Milk Money

by Jude E. McNamara

  “My Harper is like her mother. Got a mind of her own,” the senator went on further.

  “Oh Clayton, don’t be silly,” Elizabeth said, waving her hand at him, casually blowing him off. Elizabeth moved toward Big Daddy. She gave him a big hug and kissed him on the cheek.

  “I’m just tickled pink,” she said to my father.

  “Yeah Lizzy, we’re going to have double trouble, woman,” Big Daddy laughed with her. They both grinned like a couple of kids. “C’mon Clayton, let’s you, Lizzy, and I go pop some champagne.”

  It took Lucia to snap me out of my stupor.

  Reese and Mackenzie walked into the waiting room.

  “We’re having twins, guys!” Elizabeth exclaimed out loud to the both of them. Reese and Mackenzie huddled around Elizabeth who was bursting with excitement.

  I moved to sit down to calm myself.

  “Oh no you don’t,” Lucia said, turning her focus on me.

  “I’m having twins, Lucia.”

  “Yes and you heard Dr. Fischer. What are you waiting for Nicky? Go see her, Daddy.”

  Harper

  I took one look at Nicholas’s face and knew he’d heard the news that we were having twins. Just yesterday I had hit him with the news that he and I were having a baby, but how was I to know I was having twins? It was as much of a shock to my system as the news must have been to Nicky. I was completely floored when Dr. Fischer informed me that not only was I have one baby, but I was having two.

  Even though Nicky had a gentle smile on his face, he still looked like he had seen a ghost. Yes he had heard the news. That much I was sure. He looked scared. So this conversation was just going to be a matter of what we were going to do with this information.

  I watched as Nicholas gently closed the door behind him. He looked deeply into my eyes, moving slowing towards me. He flashed that megawatt smile at me that always melted my heart. He was so damn handsome. To not stare at him wasn’t even an option. Nicholas bent down, slowly leaning into me, and kissed me softly on the lips. My lips still stung from when the tape was removed off my mouth, but I smiled at him as he kissed me. I didn’t say a word, watching as he sat on the edge of my bed. Nicholas fingered my hair through his hands, twisting the strands slowly, staring at me. Not only did he look scared, I knew he was worried.

  “Please don’t worry, Nicky. I’m okay. We’re okay, baby.”

  Nicholas took a deep breath and swallowed hard.

  “Kitten, loving you has been the only thing I’ve ever wanted to fully dedicate my life to. You are the only thing that matters to me. Losing you . . . losing them”—he looked down at my baby bump and rubbed his hand across my belly—“I was scared out of my mind these last forty eight hours. I can’t imagine my life without you. If you’ll let me love you for the rest of your life, I swear on everything I own, you’ll never regret it.”

  I put my hand on the side of Nicholas’s cheek and ran my fingertips down the back of his ear, pulling a loose strand of his hair behind it. He closed his eyes, tilted his head and moved his lips to kiss my knuckles.

  “I love you too, Nicholas,” I said softly.

  I could feel myself tearing up again. I loved Nicholas with every cell in my body. The thought of never seeing him again only reinforced for me how much I really did love him. He and I had wasted a lot of years fighting each other. Fighting our feelings.

  “Marry me, please,” he whispered.

  I closed my eyes briefly and nodded. I was overwhelmed with a flood of emotions. The emotional gulf that existed for years between Nicholas and I was long gone. We had built our own bridge over our troubled waters.

  “Is that a yes?” he pleaded, his eyes searching mine.

  “You’re mine Nicholas. Make me yours,” I whispered.

  I watched as Nicholas breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Good. Because I wasn’t going to take no for an answer,” he grinned.

  His green eyes shone brighter and his smile widened. Nicholas bent over and kissed my belly bump.

  “Mine too,” he said, talking to our babies.

  He had the look of a man with paternal joy. I ran my fingers through his hair and held Nicholas in my arms close to my heart.

  “Finally something we can agree on,” I laughed.

  “I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Nicholas laughed back at me.

  Epilogue

  Nicholas

  “What shall we toast to, Kitten?”

  “That you still have your sanity?” Mackenzie laughed, snapping pictures of the twins.

  “How about to grandkids?” Big Daddy joked out loud in a husky voice grabbing both my daughter Milania and my son Miles. They were dripping wet, having just exited the blue water of the yacht’s pool. Big Daddy was tickling them both simultaneously.

  “Sounds good to me,” the senator agreed.

  The senator’s skin was much browner now that he was tanned from laying out on the ship’s deck all afternoon. His Cherokee heritage was much more pronounced in the light of the golden sun of the Italian Rivera.

  “Pop,” the twins both screamed, kicking and giggling out loud. They both had been swimming on deck with each of their nannies who were now trying to urge them from my father’s arms. They seemed to be failing at their attempts to usher them in the opposite direction so as to towel dry each of them off.

  Like their mother, Miles and Milania had their own minds. I was convinced they both controlled their nannies versus the other way around, despite what their mother thought. Kitten and the nannies functioned like a team despite my wondering who was really in control.

  The twins each had their own security guards, so Stephen had more people under his command. Harper thought I was going overboard putting the twins under guard, but I was not about to have some nutcase run off with my twins, the way Tatiana and her gang of thieves had run off with everything I loved.

  I was still in awe every time I laid eyes on my beautiful son and daughter. Miles was a spitting image of his mother, with big brown eyes and curly brown locks that framed his small face. According to Harper, he had a huge heartbreaker smile like his father. I thought Milania favored me more. She had piercing green eyes, long sun-drenched light brown curls, and long eyelashes. She knew how to use them too, because when she blinked them at me, all I wanted to do was to give her the world. Both twins had caramel-colored olive-toned complexions that were a blend of both me and Harper.

  I glanced their way, recalling the day of their births vividly. Harper had delivered them by Caesarian section two months after we were married. I was a nervous wreck holding her hand in the delivery room. She wanted to push them out naturally, but the doctors felt her labor had gotten too prolonged. I couldn’t stand the thought of losing her again, or them for that matter, so I spent a whole evening begging and pleading with her to get on with it. She put on her ‘don’t tell me what to do’ face that I knew so well and loved. It took Reese and Mackenzie to convince Kitten that she would be doing the right thing to deliver by C-section. I had to sway Mackenzie with new camera equipment just to get her on my team and to move Harper off her rock. One thing about Mackenzie, she was a loyal and devoted friend to Harper to the end. She still had her bitchy ways but had softened a ton towards me after I rescued her BFF from the kidnappers. Reese took my side with ease. I was his sister’s Angel Investor, so he wasn’t going to get on my bad side over the safety of my babies.

  I immediately put an eight-caret diamond in a platinum setting on Harper’s finger at the hospital the day following the press conference about her rescue. By the time we were married, I’d added a ten-caret wedding band to match. I wanted everyone in the world to know that she was mine.

  Kitten cried when I slipped the ring on her finger. She was a mess of emotions throughout the entire pregnancy. But, even I had to admit that her ring was indeed the most brilliant Harry Winston ever seen on anyone’s hand. Kitten was in love with my choice. She fingered her ring a lot, always teasing me by saying “Tal
k to me Nicholas.” I would just laugh knowing she was mocking me by repeating the Harry Winston “Talk to me, Harry” brand marketing scheme.

  “The best for the best,” I would answer her.

  As soon as Dr. Fischer allowed Harper a reprieve from weeks of bedrest, I scurried her to the Martha’s Vineyard. It was the place where we began our relationship a decade ago. Only this time going forward we were going to associate it with the happy ending we long deserved. Several million dollars later, Harper and I tied the knot.

  We married at Martha’s Vineyard in the hot summer month of August at the senator’s compound. By the time Elizabeth was done with the wedding planning the event had turned into a huge ordeal. Harper gave up the reins of the planning to her mother, not wanting to be bothered with too many of the details. She was eating for three and was pretty much miserable carrying an extra load. Elizabeth’s stamp on the event showed too. She made Kim Kardashian’s wedding look like a high school prom. Our marriage made all the major newspapers and celebrity rags. Mackenzie got exclusives on the photos, so she and I rapidly became friends.

  Our first year anniversary was total chaos, filled with bottles, diapers, nannies, and grandparents. Harper and I practically fell asleep on each other during our private anniversary celebration. I was determined that for our second anniversary celebration we would get out of the country and have some much needed down time and peace. A bit of wishful thinking on my part.

  “To grandparents,” Elizabeth said, interrupting my thoughts and lifting her glass towards Big Daddy and the senator.

  “To godfathers, ahem . . . me,” Reese laughed, tugging on his sister Riley’s hand, pulling her away from her husband and my best friend, Mico.

  “To love at first sight,” Mico said, looking at his wife Riley with fond affection.

  “To the fact you still have your sanity,” Mackenzie said, snapping pictures of Big Daddy with Miles Carmichael Becker and Milania Carmichael Becker.

  “To love, family, and good friends,” Lucia suggested, clinking her glass of champagne first to Stephen and then turning to Scott, both of whom stood on either side of her.

  “To wedded bliss,” Harper said, kissing my lips and clinking her glass next to mine.

  Harper and I were celebrating our second wedding anniversary with our children, close family, and friends. Everyone had flown to Italy to join us in our intimate celebration. Family and friends joined us this weekend on our two-hundred-foot yacht, The Julianna.

  Prior to their arrival, Harper and I had spent several weeks sailing the Mediterranean coast. We were just outside the half-moon-shaped harbor of Portofino in the Italian Riviera watching the dolphins play at sunset. We were on course to head to the Becker Villa at the San Remo seaside close to the French border. We’d would be arriving just in time to take in the San Remo Music Festival that Kitten insisted we all attend as a group. I was begging to get out of the music festival, voting for the casino tables instead. Harper had dug in on the point, even though I was confident I could persuade her to give me a get-out-of-jail card and head to the casinos with the guys.

  My daughter Milania began pointing up at the sky, noticing the loud sound of the helicopter approaching the landing pad on the deck of The Julianna. As the familiar man de-boarded the helicopter, the twins started jumping up and down and screaming.

  “Uncle Thweee!” they began squealing, hopping up and down, jostling for attention.

  Three stood tall in a linen white shirt, khaki shorts, and a six-gauge cigar hanging out of the side of his mouth. He had on aviator sunglasses and his New York Yankees baseball cap.

  “You’re late,” I said to Three.

  “I left Marcy and the kids in San Remo shopping. I told her we could meet up there. Make if a family affair. Better late than never, brother.”

  Three grabbed both the twins, tossing them each up in the air and then reaching in his messenger bag, handing them giant Tootsie Pops that were bigger than the both of them.

  The twins began clapping their hands as if Three was Santa Claus.

  “I brought you kids a surprise,” Three said to the twins, their eyes now getting big.

  Before Three could continue, three bikini-clad beauties on jet skis flanked with two bodyguards in a speedboat buzzed the yacht. I knew without even asking that it was my sister Julianna and her girlfriends Maya and Logan. Or should I say three twenty-five-year-old partners in crime. It was going to be a real family affair now. It’d been months since I’d seen my little sister.

  Julianna, Maya, and Logan boarded, all three looking beautiful, tanned, and soaking wet. Both the twins sped past Three like gangbusters and headed for the arms of their Auntie Jules.

  “Hey family, the gang’s all here now,” Julianna said joyfully, breaking free from the twins and heading into my arms.

  “Time to get this party started,” Logan said, as she and Maya moved to hug Harper, Three, and Big Daddy.

  “I’m so glad you made it, Julianna.” I said, embracing her in a big hug, kissing the top of her forehead. “Now I can beg out of this music festival in favor of hitting the casinos with Three instead,” I laughed with joy.

  Three laughed too, handing the twins each miniature remote controlled helicopters.

  “You’re spoiling my kids, Three. And you’re aiding and abetting Nicky by trying to get him out of this music festival,” Harper said, moving close to me, but not before hugging Three.

  “Old habits die hard, sister-in-law. We’ll be back in time for the fireworks.”

  Three and I lifted our glasses together. I kissed my Kitten on the top of her head.

  “I love you.”

  “I love you too,” Kitten said, sipping her champagne. “Perhaps I’ll light some fireworks of my own with you Nicky, once the twins are put to bed.”

  Her eyes were setting me on fire as she gave me her “I need you Nicky” look that drove me crazy with desire.

  “Ugh. Too much information,” Three said, walking off, leaving us both laughing at him.

  “What’s his issue exactly, Nicky?”

  “Oh Three is just scared that fireworks leads to the production of babies. His wife has threatened to cut his balls off if she has any more children. She’s done.”

  “I hope you don’t feel that way, Nicky?”

  I swiftly honed my eyes in the direction of her gaze.

  “Not at all Kitten. I love making love to you. We can make an army of babies if you want,” I said with a silly smile on my face.

  “Well I won’t go so far as to say all that,” Kitten grinned. “An army of babies and I might have to cut your balls off too,” she laughed.

  Her eyes were full of love. But I didn’t doubt for one minute that she wasn’t kidding. She was one tough woman.

  But she was mine.

  The End

  A Word About The Author

  I am Jude E. McNamara. Virtual adventurer. Keyboard ninja. Guardian of sassy romantic encounters. I am the alter ego of that other woman, Jude. You know, the one that loves snowy nights, is in a relationship with love, and looking for her own hero. While by day she’s off being the disciplined scrappy businesswoman with the mind of a shark, I gallivant her keyboard by night, running wild and free on the down-low. I figure she’ll have to catch up to me. Because once that blue power button turns on, I’m far too busy breathing life into those colorful characters that run around in her head, incessantly telling me their stories even if it’s at the break of dawn.

  You can find me and my merry band of jet-setting girlfriends running from the paparazzi at the high-end cocktail bars in Manhattan, drinking Patron Silver. I’m the flashy one wearing the sparkly tiara on my head. Like clockwork, when she faithfully dons her track shoes to catch up with me, I usually have to listen to her lecture me about my behavior over a glass of champagne. She loves champagne. Actually I love champagne too—except I like mine with a side of tall, handsome hunk begging me to stop at the intersection of heartbreak hotel and romantic encou
nter road, demanding a happily-ever-after.

  It’s an arduous race to “The End” before her blue button goes dark and I cease to exist. But once the blue light appears, the race is on, right up to the point when we two Judes meet on the same page, often in a book like this one.

  For more about the author, visit: http://www.judeemcmara.com/

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  Stay Connected With Jude

  Thank you again for your readership and support. If you enjoyed this book, please leave a review on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Goodreads. If you would like to learn more about my next book, below is an excerpt for my soon to be released novel. Also, you may wish to sign up for my Newsletter to be notified when my new novels are released.

  Visit me online at www.judeemcnamara.com where you can learn more about me, find book trailers, my blog posts, and other new upcoming work.

  Best Regards

  Jude E. McNamara

  http://www.judeemcmara.com

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  An Excerpt From Sugar Mommy On Top

  For more about Nicholas and Harper, read Sugar Mommy On Top from Jude E. McNamara.

  Chapter One

  Julianna

  “Are you sitting down?”

  I sensed in my gut that those words meant nothing good would follow.

  “I wanted to let you know I got married.”

  And there it was. Three godawful words: “I got married.” Was he kidding me? Okay, so it was Halloween, and this felt like he was playing a bad trick; but it wasn’t even time to hand out treats, and this was worse than any trick I’d ever gotten.