Chapter Twenty-Five

Perrie

 

Lola shoved a piece of paper at me.

I took the roughly-folded, green sheet, and opened it. But not before I’d raised my eyebrow at her. “What is this?”

She jutted out her chin and placed her hands on her hips. “Read it.”

“To Perrie,” I read, noting the questionable, child-like handwriting that scrawled my name. “Yoo ar envyted to a partee at Zac’s howse. Twoday at 4 oh clock. Pleez dress pretti.”

I scrunched up my face and looked at Lola. “Did you and Zac write this?”

Wide-eyed, she shook her head. “No, Mommy.”

Yeah. All right. I believed her.

“Four o’clock is in twenty minutes,” I told her. “Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t get to Zac’s house in twenty minutes.”

She pulled her little eyebrows together into a frown. “You don’t want to go to his house?”

“Well… Baby girl, it’s not always as simple as that, okay?”

She sat on the arm of the sofa with a ‘hmph.’ “That’s what Adrian said.”

I narrowed my eyes. “What did Adrian say?”

“He said grown-ups suck.”

“Well, he was right.”

“Mommy, will you please go to our party?” She shuffled in front of me, fiddling with the hem of her skirt. She peered up at me through her thick, blond eyelashes. “Please?”

I tilted my head to the side and looked at her. She was so earnest and honest—for whatever reason she had planned, she wanted me to go to the one place I swore to myself at three a.m. I’d never visit again.

She pouted out her bottom lip.

“Fine. But we aren’t staying long.” I was a sucker for this kid. Whoever said parents made the ruled, lied.

Her pout rapidly changed to a wide grin. “’Kay. Now dress pretty.”

“What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?”

Lola scanned my yoga pants and not-child-friendly shirt with a disapproving look. “Mommy. I can see your girly bits in those pants.”

I glanced down.

Yep.

There was a hole on the seam between my legs.

“Good spot, Lo,” I said, getting up and heading for the stairs.

On the bright side, I could afford a hundred pairs of yoga pants now.

 

***

 

The closer we got to Adrian and Zac’s house, the worse I felt about this idea.

The closer we got, the more excited Lola got. Which, in turn, made me more suspicious—and equally worse about this idea.

The invitation stared at me from the passenger seat. Its terrible spelling was definitely reminiscent of Lola’s dreadful attempts at the English language, but she was so desperate, my conscience wouldn’t allow me to do anything but do what she wanted.

I pulled up—directly into the driveway.

That definitely wasn’t normal.

“Uh…Lola? Are you sure this is where we’re supposed to be?”

She leaned forward and looked at the clock. “Yep. Right here.” She unclipped her belt and knocked on her door for me to let her out. “Mommy, let me out.”

Against my better judgment, I did so.

The car beeped and flashed its lights as I locked it, and Lola ran to the house and knocked on the door. It opened to reveal Adrian’s sitter looking quite shocked.

“Lola. Hi.” Her gaze traveled along the path to me. “Perrie. Uh…Zac said you were coming?”

I held up my hands. “I had no idea until three-forty, and apparently, we’re late, so…Do you have any idea what’s going on?”

“Bye!” Lola darted beneath her arm and into the house.

“No…” she said slowly. “But Adrian is coming home any minute, so maybe he—is that a Dominos car?”

I turned on my heel and looked right at it. Yep. It was a Dominos car…Delivering a pizza. Or three.

I side-eyed the poor young guy as he carried it up to us.

“One pepperoni, one four-cheese, and one with pepperoni, ham, mushrooms, onion, and pepper?”

“We…didn’t order pizza,” poor Harriet said, staring between me and the delivery guy.

He checked the slim sheet in his hands. “Sorry, lady. It’s paid for. I either leave it here or dump it.”

“Thanks,” I said, taking it. “My boyfriend probably ordered it before he left work.”

The young guy saluted me and headed off.

“Boyfriend?” Harriet looked at me.

“Only so he goes away.” I nodded to the delivery guy. “You sure you didn’t order this?”

She snorted. “Nope.”

“Then who—”

We looked at each other.

“Zac,” we said at the same time.

“Yes?” he poked his head out of the kitchen door. His eyes lit up the moment he saw the pizza. “Oh! Good! Pizza’s here!” He ran and took it from me and all I could do was stare at him.

“What do you—Zac!” I chased him, but not before he could shut the door in my face—with him and Lola on the other side.

I tried the handle, but it was stuck.

They’d locked us out.

“Zac! Lola! You let me in right now.” I banged on the door.

No answer.

“Lola! Zachary! Open this door!”

“We can’t!” Lola shouted.

“Open it now!”

“What the…” Adrian stepped inside. “What’s going on?”

“Lola! Zachary!”

“Long or short version?” Harriet asked.

“Try me with short before she bursts a vein,” he replied.

“Lola Fox you open this door right this second!” I banged again on it.

Harriet took a deep breath. “Perrie and Lola showed up with a crazy invite. Lola ran into the kitchen, and minutes later, a Dominos order showed up.”

“A Dominos—what?” Adrian exclaimed.

“Zac ran out, grabbed it, and now…we’re locked out.”

I groaned with one final bang of my fist against the door.

“What crazy invite?” Adrian asked. “Anything like this one?”

I turned and snatched the bit of paper he offered me. Scanning it, I said, “Yours is better written than mine, but same thing.” I pulled the scrumpled up paper from my ass pocket and handed it over.

“Can I see those?” Harriet came over and peered at them. “Oh, boy. Can I offer advice before I get paid?”

Adrian side-eyed her. “Yes.”

“You just got played by your kids.” Then, she held her hand out with a sweet smile to Adrian.

He pulled out his wallet and put some cash in her hand. “Played?”

“I’d check your Dominos if I were you…And then your son’s tablet.” She grabbed her things and disappeared before he could reply.

“Little shits!” I breathed. “They set us up!”

“Really,” Adrian said. “What gave it away?”

I jabbed a finger at his chest. “You don’t get to be a sarcastic bastard after the way you left me. You think you get to tell me you’re in love with me then disappear?”

He crumpled the invitations in his hand. “You wanted me to wait around so you could tell me how you didn’t feel the same?”

“Who the hell do you think you are to tell me how I feel? You have no idea. I’d just gone through the biggest change in my life in years and when I needed you, you left me!”

“You wanted one thing!”

“I wanted you, you giant idiot!” This time, my finger went toward his face. “The night before? Yes! But when it came down the morning after and it was real and I couldn’t deny it? I wanted you and nothing else, but you wouldn’t know that, because you told me you loved me and you ran away from me!”

His blue-green eyes pierced me right to my soul. “Your life just changed, Perrie. I thought we were different before—but now? Now, we are.”

“My life changed, but my heart didn’t! How stupid do you have to be? My god!” My fingers slipped into my hair and fisted it. “Act first, think later. That’s you. That’s how you do it.”

“Is that supposed to be an insult?”

“No! It’s me telling you that the next time you want to tell someone you love them, you should give them the chance to say it back before you leave!”

I froze.

He froze.

The door behind us opened.

“Um,” Zac said. “We have something to show you.”

We both turned, and I don’t know about Adrian, but I did everything I could to hide the emotion that was welling inside me.

“You wanna see?” Lola asked hopefully, her eyes darting between us.

“Sure we do, sweetheart.” Adrian answered before I did, holding out his hand. Lola tucked her tiny, still-pink-fingernailed hands into his and tugged him.

Zac offered me his hand, his cheeks flushed.

I took it, too.

They’d heard everything we said.

I knew it. Adrian knew it. There was no coming back from this point.

I drew in a sharp breath when I saw what was in front of me. The kitchen table had a large, Avengers towel over it in place of a table cloth. Domino’s boxes sat at either end instead of plates, but they’d thoughtfully laid out knives and forks for us. A wine bottle—corked—sat next to the pepperoni pizza, and a still-capped bottle of beer was next to Adrian’s pizza.

In the middle was a blue, plastic cup, filled with daisies.

Lola shifted.

“We did it for you,” Zac said quietly.

“It took me forever to find the daisies. Some of them are dead, but that’s okay,” Lola said. “I’ve been putting them in my backpack for four days.”

“We couldn’t open the wine or beer,” Zac continued. “But we found the bottle opener anyway.”

“And you liked pizza the other night, so we thought pizza was good, since we can’t cook.”

“But I had to steal your computer, Dad. Sorry. I didn’t have one to go to the website.” Zac glanced toward Adrian.

Tears welled in my eyes.

“We wanted you to love each other,” Lola said quietly.

“But you just had a fight,” Zac carried on. “So, you don’t, do you?”

I covered my mouth with my hand and let the tears flow.

“Oh no, Mommy! Why are you crying?” Lola cried. “Don’t cry!”

“It’s good tears,” I managed to say as they fell down my cheeks. “I promise.”

Adrian wiped his hand across his face. “So, this is what you want. When you said you were making a plan.”

“Um…You heard that?”

“Making a plan? Heard what?” This time, I looked at Adrian.

He glanced at the kids before he looked at me. “The other day…When you had your interview? I overheard them talking and butted in. They were talking about how they wanted us to fall in love and get married. I told them it’s not so simple, and they had to be patient, because being a grown-up was hard.”

I took a deep breath.

“Then, when I left the room, I heard them decide they’d think up a plan. I didn’t quite imagine…This.” He motioned out to the kitchen.

Oh my god.

“We cooked you dinner!” Lola said brightly. Then, she frowned. “But, it’s okay, because you shouted, so it doesn’t matter.”

“Yeah.” Zac frowned, too. “It didn’t work.”

I smiled, even though I wanted to cry. “It worked.” I crouched down. “Sometimes, people who care about each other fight. Zac—me and your dad, we haven’t talked in a couple days, and I guess we were a little upset with each other. But that doesn’t mean I don’t love him. Because I do.”

“You do?” His eyes, so like his dad’s, widened.

“I do. And I love you, too.”

He threw his arms around my neck and squeezed me so tight, I forgot how to breathe for a moment.

“Do you love my mommy?” Lola asked as I hugged Zac back.

“I sure do,” Adrian replied. “Just like I love you, sweetheart.”

Lola’s cries pierced my heart until I heard Adrian sniff and realized they were happy tears.

I hugged Zac a little harder.

“I have a question,” Adrian said after a moment. “Zac, why are there three pizzas?”

He wiped his eyes and extracted himself from my hug. “Well, if we buy you dinner, who’s gonna buy us dinner?”

Adrian smirked. “But technically, I bought dinner.”

“No, Dad. I ordered it, so I bought it.”

“How do you even know how to use the Dominos website? How did you log in?”

Zac side-eyed him. “You keep it logged in, and it’s not that hard when you can read. Jeez, Dad. I’m not four.”

I burst out laughing, despite the tears that were still clouding my vision.

“Well, when you put it like that, how can I argue?” Adrian answered.

“You can’t.” Zac tilted his chin up in victory.

“Do you really love each other? Will you get married?” Lola asked, looking between us both shyly.

I shared a look with Adrian.

“Let’s slow down on getting married,” he started.

“But, but, but, you said you’d marry her,” she shot back.

“Yes, well—”

Zac sniffed. “She’s right, Dad. You said you’d love to be Lola’s dad.”

“I have a great idea. Since we’re all in love, why don’t you two take your pizza into the front room and find a movie to watch? We’ll be right in.” Adrian kissed Lola’s cheek and flapped his hand at Zac.

“We know you’re gonna talk about grown up stuff.”

“No, I’d just really like you to be quiet,” Adrian muttered to himself.

I laughed as Zac hauled a third huge pizza box into the living room.

Adrian stared after him. “I think he bought the biggest pizzas available,” he said, closing down the lids to the boxes that housed ours.

“That’ll teach you for leaving your Domino’s account logged in.”

“Fucking Google saves all the passwords.”

“It’s optional, you know.”

Adrian stepped toward me and touched a finger to my lips. “Stop making sense. You’re making it hard for me to argue.”

Wrapping a finger around his, I lowered his hand. “Get used to it,” I said, staring into his eyes. “Looks like you’re in for the long haul.”

“You mean it?” he murmured, pulling me close. “You love me?”

I nodded. “Being who I am doesn’t change how I feel about you, Adrian. I’m going to work with my brother, but I think I want to go back to school. I’ll deal with my father when it comes to it. But that figure that came with that bank card…I lived without it for years. That doesn’t mean I won’t use it, but I can use it for good.”

“That’s how every good James Bond villain starts out.”

I smiled up at him. “Well, I mean, I’m gonna buy a decent house with four bedrooms and three bathrooms and a pool and enough room for this assy detective I know…”

“Is that right?”

“And I’ll buy a car, and some more work-appropriate clothes.”

He snorted.

“And maybe do something to help people like me…people with no other options.”

“I bet I could help you with that. I have some contacts.”

“I bet you could, too.” My lips curved to the side. “But other than that…I’m still me. I’m still Perrie. And I’m still gonna love you anyway.”

He slid a hand up to cup the side of my face, his thumb hot against my chin. “I’m gonna love you, too, baby.”

He leaned in to kiss me, barely brushing his lips against mine in the sweetest kiss before we heard it.

“I didn’t buy our pizzas for them to get cold!”

“Mommy! I won! Cinderella is on!”

I laughed, burying my face into his neck.

He sighed. “All right, we’re coming!” Stepping away from me, he let me go.

I grabbed him back and kissed him, slipping my tongue across the seam of his mouth, making his groan with the promises of what would happen tonight—and forever.