The Broken Love (Hudson Brothers #2)
Page 21
“They did say that it’s not advisable to see the bride before the wedding. Superstitious beliefs.”
Eleanor laughed but called Max. A moment later, our little boy came bounding in. “Dad! You’re here!”
Max finally lost his stutter, well, he still stuttered when he was nervous. But he was gradually losing it. Eleanor told me that Max only began stuttering after the trauma that his nanny had caused him when he was younger. I never felt murderous in my entire life than I did at the moment. I hated myself even more for being absent during that time that the two of them had to struggle alone.
Eleanor had told me the entire story after I had proposed to her. We had spent an entire day with her telling me everything that happened in the seven years that I’d missed out on. She told me how her father had been livid with anger when he found out that she was pregnant that he had thrown her out. It wasn’t a big deal since Eleanor was technically an adult but she didn’t have anything and Jared was the one who offered her a place to stay. Megan helped her out too, as much as she could.
Then Eleanor told me about her parents’ divorce which shocked me. I mean, I did know that they had separated but I didn’t know the drama that had happened when they did. Eleanor always painted her Dad as a good man but I knew that he wasn’t considering that was my judgment on him when I met her. It broke Eleanor’s heart that he didn’t want to be part of our wedding. Despite what had happened between the two of them, she still wanted her Dad to be the one to give her away but he didn’t want to.
Well, at least she had Jared.
It would’ve been suitable if her brother would have done so but we thought about it and realized that Jared was the best candidate since he was there for Eleanor on the worst days of her life. We still weren't the best of friends but we had developed mutual respect for each other. He was the man that would’ve scoured the ends of the earth for her but he respected the fact that she could never love him the way he loved her. He respected her choice to love me but that didn’t mean that he had to like me.
“What are you doing here, Leo?” Eleanor asked again and I could feel her hand on my cheek. I still didn’t remove my blindfold and I really wanted to just so I could catch a glimpse of her.
“I didn’t come here for you,” I teased and then knelt down, waving my arms around until I finally found Max. I steered him closer to me. “I came to make a promise to my little boy.”
“What do you mean, Dad?”
I checked my other pocket again for the note that I had written my vow for Max on. I looked up, still not being able to see Eleanor but knowing that she was hovering above us. “If you could give us a moment, Ellie. Just turn around so I could take this thing off.”
After a moment, Max’s little hands were on my face and I squinted as I adjusted against the bright light. Eleanor had her back turned to us but she was playing with her hands and I knew she felt antsy. But I focused my attention on Max. He’d grown a foot taller in the past six months because of playing basketball and his hair had turned into an afro. His gray eyes were bright with delight as he looked at me with the same hope and wonder that he always did.
I cleared my throat. “I wanted to vow to you too before I make a vow to your Mom tomorrow at the wedding.”
Max’s eyebrows furrowed. “Why?”
I touched his face and smiled. “Because I’m your Dad, silly, and I promise that I’m going to love you with every fiber of my being and with every breath. I’m going to be your best coach for basketball and I’m going to teach you any sport you want to play. I’ll teach you everything I know about life- and girls-,” that part earned me a strangled cry from Eleanor and I laughed, “especially on how to treat a girl right. I will support you on any activity that you want to do, be it dancing or singing or the arts. I’ll even teach you photography if you want to.
“I’ll take millions of photos of you because you’re one of my favourite muses,” Max made a face at that. He wasn’t the biggest fan of the camera and always hid every time I pull my camera out but his eyes were watery, “and I’m going to make it up to you, the past seven years that I wasn’t there. I’ll hold your hand, Max, and I’ll hold it even you’re all grown up, no matter how annoyed you’ll get of me.”
I hadn’t realized that my own tears fell as I said those words and I touched Max’s face. “I love you, Max. You’re one of the best things that ever happened to me and I will never trade you for anything in the world.”
Max was crying and he wrapped his small, sinewy arms around my neck and I closed my eyes, burying my face against his tiny shoulders as I tried to get a hold of myself. When I glanced at Eleanor, her own shoulders were shaking as she cried. I pulled away from Max, kissing the top of his head, stood up and Max followed me and was holding on tightly on my shirt, closed my eyes and wrapped my arms around Eleanor’s waist, pulling her closer against me.
“Leo...”
I chuckled, kissing her neck. “My eyes are closed, baby. But I just wanted to tell you that I love you too and I love you even more because you decided to raise him, no matter what the world thought of you and no matter how much your world turned upside down, you didn’t give up on him. I love you because of that and a million other things too. Thank you for giving me another shot.”
“Thank the world for bringing us back,” Eleanor whispered and then I felt Max tugging on my shirt and with my eyes still closed, I turned to him. I could just imagine his face peering close at us, trying not to be disgusted at the show of affection.
“Does this mean I get to have a little brother now?” he asked, his voice so innocent and I could picture his gray eyes staring at us, wide with wonder.
Without meaning to, my eyes fluttered open as I laughed and Eleanor let out another strangled cry. She turned around, seeing me with my eyes open but didn’t bother to reprimand me on it as she turned to our son. “Max!”
But Max didn’t even look sheepish or flustered with his question. He merely pouted. “I really want a brother, Mom! Dad has three!”
I almost doubled over laughing this time and I turned to Eleanor, winking. “Think we should get on with it just so we could be one step ahead?”
Eleanor had her mouth open and then she shook her head, glaring at me. “It’s not funny, Leo!”
She was merely flustered because one time, Max accidentally walked in on us making out in the kitchen at midnight. I didn’t have my top on and Ellie was only in her robe and Max asked us what we were doing because we were really loud. I had told him that we were making sure that he gets his Christmas wish since he was upset that he didn’t get to have a little brother during Christmas which was actually what he wrote on his wish list in school.
Eleanor didn’t really like my response to our son and punished me by withholding sex for a week. Let’s just say it was really a lesson learned.
But Max was still waiting on our response and I tried to sober down from laughing. “Soon, Max. You’re going to have a little brother-,”
“Or sister,” Eleanor interjected.
I chuckled, nodding and ruffling Max’s curly hair. “For now, let’s enjoy the fact that it’s just us three.”
When Max stalked back into the room and jumped into bed, Eleanor tapped my shoulder. “You saw me before the wedding.”
I grinned and rolled my eyes, pulling her closer by the waist. “The world kept us apart and brought us back, I don’t think any superstitious belief could ruin that. By the way, congratulations, achievement unlocked. Your wish is going to be granted tomorrow.”
It took her a moment to remember what I was talking about but she finally did. Back when we first met, when we were lying on a blanket watching the stars light up the world one last time, when she told me that she wanted to find love. Eleanor placed a hand on my neck, his thumb grazing my jaw gently, her golden eyes as bright as the stars had been that night.
“The world had granted it that night. We just didn’t know it yet.”
THE END
/> A Note From The Author
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About The Author
Emma Vikes is a passionate contemporary romance author, who thrives by 3 aims - to entertain her readers, to entertain them massively, and then to entertain them amazingly!
She used to work in the corporate world, but didn't like it. So, she found her escape from that world through her writing.
Emma became obsessed with the world of contemporary romance once one of her friends introduced her to this genre few years back. She got instantly hooked and turned into a voracious romance reader, until she became so fascinated that she couldn't resist writing her own romance stories to sooth her own fantasies.
But apart from penning down her naughty thoughts in papers, she loves to spend quality time with her 2-year-old boy and plan date nights with her husband. She is a hopeless romantic.
Being a strong-minded woman, she loves her female leads as sassy, independent and strong. And her heroes are alpha male who are hot and super rich with a dash of sensitivity.
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