can we have a life when you don’t even have a job.”
“I have a job.”
“I called the station yesterday. They said you’re no longer employed there.”
“I’m no longer employed there because I turned in my badge. I told the chief I needed to be off the street as we’d agreed on when I took custody of Vivian. My life isn’t about me anymore. Protect and serve, right? I’m my brother’s keeper…literally. I have to look out for his daughter. The chief said they’re still working on it. I don’t have more time to wait. I left and went right to West Palm Beach where I had a standing offer for the station over there.”
“West Palm Beach?”
“One of the safest cities in the country.”
“That’s what they said about…”
“I know and what happened in Parkland is an absolute tragedy. Violence is never the answer, and that’s another reason why I wanted to…needed to…get out of here. I don’t have time to wait while your dad comes around. I want to spend each and every day of my life with you.”
“Are you crazy?”
“For you. Yes.”
She shakes her head and exhales hard.
“So in the period of about one day you’ve completely finished your life here and moved everything to West Palm Beach?”
“That’s right…sort of.”
“Sort of?”
“We’ve moved to West Palm Beach.”
“You and Vivian?”
“All three of us.”
“I haven’t even agreed to this! Do I get a say here? You’re no better than my dad if you’re going to try and make decisions for me.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it that way. I just thought we were in this together.”
“We are, Braden. We are. But this is just…so…I don’t know.”
“And there are even jobs for you there. I checked.”
“Of course you did.”
“What do you mean?”
“Because you check everything, but just like my dad you forgot to check with me first.”
“I didn’t check with you first because I love you and I want you to be happy…immediately and always.”
“How do you know I’m going to be happy in West Palm Beach?”
“How does anybody know anything? Nothing is guaranteed in this life. I’m reminded of that each and every day in my line of work. But there’s only one way to know, and that’s to try.”
“And Vivian is already there?”
“She’s in school right now. That’s why I had to come during the day.”
She brings her hand to her head. “This is all just happening…so…fast.”
“Why waste time, right? I want to be with you. I need to be with you.”
“Braden, you know I want the same, but it’s just…I don’t know.”
“Well, I do know,” I say.
I drop to a kneed right there on her front step. I came here with the complete intention of doing this here and now, but I have to admit the steps isn’t the best place, but I’m not about to wait another second. I expose the tiny black box in my hand, opening the lid where a two-carat diamond ring awaits her decision.
I know what I want and what I want is her. And now I’m going to show her just how much I want her.
“Beautiful, I’ve known you your entire life. But it’s only recently I’ve come to know you as a woman. I know what kind of person you are and I know what kind of person you want to become. And you know all the same about me. But most importantly I know that in order for us to both get what we want out of this life we need to do it together. There’s only one woman for me. Only one woman who could ever be my best friend, my confidant, and my lover. And only one woman who can help me raise Vivian into the type of young woman I know she can become…if she has the right guiding light. A woman who can serve as a role model, a mentor, and someone she can go to when she needs the most amazing female voice to share her trials and tribulations of youth with. She needs you. I need you. We need you. There’s only one woman who can be all those things to both of us, and I don’t know how in a million years I got so lucky but the one woman who can be everything we need is you. Will you marry me?”
She has both hands on her face and the tears are streaming down her face.
“I promise I’ll-”
“Shut up! Just shut up! You had me at Beautiful.”
I reach for her hand and slide the ring on.
“It fits perfectly,” she says.
“You fit perfectly,” I say.
She falls into my arms and I scoop her up and give her a big kiss for the first time as a man and woman engaged to be married.
“Now let’s get your things packed and drive off into the sunset,” I say.
“But the sun sets out west.”
“If you don’t find West Palm Beach to your liking then we can move. We can move anywhere for that matter. As long as we’re together.”
EPILOGUE
Annabelle
One year later
Whoever said time heals certainly knew what they were talking about…at least in regards to my life and my relationship with my dad.
But it wasn’t easy. Things got worse before they got better. Three months after I moved out we weren’t even on speaking terms…until I told him he was going to be a grandpa that is.
The amazing healing powers of bringing a newborn life into the world.
At first our reconciliation was slow. He treaded water the first week after I gave him the news, but by week two he’d completely changed his tone.
And Braden sure was patient with him too. For a couple weeks he stayed in the background while my dad and I met up in coffee shops, parks, and then finally had a proper dinner together…back at his house.
It was the perfect environment to tell him just how excited Braden was and how much he was doing to prepare for Jack’s arrival. When he wasn’t at the station he was helping me decorate Jack’s new room
, going with me to my numerous check-ups, and helping me pick out names. We settled on Jack after he arrived, waiting to see if he was going to be a boy or a girl on delivery day. Braden once said the anticipation is better than the actual thing, but when it came to our first child together we both agreed that wasn’t the case.
I love Vivian, but there’s just nothing like being handed your very own baby by the nurse. Your first baby. It’s a moment I will absolutely never forget. His tiny little…well, everything. He was just so small and so cute and so perfect.
And if the size of Braden was any indication he’d catch up to Vivian’s size sooner rather than later and he’d be able to watch out and protect her, even if they were quite a few years apart and would never attend the same school together.
But the good news is that we didn’t need much in the way of protection these days. Sure, Braden worked at the station but West Palm Beach was just as peaceful as he’d mentioned.
And it was nice to know he was off the beat and able to be home every night at the same time. I loved making dinner for him. We didn’t have a ton of money, and West Palm Beach was pretty expensive, but what we lacked in funds we made up for in love and happiness.
But money never mattered much to us anyways. We spent all our free time doing family things. The beach and fun things around the house are free, but more accurately they’re priceless.
And if we needed money we’d soon have more. Braden had found a number of open positions for me in town. I was planning on taking one when we first arrived until I found out I was pregnant. When we got that news he insisted I not work. He wanted me to be absolutely healthy and stress free. I was carrying his child after all, he often reminded me.
And Vivian loved baby Jack just as much as we did. We made it a point to still shower her with love and attention. Jack had taken center stage, no doubt, but Vivian was right there by his side to take a metaphorical bow each and every days. They were the stars of our family and we loved encouraging them.
Encouraging Vivian came easy and naturally. But how do you encourage a three-month-old who can’t talk let alone walk?
Well that was a lot easier than I imagined as well. Whenever he laughed, I laughed…which only encouraged him to laugh louder.
Whenever he ate all his food, I’d smile and give him baby high fives.
I never knew how you could communicate so easily with a baby, but now it all made sense.
You don’t need words. You just need love.
And there was more than enough love to go around in our household.
And Braden kept the romance alive and well. He even brought home an old ticket book that his station didn’t need after they had to switch some information for their new tickets. He’d use the ticket book to write me tickets for being “way too hot” and for “almost causing an accident because he’s so distracted by my beauty” and fun little things like that.
Of course the court dates were always set for the bedroom and the fines were…well…let’s just say I was happy to pay them in full.
And full is our goal for our new home. We wanted to fill it up with more children, love, and laughter as soon as possible.
It was going to be hard for me to ever take a job with the rate at which Braden wanted to have kids. I was all for it too.
And that’s because I was all for him. My perfect policeman who was all in on me and our family.
The cop next door I’d had a crush on for years before my crush became my husband. I felt like I was living a dream.
And the patient man who used his wisdom and experience to navigate the choppy waters of his relationship with my father.
They were best buds again, just like old days. But these two older gentleman were anything but old. They hadn’t taken up golf like many of the guys who are approaching middle age that move down here to Florida. They were still throwing a baseball around in the backyard, lifting weights, and swimming in the ocean.
All things I couldn’t wait for them to do with Jack. It was like I’d have two perfect male influences helping to raise and shape my son.
My dad hadn’t always been the best early on when he found out about Braden and I, but I guess you can’t blame him. Now he was back to being the perfect gentleman, a great grandpa, and Braden’s bestie.
But little did he know I’d actually taken that role over for him. I’d married my best friend. A man I learned from every day. A man I loved and cherished.
And the father to our children.
And one day we’d be the grandparents down here in Florida, but those days were a long ways away.
Right now the proud papa and I were focused on our own kids and he was absolutely focused on me.
Now. Forever. Always.
EXTENDED EPILOGUE
Annabelle
Ten years later
“Grab the camera, babe! Hurry.”
“Why, what…oh my gosh.”
I reach for the camera and line up the shot.
A manatee swims right up to Elsa and kisses her right on the cheek!
Luckily I figured out how to use the burst mode on the camera just this morning. It rattles off about seven shots a minute and I don’t even think of pulling my finger off the button. I want to remember this day forever.
Vivian has just graduated from high school and as part of her gift we took the entire family to swim with manatees today. Later we’re going to a water park and then as a family to dinner.
All of us. Me, Braden, Vivian, Jack, Elsa, Teresa, Sandra, Frank, and Zachary. Four girls and three boys, and of course Braden and I. Nine in total. Braden was pushing for a family of ten, but I told him nine is fine…beyond fine actually. Seven kids is enough, right? We’d made it to nine in total.
But I wasn’t complaining. I’d love to have more kids, but felt like my body had been through the ringer with six pregnancies already. That and the way Braden still took me in the bedroom. That man’s imagination combined with his strength and some of the things he built in the bedroom…oh my lord. Where did he come up with this stuff? I swear sometimes I felt like a sexual acrobat in there. He even soundproofed it when the kids were away at school one day. Now we could go all out when we felt like getting a little extra frisky.
And frisky hands is exactly what he had. I figured after seven kids, six of which I carried on my own, our relationship would revolve more around our kids and less around us.
We certainly did a lot of things for our kids. A lot of hands on things that were fun for the entire family, but Braden did a lot of hands on things of his own when it came to my body…things that we managed to keep our kids from finding out about.
The way he ravished me made me feel just as sexy today as ever. Okay, maybe I’ll never be twenty-one again but I didn’t miss it for the world. The pleasure in those years where you feel like you look better than you ever have and ever will don’t even come close to the pleasure that a family brings. And thanks to Braden’s insatiable thirst for me I wasn’t even sure I’d lost a step in the beauty department.
Case in point…
I feel his hand wrap around my shoulder as I continue snapping pictures, but that hand slowly slides down my back and winds up on my bottom where he proceeds to take a big squeeze.
“You’re going to throw my balance off,” I joke.
“Can you take pictures from a horizontal position?”
“Braden!” I say slapping him with one hand.
“Just asking. You never know.”
“Today’s all about Vivi’s graduation party.”
“But once today becomes tonight we’ll have to have a party of our own. One of the best parts about kids is making more, right?”
“Still shooting for ten?” I ask.
“I was thinking twenty.”
“Oh, it’s twenty now, is it?” I say, unable to hold back a laugh.
“Twenty or twenty-five.”
“Is there a way we can bottle up whatever it is that you have inside you and sell it as som
e sort of alternative to Viagra?”
“It would never work.”
“Never work? Are you kidding me? You’re always rip roaring and ready to go.”
“Only for you. If we tried to bottle it the entire world would only be after you. You and you only. And you know you’re mine all mine.”
Nanny for the Cop Next Door: An Older Man Younger Woman Romance (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 44) Page 7