by Natalie Dean
For the first time, she slept like a baby. Knowing Ellie was back in the house and safe, happily sleeping in her own bed, gave her immense relief.
When she woke up the next day, David wasn’t beside her. She didn’t panic. It wasn’t rare that he was up cooking breakfast. She glanced at the clock. Just before noon. She’d slept in. She was normally the kind of girl that got up early in the morning to get in a quick workout or drive over to the agency. She couldn’t even remember the last time she’d slept past 9 in the morning, much less till noon.
She leaned up and instantly regretted it. She’d expected to be sore. She hadn’t quite expected it to be that sore.
“Aaaggghhhhh….”
Her body was stiff. She felt like if she made too quick of a move, she might pull something. Slowly, gingerly, she got up from the bed. She didn’t even realize that she was still dirty from the day before.
She hobbled out of the bedroom into the apartment.
David was outside, looking freshly showered with a pair of athletic shorts and nothing on his chest. He glanced back at her with a big goofy grin.
“Morning, sweetheart,” he said, holding some cash and looking towards the door.
“Morning. What are you doing?”
“I made breakfast,” he said, and someone knocked on the door. He opened it to reveal a pizza guy. The pizza guy blinked in surprise after seeing David’s sculpted chest.
“Oh, you’re- you’re The Celtic!”
“Guilty as charged.” He exchanged the money for the pizza box. Although she couldn’t see what he’d paid, she was sure that David had given a healthy tip. He always did.
“Hey, man, can I have a selfie with you?”
David managed a fake smile. “Sure.”
The pizza guy snapped a quick snapshot and scurried away after thanking David. He turned towards her, and once again, Adrianna’s breath was taken away. It was hard to see his muscularity beneath a shirt, but he was rippling with muscles. He had a boxer’s super-fit body.
“You cooked, huh?” She smirked. “Where’s Ellie?”
“Still sleeping.” He pecked her on the lips. “Are you sore?”
“You have no idea.”
He winked affectionately. “Oh, trust me, I know. I know.”
They went to the dinner table and popped open the box. The smell of freshly made pizza wafted into the room. Adrianna’s stomach grumbled.
“Do you want to wake Ellie up?” she asked. “I really want to see her.”
“She’s exhausted.” He pulled a piece away and bit into it. “She’s had a long week. There’s plenty of time, especially since you’re not going to be working for the agency for a while.”
She grabbed a slice and sat down next to him. “I’m happy about it. I can’t think of anything that could be better. Stone got us off easy.”
“How did he even do that?”
She shrugged loosely. “He’s got all kinds of connections. I’m not going to ask.”
“Scared?”
“You bet I am.” She winked playfully. After all the stress of the past few days, she was feeling even more genial than normal. “I think it’ll be a while before we go out on a nice dinner without Ellie.”
“Any dinner with you is romantic.”
“Even this one?”
“Especially this one.”
Adrianna was still trying to fully register that everything had turned out all right. Sure, Stone had probably sent an email listing out a bunch of stuff to punish them. Community service. Training classes. All that stuff. But compared to the other options that Adrianna was afraid of? Nothing.
So, with Ellie snoozing in the other room and with fresh pizza between her and David, Adrianna felt a sense of peace come over her.
“Hey Dave,” she said, calling him Dave instead of David for the first time.
His eyebrow raised. “Ads.”
“This was a stressful last couple of days.”
“You could say that.”
“So…. what now?” she asked.
He chewed thoughtfully for a moment before swallowing. “We plan our wedding, I guess.”
Part of Adrianna wanted to stay in that moment forever. She wanted to freeze time and never let this moment end. But another part of her was ready for the future and whatever it might bring. She had a feeling that life would reach depths of happiness that she hadn’t ever known. She knew it wouldn’t be easy. She knew life probably still had some curve balls waiting for them.
But she would be there with Ellie and David to face the obstacles.
And she could not imagine anything else she would rather do.
THE END