Forever With Me

  “Fuck,” I agree. I reach down and press on my clit, and that’s it, I tip over, coming loudly, violently.

  His eyes open and he watches me raptly, and when I’m done, he pulls out, turns me over, pulls my ass in the air and slams back inside me. He smacks my ass and rides me hard and fast.

  “You’re mine, Alecia.” He presses his lips to my shoulder, then bites me gently and groans as he comes.

  “Mine.”

  Chapter Twenty Three

  Three months later…

  I can hear him whistling in the bathroom, the shower running. I can picture his tight, naked body, soapy and tanned under the water.

  I’m tempted to get my lazy ass up and join him, but the bed feels nice, and I’m not anxious to get this day started.

  I’m nervous.

  I roll over and see the photo on Dom’s side of the bed of the two of us in Italy and smile. I think it’s the cheesiest selfie we’ve ever taken, but it’s his favorite of us, so he framed it and stuck it there, next to his bed.

  I rest my head in my hands, and as he continues to whistle away in the bathroom, daydream happily about the day he surprised me with that trip…

  “Close your eyes, amore,” he whispers against my cheek. Summer is just beginning to give way to fall, and the air is lighter, almost crisp, here near the water. He’s brought me back to the pier near my condo, with the locks of love that he still sneers at, and we are enjoying our wine in the grass.

  I follow his instructions, expecting him to tell me a sexy story, but instead I feel him place something in my lap.

  “If that’s a puppy, you can just take it back where you got it. I don’t do pets.” My lips turn up in a grin as he laughs.

  “Not a pet, puppy or otherwise, cara,” he assures me. “Open your eyes.”

  In my lap is a plain white envelope, with nothing written on the outside.

  “A Dear John letter?” I ask dryly.

  “You’re funny today,” he says with a smile and tucks my hair behind my ear. I love that he is forever touching me. I’ll never get tired of it. “Open it.”

  Inside is an itinerary, for two, to Italy.

  “Holy shit,” I whisper.

  “I want to show you Italy. I want you to meet Gianna.”

  “I want to meet both,” I reply, and then throw my arms around him. “We’re going to Italy!”

  “We are.”

  “When?”

  “Whenever you like. The tickets are open-ended, so we can go whenever it’s convenient for you to get away.”

  “You might be the best Italian boyfriend ever.”

  He laughs, lays me back in the grass, and kisses me silly, sending tingles all through me.

  Charming Italian.

  “You have to get out of bed,” Dominic calls from the bathroom.

  “I will,” I reply. “This picture is cheesy.”

  He sticks his head out of the doorway and scowls at me. “I love that picture. You’re beautiful in it.”

  Then he’s gone again, bustling around in the bathroom. The water is running. I hear him snatch his toothbrush out of its holder.

  Honestly, I love that damn picture, it’s just fun to tease him about it. That was my favorite day in Italy.

  “I get to crush the grapes with my feet?” I ask excitedly. “Like in ‘I Love Lucy’?”

  “Something like that,” Dom replies and leads me into a barn with a big tub that looks like a water trough. A man dumps a bucket of grapes in it and grins at Dom.

  “Tutti pronti,” the man says and walks away.

  “What did he say?” I ask.

  “All ready,” Dom replies. “Are you ready?”

  “I’m going to stomp around in the grapes?”

  “Yes.” His eyes are full of mischief as he leads me to a bucket of warm water, and helps me rinse off my feet, then holds my hand as I climb in the large tub and step into the grapes.

  “This feels…weird.” I stand still, facing the open doors of the barn, where I can see the rolling hills of Tuscany and lines and lines of vines. It’s the most beautiful view I’ve ever seen.

  Aside from the one in Washington, at Dominic’s vineyard.

  “You have to stomp on them, tesoro,” he says.

  “Why aren’t you doing this with me?” I ask suspiciously as he aims his phone at me and snaps a picture.

  “It’s more fun this way.”

  “Uh huh.” I begin to walk, scrunching up my nose at the way the grapes squish between my toes. It smells earthy and good, but feels so weird. “This is kind of gross.”

  “You’re so funny,” he says with a smile.

  “I can’t believe you do it this way for all of your wine,” I say, as I trudge through the grapes.

  “We don’t,” Gianna says from the doorway. “I can’t believe you’re making her do that.”

  “I knew it!”

  Dominic is doubled over, laughing.

  “You’re such a shit,” I say with a laugh. “My feet are going to be purple forever.”

  “Just for a few days,” he says, and wipes his eyes. “You look like you’re having fun.”

  “Please get me out of here.”

  He lifts me out of the tub, sets me on my feet, and holds his phone up, getting a selfie of us with Tuscany in the background, laughing, delighted with each other.

  “You know,” Gianna comments as she watches us. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this happy, Dominic.”

  “I haven’t been,” he replies, and rests his forehead on mine. “Until I found her.”

  “Get your ass out of bed!” Dom calls from the bathroom.

  “You’re bossy,” I grumble, as I roll out of bed and tug on panties and a bra, then decide, screw it, and throw his white shirt on from yesterday and join him in the bathroom. He’s standing in front of the mirror, shirtless, and leans his hands on the vanity as he watches me.

  “You’re going to wear my dirty shirt to meet your parents?” he asks with a grin as I hop up onto the vanity next to him and swing my feet back and forth.

  “You know, you don’t have to go,” I reply reasonably. “They’re nice enough, but you shouldn’t have to endure it. I can go alone.”

  “No,” he replies simply, and combs his hair.

  “I still can’t believe they called,” I say with a frown, watching Dom. “I mean, I told them to, if they ever wanted to have a relationship with me, but I didn’t expect them to actually do it.”

  Big, gigantic butterflies take flight in my belly as I think about meeting up with my parents for lunch. They flew up here just to see me.

  “I can’t believe they even knew what airport to fly into.” Dom snickers and pulls his shaving stuff out of a drawer. “I mean, this is kind of ridiculous.”

  “Alecia.”

  “Yeah?”

  He slides me over in front of him and pins me here, his hands on the granite at my hips, and kisses my nose lightly. “Stop worrying.”

  “I’m not.”

  “You are.” He kisses my forehead, then hands me his shaving cream. “Lather me up.”

  “This could be fun.” I grin and shoot the white foam into my hands, then rub them together and begin rubbing it on his handsome face. I’m all smiles, delighted with him, as he clenches his lips closed so I can get the area between his nose and lips, then laugh when I get it up his nose. “Sorry. I don’t put shaving cream on a face often.”

  He laughs with me as I concentrate on my task, making a complete mess of him.

  “Spread it down on my neck.”

  I follow his directions, then lean back and take in my handiwork.

  “I suck at this.”

  “It’ll get the job done,” he replies, and hands me his razor.

  “I get to put a sharp instrument against your neck?” I ask incredulously.

  “Don’t make me regret this.”

  Before I can begin, he leans in and plants a kiss right on my cheek, leaving a dollop of cream on my skin, mak
ing me giggle. “You’re making a mess!”

  “We’re even on that score.”

  He watches my face calmly, and holds perfectly still, as I glide the razor down his cheek, doing my best to get all of the whiskers.

  When I get to his neck, I give up.

  “You finish. This part makes me nervous.” He grins and takes the razor, slides me aside, and leans in to the mirror to finish up.

  “You did a good job, amore.”

  “I was worried that I’d cut you, my love.”

  He stills at my words. He always does when I call him my love.

  He wipes his face off with a towel, and I lean in and kiss him on the cheek, resting against him for just a moment.

  He tosses the towel aside, and slides me back in front of him.

  “You can’t wear this,” he says and slips his shirt off of me, then to my surprise, simply wraps his arms around me and hugs me close. “Your back is so slender,” he murmurs. “My hands look so big on it.”

  “I love the way your hands feel on my back,” I reply softly, and breathe him in. “You smell good.”

  “Alecia, you take my breath away.” He buries his face in my neck and, still holding on tightly, takes a deep breath. “You are everything good in my life.”

  “Are you okay?” I ask, a bit concerned. He’s holding onto me almost desperately.

  “I need you to know,” he begins and kisses my cheek, then pulls back only far enough to look into my eyes. “I don’t want to just spend my life with you. I want to spend my only life with you. Every day.”

  He swallows hard and drags his fingertips down my back, then up again, caressing me sweetly. “I know that forever is a long time, but if you tell me that I get to wake up to your sweet smile every day, it will never be long enough.” He sweeps my hair back behind my ear. “A smart woman once told me that love is a daily reminder. It’s saying, I choose you. Today and every day. Spend forever with me, Alecia.”

  My heart stills, then stumbles into double time.

  “Did you just ask me to marry you?” I whisper.

  “I need you to marry me, be my partner, my friend, my love. You’re everything, amore. I love you more than you will ever understand.”

  “I love you too,” I reply and kiss his lips softly.

  “Is that a yes?”

  “Hell yes.”

  Epilogue

  Ten Years Later

  ~Steven Montgomery~

  The day is just waking up as I pad down the stairs in my son, Dominic’s, home toward the kitchen. My bride of fifty years today is still sleeping like an angel upstairs, and rather than make love to her, which was my first thought, as it is every morning, I decided to let the poor woman sleep.

  It’s going to be a busy day.

  I’m surprised to hear quiet voices in the kitchen, assuming that I’m the first up.

  “Good morning, Dad,” Natalie says with a grin. She and Luke are sitting at the breakfast bar, sipping coffee. It never gets old hearing this sweet girl call me Dad. I’m not the man that she comes from, but she’s been mine for more than twenty years now, and I couldn’t love her more. She gives me a big hug, and when I point to my cheek, she plants a kiss there as well.

  “You two are up early.” I pour myself a cup of coffee and lean against the counter.

  “Josie and Maddie got in late, so we stayed up with Brynna and Caleb waiting for them,” Luke says. “And then Haley woke up this morning with bad dreams, so we decided to just stay up. I’m still not used to the twins driving.”

  “Neither is Caleb,” I reply. “No parent is ever ready for their kids to grow up.”

  “Olivia has decided that she’s in love,” Natalie says with a grimace, and laughs when Luke simply glares at her. “It’s just hormones.”

  “I’ll lock her in her room.”

  “No, you won’t.”

  “She’s twelve,” Luke says adamantly.

  “It’s all downhill from here, son,” I inform him good-naturedly. “Before you know it, it’ll be your fiftieth wedding anniversary and you’ll have seventeen grandchildren.”

  Luke pales and I laugh, enjoying his panic.

  “We have a while before that happens,” Nat reminds him, patting his face. “Of course, it doesn’t help that you have three daughters.”

  “I’m surrounded by women,” he agrees, and I smile as I think of the two littlest ones, Chelsea and Haley, who are two little spitfires, even at nine and seven. “Keaton is all boy, though, and helps balance things out.”

  “How’s work?” I ask Luke.

  “It’s good.”

  “He’s collaborating with some amazing people for his next project,” Nat adds proudly. “I have a feeling he’ll be nominated for the Oscar again next year.”

  “I don’t need Oscars,” Luke says with a shake of the head. “Although, it doesn’t suck to have one on the mantle.”

  “I’m so proud of you, handsome.”

  She leans in to kiss him, and I refill my cup and wink at them, then head out the back door to sit on the patio before they get too carried away. The fire is already roaring, and Isaac, Stacy, Caleb and Brynna are huddled around it, drinking their own coffee, my boys cuddled up to their women.

  I raised smart boys, that’s for sure.

  “Good morning,” I greet them and sit in the single unoccupied chair. “Seems everyone is up early.”

  “It’s a good morning for it,” Isaac replies, gesturing to the sun coming up over the mountains, casting the vines in soft pink sunlight.

  “It’s beautiful,” Stacy agrees. “And most of the kids are still sacked out in the play room, so we’re taking advantage of the quiet.”

  “Good plan. I hear the twins got in late.”

  Caleb frowns and sighs. “They made curfew, I just hate that they’re driving, and they came out here, so they were on the freeway late at night.”

  “They’re good girls,” Brynna says, and rubs her hand down her husband’s leg. My boys chose well when it came to their women. Strong, beautiful, smart women, all of them.

  “Is Maddie still insistent that she wants to go to New York after she graduates to dance?” Stacy asks.

  “Yes,” Brynna replies with a sigh. “I don’t think we’ll be able to talk her out of it.”

  “She’s so good,” Stacy says. “She could do great things with it.”

  “New York is too fucking far away,” Caleb growls.

  “We have time,” Brynna whispers.

  “A year,” he says. “It’ll feel like ten minutes.”

  You have no idea, my boy. More like the blink of an eye.

  “What about Josie?” I ask.

  “She has a boyfriend, you know,” Brynna says and eyes her husband, who scowls again. “She’ll probably go to college here in Seattle.”

  “If he touches her, I’ll break his arms.”

  Brynna rolls her eyes.

  “I’ll help you,” Isaac says casually.

  “Oh good, you start in too,” Stacy says.

  “Sophie’s a teenager now. I may need his help before long.”

  “I’ll be there, brother.” Caleb salutes Isaac with his mug, making us laugh.

  “Liam and Michael were up until the wee hours of the morning playing video games. We may not see them until the dinner tonight,” Isaac says, referring to both of their youngest boys.

  “We’re here to celebrate, so why shouldn’t they get to do what they enjoy?” I ask with a shrug.

  “I’m so happy that you and Mom wanted to do this,” Isaac says. “Of all the things you could have done for your fiftieth, you chose to have all of us come here for the weekend.”

  “We would have sent you on a cruise, or to Europe, or somewhere quiet and fun,” Caleb adds.

  “There is nowhere your mother and I would rather be than with our children.”

  And that’s the God’s truth.

  “You hate me!” A high voice shrieks and a small blonde girl runs outside in a sprint, c
rying.

  “Erin! Get back here!” Meg yells, running after her older daughter.

  “Hate us!” the youngest, Zoey, agrees and runs behind her sister, giggling.

  “Stop being dramatic and get back here!” Meg stops, with her hands on her hips and glares at her daughters. “Why do they have to have their father’s speed?”

  “It’s okay, lazy bones, I got this.” Will jogs past her and runs into the backyard after his daughters. “When your mother calls you, you come! Do you hear me?”

  “They’re not children,” Meg says. “They’re aliens.”

  “That’s why I didn’t have any,” Sam says with a yawn as she comes out back, Leo by her side. She wraps her arm around me and kisses my cheek. “Thanks for including us this weekend.”

  “You and Mark are a part of this family, sweet girl. We wouldn’t have it any other way. Here, have a seat.” I stand and shake Leo’s hand. “I’m going to go wake my wife up.”

  Leo drops into the chair, smiling when it rocks, then pulls Sam into his lap. “Rock with me for a while, sunshine.”

  “When does the new album come out, Leo?” Will asks as he carries his girls, one under each arm, back to the house.

  “Next month,” Leo says with a grin.

  I walk inside, and in the short time since I left the kitchen, it’s become a war zone.

  “Mommy, I’m not hungry!” Abigail cries to Nic, who is holding her youngest, Finn, on her hip.

  “You need to eat anyway,” Nic says patiently. “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”

  “Listen to your mama,” Matt says, boosts Abbi onto his lap, and offers her a bite of waffle on her fork. “She knows these things.”

  It does my heart good to see Nic and Matt with their children. Thank God for adoption. They share a smile, the kind that also makes my heart warm.

  They love each other. And at the end of the day, what more can you ask for?

  “Did you seriously just drink out of my glass, you little brat?” Lucy, Mark and Meredith’s oldest, demands of her little brother, Hudson. “You are disgusting!”

  “Hud,” Mark says and ruffles his son’s hair, “don’t be disgusting.”

  “I want you to dance with me,” Emma demands of her aunt Meredith.