“Hello?”
“Ian, sorry to call you so early, but do you have a second?”
I was stunned to hear my boss on the other line, and he didn’t sound like his usual pompous self.
“Sir, yes, give me a moment.”
“Absolutely, take your time.”
I rolled my eyes at his congeniality and pulled myself from bed, careful not to wake Leo as I pulled on some shorts and headed toward my kitchen.
“Okay, what can I help you with?”
“I wanted to talk with you about what needed to be done to avoid Taylor’s name being pulled through the media. Is there something we can do to avoid a civil suit?”
“Sir, you’re talking to the wrong person. I’d suggest you speak to Leo about that.” I pulled two coffee mugs from my cabinet and set one in front of my Keurig.
“Of course, of course. Well, I just wanted to get your mind working on the same line. Perhaps you could mention it to her. I’m thinking fifty thousand dollars. She could do a lot with that.”
I popped a K-cup in and pressed start. “Fine, I’ll mention it. Either she or her attorney will let you know.” I disconnected and then moved to the fridge to grab the bottle of French vanilla creamer and fixed our coffees.
When they were ready, I brought them both to the bedroom, not expecting to find Leo already sitting up in bed. “Morning, babe.”
“Hey, who were you talking to?”
I handed her one cup. “Taylor’s dad. He has a proposition for you.” Leo let out a groan, and I couldn’t blame her. “He wants to avoid a civil suit. He’s trying to prevent Taylor’s name from being pulled through the mud. I’m thinking that he’s probably trying to protect his own ass since most of this happened at a place that he was in charge of that deals in secure information.” I took a sip of coffee. “Anyway, he’s offered fifty thousand dollars in exchange for not filing a civil claim.”
“I don’t know. I haven’t thought about any of this. Don’t the police and everyone handle that?”
“Not civil. That is more for you. You’ve lost a lot. You don’t feel comfortable going back to your job because of what she did to your reputation. Your life has changed. You would sue her in civil court to help regain some of that and start new. That is what he’s offering. What would you do? Have you even thought about it?”
“Yeah. I’ve always wanted to open my own shop.”
“Really? When you say always, how much have you thought about it?” I set my coffee down and loved hearing the excitement in her voice.
“I’d want to try to have it run by all women if possible. I’d call it Little Shop of Motors. I’d appeal to women. Most of the time, it is moms who have to take the cars in, but guys treat them like idiots. Since a lot of the moms have kids with them, I’d have a small play area and a small area where you can hook up your computer and work. I would do cars and motorcycles.”
“Wow, you really have thought about this.”
“Yep, for about ten years.”
“Then, I say we do it.”
“We?”
“Yes, we. I’ll be your silent partner. You know, I’ll give you encouragement. Mainly at night, when we’re alone, and I’ll tell you how good you’re doing, how good you feel, and how good you taste...”
Leo giggled at my words, making me want to make good on that offer right then.
“I can’t believe I’m here with you. I often dreamed what it would be like.”
“Is it everything you dreamed?”
“It’s better. Stupid, huh? Sounds cliché. But you can’t dream of something you’ve never had or felt. It’s like you can’t even imagine what ice cream tastes like until you actually taste it. Sure, someone can try to describe it to you, but it isn’t the same. That was you. I dreamed it, but I wasn’t even close.”
“So, what you’re saying is that I better up my game because now that you’ve had me, I’m old news?”
“No.” I leaned back so Leo missed me when she tried to punch. “I’m not saying that.”
“Hmm, but I am. I think it would be kind of fun to amp up my game. Yeah, that’s what I’ll do. I’ll try every moment that I can, as often as I can, everywhere that I can to make each day better than you had imagined.” I leaned forward and placed a kiss on her lips, my tongue sliding out and coaxing her mouth open. I was ready to go again. Well, that was until I saw them.
“Hey, we better get ready.” I jumped up from the bed.
“Why? I liked what you were doing, and I thought you said that you were taking off.”
“I did, but...” I pointed out my bedroom window toward the several people walking up my driveway.
“Oh shit. That’s your family and Stella.” Leo jumped up, spilling her coffee on the bed. “Fuck, I’m sorry. Oh my God, your mom...she’s going to know that I spent the night. Oh my God. Ian, stall them. I’ll run downstairs and then come out like I stayed in one of the guest rooms, okay?”
“Stop.” I reached out for her wrist to try to stop her flailing.
“Ian, please, she’s going to think I’m a trollop.”
“Stop, will you? She already knows.” Leo’s face froze in horror. “Fuck, that wasn’t what I meant. I didn’t mean that she knows you’re a trollop—whatever the fuck that is. I meant that she already knows that I’m in love with you and that I was going to get my girl yesterday.”
“She does?”
“Yes.” I leaned forward and kissed Leo’s nose.
Leo and I raced into the bathroom and brushed our teeth. I slipped on a T-shirt, leaving her a few extra minutes to gather herself before coming out and being bombarded by my family.
When Leo finally came out, the look on my mother’s face was one of pure freaking satisfaction. Like she knew all along that Leo and I would end up together.
“It isn’t often that a mother gets to say this, but I don’t think I could love a daughter any more than I already love Leo.” I watched as the tears pooled in Leo’s eyes. And knew that I was okay doing a very non-Greek thing and that was not having Leo’s mother as part of our family. She didn’t want to spend even a second in Leo’s life, then I didn’t want that woman in our lives. Which was fine by me since I had enough family to go around.
“We came over to celebrate Leo’s freedom.” Stella held up a glass carafe. “Mimosas.”
“Bougatsa.” Mana held up a container of pastries.
“I’ll get glasses and plates,” Sophie called over her shoulder, already on her way to my kitchen.
“Why don’t we move this out to the pool area?” Tristan suggested.
Leo moved to take the container from my mother, but she paused, inhaled a sharp breath, and then shoved the container at me before darting off to the bathroom.
“I think it’s just the stress from these past weeks. Take this”—I handed the container off to Tristan—“and head on out to the pool area. I just want to check on Leo.”
“You!” Katy exclaimed as her eyes went wide.
We all turned to see where she was looking, and I was worried when I saw her pointing at Leo, who was standing on the bathroom threshold and looking rather flushed.
“Are you okay?” I asked as I closed the distance between us and cupped her face in my palms.
“Yes, I think I’m just fighting a bug.”
I turned to look at Mana, who had tears in her eyes and a wide smile on her face.
“What? What are you crying about?”
I looked to Tristan, but he was smirking. Actually, all three of my brothers were smirking.
“What?” I asked again, this time demanding an answer from someone.
“It’s more than that. Leo, I think you’re pregnant.” Katy jumped up and clapped her hands as she made this announcement.
“What? No. There’s no way.”
Stella and Ariel surrounded Leo, and I was elbowed out of the way, too fucking shocked to say anything.
Pregnant.
They thought the woman I loved, whom I
wanted to marry and spend the rest of my life with, was having my baby.
I pounced and swept her into my arms.
“Stop, Ian. She’s wrong, there’s no way.” Leo lowered her mouth to my ear. “First of all, just because I threw up doesn’t mean that I’m pregnant. Second of all, you used a condom and I’m on the pill.”
I let out a loud laugh. “Those aren’t guaranteed.”
“Hate to interrupt—well, no I don’t because I’m excited as all get-out. But did you by chance return to using condoms after Leo’s accident?” Stella stood next to us, her hands on her hips.
I thought for a moment, and no, that was actually when we stopped using them.
I looked around, and my brothers Kayson and Damon were shaking their heads, obviously as lost as I was, but Tristan was smiling.
“She was on antibiotics.” He shrugged as if that should have meant something to me.
I glared, and he clarified.
“Antibiotics break down estrogen, making the pill ineffective.”
“Yeah, what he said.” Damon and Kayson pointed laughing.
“Stella,” Ariel said, grinning from ear to ear, “run to my house and grab a test from under the sink in the master bathroom.”
“What?” Stella shouted.
“We are trying,” Kayson announced, holding up his hands.
“Well, that’s the fun part,” Damon said sotto voce.
Katy and Stella were out the door, and I pulled Leo toward the stairs. “Hey, can you guys give us a few minutes?”
“Sure. It doesn’t look like we’re going anywhere.” Kayson and his jokes.
“You know where the coffee is,” I called to them as I led Leo upstairs to my, scratch that, our bedroom.
She and I sat on the side of the bed. “Look at me, babe. How are you?”
“Speechless. Scared.” She brought one trembling hand up and wiped away a tear. “How ’bout you?”
“I want you. I want a life with you and a family. Whether that means we start in two years or last month. I don’t care. All I know is that it has to be with you.”
“Yeah, me too.”
“Leo, I love you. But of the four boys, I’m the one that missed the romantic gene. I don’t have anything planned and probably wouldn’t know where to start.” I leaned forward and opened my nightstand drawer and pulled out the small box. “These were my yia yia’s. She got them for her fiftieth wedding anniversary and loved them. All I can do is hope that in fifty years, I can see you still wearing them.”
She wiped her face. “That was pretty romantic.”
“But I don’t have a ring. We will go buy one.”
“I only want a band. I can’t wear a diamond with my job, but I do want something that says I’m married.”
“Then we will get bands,” I promised her.
“I love you, Ian.”
“I love you, and I will tell you as often as I can. Are you ready to go downstairs and find out?”
“Yeah, hold on, though.”
I waited as Leo fastened her new diamonds to her ears. We stood hand in hand and headed down to where my whole family was waiting for us.
“Would you all mind leaving?” I felt bad for Leo. My family was a tad much.
“No.” Leo wrapped her hand around my wrist. “I want them here, that is as long as you don’t mind.”
“I’m used to them, and to be honest, I’m not sure which of those women scare me more.”
Leo covered her mouth to mask her laugh at my words.
“You should be more scared of me since it would take wild horses to drag me from my best friend right now,” Sophie said as she stood and then walked toward Leo. “Let’s go.”
“Don’t forget me.” Stella raced after them.
“Or me.” Katy followed.
“Y’all aren’t leaving me.” Ariel chased them, and they all headed back upstairs.
After a few long moments, I met the eyes of my three brothers then my mother and my pops, who had obviously been informed and joined the crowd.
“I gave Leo the earrings.” I met Mana’s eyes and moved to stand behind the chair she was sitting in.
“Does this mean you asked her to marry you?” Mana’s soft hands reached up to squeeze mine that were resting on her shoulders.
Dread washed over me. “Shit. No. I gave them to her. We talked about marriage and rings but I never asked.”
“You’re such a dork.” Damon came forward and punched my shoulder.
I looked over at Tristan, and he was shaking his head. Fuck. I’d screwed this up.
“What? What should I do?”
“Wait. You’ll know.” I looked over at Pops just as the girls hit the stairs again.
“Do we know?” Mana asked and stood.
“Only takes three minutes.” Katy smiled and scooted past me.
I glanced to Leo, who was biting her lower lip, and I moved closer, Stella, Sophie, and Ariel scattering.
“So?” I was dying to know if I was going to be a father.
She nodded.
“Keep nodding,” I said as I dropped to one knee. “Leo Scarvoni, will you marry me?”
She did as I had asked and had kept nodding.
Epilogue
Eighteen Years Later...
Leo
“Hey, Mom, see that girl?”
I turned to follow Tessa’s line of sight. “Yeah, what about her?”
But Tessa didn’t get to answer because Alec interrupted her. “It’s her first time on an airplane, and she’s going to start screaming as soon as we take off.”
“Oh, and she’s going to start taking off her clothes because she believes that she is on fire,” Theo whispered so only Ian and I could hear him.
I reached back and smacked him, but Ian was laughing too hard. “He is one hundred percent Christakos, you know that, right?” I asked.
Ian nodded and laughed.
“Sorry, Tess, what were you saying about that girl?” I leaned forward and encouraged her to continue her story. As soon as the kids were old enough, Ian and I had played the airplane game with them. Tessa, who was our youngest, was the only one who still got a kick out of it. I felt sorry for her at times; it had to be hard growing up with three older and extremely protective brothers. Theo was seventeen, Alec was fifteen, Dimitri was thirteen, and Tessa was just seven.
“I was saying before Alec so rudely interrupted me that she was going to Australia with her family just like we are. And she’s staying in the same hotel that we are.”
“That’s stupid.” Dimitri rolled his eyes, but Ian reached up and popped the back of his head for being mean to his sister.
“Well, it’s true. I just know it.” Tessa crossed her arms, miffed that her brothers weren’t playing along. “And she and Theo are going to fall in love. She’ll be my sister someday.”
Tessa’s words pulled a smile onto my lips. I leaned back in my seat, closed my eyes, and relived the past eighteen years of marriage to this wonderful man of mine. I couldn’t remember a time when I hadn’t known him, which made it over forty-two years that Ian had been a part of my life. His face was as familiar as my own. It took me a second to realize that he was holding my hand. I guess that too had become familiar. His thumb trailed back and forth against the back of my knuckles. All these years and I still loved seeing that band on his third finger.
Growing up, there were often times that I had dreamed about moments like this, where he would be sitting next to me and we were a couple, a family. But never once had I ever stopped to think it would become a reality.
That was when I felt it, the sign, Ian’s subtle signal. My man of few words could say so much with something so simple. He squeezed my hand, once, twice, three times. Each squeeze equaled one word. I. Love. You.
Pulling his arm close, I laid my head on his shoulder as we prepared for takeoff.
“You happy, babe?”
“Very.” I fought back the smile that wanted to overtake my face. “I love
that Little Shop is doing so well and that I can take off for family vacations like this. I love that you helped me make it a success, all three locations.”
He moved his hand to cup my face and lowered his lips gently to mine. “Good, me too.”
“Do you have to do that here?” Theo asked.
“Get a room,” Alec commented.
“Gross,” Dimitri mumbled.
Tessa giggled.
“I don’t say it often enough, but I love this.” Ian pointed to me then to the boys and to Tessa.
“Love what?”
“My family.”
I snuggled in closer and closed my eyes. I was living the dream, well, my dream at least.
THE END
Often Playlist- Leo & Ian
This Is Me- Keala Settle
Chasing Cars- Snow Patrol
She’s More- Andy Griggs
Say Hey- Michael Franti
Beautiful Trauma- Pink
Fix You- Cold Play
All By Myself- Céline Dion
The Champion- Carrie Underwood
Everytime- Britney Spears
Available on audiobook
Audible, Amazon, & iTunes.
Read by Stella Bloom & Jonathan Ash
Meet Danielle
Before becoming a romance writer, Danielle was a body double for Heidi Klum and a backup singer for Adele. Now, she spends her days trying to play keep away from Theo James who won’t stop calling her and asking her out.
And all of this happens before she wakes up and faces reality where in fact she’s a fifty-something mom with grown kids, she’s been married longer than Theo’s been alive, and she now get her kicks riding a Harley.
As far as her body, she thanks, Ben & Jerry’s for that as well as gravity. And she could never be Adele’s backup since she never stop saying the F-word long enough to actually sing.
Her books are about kickass women with even better shoes and the men that try to tame them (silly, silly men).
www.daniellenorman.com
[email protected]
Often (Iron Orchids Book 4) Page 19