About fifteen minutes after Holly returned, Robert showed up to pick up his wife. Holly introduced them, and Robert smiled and charmed Sabrina with his Irish accent. I hate Robert’s fucking accent. Now I finally have her all to myself since Robert’s Irish ass took Holly away with him to whatever soundstage he is working on for the rest of the day.
“Finally I have you to myself,” I tell her grinning like an idiot as I pull her close to me. I lean in kissing her neck. She leans her head back a little bit to give me more space.
“Mike…”
“Let’s go back to my place…” I suggest, thinking about all the dirty things I can do to her there.
“I have to get the kids, take Penny to dance, Chris to football, and pick up Mark from practice, then run back to get the other two, then head home and cook dinner,” she blurts out and sighs.
I slightly step back from her looking at her and smile.
“How about I take Penny to dance, Chris to football, stay there, and then go pick up Penny. On my way home I will pick up dinner. That way all you have to worry about is going to pick up Mark and maybe resting a little bit. After dinner I’ll help you with their homework,” I say surprising myself and her from the look she’s giving me.
“Mike…”
“Babe… let me help. I want to be here,” I tell her honestly and she frowns, a worry line showing up on her forehead.
“I know but you don’t have too. I have been doing this on my own, I can…”
“You don’t have to do this alone. Not anymore. Let me help. I want too,” I tell her hoping that she let’s me. I’m not stupid enough to think that after everything that came to light, I didn’t have a shit load of things to make up to her.
She bit her lower lip, and her eyes show me she is obviously conflicted. My strong girl. I lean into kiss her, her mouth opening up for me, letting me taste her a little.
“Okay,” she sighs parting away from the kiss, giving me a small smile.
Sabrina
Packing up my huge bag at the office I look out my window and realize how late it really is.
It’s mid August, and during the Summer I’m supposed to be leaving work earlier, but here I am, nine at night, barely starting to pack up for the day. But finally everything is wrapped up for a long weekend away with Mike and the kids.
Laney had hired on two new planners and I had even scored, getting an assistant that would be starting Monday. Kate was a cute new college graduate who was looking to start her career. She was smart, bubbly and extremely bright. Hopefully with the extra employees I’d be able to cut back working long hours.
I grab my keys and phone, it buzzes at me, and I smile at the text I receive from Mike.
KIDS ARE READING IN BED, CAR’S ALL PACKED, GLASS OF WINE IS READY FOR YOU. CAN’T WAIT FOR THIS WEEKEND. COME HOME!
So I text him as I get into my car:
ON MY WAY. XOXO
Mike had started to spend the nights. He stayed in the guest room and most of the time, in the middle of the night, he’d sneak into my room and make love to me, kissing me or covering my mouth everytime he took my over the edge. A month after officially being together we seem to be doing great. We are even going away for the three day weekend with the kids to his beach house.
Driving home, I thought about the different events I had on my books, particularly the Breast Cancer Gala. Holly had somehow convinced the older ladies of the committee to agree to Izzy Tizzy’s catering at Venetian Hour. We had even gone to lunch a couple of times, somehow becoming somewhat friends. I like her. She is sweet and genuine and really funny in a Lucille O’Ball sort of way, but after every time I hung out with her I wondered if Mike noticed how I’m not like her.
Finally home, pulling into my driveway, I try to grab all my things at once so I don’t have to make another trip out, only to crash into Mike’s broad chest.
“What are you doing?” he asks looking at me slightly amused as he leans in to kiss me hello. I love when he kisses me, even small chaste kisses that make me realize how accustomed we are growing to one another. Thankful at the way things have changed between us, now that the truth had been laid out. Mike’s more open with me emotionally and physically now that there is nothing looming over us.
“Getting my stuff,” I tell him raising an eyebrow.
“Babe, I could help you with all this,” he says grabbing stuff from me.
“I know, but I just didn’t want to bug you, especially if I could do it,” I say as we start to walk to the door, but he stops, pulling me into his body with his free hand.
The night is clear with a warm breeze flowing by us. My head tipping up to him, his pale blues clear and honest, not hiding anything anymore, he leans in cupping my face with his large warm hands.
“I want to do these things,” he says seriously and my heart feels like it flipped a little. For some reason I have a feeling he is talking about a little more than just helping me with my bags tonight. The thought makes me a little nervous and it must be showing on my face.
“Hey what’s the matter? Where did you just go right now?”
“I… umm… Are you sure?” I blurt out not really sure about what I am trying to ask and he frowns.
“Sure about?”
“What we are doing… all of this? I mean all this must be a little daunting to you,” I say my heart racing almost in a panic. Sure my life is getting easier by how hands on he is, how helpful and giving of his time he is, but what about his life? We are taking time away from him; he has been here constantly, only having had lunch with John once.
“Wait what?” he asks looking really confused, not that I can blame him. I am throwing all this at him from left field.
“I mean… us together. Are we taking too much of your time away?” His serious expression turns into an amused look I haven’t seen before.
“You’re freaking out about us,” he says smiling brightly, letting all the bags he is holding fall onto the grass in my front yard and I frown.
“I’m not freaking out! Look it’s just that I realized that you spend all your time with us instead of what you used to do. I don’t want you to regret doing that.”
“Or you don’t want to get used to me helping you?” he asks suddenly becoming perceptive. No that isn’t true, he is always perceptive I just usually don’t freak out.
“I’m scared,” I admit so softly I’m not sure he heard me, but when I look at him, my heart racing and beating profusely in my ears, I know he has.
“What are you scared about?” he asks pulling me up so close to him, I have to arch my neck to look up at him.
“Getting too comfortable with you doing things for me and you realizing I don’t measure up to Holly or the slew of women you dated after her. That this situation is harder than you need to deal with.” After I finish confessing what I had been chewing over I put my face in his chest, too chicken to see what I might see in his eyes.
His chest starts to rumble is silent laughter, until he can’t hold it and starts to laugh out loud. I look up at him and he looks so carefree, I almost forget what it is that he is laughing at… almost.
“Sabrina…” he says between hearty laughs and I scowl at him feeling too vulnerable and slightly hurt, I bend to get my bags from the floor. But Mike is too fast and grabs my wrists, somehow managing to pick me up. My body reacting to him the way it always did when he did this by wrapping my legs around him, my hands go to his neck to play with his hair.
He brings me to the hood of my car, sitting me down gently so that we can be eye to eye. I realize he has stopped laughing and looks at me seriously.
“First off you have to know I am not the type of man to be somewhere he doesn’t absolutely want to be at. I want to be here Sweetheart. You have to believe that. This last month, things being out in the open and everything clear between us… Shit Sabrina, it’s been a fucking dream for me. As for not being able to measure up baby, you don’t hold a candle to them babe,” he says his hand co
ming up to caress my face so gently, my eyes get teary and I almost cry.
“They all pale when compared to you baby,” he says softly, his hand still caressing my face. “Look at me Sabrina,” he says his voice slightly hoarse. I open my eyes to look at him.
“I don’t know how I lived without you in my life… You and the kids light up what was nothing but darkness. Sweetheart I have never, in my forty years of life, been as happy as I have been this last month.”
“You sure?” I whisper, and he cracks a smile and nods.
“Okay,” I say bringing him closer to me, kissing him deeply, his hands tangled in my hair, leaving me breathless and aching for more, we both carry the bags into the house.
It is now Sunday and we are making Smore’s for dessert after our picnic lunch on a firepit in the public beach in front of his Manhattan Beach home. Sitting in front of him on the sand. His legs on either side of me, his large body right behind me. His face at my shoulder laughing at something Chris had just said. His laughter filling my ears, his warm breath on my neck sending endless tingles down south. I lean in to steal a kiss and he smiles brightly at me. He looks so damn good in his black swim trunks, white T-shirt, and cornflower blue hoodie that did incredible things to his eyes.
Mark’s listening to his I-pod as he helps Chris make a sand castle and Penny is taking pictures of all of us with a camera my sister had bought her earlier this year. Some are posed, but for the most part they are random. Mark covers his face when she tries to take the twentieth picture of him. In true teenage fashion, Chris sticks out his tongue, and Mike and I make funny faces at her. The last two days she has been non-stop with the camera, and I know it is just her way of trying to express her creativity, but I am about to ask her to put it down and go play when I see her walk towards an older couple that had been walking by us. The older gentleman smiling nods his head; she runs back to us, with the couple right behind her.
“Guys lets take a picture altogether!” she says happily as we all huddle together. Even Mark , graciously takes out his ear buds and smiles for the pictures that we’re taking. Then Mike stands up and goes to thank him.
“You guys have a great looking family,” the older woman with almost white hair says and I am caught off guard only able to smile, noticing that Mike thanks her smiling brightly, not correcting her. I glance back at the kids, but they hadn’t even noticed the comment the older lady had made. Mike comes back to cuddle with me behind me, leaning forward, whispering into my ear.
“Thanks for this weekend babe.” Kissing my cheek his goatee slightly tickling me, all I can do is smile bright, because I think my heart might burst with how happy I feel.
Sabrina
“Sweetheart she just wants to get to know you,” he says as I sigh.
Mike’s mom, Gail, had called him and asked us over to her home for dinner.
“She knows me Mike. We have been working on the Gala, don’t you remember?” I say, knowing I sound snarky and petty.
There was something about Gail Crown that had rubbed me the wrong way. I didn’t know why, but there was something about being around her during meetings for the Breast Cancer Gala that made me awfully uncomfortable around her. Especially after I found out about Patrick, and once she found out that I was Mike’s girlfriend. The way she looked at me made the hairs on my neck stand up. Her stare was always full of disdain and anger, almost hatred. But she was Mike’s mom and a client, so I had to be nice.
“Please. For me… and my dad? The kids don’t have to go if you don’t feel comfortable bringing them. It could just be the two of us,” he says, as he pulls my back to his front holding me close pressing his mouth on my neck making me shiver. He isn’t playing fair.
“Afterwards I can show you this make out spot I use to know in high school.” His lips lightly kiss my neck, and my eyes close enjoying every sensation and sound. The raspiness of his voice mixed with his breathing against my ear makes me ache for him. There is something about him that makes me feel like a horny teenager. Never able to get enough of him. Completely insatiable.
“Fine. I’ll call Emmi or my mom. Cara is too far along now to ask her,” I say with a smile on my face. I doubt there would be anything I could deny this beautiful man.
“Thank you baby, it’ll be fun, you’ll see,” he says as he walks away with his phone calling his mom back, leaving me with a fake smile pasted on my face. I’m not sure if fun is the right word, but it will be interesting to say the least.
***
Two days later we were on our way to Calabasas to go have dinner with his parents, after having dropped off the kids at my mom’s house for a sleepover. Cara and Jerry had been there visiting, and thankfully she had been polite to Mike.
Cara was still on the fence about my relationship with Mike, but she was trying. I could tell that she was making an effort to get to know him for who he was, and not for being Patrick’s brother. I knew it had nothing to do with who Mike was as a person; it was about how Sean had been like a brother to her and partly her pregnancy hormones. Jerry was his normal easy going self, joking and talking to Mike.
My parents had surprised me by not even having blinked when I told them who Mike was related to, or the fact he had lied. They supported me completely. Maybe they saw how happy the kids and I were, and how easy things seemed to be between us. Whatever it was I was glad that it hadn’t been a problem.
It had been almost two months since Patrick had shown up at my front door and I had found out that Mike was his brother. It had completely taken me back that Mike had lied to me. I wasn’t naive or just throwing it to the side. I had been hurt that he had lied to me, since he had gotten me so close to him. But the more I thought about it, the more I understood where he had been coming from. If I had known who he was from the start I more than likely would have shut the door on any possibilities of anything happening between us, and that would have been a shame; because things with Mike were beautiful.
There was an extraordinary pull that drew me to Mike, and I figured he had lied because he had felt that same draw to me. When I had told him I forgave him for keeping the truth a secret, I had been completely honest. At the end of the day Sean had died because he had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, Mike had had no control over what Patrick did. Patrick had been the one that had decided to drive that morning completely blitzed, not Mike. I knew he still carried some feelings of guilt for having made Pat drive that day, but there was no way that Mike had known that Pat was THAT inebriated and I hoped that with time he would let that guilt go.
Pat hadn’t shown up again, and I was thankful. I made it a point to ask occasionally about him to Mike. Mike said they spoke about once a week, which was better than my own relationship with my own brother. Mike had told me that Patrick was doing good, and had even found a job. I was glad for him, that he had got the help he needed, I just wasn’t ready to embrace him or see him.
I was falling hard for Mike. Any hesitations I might have had after finding out about Mike lying to me had quickly vanished.
The kids loved him. They enjoyed having dinner with him and having him around. We had grilled at his condo and swam at his condo rooftop pool once a week, and we were all sporting great tans because of it. They knew about who his brother was, but being kids they didn’t let that influence their judgment on who Mike was as a person, which only made me extremely proud of them.
Now September, and the Breast Cancer Gala quickly approaching in a couple of weeks. My assistant Kate has been a gift! She helped make sure I left work early enough, and now was even taking charge of actual events, leaving my weekends a little more free to spend with the kids and Mike.
Penny has a dance recital that she is extremely excited about that is a week away. She has made all the boys, including Mike promise to dress up in suits for, and Mike surprised the boys with tickets to see the San Diego Chargers play their first home game of the season with the condition they not complain about wearing suits for Penny’s
recital. I personally think it’s just an excuse to go watch a football game, but either way my boys are excited, especially Chris. Everything is great.
I was deep in my thoughts about how genuinely happy I was getting to know Mike, when I felt his eyes on me, and I looked at him and smiled.
“You’re quiet,” he states, his voice rich and silky smooth. “Nervous?”
I shake my head, “No. I mean yes I am but that’s not why I was quiet.”
He raises an eyebrow so I continue, “I was just thinking about how happy I am. This thing between us, you and me, we are good right?” I ask, and I see a smile slowly reach his eyes, a smile that makes him look younger, more relaxed and approachable.
“Hell yeah,” he responds and I laugh. “We are better than good Baby.” Hearing the confidence in his voice melts over me and I reach over to hold his hand.
“Did I tell you that you look beautiful tonight?” he says his pale blue eyes warm and kind.
“Yeah, but I don’t mind hearing it again,” I say with a smile. Dinner is going to be casual, so I decided to wear a slate colored sweater with a purple marble scarf, pair of black skinny jeans, and black leather riding boots with a silver buckle on the outside of them. My hair is straightened and down, because Mike loves to run his fingers through it, and if I am being honest I love when he does that.
He got out of the car and I took a deep breath as he opened my door and we walked towards his parents house.
“You look stunning, only thing better would have been you in a skirt,” he leans in to whisper in my ear. “For easy access later when I show you that make out spot I told you about.” Shivers go down my spine. He knows the effect he has on me, because he has a wolfish grin pasted on his face.
“You are no fair,” I say smiling as we stand at the door and he smiles as he rings the doorbell. His arm pulls me close wrapping his arm around my waist, pulling my front to his front, our bodies pressed so close together. He makes me feel so safe, wanted, cherished and for a split second, I forget where we are as his warm lips touch mine. Just as our kiss starts to heat up, I hear someone clear their voice. I shut my eyes closed harder leaning my forehead to his chest, slightly feeling like I am sixteen again, getting caught kissing my boyfriend. He notices my embarrassment, because when I open my eyes again, they are warm and sweet as he leans in and kisses me again. How did he make me forget where we are?
Crown's Chance at Love Page 31