But right now I just need to taste one thing and one thing only…his lips on mine.
And I know that one thing from him will make it all better.
CHAPTER 17
Declan
I go into the lobby and wait on my final appointment of the day.
Nurse Nancy had to excuse herself early so here I am greeting my own patient before I provide treatment. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing, kind of an old school medical practice where the doctor and the patient have such a close connection right away.
But something tells me it reeks of a lack of professionalism. It makes me look cut-rate, especially to a new patient.
But the one thing I know for sure is how much nurse Nancy is a godsend. Without her my practice wouldn’t be anywhere near where it is today.
But it’s another woman who’s on my mind.
Bella.
Without her why am I even here?
Why do I work? Why do I make money? Why do I help people when I can’t even help myself?
I need her back and after this appointment I’m going to go get her, no matter what.
Suddenly there’s a knock on the door.
When did a car drive up? Did a car drive up?
Mr. Johnson, my five o’clock, is standing so close to the door I can’t even make out his face.
Great…he’s probably planning on robbing me or something.
Well, time to get this over with because as soon as I finish I can go and get my woman.
But when I pull back the door I know immediately this isn’t a “Mr. Johnson.”
“Brandon,” I say.
“Declan,” he replies.
A moment passes.
“Mind if I come in?”
“No, of course not,” I say and stand aside as he enters my office.
“Please take a seat,” I say, but he doesn’t budge from the position where he’s standing. “If you’d like.”
“I won’t be long,” he begins. “I just came to say I made a fool out of myself and I’m sorry. Ashamed actually, which is why I’ll be on my way very shortly.”
I don’t say anything.
“After watching the way Bella reacted to what happened I can see just how real this is. As a matter of fact I didn’t really watch how Bella reacted. It’s how she didn’t react that tells me all I need to know.”
“I don’t understand,” I say.
“It’s like she’s dead to the world…completely shut off. There’s no color in her skin and her eyes look flat. She’s so lethargic it looks like a chore for her just to come downstairs and get a glass of water. And a bite of food? Forget about it. She hasn’t eaten anything, at least that I’ve seen. Her clothes are already starting to fall off her,” he says.
I get a visual of how Bella’s falling apart and feel my fists ball up, but I can’t hit Brandon. He’s her father and he was looking out for her, even at our expense. It wasn’t like he harmed her or meant her any harm, although those were the unintended consequences.
“Is she okay?” I ask. “I mean enough where I can see her.”
“I think you should. I know she would like that. And…I’m sorry for the way I reacted.”
I nod. I don’t want to tell him it’s okay, because it’s not. “You were just looking out for her. You’re her father. It’s what dad’s do. Heck, it’s what your dad did for me and he wasn’t even my father. So if anything I think your strong paternal instincts just run in your family.”
“Maybe you’re right. And I know you have strong protective instincts as well. And I know you’re going to take good care of her and you have my blessing now. I’m sorry it took me a few days to come around to see things as they should be.”
I appreciate when someone admits they made a mistake, especially a man, and even more so one old enough to be set in his ways.
I extend my hand.
“You accept my apology?”
“Of course. We’re still best friends, right?”
“Always,” he says and our two hand meet, but then for the first time in the history of our friendship we actually embrace.
The only time I’ve ever hugged a man before is when the ones hug me after I do something that helps one of their loved ones at my office. I’ve never hugged a guy just because he was my friend.
Maybe it’s because of how my life started out and my inability to fully trust and open up. I guess that’s what a psychologist might say.
But his daughter was the one who showed me there was another side to me, and that side of me is on display right now.
“I’m glad to hear that,” I say, pulling back.
“All right then. Good luck,” he says as he turns to go.
“Brandon,” I say causing him to turn back with his hand on the door and one foot out it, but he doesn’t say anything.
“Are you headed back home?”
“I don’t know where else I’d go.”
“I’ll be right behind you…in my car.”
“Okay,” he says.
“I wouldn’t want you to miss what I’ve got planned.”
He nods. “Nor would I,” he says and then a smile creeps onto his face and I can’t hold back the one on mine as we push through the door and I quickly lock it behind me.
Time to go get my woman for good. And when I say for good, I mean forever.
CHAPTER 18
Bella
I’m out of the shower, dressed, and ready to start packing when I hear a knock on my door.
I ignore it.
The last thing I want to do is talk to my dad. He’s the one who started this whole mess in the first place.
“Bella, I know you’re in there.”
I just keep doing what I’m doing knowing he can hear me. I really don’t care.
“There’s somebody downstairs that wants to talk to you.”
“Unless it’s Declan, go away,” I say.
I grab some stuff from my dresser and shove it into a duffel bag I used as a kid for soccer practice.
Then my dad knocks again.
“I said go away,” I say.
“You said unless it’s Declan, to go away. I didn’t go away so what does that tell you?”
I stop, with one hand stuffed inside my bag and the other holding the handle.
I walk over to the door. “You’re telling me Declan is downstairs?” I ask.
“If you don’t believe me see for yourself.”
“This better not be a trick,” I say.
“I’m going back downstairs. You’re welcome to join us…or not.”
I wait as I listen for the sound of my dad’s feet on the stairs, making sure he did indeed retreat down to the living room.
When I’m sure he’s downstairs I open the door slowly, trying not to make a sound and make my way to the railing that overlooks the living room.
He’s here! And my dad is there too.
And the most important thing…they’re not fighting.
I slowly make my way down the stairs, careful of what I’m walking into. But I’m optimistic too. I hope something has happened that’s started to mend the fence between them.
The moment Declan sees me our eyes meet and I know he’s got good news for me.
He stands and I move more quickly down the stairs and closer to him, still keeping an eye on my dad.
“Declan has something he wants to tell you,” my dad says. Declan looks over at him and I feel the void of his eyes coming off me. “Ask you, that is. He has something he wants to ask you.”
Declan’s eyes shoot right back over to me as he takes a step closer, and then…reaches into his pocket and removes a black box before taking a knee.
I feel my whole body start shaking and my hands want to come up to my face, but Declan doesn’t let go of me.
“Your name is Bella for a reason…because you’re the most beautiful girl in the world. My girl. And I want the entire world to know that. The connection we have is deep and real and what I want more than
anything is for you to be by my side forever. And if you accept this ring, that’s exactly where you will be,” he says placing the ring at the tip of my finger. “Will you make this the best day of my life and say yes to my request to be my bride? Will you marry me?”
For some reason my eyes come off Declan for a split second and go over to my father just in time to see a smile crack his lips. It’s not that I need his blessing to say yes, but there’s something about having it, even an unspoken one, that makes this moment perfect. My eyes go right back to Declan and I swear I can see into his soul.
And deep down inside what makes him him is his love for me. And I carry that same love inside me too. And there’s nothing that would make me prouder than to have a token of our love on my finger every day so the whole world knows I’m his.
“Yes,” I say. “Yes! Yes! Yes! Oh my god, yes!”
Declan slides the ring on and it’s a perfect fit.
Without thinking I throw myself at him, but like everything he seems to be ready for it, catching me in his arms and twisting me so I’m at his level.
As he holds me in his arms horizontally we kiss and everything is perfect.
Our kiss lasts for over a minute, but it seems like only a second, as it always does with him because he makes time fly.
“Ready to go home?” he asks.
I nod.
“I told you I’d come and get you and bring you to me really soon.”
“I was already packing,” I said. “That’s what I was doing when you arrived.”
“You don’t need to pack,” he says.
“What do you mean?”
“All you need to bring is you. That’s all I ever wanted. Just you, my bella Bella.”
He pulls me in close again and we kiss again.
“Get a room, you two,” my dad jokes.
“Don’t mind if we do,” Declan says as he stands up carrying me out of the threshold of my home and to his car.
I know in a few minutes he’ll do the same into his house as he carries me inside for the first time as his fiancée.
And then we’ll have a room all right. Lots of them. And soon we’ll get started on filling them up with lots of beautiful babies full of laughter and love.
Forever and always, for all the months of the year, with my Doctor Declan December.
EPILOGUE
Bella
Two years later in May
“Your wine, sir,” the room service attendant says to Declan.
I roll over in bed and quickly scan the hotel’s brochure.
The most exclusive Resort in Argentine Patagonia.
Surrounded by the Cerro Lopez and Tronador mountain peaks and the Moreno and Nahuel Huapi lakes.
The Hotel has a 15-hectare park, including the 18-hole golf course, the marina, beach, solarium, heated indoor and outdoor infinity edge swimming-pools, Spa and Healthclub with sauna, Fitness Center and other leisure activities.
Handcrafted boards of solid Cypress and Pine-Hemlock wood were used for the floorings. The Hotel has two wings: Bustillo Wing and Lago Moreno wings. The first wing has 162 rooms, 11 studios and 12 suites overlooking the Moreno and Nahuel Huapi lakes and the Cerro López mountain peak.
The Lago Moreno wing has 43 deluxe studios and suites: 23 Deluxe Moreno Lake Studios, 17 Deluxe Moreno Lake Suites, 2 Deluxe Master Moreno Lake Suites, and 1 Deluxe Royal Moreno Lake Suite.
Llao Llao has five restaurants. Guests can enjoy a wide variety of dishes, from International Cuisine to our top level traditional food, such as the popular "Llao Llao Tea" which is served overlooking the spectacular view of the Hotel gardens and the breathtaking Nahuel Huapi Lake.
Then I look out the window of our suite.
Yeah…the brochure is very accurate.
We’ve just arrived for a week down here in Bariloche, Argentina. In a month from now and through October it will serve as one of the most dazzling ski resorts in all of the world. But right now it’s still only May, and the seasons are flipped from the northern hemisphere, so it feels like a wonderful fall day.
And what a day to fall in love all over again, not that we were ever out of love.
With our little daughter, Ella, about to celebrate turning a year old we wanted to run down for a quick vacation and give grandpa some time to bond with his one and only favorite grandchild.
Declan wanted to take me last year, but once we found out I was pregnant that all changed.
I managed to finish the spring semester, give birth to Ella, and start classes back up in the fall.
Declan has cut back his hours at the office so he spends more time at home with Ella and we’re able to do the dual parenting thing, which we both enjoy so much. Plus it frees up so much more time for me to study, which is great. And whenever I have a question of any kind the ultimate resource is just a room away…playing with our little girl.
How much more perfect could life be?
It couldn’t…until we have our next one, but we’re still enjoying our time with little Ella first. We want to devote all our time and attention to her until she turned one, then we can think about having another one so that they can be two years apart. That sounds about right in my book, and Declan’s too. One a year is too much. I don’t want to be pregnant all the time…just most of the time.
“Cheers,” Declan says handing me a wine glass full of one of Argentina’s famous Malbecs.
“Cheers,” I say.
We clink our glasses together and Declan unties the loose knot in his robe allowing it to slip to the floor…allowing him to slip back in bed with me entirely unclothed.
The fruity flavors of blackberry, plum, and black cherry slide across my tongue as his hand slides across my back.
“How’s the wine?” he asks.
“Incredible, just like you,” I say.
“Just like you,” he replies.
“And I like the color.”
“You know,” he begins. “They have a saying down here.”
“Oh yeah? What’s that?”
“To please a woman so good she hears colors.”
“Oh, I like the sound of that.”
“You mean the sight of that?” he jokes.
“Well, you’ll always be my white knight even though Declan starts with d, just like dark.”
“Light and dark. I’m working on my balance,” he says.
“I think you’ve got this whole balance thing pretty well worked out. You’re the light in our family and if anyone gets in our way your dark side comes out real quick…and they never think of crossing you, or us, again.”
“Well, I think the real light in our family is my two girls.”
“Awww,” I say holding my wine glass to the side and puckering up and he doesn’t make me wait, mixing his masculine taste with that fruity Malbec.
“And I’m your tall glass of milk too, right?”
“Well, this wine sure does taste delicious, but I’d always prefer to get drunk on your kisses,” I say.
“I’m sure we can get intoxicated on both,” he says, setting his wine glass on the end table and then taking mine and doing the same.
We roll over facing each other, looking into each other’s eyes as we get lost in a sea of fluffy blankets on our king sized bed with a magical view of a Patagonia mountain just starting to become capped in snow at the peaks.
And I know in a few years Declan will get some white of his own on the top of his head, but just like that mountain, and this wine, he’ll only get better with age.
And because of that our family will get better with age…and that’s because it will give us more time for adventures and more time to grow. Grow into the home we’ve built and to start taking vacations together once Ella, and her future brothers and sisters, are old enough.
“You ready to hear some colors,” he says as his kisses move down my neck and then my torso towards a fruit of my own…my peach.
“Oh, I’m ready,” I say preparing to feel his magical “tornado tongue�
� in-between my legs.
But it’s the things he makes me feel in-between my ears and in my heart that will always matter most.
Doctor December: An Older Man Younger Woman Romance (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 71) Page 7