Ivy and I had been through so much but we were stronger. No more threats on the horizon. We were in a solid place. Still, I took no chances. Will and Mark were both armed and I carried a blade strapped to my calf. I protected what’s mine. I felt a hand on my shoulder and I looked at her mom.
“Did you ask her yet?” she whispered. But it was loud enough that everyone near us heard her and all eyes swung to me. Everyone there had known what I had planned. There were no secrets with this crowd.
I smirked, looking at all the grinning faces. “Yeah. I did.”
“Well, don’t keep us waiting,” Bev said.
“She said yes.”
“Oh my God!” her mom cried and so did Bev. Both women hugged me and the men shook my hand.
Whenever Ivy and I visited her folks in D.C. hugging me was something these two women had no trouble doing. They tried to mother everyone, even me. Ivy’s family accepted and acknowledged my love for Ivy, our love for each other. I’d actually gone to see her parents the day before, when they’d first arrived in New York while Ivy was at a rehearsal. I asked them both for their blessing. That I was going to ask Ivy to marry me. I didn’t ask their permission. We didn’t need it. But I knew it would be important to Ivy to have their blessing. And they gave it. Her mom had cried and said, “Of course.” Her dad in his gruff way said, “About time.” But he and I got along fine. As long as I kept his little girl safe and happy he’d told me once, he was happy.
Was I going to have that kind of conversation with a boy some day? I had no idea how to be a father. Ivy would make a wonderful mother.
I didn’t say anything about the baby. Baby. I still needed to wrap my mind around that one. But I’d let Ivy tell her parents. I knew she’d want to be the one to do that. I’m sure if I wasn’t already marrying her, though, her father would have my head. I know I sure as shit would with any fuck who knocked up my daughter. Oh crap! We could have a girl. I’d have to get a new bodyguard just for her. To keep those little peckers away. I rubbed my hand over my face. Lord, I was in trouble. But life was good and would only get better for us.
The theatre went dark. The music started and I leaned forward in my seat. My eyes riveted to the stage. As I watched my pregnant fiancée dance, I raised my hand to my face once or twice during the performance. Of course, only to wipe away something that had gotten into my eye, but who could blame me.
After the show I’d rented a private room in a restaurant so we could have a celebration dinner. The place had live music and everyone was on the dance floor. I took my future into my arms and pulled her close. “If we have a daughter her name can be Shelly, and if a son, Sheldon. Either way we can call him or her Shel for short.”
She raised her face to stare at me with tears in her eyes. “This. This is the reason I love you so. And always will no matter what. It’s as simple as that.”
“For me too, babe.”
Epilogue
The cries of delight from a small child carried through the open window by the wind. Maze got up from the desk and walked out to the deck. He loved this house he’d bought right on the ocean. It had a gorgeous view. He loved the sight before him even more. They’d spend many summers here he thought, as he watched the little girl with the long wavy dark gold hair and honey-kissed skin doing these crazy ass leaps on the sand. He pulled out his Smartphone and took a few pictures. Then he walked down the steps onto the beach and approached the duo. The smaller replica of her mother mimicked her movements over the water.
The little girl looked up and spotted him walking toward them.
“Daddy,” she squealed. She came running toward him, her little arms and legs pumping, and she took a flying leap right into his arms. Knowing he’d catch her. She laughed and wrapped her small arms around his neck. Her mother came over to them and kissed his cheek.
“There you are. It’s about time you joined us,” Ivy said.
“Who could work with all that noise?”
His wife’s beautiful smile captured him all over again and it took him back. “Do you know, honey,” he addressed their child, “That your mommy first met me on a beach very similar to this one? And she was doing those same leaps she just showed you.”
“Ooohhh,” the child said.
“Do you know what they’re called?” he asked.
“Firebird,” she yelled. “Put me down, Daddy. Lemme show you.”
Maze put her down and she began to leap over the sand. It was like catching a brief glimpse from his past and he remembered.
The first time I saw her it was evening, that time of day when the setting sun hit the ocean and turned it a burnt orange. Most of the vacationers had deserted the beach for the restaurants, swarming the main drag or the barbecues in their rented backyards. There were only a few folks here or there walking or hanging around the water’s edge.
She was doing these beautiful leaps into the air, but the one that stopped me in my tracks was the firebird. At the time I didn’t know what any of them were called, only that the beauty of the evening paled in comparison to the female that stole my attention, as she propelled her body through the air. Like gravity had no hold on her.
Maze wrapped his arm around Ivy’s waist. She wasn’t quite showing yet but she was four months pregnant. “I think we have another little ballerina on our hands,” he said, watching their daughter. “And if you keep dancing like that the little one in your tummy might turn out to be another dancer, also.”
She smiled. “Would you mind?”
“How can I when I fell in love with a ballerina?”
“What if it’s a boy?”
He paused then shrugged his shoulders. “I’ll teach him to fight. In fact, I’ll teach them both.”
“Shelly,” he called releasing his wife. “Come on and let’s show Mom the exercises I taught you.”
She came running over. This kid only had two speeds, off when she was asleep and fast the rest of the time. She got into a crouch beside him, mimicking his stance. Working in sync, she perfectly executed the kata he’d created.
About The Author
Ursula Sinclair is the alter ego for LaVerne Thompson, an award winning, best-selling, multi-published author, an avid reader and a writer of contemporary, fantasy, and sci/fi sensual romances. She writes romantic suspense and new adult under the pen name Ursula Sinclair.
She is currently working on several projects.
Visit her website at http://lavernethompson.com to read excerpts of her books. Or join her on Facebook at http://facebook.com/groups/lavernesnews . On Twitter at http://twitter.com/lavernethompson
BOOKS BY LaVERNE THOMPSON
**Self-Published from Isisindc Publishing
Dragon’s Heart- Story of the Brethren
The Ballerina & The Fighter- Book 1
Come To Me
**Horny Devil Publishing
Skye High
**Coming 2014/2015
Sea Bride- Children of the Waves (re-release)
Sea Storm- Children of the Waves
Promises
Hold On
Ringside- Book 1 The Three Sisters Series
Masquerade- Book 3 The Three Sisters Series
Chances Are
Day in The Sun
Titanna
Living on The Edge
Kissed By A Rose
Highland Jack
Journey of the Princess of Ice- The Elementals
**From Decadent Publishing
Writing as Ursula Sinclair
White Wedding- The Guardian Agency Series Book 1
Something Blue- The Guardian Agency Series Book 2
Wine and Roses- The Guardian Agency Series Book 3
In print
Guardian Agents- All 3 books in The Guardian Agency Series
**From Phaze Books
Model Misbehavior
**From Freya’s Bower
Believe
Lavernethompson.com
Some Great Authors I Read
Y
vonne Nicholas- The Dragon Queen Series (paranormal shapeshifters)
Victoria Smith- The Space Between, The Dividing Line (contemporary new adult)
Indigo Sin- Redeemed (The Passion Series) (Erotic romance
Stephanie Williams- Cabin Fever (Menage-Contemporary), Detention, Slave To Sensation (Erotic romance)
Maze (The Ballerina Series #2) Page 17