Last I heard from Parker before bed was that Dennis’s parents wanted to talk to him about not selling his half of the business right away. I’m not sure what, if any, decisions were made, but I have high hopes that it will all work out as it should. Dennis is an intelligent man, and Paul will do whatever it takes to keep his man happy and protected.
For what feels like a solid twenty minutes, we hike up stairs that lead to walkways that lead to more stairs, all ascending to a breathtaking height.
I squeeze Parker’s hand on my right and the railing on my left in equal grips. Thankfully I had some flat sandals that are comfortable, because this is one serious trek upward.
It feels like we’re climbing forever until the shaded pathway filled with an overhang of trees parts, and there he is. Larger than life.
Christ the Redeemer.
The sheer size of him is breathtaking, but the open arms do me in. Tears prick at the back of my eyes as my heart pounds a heavy beat in my chest.
I swallow down the sudden emotion, my throat feeling tight and restricted.
Parker leads me around the base of the statue to the front. Once we’re standing right at the foot of the statue, I look up and take in his face. Deep slashes with high, rounded edges make up his cheeks, a strong, square nose, and a natural-sized forehead. His lips are thin and unremarkable, hair parted down the center in what seem to be soft waves. Even in stone, it’s as if the wind is blowing it back from his face. The chin is a handsome, chiseled square with an iconic dip in the center, proving strength without being too bold. It’s the eyes that get me, though. Open, rounded voids that stare right through to the heart of me where my soul resides. They know all. They see all.
“He’s magnificent,” I whisper with the utmost respect, though it’s not warranted, but somehow it feels warranted.
“Awe-inspiring,” Parker agrees, also in a lower volume. He interlaces our fingers. “Let’s sit.”
He brings me over to a couple of open mats randomly placed on the concrete and helps me get settled. I glance around and note several people are sitting cross-legged behind me, praying, gazing up at the Christ in all his glory.
Even surrounded by people, it’s peaceful here.
Parker holds my hand and together we gaze up at the Christ.
“Would you pray with me?” I turn to Parker, a profound sensation coming over me, like being wrapped in a cashmere blanket.
“I’d love to.” He smiles softly and maneuvers his body sideways on the mat. I follow his movements and do the same. He removes his sunglasses and I remove mine, setting them inside the crook of my crossed legs.
Parker pushes up a few inches until our knees touch. “Come here, baby.” He cups my cheeks and leans slowly forward until our foreheads touch.
Instantly it’s just he and I, surrounded by nothing but the feeling of warmth, peace, and light.
“Close your eyes and press your hands together at your heart,” he suggests softly.
We close our eyes, and with our heads pressed together and our knees touching, our hands keep the connection of energy running between our bodies. A magnetism that’s unlike anything I’ve ever felt circles through me. It’s like a bolt of electricity encircling our forms, filled with power and vitality.
Parker’s voice when he speaks is soft but holds a hint of respectful compassion I haven’t heard from him before. “Lord, please keep Skyler safe from harm. Protect her when I can’t. Let me love her our whole life long. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.”
Tears fill my eyes with his words and fall down my cheeks. I gulp a breath of air and wrap my hands around Parker’s neck, making the connection between us more intense. He cups each side of my neck as I whisper my prayer for him.
“Dear Lord, please give me the strength to always walk by Parker’s side. To lift him up when he needs it and support him in all things. And please, please don’t take him from me. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.”
Parker eases back, opens his eyes, and wipes the tears tracking down my cheeks with his thumbs. He leans forward and kisses each cheekbone before gifting me the saddest smile. “I’m never going to leave you, Skyler.” His eyes are a glittering sapphire blue under the cloudless sky, holding truth and resolve within their depths.
I lick my lips, tasting the salt from my tears. “Sometimes people don’t intend to leave, but we’re powerless when it happens.”
He presses his lips together and lets a full thirty seconds of silence sit between us before he speaks. “You’ve had a rough go, I know this. What you have to understand is that our life together, what we’re building, it’s gonna last. I’m not going anywhere. You need to believe in that. Believe in me. Believe in us.”
I nod and bite down on my bottom lip. Silently I look up at the Christ, stare into his soulful eyes, and offer a silent prayer of my own.
Please, Lord, let him be right.
After another harrowing ride down Mount Corcovado, Dennis piles us all into a taxi van and takes us to Fogo de Chão, the Brazilian steak house he had raved about.
The place is packed with early dinner goers, but we’re led to a beautiful semiprivate patio seating area outside that has a perfect view of Sugarloaf Mountain and the harbor. The water softly laps at the side of the building and base of what the patio sits on. Boats majestically dot the waters, resting prior to taking off to the call of the open sea.
“Wow, Dennis, this is incredible.” I brace my arms on the metal railing and let the slight breeze whip my hair and kiss my face with its gentle caress. Some of the humidity has subsided, and the air feels much cooler, comforting in degrees versus the sweltering temperature of before.
Parker comes up from behind and wraps his arms around my chest. I lean against him and take in the view while he rests his chin on my shoulder. “Not as incredible as my view of you taking in this view.”
I bump my booty into his groin and chuckle. “You’re a dork.”
“Maybe, but I’m your dork.” He kisses the side of my neck and sighs, holding me close while we take in the view.
“Would you two like a table to yourselves?” Royce’s deep voice rumbles from the seating area behind us.
“No,” I say at the same time Parker says, “Yes.”
I turn around in his hold and smack his chest playfully. “Honey, we’re here to have experiences with our friends.”
“I’m not. I’m here to help my brother out and keep my woman safe at all times. Best way to keep you safe is to keep my hands all over you.” He nips at my lips and kisses me briefly.
“Skipping right to dessert, I see,” Paul hollers out.
I crack up and push my guy out of the way so that I can go sit with our friends. He follows me and holds out my chair, adjusting it like the gentleman I know he is when it comes to certain things. Definitely have to thank Momma Ellis for teaching her son to be chivalrous.
Once we’re settled and the waiter takes our drink order, he explains the layout of the restaurant. Apparently you can order your main cut of meat and do open salad bar and hot buffet, or you can do the whole deal and take cuts of meat on a stick.
“When in Brazil . . . ,” I tease Parker.
“I think we’ll all do the self-serve salad bar, the buffet, and meat on a stick,” he tells Dennis, who orders for us all in Portuguese.
Once the waiter leaves, a team of people brings us breads, fresh plates, and a variety of sauces to dip in as desired. We take our plates and fill up with salad and a mouthwatering mixture of hot and cold side dishes to go with the meats. The second we sit down, a man with a long skewer comes over to the table and offers us a cut of prime rib. He shears it right off the giant piece of meat, shaving a perfectly thin slice onto each one of our plates.
We’re barely biting into the succulent rib when another man comes up offering a cut of filet mignon. No one turns down the filet either.
Throughout the next hour or so the five of us sample
the best meats I’ve ever tasted, all seasoned perfectly and complementing the sauces and sides we’ve chosen.
“How are you enjoying Brazilian food, Skyler?” Dennis asks.
I rub my very full protruding belly. “Too much! Dennis, you have to find us Brazilian food in Boston.”
He smiles. “How about, instead, I cook for you all when we get settled into our home.”
Parker jumps right in on this tidbit of information. We knew it was coming, and everyone’s talked about it peripherally, but Paul hasn’t said the words “I’m moving in with my boyfriend” yet.
“So, Paulie, you and Dennis are officially shacking up?” He loops an arm over the back of my chair and teases the curve of my shoulder with his fingers. It’s a comforting gesture he’s always done and makes me feel special and loved.
Paul smirks, wipes his mouth with his napkin, and leans his big body back, relaxing his legs out in a wide V before taking Dennis’s hand and holding it on one of his enormous thighs. “Yeah, P-Drive, I am. We’ve been talking about it for the better part of six months, which is why he came to Germany with me when I finished my last contract. We wanted to take in the lay of the land with family by meeting up with you first, then Mom and Dad. With the way Denny’s parents haven’t accepted us, I didn’t want to bring him into another uncomfortable situation. Now that he knows what I always knew, which is our family is perfectly accepting of the two of us, he’s eager to get settled, set up a house and an import business of his own.”
“That’s fantastic. I’m happy for you both, bro.” Parker smiles at Dennis, who blushes a pretty pink up his neck and into his cheeks.
Feeling this is my moment to approach Paul about working for me and the ideas I have, I choose to test the waters. “And what do you plan to do, Paul? Go back for another four years?”
He shakes his head. “Naw, Denny and I talked about it. When I’m gone, I’m gone. He’d only hear from me rarely, and that’s no way to live. If he’s taking the leap of moving to another country to be with me and my family, I’m officially retiring.”
“Then what will you do?” While waiting for his response, I take a sip of an awesome cabernet the waiter suggested.
He shrugs. “Not sure. Got plenty of money in savings. Been working twelve years, not spending much since I was never centered anywhere for any length of time and lived on bases all over the world when I was in between missions. That’s a lot of dough. Thinking about investing it in Denny and his new business since he’ll likely be doing everything from scratch.”
“Would you consider personal security?” I smile.
“Sis, you’re not going anywhere in public without protection until you’ve got the Van Dykens back. Don’t you worry.” His tone is forthright and commanding, leaving no doubt he’s personally planning to keep me safe.
“Ugh,” I groan. “I’m not talking about me! Well, I am, partially. Obviously, for the immediate future, I want to hire you to stay on as my personal bodyguard, even when our little issue is over.”
“Pay me?” He scoffs before continuing with, “Babe. That is not happening.” He chuckles.
“Of course I’m going to pay you.” I use my most forceful tone. “If you are acting as my security, I pay. That’s how it works.”
Parker snickers and reaches for his beer. Royce rubs at his goatee and chuckles behind his hand. Dennis just grins, his gaze going from me to his man.
“No, sis. I’ll tell you how this works. You need to be safe. I keep my family safe. End of.”
A fiery heat enters my veins and works its way through my system. “That’s absurd. You are not gifting me your personal security services.”
“Watch me,” he states flatly.
“I won’t have it.”
He grins. “You will.”
“I won’t!” I stiffen my spine and straighten in my seat, narrowing my gaze at him, making sure he knows I’m 100 percent serious.
“You my family?” he asks randomly, breaking up the flow of our little contest.
“Well, yes. I’d like to think so.”
“Baby, you’re family.” Parker runs his hand down my stiff back, which soothes the burn of my irritation just a bit.
“Case in point.” Paul gestures with his hand toward his brother.
I shake my head. “No, no, case in nothing! If you are acting as my personal security, you get paid, and I’m generous. My safety is important to me and my man, and it’s not very fun dealing with paparazzi, or crazy fans, or the crush of bodies at an event. I’ll be working the A-Lister series well before Rachel and Nate come back on. Those will be long days on set. Usually I’m able to let my security guy go while I’m on set, but that still means you’re on call, all day. That’s expensive in the security industry, and I’m more than happy to pay for that service. Therefore, you get paid,” I state adamantly and definitively.
“We’ll discuss it later,” Paul says, blowing off my very informed stance on how this situation will work between us.
I narrow my gaze at him.
“Sis, let’s enjoy our dinner before some other shit storm hits us, yeah?”
He should have knocked on wood, because the second the comment passes his lips, Parker is reaching for his cell phone in his chest pocket.
His face is all smiles until he looks down and reads the display. All hints of today’s happiness and the lightness we let in today are gone in a flash.
I look over his shoulder and see the message coming from “Unknown.”
This time it’s not a text, it’s two images. The first is the sign outside of Parker’s father’s bar, Lucky’s. The second image is Mrs. Ellis sitting on a stool in front of the bar at Lucky’s, laughing at something Mr. Ellis is saying. Mr. Ellis is grinning, towel hung over his shoulder, arms braced on the bar, eyes sparkling as he takes in his wife.
“Oh my God, no!” I gasp, covering my mouth, fear and dread tingling all over my nerve endings.
“Park, what is it?” Paul growls.
He doesn’t respond. He hits the contact list on his phone until the name Lucky’s comes up. Before he can even press to call, the display flashes again and the “Lovemaker” title comes across the screen.
Parker answers the phone on a bark: “Bo.”
I can’t hear what Bo is saying, but Parker closes his eyes and runs his hand over the back of his neck. He stands up abruptly. “Are they okay? Fucking hell, Bo, tell me if my parents are okay!” His voice is rough, thick with emotion.
“Jesus! Fuck. We’ll get on the first plane back home.” Paul is up and at Parker’s back when he says, “Call me the second you know my father’s status.”
He ends the call, and Paul puts his hand on Parker’s shoulder. I watch in horror, holding my breath.
“Mom and Dad were in a hit-and-run car accident tonight in the back parking lot at Lucky’s. They were walking to their car when the car gunned for them. Mom . . . uh . . . Mom just sustained a series of bruises, a sprained wrist, cut knees and elbows, because Pops pushed Ma out of the way.”
Tears fall down my cheeks as I imagine Mrs. Ellis being flung out of the way of a car barreling toward them. Mr. Ellis would sacrifice himself for the woman he loves. Absolutely.
“Pops . . . fuck.” His head falls forward, and Paul braces both hands on his brother’s shoulders.
“Hold it together, Park.”
Parker nods, seeming to take strength from his brother’s clipped demand.
“Pops, uh, was rushed to the hospital. His lower half was hit by the car. Bo doesn’t know how fast the car was going or what the prognosis is. He’s with Mom. She’s lost it, Paulie. We have to get home. Now,” he croaks.
Hearing Parker’s need, I wipe my tears, swallow down my upset, and brace my heart and soul to take on whatever pain Parker is dealing with. It’s my time to be strong for him, put on my big-girl panties, and ride this wave as the strong woman he needs. I grab my phone and pull up the number for my charter jet and schedule an immediate flight out
. The earliest they can get a flight plan and fueling stop approved is four hours from now. This will give us all enough time to get our stuff, pile up, and head off to the airport.
“Royce, will you pay the bill?” I ask.
Roy nods, walks over to the two Ellis brothers, and smacks a hand on each man’s shoulder, gives a squeeze, but doesn’t say a word. He knows there are no words of comfort when you’re almost five thousand miles away from home and your family needs you.
“Dennis, can you seek out the valet immediately and wait out front for the taxi?”
He nods, his gaze flickering to the two brothers, heads together whispering quietly to one another. “I’ll do that right away.”
“Thank you. I’ll round up our boys.”
He glances longingly at Paul, but instead of interrupting, he presses his lips together and leaves them alone, heading to do as I asked.
When he’s entered the main restaurant, I walk over to the two men and place a hand on the shoulder of each one. “We’ve got the jet leaving in four hours. Royce is paying the bill, and Dennis is getting the van. We need to go back to our hotel, pack, head to Dennis’s to pack, and then get to the airport. There isn’t time to waste.”
Paul nods and lets his brother go but squeezes his bicep. “None of this is gonna fly, Park. We’ll get the fucker. I swear it on the Ellis name.” He slams his fist against his heart, turns on his booted feet, and exits the patio. It’s the first time he’s left us alone when we weren’t locked away in our hotel room.
Parker watches his brother leave, grabs my wrist, and yanks me into his arms. I hold on for dear life. He puts his face against my neck and breathes deeply, soaking up my scent, his hands gripping my back and hip, connecting with me physically. It’s something he’s done from the start of our relationship, and I love it more than anything else . . . his need to physically connect to me.
“You ground me, baby. When the entire world goes to hell, and all I want to do is fly off the handle, you bring me back to reality. You save me from myself.”
International Guy: Volume 4 Page 25