Marta winks at me, and I hear her light, musical laugh. “Boys.” She shakes her head.
The conversation at the table gets lighter, and soon everyone is laughing and telling me embarrassing stories about Ezra. It seems his brothers are quite the pranksters and did a lot of things to him when they were growing up. I laugh so hard I practically have tears in my eyes. Apparently, he gave as good as he got, even going as far as stealing Micca’s clothes when he was skinny-dipping in the lake with Diana years ago. The memories these people have are wonderful, and I almost feel jealous that they have such a deep connection with one another. They may tease and taunt one another, but they do it in fun, not malice.
Growing up I was an only child, my mom unable to have another child because of her difficulty with me. I had always seen the other kids fight and play with their siblings and wondered what it would be like, but I never saw this side. It is fun, and I find myself relaxing with them more through the evening.
After everyone is done eating, I help Marta clean up while the boys set up games to play in the yard. I’ve never played horseshoes before, and when Ezra picks me on his team, he teaches me the rules. I’m not very good at throwing the heavy things, but I’m having a great time with them all. We drink, laugh, and tease each other the whole time. Nothing seems out of place, and the guys are a lot of fun to be around. Ezra’s parents join in, and when their mom misses her target they distract their dad so he does too. It is hilarious, and I’m really glad that Ezra brought me here today.
* * * *
“It was so nice to meet you, Lanee,” Marta says, hugging me tightly to her.
I don’t even think twice when I hug her back. It feels good to have someone hold me like this. I inhale her jasmine scent, and for the first time in a long time I miss my mom. I know she hasn’t always been the best when I needed her the most, but I miss the way she used to hug me. I miss having her to talk to me. It has been over six years since I’ve seen her, and even though she lives twenty miles from here, we are estranged. Things really went bad after Dad’s funeral—one reason being the blame game the two of us threw at each other, both of us arguing whose fault it was when he took his life and neither of us wanting to see the truth.
“It was nice to meet you too. I had a lot of fun,” I say honestly. I don’t think I’ve laughed as much as I have today. It feels good to be this happy.
Caleb hugs me next, and I melt into his large, fatherly arms. It feels like my dad is holding me right now, and the breath in my lungs freezes when he gently places a kiss on the crown of my head. “Make sure my son brings you over again. It was nice to see my overgrown boys behave for a change.”
“Dad.” Six boys groan as we all step onto the porch outside.
I laugh at them. My heart is soaring so high with how welcome they have made me feel. “Thank you.”
Marta’s eyes are misty when Ezra takes my hand in his. “Come again, Lanee. This was a lot of fun.”
“I will,” I promise her.
“Okay, don’t scare her off.” Ezra groans, but he has a large grin on his face. He kisses his mom’s cheek one more time, and then the two of us are heading next door to his place.
I glance back at his family, who are watching us intently, and I feel happier than I’ve felt in seven years. Deep in my heart I really hope this works out between us because I think I fell in love with his parents. They were so loving and warm to me, like I was always a part of their family.
Once we are inside, Ezra and I sit on the couch, and he lets out a deep, contented sigh. “Thank you so much for going with me.”
I smile at him. “I loved it. It was especially funny hearing about you when you were little.”
Ezra groans. “Oh God.”
“It wasn’t that bad, Ezra.”
He pulls me over onto his lap and wraps his arms tightly around me, kissing my temple gently, his warm breath fanning across my cheek. “This was the best day ever, baby. I don’t think we’ve had that much fun at a family get-together in a long time,” he tells me.
“Why?” I turn to face him fully.
“Well, it’s usually just us boys there, but when Diana is there she is being a bitch to Micca about something. It also doesn’t help when Mom asks them if they are thinking about starting a family yet.” He looks sad when he says it, and it piques my interest in Micca’s wife, but I don’t want to pry. There was only one time Diana’s name was mentioned around the table, and the sour look Micca gave his parents… It looked like he had lemons in his mouth.
“Your mom had six boys to raise. I’m sure she just wants what is best for your brother. It doesn’t help that she might be lonely.” I cup his jaw in my hands and kiss him lightly on the lips. “Can I ask you something?”
“Yes.”
“Is it okay if I stay the night?”
Ezra is silent for a moment, one of his brows arched as he studies my face carefully. “I already planned on that, baby. Were you not?”
I bite my lip. I didn’t want to assume I was staying the night with him, but I had liked waking up with him. I went to sleep last night, safely tucked into his arms, and I really wanted that feeling again. “I wasn’t sure if you would be sick of me by the end of the day,” I admit, dropping my gaze to his chest.
“Hey.” He cups my chin, tilting my jaw up so that our eyes meet again. “I could never get tired of you. I told you last night that I really like you. I want this. I even brought you to my parents’ party, and I never do that.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really. I want you to stay the night. I loved going to bed with you in my arms. I would have liked to wake up with you there too, but it was nice.” He kisses me sweetly on the lips.
My heart is beating faster, and I throw my arms around his neck. This has to be the most amazing thing in the world. I’m not sure, but I think I’m falling in love with this man. He makes me feel so many things and wipes away most of the horrible memories I have. The bad stuff doesn’t feel as terrible when I’m around him.
I pull out of his arms, and he lets me stand up hesitantly. He frowns when I back away a few feet. “Let’s go to bed.”
“You’re tired?” he asks, puzzled.
I smile and shake my head. “I just want to show you how much I enjoyed my day with you.”
Ezra’s eyes widen, and he pops up to his feet immediately, his beautiful smile back. He seems to get my meaning for going upstairs. He lifts me up, and I squeal. He hoists me up over his shoulder, carrying me through the living room. “I won’t drop you, baby,” he tells me with a short laugh.
“I trust you,” I say. I feel the truth in that, and it makes my body relax into him more. I really do trust him. I don’t know what kind of power he has, but I’ve trusted him since the moment he first touched me.
I don’t want this to ever end.
I love this feeling.
I’m falling in love with him.
Chapter Fourteen
Floating on Cloud Nine
I’m lying in Ezra’s bed, smiling happily to myself. Like I do a lot lately. Everything is shiny and new, and I feel like I’m looking through clear eyes for the first time in my life, and it is amazing what life is like when you are falling in love with someone. It’s as if nothing could get me down. I’m floating high above the clouds, and nobody can touch me. I feel so good with Ezra that I can’t imagine life before he was around. There is no before him in my mind. I haven’t had a nightmare in several weeks, and I am so happy I could burst at the seams. He is everything I could have ever hoped for. He makes me feel special, doting on me, cooking for us when we stay at his house or even picking me up from my shifts early in the morning.
I have barely been home to see Claudia, but I see her at work and she tells me how happy she is for me. It means a lot to me that she approves of Ezra. She has been my best friend for so long, always looking out for me, but now she can relax and have a little fun. She doesn’t have to worry about me anymore. I am safe and comfortable with Ezra, a
nd she sees that. Claudia and I talk about everything, and I have told her how alive he has made me. She made me promise to make time for her these last few days, and I have, even going out to the mall when I would have been leery to do that in the past.
Life is finally looking up for me. I am alive. I feel things so much more than I did before. I am finally living my life with a purpose and not just to function. I wasn’t really living before I met Ezra. I was afraid of so much and so haunted by my past that I refused to see how wonderful everything really is. I was seeing things I didn’t know were there. I saw only the bad. I saw people who did terrible things. I couldn’t see the happiness in the world when I was so miserable, but now I’m moving on.
I have the best boyfriend ever. He has opened me up to new things and not just sex, but how to relax in a crowd of people. Since meeting him I have been more responsive to people and their touches—not strangers—but his family, who I have come to adore these last few weeks. I think it is a big step for me, especially considering I was out in the mall and someone bumped into me, grabbing me to keep from falling over. Normally I would have shrunk away or had a mini panic attack, but I didn’t freak out. I was getting better. I smiled at the strangers and moved on. Even Claudia was impressed with my progress.
Six years of nonstop therapy never helped, but three weeks with Ezra have done amazing things for me. My eyes shine with light. I don’t feel scared of people near me. I’ve always stuck to my little group of friends in the past so I was comfortable, but now I’m expanding my horizons. I don’t shy away when someone says hello, keeping my head down so I don’t have to meet their eyes.
I wish my dad could see me!
He would be so happy to see how I’m doing better now. He hated himself so much after I was attacked, blaming himself for not following his gut feeling that I should have stayed closer to them on our trip. He was in a dark pit of despair, and I realize now that he was hurting just as much as I was. He took the attack just as hard as I did.
I was his baby, and he couldn’t protect me. I was a daddy’s girl through and through, but when I was attacked, it affected him too. My dad was a wreck along with me, drinking harder than he ever had, pulling away from my mother when she tried to push more therapists down our throats, and even going on antidepressants when the alcohol didn’t numb his pain.
But… I can’t dwell on that. I need to put the attack and Dad’s suicide behind me. The only thing I can do is move on like I am. I am finally in a happy place, and I refuse to let depressing things hold me down. I miss my dad like crazy every day, but I know that if he could see me, he would be happy. I want him to be at peace with my choices. Besides, I went to college like he wanted me to. I graduated, and he could be proud of that. These are the things he always wanted for me, and I was doing them.
I miss my family and the way we used to be close. I miss the vacations we used to take in the summers. I miss the way Mom would complain when Dad would drag us to every tourist site possible, and it would never faze Dad that she hated it.
Those are the memories I can live with. I know my life is never going back to the way it was before, but I have Ezra’s family now. It is amazing how they treat me like I am one of them. They laugh and joke around with me like a sibling would, even going so far as to embarrass Ezra with baby pictures when I’m over at the house on Sundays.
It feels great to be part of a family. Every time one of them comes over, I’m engulfed in a large bear hug and given a kiss on the forehead. It drives Ezra nuts sometimes, but he knows they are just teasing him with their affections toward me. It is amazing how three weeks can make a girl feel like she is flying.
I love soaring above the clouds high above where I belong. I am loved and wanted for the first time in seven years. I’m living it up and I couldn’t be happier.
There is no place I would rather be than right here in Ezra’s arms, feeling the way I do. I know that I’m falling in love with him too fast, but I don’t care. It is the way I feel. I haven’t told him yet. I can’t tell him unless I want to scare him off, but I can’t help loving him. With him, I am cherished. I am loved.
Claudia knows my fears of telling him, and she hasn’t pushed me to say anything to him, but I’m scared. I remember back in college when she was dating someone. He was sweet and suave, but emotionally detached at times. She blurted out that she loved him during sex, and things went sour after that. She caught him with another girl the next day, and her heart was broken. The worst part was that she really thought he was falling for her. She was devastated, and the two of us ate our weight in ice cream that week. She was hurting, and I hurt to see her so upset.
Eventually she mended, deciding to have casual sex relationships only, but it burned her out of ever wanting to find real love. I think part of me is scared that will happen with Ezra and me, but she reassures me that he cares for me. She says it is in his eyes when he looks at me and in the way he wants to spend every moment with me.
Yes we have sex, but there is more with us.
We talk. We run. We go to family events together. We do everything together, and it’s amazing.
There is never a moment I’m not cherished by the man. And I never want that to stop. That is part of the reason why I haven’t told him how strongly I have been feeling for him since that first time at his parents’ house.
I don’t want to change anything between us. I’ve read many books about love at first sight, but I wasn’t sold on the idea that it could happen in real life. Now with him I’m starting to become a believer. There was something that pulled me to him immediately when he helped me in his office that night at the club. It feels like years and not just weeks ago that I met him.
I was taken with Ezra the moment I laid eyes on him, but I hadn’t known it was love at first sight. I was shy and scared of people, but not anymore. Now I am better. I am stronger. I am comfortable.
And I am in love with Ezra Lanphear! The way I felt about Ezra is like nothing I’ve ever known before, and I refused to hold back now that I had a taste. There wasn’t a thing in the world that could stop me from loving him like I did. He may not know it, but I was sure his family knew I was head over heels in love with him.
Even now, as we sit at his parents’ place to celebrate the Fourth of July, waiting for his brother and his wife to show up, I see the happiness in their eyes when they look at us, our hands intertwined as we sit on the patio furniture. They know how I feel, and I haven’t said a word to them, but it is in their eyes. Their party is much larger than I thought it was going to be, but Ezra filled me in that his parents invite everyone in town for it.
Ezra is talking to Levi about fixing my car, absently stroking my hand with his thumb while Levi tells him he can get the car done tomorrow. Ezra grins at me, placing a gentle kiss on my lips.
Levi laughs, and I raise a brow at him. “I don’t know why you need a car, Lanee. You’re always with him,” he says, pointing his thumb at Ezra.
“I know, but your brother wants me to be able to drive if he isn’t available to pick me up,” I say with a shrug.
“What am I?” Claudia chimes in, her face holding a fake scowl. “Chopped liver?”
“Never,” I say. When Ezra told me about his parents inviting everyone I was excited that she was able to come to the party. “I told him that.”
“What if you are off that night?” Ezra asks her.
Claudia shrugs. “Then she takes my car. We’ve done it for a long time now.”
“I would just feel better knowing she has a working car,” Ezra tells her firmly, frowning when he looks at her.
I shake my head at Claudia. I’ve tried to reason with him about the vehicle, even going so far as to say I don’t have the money to get it fixed, but he is really firm about making sure I have access to my car. It doesn’t bother me to not drive, but he is bent on me having some independence. “It’s not a big deal,” I finally tell her, seeing the way she shrugs.
The party is going
stronger now, but there is still no Micca. I listen as the guys talk about this and that, trying to follow along, but I’m too focused on a girl with long legs glaring at us. I don’t know who she is, but the way she is looking at us makes me feel uncomfortable. I turn my head, squeezing Ezra’s hand in mine for reassurance, and he smiles at me, kissing my lips quickly.
“I’m gonna get another drink,” I tell him, glancing over to Claudia to see if she can come with me. She sees my slight nod and gets up to go with me.
“Hurry back,” Ezra says happily, smacking me on the ass when I walk by him.
I yelp and feel my face turn hot as his brothers chuckle at him. It’s not the first time he has done that to me in front of them, but secretly I like the attention. I swat at him playfully and walk away, hearing him laugh. I walk over to the coolers with Claudia in tow, trying to calm my embarrassment at the other guests who saw him do that.
“That boy is hot for you,” Claudia gushes out next to me.
“I know.” I smile so big it makes my cheeks hurt. I’m hot for him too. I really like where our relationship is right now. I take out two beers and hand her one. “I really, really like him.”
“Just like?” she asks softly when someone brushes against us to get a drink too.
“Love,” I whisper back, my face feeling flushed again at my admittance. I glance around at the crowd, seeing the girl in the tight tan dress watching me again. “Hey, do you know that girl?” I ask Claudia with a nod in her direction.
Claudia is discreet, and I love that about her, but then I see her eyes bug out. Her teeth clench, and it looks like she is about ready to fight with someone. “That’s the girl who jumped you at the club,” she whispers.
“What?” I ask, puzzled. I’ve been on such a high from being with Ezra that I had forgotten about the fight. I look at the girl, and then I remember seeing her. I thought she looked somewhat familiar, but I didn’t know why at first. I study her as I stand by Claudia, taking in the way the girl’s perfect blonde hair is curled around her slim face, the tan dress looking like a second skin on her, and how her dark eyes throw daggers at me. “What’s her problem?” I blurt out.
Taken By Ezra (The Lanphear Men Book 1) Page 10