by Autumn Avery
It has everything. There’s things here I don’t even know what they’re for. And the paints. Endless rows of paints. Oils, acrylics, watercolors. Every shade imaginable. I could practically get lost in here. But there’s something so rustic and charming about the place, with its wooden easels and worn tables and benches. It feels like somewhere I’ve already been before and am finally returning to after a long time away.
“This may be a huge mistake, babe. You might have to drag me out of here!”
“I think I’ll be able to get you out of here sometimes,” he says, and I feel him press his body against mine. I turn around and look up at him, and when I see him now, I can’t believe I ever doubted him. The man standing before me now has every ounce of trust I could ever give, and the very thought of ever being suspicious of him seems impossible now. As my eyes move over his strong face, I know I will never have to worry about him. He’s mine, and he always has been. Even when we were apart. It’s just too bad it took almost getting killed for me to realize it.
“So what are you going to do? I guess all that stuff about making furniture was just a ruse?”
“I told you, Mia. I’d never lie to you.”
He slips his arm around me and leads me out a side door of the studio I hadn’t noticed, to a cobblestone path heading out to a rustic looking barn. He slides open a large door and step into a warm golden light of a woodworking shop. It’s absolutely filled with projects, some finished, some half finished, and some barely begun.
“I made you this,” he says beside me. I turn to see him standing by a beautiful chair that looks like it was designed to fit me perfectly. “It’s cherry and walnut, with an amber shellac finish. I just didn’t have time to move it into your studio with all the craziness of the last few days.”
The wood is absolutely gleaming, and as I run my fingertips over it, I feel it’s as smooth as polished stone. It’s somewhat modern, but there’s something timeless about it as well. I take a seat.
“Oh, Joey. It’s so comfortable!”
“You like it?”
“Of course I like it!” I almost shout. “How did you learn to do this?”
“Here and there. I needed things to keep my mind off what we were doing. To keep my mind off…you…”
I rise from my chair and take his hand.
“Well, now when you’re working and your mind gets on me, you can walk right over there and get on me yourself.”
It’s a corny joke, and I give him a corny smile to go along with it. He grins and kisses me.
“It’s perfect, Joey.”
And it is.
It really is.
Epilogue
Five years later…
“You wanna go see what momma’s working on?”
“Yea!”
I hear my son, Kyle’s voice just outside the window as I finish up the last few strokes on a painting I’m doing on commission for a business up in Portsmouth. It’s an enormous ten by sixteen of Paris at dusk, the sun setting over the River Seine and a couple walking hand in hand along the sidewalk.
Part of me loves it so much that I want to keep it here, but my memories with Joey are just beginning, and I don’t want us to get stuck in the past. After all, I have a family now.
“Momma!” I hear Kyle’s childish giggle and shout behind me and his little footsteps slapping against the floor.
“Hey, honey!” I say, spinning quickly around, just in time to snatch him under the arms as he jumps at me. “Oh, you’re getting heavy!”
He laughs and I give him a hundred little kisses on the forehead.
“Were you working with Daddy?”
“Mmhmmm!” he says, nodding his head vigorously. “I helped!”
“I bet you did. You’re quite the little man now, aren’t you?” He keeps nodding as Joey steps in from outside, holding Kevin in his arms.
“How is he?” I say.
“He’s good,” Joey replies, gently bouncing Kevin as he walks toward me. Kevin is fourteen months and growing fast. I have a feeling they’re both going to be big like their father.
I feel Kevin and Kyle’s brother kicking up a storm and look down at my belly. I’m due in two weeks. I was nervous the first time my body changed with the pregnancy, but Joey just seemed to love it anymore. He couldn’t keep his hands off my breasts. They grew more than a cup size, and I couldn’t keep him off me. It seemed like his horniness grew with the size of my belly. And I was more than okay with that.
I’d always heard from other married couples that your sex life gets stale over the years, but that hasn’t happened to Joey and me. If anything, things have gotten better. With the kids, we’re sneaking off any spare second we have now like a couple of teenagers. Making up for lost time, Joey likes to say.
We haven’t even asked the sex of the baby. I know it’s a boy. That’s all Joey and I can make. I’m going to have a pack of them running around the house before I know it, and I’ll have my hands full, and I’ll love it.
Kyle already looks like him, but he’s got my nose and eyes. With Kevin, it’s too early to tell, but the way he looks around already reminds me of Joey’s body language. I hope they’ll all grow up to look like their father. I’ll have a whole pack of lady killers on my hand though, and that will be a lot of work come high school.
With our situation now, I’ll be able to give them the life I never had—a life of opportunity, where anything is possible and circumstance doesn’t have to dampen their dreams. They can travel, they can paint, they can pursue their dreams in any way possible.
“Are you almost done with your table?”
“Almost,” Joey says, bringing Kevin over for a kiss. “Some more Planing and then it’ll be time to put the finish on.”
Joey’s been working steadily and has really grown his furniture business. He’s become somewhat of a local name around the area, and people out of state are starting to notice his work. His most recent project is a stunning slab table made from a fallen walnut tree on our land. He’s having a show in a few days. I told him he’s cutting it close to my delivery date, but he assured me he’ll be done in time.
It’s hard to believe that five years ago, I was tending bar and thinking about marrying another man. Telling Ian about Joey hadn’t been easy, but it had to be done. I couldn’t keep stringing him along. He deserves better than that.
In the end, he’d found another girl that was far more fitting for him. Her name’s Christine, and she works at a small marketing firm in Portsmouth. They’re married and have an apartment there, and although we don’t keep in touch, I know he’s happy.
We did get married in Paris, just like my mom said. Cassidy was my maid of honor, and Merrell was a bridesmaid. We’d fallen out of touch after high school when she went off to college, but she came back to Stonehill and we reconnected. It was so great to see her, and she couldn’t believe my story. When we whisked her away to Paris on a private jet, I thought her head was going to explode.
It was amazing, and Joey somehow managed to rent out the top of the Eiffel Tower for an hour afterwards, and we all drank champagne and looked down at the city below, trying to point out movie locations we’d seen over the years. Joey had flown everyone back and we’d spent our honeymoon exploring France, the countryside, and the little towns in between.
Somewhere along the way, I’d gotten pregnant with Kyle. We came back and I started to paint, and Joey worked on his furniture. We actually moved my mom into the house too. I couldn’t see her cooped up in that tiny place for the rest of her life, and with size of the place, we still have our privacy. She loves playing with her grandchildren, and I love having her here.
Joey met up with his mom as well. She burst into tears when we showed up at her door. She said she’d always known he would come back to her. We have brunch with her every Sunday, and dinner sometimes during the week when she invites us over for alfredo or turkey.
Joey built a little wooden fortress for Kyle in the side yard by the bar
n, complete with a little child-sized workbench he can use to pretend to be like his father. There’s a little hammer, a tool belt, and a saw, or as he says “thaw.” His voice makes me melt every time I hear it.
“Momma,” Kyle says in that tone that I know now means he’s going to ask me for something.
“Yes, baby?”
“Can I—can I have a freeze pop?”
I look over at Joey and we exchange smiles. “Hmm, a freeze pop. Let me think. What time is it?”
“It’s free!”
“Free? You mean three?”
He nods his head vigorously.
“Well, actually it’s four. But I guess you can have one before dinner. What color would you like?”
I set Kyle down and we head toward the hall, but instead of walking, he has taken to jumping with two feet like he’s a frog.
“A green one!”
“Okay, a green one sounds good. Maybe Mommy will have one too. It is hot today.”
Joey steps up beside me and takes my hand. I lean my head on his shoulder, feeling his warmth, smelling his smell, and feeling the joy of being his wife and the mother of his children. I look at Kevin and run a hand over my belly, feeling the brother soon to be born.
I watch Kyle bouncing ahead of me down the hallway as we make our way to the kitchen, and I take a mental picture of this moment.
This moment is perfect.
And I know I will have more to come.
More perfect days with my husband and my children.
Who could have predicted that all those years ago when Joey walked out of my life, that he would walk back in and bring me everything I ever wanted?
Who would have predicted that all that time apart, that tragic beginning, would lead to a happy ending?
THE END
Author’s Note
Thank you so much for reading my first book! I’m very proud of it, and I hope you enjoyed it. I loved writing the romance between Joey and Mia, and I plan to continue writing even more heart melting, panty wetting stories for you all to devour.
<3
Autumn Avery
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