Boxes are packed ceiling-high in the condo. Unlike when Baylor and Maddox moved out here, I don’t have any desire to keep a home in L.A. Sure, I’ll have to come back for studio business from time to time, but I can crash at Scott’s or Angie’s place.
My mom left a few days ago, but Skylar has been here all week, staying to pack and help out with Maddox while Baylor takes it easy. The change in Baylor is immense. She has started writing again. Between the anticipation of our move, the reality of her friend dying, and her confrontation with Karen, her emotions have been all over the place which apparently has her creative juices flowing.
I can see a change in Maddox as well. Although he’s understandably upset about Callie’s passing, he never stops talking about his friends back home and how he can’t wait to show them the DVD he made that first day at the studio.
Baylor and Maddox have been to visit Callie’s grave twice this week. Maddox no longer asks to go every day. He’s seeing a counselor who has helped him deal with his feelings.
Writing is Baylor’s therapy and she’s vowed to write her next book about the great love affair that would have happened between Callie and Collin.
I get a call from the lobby that there is a courier down in reception that needs my signature for a delivery. I have him sent up and after I sign for the packet, I take it into Baylor’s office, that has been stripped down to just the furniture and her laptop.
I plop down in the bright-purple chair next to the window. She looks up at me and I hold up the packet. “From Karen’s lawyer,” I say.
She gasps. “What does it say?”
“I don’t know yet. I thought we could open it together.”
She gets up from her chair and sits down in my lap. I wrap my arms around her, careful to not touch her ribs as we open the large envelope. We read the cover page, smiles overtaking our faces as our eyes absorb the words.
“She’s agreed to all of it!” Baylor shrieks. “Look, she’s even going to change her name. I never thought I’d get that out of her.”
I laugh. “Are you kidding?” I say. “You had me scared, darlin’, and I was on your side.” I read further through the documents and point out, “It says here that by agreeing to our terms, she is in no way admitting any guilt or wrong doing, but that she simply wants to move on with the next chapter of her life.”
“It’s about fucking time!” Baylor says, blushing at her bluntness and giggling into my chest.
“I have one more thing for you to see,” I tell her. “I can’t believe it came on the same day.” I hand her a smaller envelope that I had previously opened.
She smiles at me, knowing what it is based on the official seal on it. She opens it and pulls out Maddox’s new birth certificate. She bounces in my lap as she recites, “Maddox Mitchell McBride.”
I smile proudly.
Baylor stares into my eyes. “Everything’s coming together, isn’t it? It’s almost perfect,” she says, turning to stare at her laptop that now boasts a screensaver picture of her and Callie at the beach.
All her squirming around on my lap is causing an unintentional reaction. “Uh, darlin’, I’ve tried to be mindful of your injuries, but if you keep movin’ around on top of me like this, I might well strip you naked and screw you right here on this chair.”
A smile spreads up her face as she checks her watch. “Maddox and Skylar aren’t due home for another hour,” she says, seductively running a fingertip across my bottom lip.
My dick instantly gets hard thinking of having sex with Baylor after almost three weeks without it. “Are you sure? I don’t want to hurt—”
Before I can finish speaking, she shoves the papers to the floor and turns around to straddle me. “You can’t hurt me if I’m on top.” Then she carefully pulls her shirt off with my help.
I take a moment to appreciate her amazing body. Her wounds have faded to faint scars that will most likely disappear in time. Her ribs are still tender so I remind myself not to grab her there. Her tits are fair game, however, so I lean forward and take one in my mouth as she thrusts them further into me when I suck the tips.
“Oh, God,” she moans. “I missed this.”
“Never again,” I say, pulling my mouth away from her hot flesh. “We’ll never be apart again, darlin’.”
She grasps at my shirt, practically ripping it from me in an attempt to get at my skin underneath. I happily oblige her and remove it completely as her hands roam every inch of my chest. I stand up with her, careful to hold her only by her ass. I start to walk out of the room but she stops me.
“Gavin, no. Let’s make love here, on this chair.”
I raise my eyebrows at her.
“If there is one thing I love about L.A., it’s this view,” she says, nodding her head to the window. I momentarily place her on the floor as we quickly wrestle the rest of our clothing from our bodies. Then I position the chair directly in front of the window so that when she’s riding me and screaming out my name, she can look out and see the waves crashing onto the rocks.
Hey, it’s good shit for her book, anyway.
Baylor, Maddox and Skylar all visited Callie’s grave one last time while I ran some last-minute errands before our flight. I had to hire a moving company to move my car and everything in the condo, but I wanted to do this right, so I chartered another private jet to fly us back to our permanent home.
Once we have reached our altitude, I wink at Maddox and he goes up to the front of the plane to the small kitchen where the flight attendant is waiting for him.
“Is he going to see the pilot again?” Baylor asks.
“Mmmm,” I mumble at her while Skylar smiles over at me.
A minute later, Maddox emerges from the kitchen with a mile-high plate of french fries. I clear my throat prompting Baylor to look up from her stare out the window.
“Good Lord!” She laughs at Maddox as he tries to balance the large plate without falling.
I pull the tray table out next to her and Maddox puts the heavy plate down. She looks up, surprised that they are for her. She smiles over at me. “Twenty questions?”
I’m shaking. I’ve never done this before. I want it to be absolutely perfect. “Not twenty questions,” I say. “Just one.”
I nod to Maddox and he sits down next to me, both of us directly across from Baylor. He says, “Daddy and me want you to be a McBride too, Mommy.” He points to the plate of food where on the very top sits a diamond and platinum ring surrounding several of the fries.
Her hand comes up to cover her mouth as she gasps. Tears stream down her cheek as I reach for the ring and remove the fries from inside it. I push the tray aside and get down on one knee as Skylar sniffs behind me. “Baylor, our story started over eight years ago. But it was left unfinished. The truth is, there is only one woman I’ve ever wanted to marry. There is only one woman I would ever ask to marry me. There is only one woman I want to spend every day of the rest of my life with.”
I reach into the bag Skylar brought on the plane. I pull out a small bouquet of purple orchids, handing them to Baylor. “I want to be the guy who makes you so happy that you cry. I want to be the guy who gives you that magical life you dreamed of when you were five years old. I want our love story to be the greatest of any book you ever write.”
I take her hand in mine and slip the ring onto her finger. “Darlin’, will you marry me and make these two McBrides the happiest men alive?”
She smiles through her tears as she nods her head. “Yes,” she cries. “Of course, yes.”
I pull her into a hug which Maddox joins immediately. Just as he should, making us once and for all—a family.