CHAPTER 26
Brea
I placed Elle on my chest as she fussed and looked around the table. We were at a great steakhouse in Greenwich, celebrating our engagement with Dad, Ryan, and Lucy. Preston was still seeing her, but he was busy tonight and had opted out of dinner.
I sipped my water as we waited for our dinner and smiled. We’d been over the moon since last week and I still had to pinch myself. I had a new baby and a beautiful house with my fiancé. I couldn’t think or say it enough.
“I went to visit Mom this weekend and I told her the news,” Mike told us as he smiled. “She’s thrilled and wants to help you with your plans. She’s done some great parties over the years, and I think she’s bored.”
“When does she come home?” I asked.
“In about a month.” Mike smiled. “I know we got off on the wrong foot, Brea. I know we treated you like you were a woman going after my son’s money, but I saw you were a good person from the start. I saw that my son cared about you a lot and was making an effort and we did not do that. My wife especially.” He shook his head. “Needless to say, she accepts you into our family now and can’t wait to be back so we can plan this wedding and get to know each other.”
“It was an awkward situation. First dinner and all,” I offered kindly, and he smiled at me.
“I suppose so,” Mike agreed. We both laughed. “At any rate, good things came from this. Bianca is getting the help she needs and Elle has a good chance of having two involved grandparents. This is so much more than just an heir to a banking firm. It’s about family and being there for one another. It’s about celebrating love.” He reached out for Lucy’s hand and held it. “It’s about forgiveness and just moving forward.”
“Yes, it is,” she agreed with a tearful smile.
The waitress brought our dinners, and we dug in after I placed Elle in her car seat beside me. We talked about what we wanted to do for a wedding, and I mentioned that I’d like something on the beach by our house, maybe something on the small side. I didn’t have a lot of friends and family, but I knew Ryan’s family knew a lot of people and business associates.
“That’s a great idea. We can have a party here at the house,” Lucy said. I smiled at her. “I know people who can handle everything for you.”
I took a big bite of my steak and nodded at her as she clapped her hands together. Ryan laughed as he took a bite of his baked potato. Lucy stared at him.
“What? I am obviously the maid of honor. I am your cousin, her best friend, and Elle’s godmother. That covers all the bases for a wedding. I can help you a lot.”
“Or make her into a bridezilla,” Ryan said under his breath as Mike laughed.
“Oh, my God.” I laughed harder as Lucy pouted and sat back, staring at her chicken.
“You guys all suck,” she said. I reached my hand out to her.
“You are going to help me. I need your help and I want you to stand up there with me.” I smiled at her as I wondered what Ryan would do. He was probably more than done with Lewis now.
“I’m happy with something small as well. I don’t consider this a competition with our friends as to who can have the most impressive wedding. I don’t want money going to that as much as I do to good things like the center.” Ryan looked around the table and nodded at his father. “I know Mom might make it this big, thing but we’re going to have to compromise.”
“I’ll talk to her. Don’t worry,” Mike assured me as he smiled.
The conversation turned lighter as Lucy talked about her new paintings and the show she had coming up. She seemed to not want to talk about the wedding for now, and I gave Ryan a grateful smile.
We stayed at the restaurant for a couple hours before Elle started to fuss and I brought her to my chest and covered her with a blanket. I focused on the voices around me as Elle nursed greedily. If someone had told me a year ago that I’d be engaged with a beautiful baby, I would have laughed at them. I had been convinced that I’d be in debt and working at a coffee shop the rest of my life. I had been convinced that I’d be searching for meaning for the rest of my life.
I looked around the table at everybody talking and laughing. These people had been apart from each other before this and barely speaking, so much so that Ryan hadn’t considered himself to have a relationship with his parents at all. Now he was here eating with his father and waiting for his mother to get back from a successful stint in rehab.
It made me miss my own father. I stroked Elle’s head, now still on my body. She would never meet him, and in some ways that was good. He’d had a lot of issues in his life, and I had more bad memories than good ones. Still, though, the good ones played back through my mind often. My dad had loved me and showed me in his own way, such as the gifts he’d given me that I would always treasure. He had loved me, but he had been addicted to alcohol. He just couldn’t have fought it and we didn’t have the money to send him to a fancy rehab center back then. The new center would be perfect with all the family support that Ryan was offering, but it was too late for my dad.
I’d learned to accept that the order of life probably happened for a reason. I was happy now and looking toward an amazing future, and somewhere, Dad knew about all of this. Mom was coming in a week to spend some time with us and, more than likely, help plan the wedding. She was over the moon about Elle, and I was certain it was going to change things between us when before there had been just no hope. Mom had wanted her own happiness, and she’d found it.
“Are you okay?” Ryan’s voice interrupted my thoughts, and I gave him a small smile.
“Just thinking. Tonight is truly amazing, Ryan. There’s magic happening here,” I told him softly, and he nodded in agreement. He leaned in to kiss me, and I closed my eyes as our lips touched. There was magic there.
So much magic.
We heard mock groans from the others at the table and laughed against each other. “Nobody needs to see that,” Lucy told us as Ryan pulled away, his eyes twinkling. I saw the promise of what was to come in them as he asked if Elle was finished eating. I nodded and adjusted myself before he took her in the blanket and held her in his arms, staring down at her.
I fell even more in love then and slid my hand over his shoulder as I looked at her with him. I could see more kids in our future, them running around the house and down on the sand. I pictured Ryan playing with them until they passed out before he came to make love to me during a quiet moment.
We finally left to return home, the others heading back to New York tonight. They all had things to attend to in the morning and I wanted to get Elle to bed. I wanted to sit on my balcony and take in the ocean breeze with my fiancé. I wanted to be home.
We pulled into the garage to park and both took Elle to the bassinet in our room. Ryan pocketed the device that we used to listen to her and told me to go outside and that he would meet me there.
I changed into leggings and a large shirt to sit in due to the wind. I grabbed a water and moved to sit in the large chair that we often shared, looking out into the dark where the water was. I’d never felt such peace as I did living near the ocean.
I heard the door and saw Ryan come out in some sweats and a T-shirt with something in his hand. It was just the monitor. I smiled as he sat down beside me. “Good night?”
“I loved every moment of it. I love that your family is growing back together and close again. I love that Elle will have them as she grows up. I am so happy with our life.” I smiled as he nodded. “Do you really want a small wedding?”
“I have been to so many that have hundreds of people in attendance. There’s no intimacy. I just want it to be about our vows and not business. I don’t want all of that to affect our day.”
I nodded lovingly in agreement.
“That sounds perfect.” I leaned against him and felt him dig into his pocket.
“I have something for you. I was going to do this at the restaurant, but I thought it should be when we were alone.” Ryan shifted and turned to face me as I smiled at him. “I’ve had this for a little while but the timing was never right, and when I did ask you, I just didn’t plan it well. That or I wanted a private moment for both of us.” He smiled and reached for my left hand as my mouth dropped open.
Ryan slid a ring onto my finger, kissing it when he was finished. I lifted my finger to see it in the light from the living room, crying as I looked at the ring. It was a delicate band covered in diamonds with a larger one as the focal point, all set in square shape. It shimmered in the light, nearly blinding me as I sniffled.
“It’s beautiful. I thought that we were going to go shopping for one or something like that.”
“I had it when I got the house, but Elle’s arrival kind of shook things up for me. I did everything out of order, it seems. I also wanted to give this to you alone since everything else has been with others. Again, not my intention.”
“I think everything is perfect the way that it happened.” I leaned in to kiss him slowly, desire pooling between my thighs. He returned it, his tongue meeting mine. When he pulled away to kiss my neck, I smiled. “Does it feel different to make love with something like this on my finger?”
“I think we should find out,” he whispered before kissing me again. We continued that for as long as we could stand it, and then Ryan pulled me up by my hand to take me into the house. He locked the door, and we ran upstairs to the bedroom as I moved to take my leggings off. Ryan undressed and pushed me back onto the bed as I gasped, knowing what was coming next. His lips kissed up my legs slowly as I groaned with need. He moved up bit by bit as I reached for his hair and tried to tug on it.
“This is getting long, you know,” I teased him, and he chuckled, sending vibrations over my skin.
“Someone told me once that the messy look appealed to the girls,” he said as he nipped at my upper thigh, making me whimper.
“Mmmm, that is very true,” I agreed as he started to head to where I needed him. His mouth covered my core as he slicked his tongue over me, and I cried out. By now, Elle was a better sleeper, so I knew she could handle some noise. Ryan ate away at me hungrily as every nerve ending in my body responded. It was so much more than just a release with him. It was an entire bodily experience. I felt the pressure releasing from deep inside as my mouth dropped open.
I came for him, his fingers inside me and his tongue on my clit. I moaned his name, and he gripped my hips as he drank me in, keeping me from moving.
Ryan pulled away after what could have been minutes or hours. He crawled over my body to kiss me deeply, my taste all over his mouth. He dropped between my weakened legs and pressed against me as he slid inside, our bodies touching everywhere as he filled me.
“Ryan, I love you,” I murmured as he moved slowly, deeply.
“I love you so much. I can’t wait to make you my wife,” he said as he kept thrusting inside me. I wrapped my legs around him and gripped his back as I breathed to our rhythm.
We’d started this as an arrangement. We’d had sex to create Elle for monetary purposes. But that seemed so far removed to me right now.
“I can’t wait to be your wife,” I murmured back as I memorized the feeling of him inside me.
Ryan started to move faster, and I tightened around him. I knew I was going to come again and clawed his back as I did. Ryan jerked against me one more time and came, filling me as he moaned my name.
We pressed together afterward, touching completely as he held me against him. “That first time that I saw you, I noticed your eyes. They were beautiful but missing something, Brea. You were beautiful, but your worry about life showed through those eyes. Once I got to know more about you, I understood. I felt your pain because I have been living a lot of it myself for years.”
“Maybe that is what connected us, our pain and suffering.” I closed my eyes and kissed his chest. “I thought you were just another gorgeous man who was so far out of my league. Maybe I was scared since I had given all of myself to other people or things. I didn’t know how to give myself to anyone else. Then you asked me to dinner and you did what I wanted. I had some hope.”
“I wanted to do everything your way to make you smile. I haven’t been like that before. I feel like a bit of an ass for suggesting that arrangement to you in the first place, but you needed to have a chance to live your dream. I needed my own dream. It worked out, but I started falling in love with you early on. I knew it was more and denied it until I couldn’t anymore.”
“And now we’re getting married,” I said with a smile. “And we’re not using anything for protection.”
“So what? We can have another baby. We have money and this house and we can do it if you want. Elle can have a sibling,” Ryan told me, stroking my back. “Unless you don’t want that?”
“I want everything with you,” I assured him. He lifted my face to kiss me. We stayed like that until we fell asleep, waking up together to bring Elle to the bed so I could feed her as Ryan stroked her hair. Then he put her back and pulled me against him, telling me how much he loved me.
***
END OF THE SECOND STORY