The Love Contract (Sizzle & Burn Book 3)
Page 23
“It must be there.” She, Orion and Hyo-jin trouped to the living room to conduct a more thorough search. Nothing turned up except for a talisman that Yoon-ah strategically plastered under the coffee table.
Yes, Yoon-ah was still up to her usual tricks, and still seeing Master Yoon. Since Orion still refused to accept her good-luck talismans in his house, she’d taken to bribing the girls to carry them around or sneaking them into the house when he wasn’t looking. Vina found it all quite hilarious.
Despite the unconventionality of Vina’s entrance into their family, Yoon-ah had never treated her as anything less than a daughter. Apparently, Yoon-ah hadn’t received the memo that mothers-in-law were supposed to be witches. When Vina had been at the hospital for the birth of the girls, Yoon-ah had spent more time in the hospital than anyone else, including Orion. Even the nurses had been surprised when Vina had informed them that Yoon-ah was her mother-in-law not her mother.
When they still couldn’t find Bunny, Orion turned to their youngest. “Hyo-jin-a, think. Where could you have dropped it?”
“I can’t think.” Hyo-jin flopped sulkily on the couch. “I’m tired. Where’s Bunny?”
“Have you checked the shoe closet?” Soo-jin said. When had she even come into the room? When everyone turned to her, she said, “Hyo-jin was playing hide-and-seek in there yesterday.”
Hyo-jin immediately clambered off the couch and raced to the shoe-closet. Moments later, she came back into the room, beaming happily and brandishing Bunny, her stuffed rabbit. Soo-jin sighed, shook her head and headed back to the bedroom.
“Are you sure she’s ours?” Orion murmured as they watched their oldest go.
Similarly awed, Vina shook her head. “I don’t know. I really don’t know.”
Two hours later, Vina had finished packing and the girls were dressed and ready to go.
“I wish I could drive you guys there,” Orion said as he walked them to the parking lot, carrying the two suitcases. “But this appointment…”
“I know. It’s important. That’s why there’s two of us.” Vina grinned. “One to make the money – and another to spend it.”
About five years ago, Vina had left Tellers and opened her own restaurant, The Orion. It was doing quite well, and now that she’d appointed someone else to be Executive Chef, she had more time to spend with her family. Thankfully, her exit from Tellers hadn’t affected her friendships with April and Snow. The three still spent a lot of time together. In fact April and Snow were godmothers to her daughters while she was godmother to their sons.
“Appa?” Hyo-jin tapped Orion’s back as he strapped her into her car-seat. “So we won’t see you until Monday?”
“Yes.” He glanced up at her. “But you’ll be spending time with grandpa and grandma, so you’ll be okay, right?”
Hyo-jin cocked her head as if thinking about it then nodded. “But I’ll really, really, miss you.”
“I’ll really, really miss you too.” Orion hugged her tightly, before turning to their oldest. “Soo-jin-a, you won’t miss me?”
“Hmm… maybe a little.” Soo-jin indicted just how little she’d miss him with her thumb and index finger, earning herself laughs all round. After hugs, kisses and goodbyes all round, Orion waved them off.
Twenty minutes later, Vina parked her car in her space in front of The Orion. She let the girls out of the car then guided them by hand into the restaurant. The girls spotted Na-ri and Dooshim as soon as they entered the restaurant
“Halmeoni.” The girls detached themselves from Vina and raced towards their grandmother and great-grandmother. With a smile, Vina followed them.
“Yah! Im-na-ya, why have you gotten so thin?” Dooshim took her in with critical yet worried eyes. “Is that boy not feeding you well?”
Vina laughed as she bent to hug her grandma. “He’s feeding me very well and I’m exactly the same weight I was when you saw me last week?”
Though the older lady had perceptibly aged in the last few years, her gaze was as sharp as ever. She turned those sharp eyes to Vina. “Really?”
Vina nodded. “Really.”
Though Dooshim had initially been very angry at Vina for choosing to move in with Orion instead of get married, she’d thawed pretty quickly. Apart from the occasional disparaging comment about Orion getting the milk for free, she’d let Vina be.
Vina crossed behind her grandmother to hug her mother. “Eomma, did you get the pollock I sent to the house on Wednesday?”
“Yes, I got them.” Na-ri patted her back. “Thank you.”
The years had been much kinder to Na-ri than Vina expected. Ever since Vina had been kicked out of the house, she seemed to have developed a backbone that not even Min-kyu could break. Though Min-kyu had declared that Vina was a persona-non-grata, Na-ri had ignored his decree and continued to visit Vina whenever she wanted. Of course Min-kyu had kicked up a fuss, but when Dooshim had started tugging along, he’d been forced to shut up and just glare at them.
However, even he couldn’t resist his granddaughters; which was the reason for this particular trip. Even though he refused to see Vina or Orion, he regularly hustled Na-ri and Dooshim to bring the girls over so he could see them. At first Vina didn’t want to send them over, but Orion had convinced her that it was not a bad thing for the girls to know their only grandfather.
“Are you sure they can’t stay the whole week?” Dooshim cajoled Vina.
Vina shook her head. “They have school on Monday.”
“We can drop them there,” Na-ri suggested, just as eager to have more time with her grandchildren.
“Sorry, no.” Vina shook her head. When she saw her grandmother and mother’s disappointed expression, she soothed, “Don’t worry – during their summer break you can have them for two weeks.”
That brought smiles all round. The family spent a few more minutes together before Dooshim and Na-ri left with the young girls.
As soon as they were gone, Vina called Orion. “Mr. Lee? Since it’s just the two of us tonight, what do you think about going on a date?”
“No,” he said. “I want to stay home.”
“Ri-on-aaa, we haven’t spent any time together this week.” She cajoled, “Let’s go out. Maybe see a movie.”
“We can see a movie any time.” His voice lowered, deepened, darkened. “But tonight, I want it to be just us. There are things I want to do to you that I can’t do when the kids are there.”
“Oh.” Her mouth dried, her lungs seized and a strange tightness started in the pit of her belly.
The phone practically burned with the heat in his tone as he asked, “Is that okay with you?”
She swallowed then stuttered, “It’s – it’s okay.”
She could’ve sworn that she heard his smile as he said, “Good. I’ll see you after I’m done with work.”
│ THE END │
Thank you for reading The Love Contract. Did you enjoy it? I hope you did. Let me know what you thought by leaving a review at your favorite store/site (just click on your preferred link below). Again - Thanks.
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What’s Next?
Well, that was one hell of a ride. And now, the Sizzle & Burn series is officially over. I’m done with the characters I wanted to explore in that world - but if someone caught your eye then be sure to let me know in your review and I’ll see if I can write something for them.
Now to new matters; You know me, I’m always working on something. Right now, I’m working on a series called ‘Crooks in Love’ (or Here Come The Crooks – I haven’t decided yet). Yes, my lead characters are crooks. Hey, what can I say? Crooks need love too. And yes, there will be ‘crooked’ shenanigans. The series will be of course multicultural romance but I might throw in some suspense and thriller type twists. If that’s something you’d like to read, then make sure to join my Book Club for updates on the series.
The Love Contract (Sizzle & Burn Book 3)