Nobody Said It’d be Easy

by Patty Blount

  His stomach pitched at the leap of faith she’d finally found the courage to take. He kissed her again.

  “Um, Gabriel?”

  “Mmm.” He pressed a string of kisses to her cheek, her jaw, her neck, smiling to himself when he heard her struggle to talk.

  “Would you…please… Will you do something for me?”

  “Little busy here.”

  She tugged on his hair so he finally lifted his head and looked into her eyes, saw all his questions answered in their depths. Slowly, she smiled and crooked a finger. “Ask it again,” she whispered.

  His smile flashed and another laugh burst free but he lowered to one knee.

  “Amelia. I didn’t think it would be possible to say this again and mean it, but I love you. Will you marry me?”

  “Yes—”

  “Not done yet.” He took her hands in his. “Will you raise my daughters like they were yours?”

  “God, yes—”

  “Still not done yet. Will you keep interfering and passing judgment and butting in for the rest of our lives and help me learn patience because I’m a better dad, a better man when you’re with me?”

  She sucked in her cheeks and studied him through narrowed eyes. “You should have quit while you were ahead. But, because you tacked on that last part, yes.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed.

  He lifted her off her feet as he stood, spun her around and kissed her. It wasn’t fast or instant this time. It was slow and steady and full of promises, promises it would take them a lifetime to keep.

  Epilogue

  The alarm clock on the table beside the bed rang while it was still dark outside. Lia slapped at it with a groan. It couldn’t be morning. It just couldn’t be. But it was. With a sigh, she hauled herself to a sitting position, scrubbed the sleep from her eyes, and lifted the covers off.

  A strong arm wrapped around her, tugged her back into the warmth.

  “Where are you going at this unholy hour?” Gabriel murmured, his voice thick with sleep.

  “It’s almost six. We’ve got a long day ahead of us.”

  He rolled her underneath him, kissed her soundly.

  “Mm. Gabriel. Stop. Mmm. The girls will be awake. Mmm. Gabriel.”

  “We have eight minutes until the alarm rings again.”

  Loud sigh. “What have we discussed about rushing—”

  Gabriel smiled and rolled off her, got up and strode into the bathroom inside their bedroom. “You. Me. Shower.”

  Giggling, she agreed. In no less than twelve minutes, he had her panting and weak-kneed.

  “How do you do that?”

  He grinned at her while he tugged on his jeans, his skin damp and fragrant. “You know that old saying about necessity being the mother of invention? That.” He watched her slather on her favorite body lotion, the one that smelled like lilacs. He’d planted lilacs under their bedroom window when they’d bought this house because he said they reminded him of her. She smiled when he took the bottle and rubbed some into her shoulders.

  “Don’t take this wrong,” he began, his breath ticking the back of her neck. “But I can’t wait until you have gray hair and a couple of wrinkles.”

  Speechless, she spun around to glare at him.

  “Okay. You’re taking it wrong.” He rubbed lotion on her arms. “I mean, I want us to have a long and happy life together, Lia. I want to see laugh lines around your eyes.” He kissed the corner of one eye, then the other. “I want to see the proof of that long and happy life on you.”

  “I am. And we will.” She took the lotion bottle from him, gave him a peck.

  He stopped her when she opened the bathroom door. “I want time with you today.” He kissed her shoulder. “I’ve got a site visit this morning but I’m free from eleven on. The rest of my day is paperwork. How’s your schedule?”

  Lia shook her head but smiled. She loved that he made time with her a priority. Now that he’d returned to Paradigm full-time, his hours were unpredictable. Good thing she got to set her own. “I’ve got a staff meeting at nine, client calls after that, plus I have an appointment at the winery for a tour—that’s for a new cookbook one of my clients is writing. After school, Emmy has a pediatrician appointment—you wanted to be there for that, remember? That’s at three-thirty. Maddie has rehearsal after school and Liv and Kim need a ride to the mall.”

  “Uh…gimme a minute…” He shut his eyes, thinking. “Okay. If you can manage the pediatrician, I can grab Maddie after rehearsal ends, swing by the mall, pick up Kim and Liv at five and then be back here for dinner.” He tugged on a shirt that smelled like Downy. “After that, you’re mine.”

  Smiling, she hugged him. “I really like the sound of that.”

  “Me, too, Lia. Me, too.”

  “I’d better start breakfast. It’s my turn,” she said with a grimace.

  Gabriel frowned and she hoped he’d take a little pity on her. “Okay, fine. I’ll cook if you get the girls dressed.”

  “Sold!” she said with such enthusiasm, he laughed and was still laughing as he headed downstairs. He laughed a lot these days and Lia took a great deal of personal pride in that.

  She dressed quickly, fastened her hair into one of the braids she’d become so adept at weaving, her gaze floating to the portraits on the wall above their bed.

  There were snapshots and candids and formal studio poses. There was one of the six of them snapped at a New York City protest. The girls all wore T-shirts that said Proud Feminist. Gabriel’s said Men of quality do not fear equality. There was one from the famous Dad-and-Kim birthday dinner, which was now surrounded by more such dinners.

  But her favorite was the one of all of them taken earlier that summer.

  Their wedding portrait.

  They’d married at Linda and Stuart’s home, with Mike as best man and Roseann, Vivian, and four Ivers girls as bridesmaids. Lia had worn a simple strapless gown and Gabriel had worn a suit. They’d written their own vows and Lia had spent weeks obsessing over how to include her new daughters in the ceremony in a way that would hold special meaning for each of them. In the end, she decided instead of wearing a single wedding band, she’d wear five.

  One ring from each Ivers.

  They were extremely narrow bands, each just wide enough to engrave the name of one of Gabriel’s daughters. The ring he’d given her was slightly wider and studded with tiny diamonds.

  It had been a gorgeous summer day. Flowers spilled all over the backyard and the girls had helped their grandfather make a flower-covered arch. To her complete shock, both of her parents had walked her down the aisle. In the days leading up to the wedding, Lia spoke to each girl privately. She’d promised good-night kisses and bedtime stories to Emmy, and to always model what a healthy and loving marriage looked like to Kimberly. She’d promised that she’d learn how to cook something besides Meatloaf Again to Maddie, and to help Olivia become the kind of woman other little girls might one day read about. During the wedding, when each of Gabriel’s daughters stepped up to place their own ring on Lia’s finger, it was Olivia who’d broken down first and cried great big happy tears. Of the four girls, it was Olivia who called her Mama-Lia, something she’d started as a joke.

  Everybody kind of liked it now.

  They’d spent an amazing weekend at Montauk while the girls stayed with Linda and Stuart. Before picking them up on Sunday, Gabriel took Lia to see a house near Linda and Stuart’s that was up for sale. It was a large rambling two-story, with a three-car garage and a swing set in the backyard. They’d bought it and moved in just before school started.

  The girls had some emotions to deal with. They were excited about getting new rooms and about Lia living with them but they didn’t want to leave their Bayside friends. And when Maddie began begging for a baby brother, Lia told Gabriel about Roseann’s selfless and loving offer to carry a child for her.

  “If you want a baby, I’ll do whatever I have to do to give you one,” he’d told her. “But
don’t do it for me. I already have all I could ever want.”

  It took her a few weeks to do her typical careful and detailed analysis to arrive at a decision. With Gabriel and their girls, Lia decided their family was complete. Together, they explained to the girls that there couldn’t be more children. She cried when little Emmy pressed a kiss to her tummy to make the boo-boo all better.

  Those girls had become her world now.

  Lia poked her head into Emmy’s room. The crib was long gone. At four years old, Emmy slept in a bed with her bear and her baby blanket.

  “Good morning, Emmy.”

  Emmy lifted her head from her pillow with a smile. “Hi, Lia. Hi. It’s morning?”

  “Yes, sweetheart. It’s morning. What should we wear today?” She moved to the dresser, found a pair of blue shorts and a matching top. “How’s this?”

  “Pretty.”

  Lia helped Emmy brush her teeth and fix her hair. She was still a handful, still Daddy’s little E-Rex, and still charming. She gave Lia a sunny smile and said, “Can you put the front up, please?”

  That was her favorite hairstyle. Her hair was longer and thicker now, so Lia often scooped the front up and left the back long, where it fell in soft sunny curls to her shoulders.

  “Okay, head downstairs. Daddy’s making breakfast.”

  “Yay!”

  Lia went to Maddie’s room next and repeated the steps in this dance. Maddie was eight years old now, still a chatterbox and still easily distracted. Lia found her reciting lines from the play her theater group would be performing next month.

  “Good morning, Dorothy. Time for you and Toto to get ready for school.”

  “Oh, Auntie Em, must we?”

  “You must.”

  Giggling, Lia helped Maddie find an outfit to wear and pinned up her hair. Lia had this down to a science now. She made a narrow braid down one side of Maddie’s head, fastened the rest of her hair into a bun and wrapped the braid around it. Maddie said it was the perfect style to hold her tiara on without it falling off.

  When she poked her head into the room Kimberly and Olivia decided to share, she found both girls already awake and getting dressed. “Lia. I need to talk to you,” Kimberly said with wide eyes and an urgent tone.

  Lia remembered being fifteen. “Sure, Kim. Liv, could you give us a few minutes?”

  “It’s okay. Liv already knows.”

  Concerned, Lia sat on the bed next to Kim. “What’s up, sweetheart?”

  “Um. Well. There’s a school dance coming up and this guy…Kaden…he asked me to go with him.”

  Lia’s heart stuttered, then took off flying. Gabriel was going to lose his mind when he heard about this. Good thing she’d be right there to help him hang on to it. “Do you like Kaden?”

  Kim shrugged. “I don’t know yet. I’ve only been in school for like, two weeks. He seems pretty nice, but it’s too soon to tell. What should I tell him?”

  “Well, let me ask you this. Did he ask you to the dance as a date or did he ask you just as a friend?”

  Kimberly exchanged a horrified glance with her sister. “I have no idea!”

  “Okay, okay. Let’s not panic. When’s the dance?”

  “Like three weeks.”

  Hoo, boy. A lot could happen in three weeks. “Okay, so there are two ways you can approach this. First, you could just go to the dance as friends. You each pay for your own night. No pressure. No expectations. Or, you could maybe invite him here one day after school to play video games and just hang out without anybody else around, see if you like each other.”

  Liv jumped on the bed. “Or, you could just blow off the dance, which is a totally archaic tradition that no longer has any basis in today’s reality.”

  “That’s a good suggestion, too. Thanks, Professor.” Lia smiled at Olivia. “But I think Kimberly wants to go to the dance. Am I right?”

  “Yeah, but—” Kimberly bit her lip and shrugged. “I think I like him. Can I invite him over today?”

  Lia shook her head, remembering the family’s schedule. “No, not today. But tomorrow or any other day this week is fine with me. I can juggle some client work to make sure I’m home to keep your sisters busy. And I’ll help you discuss this with your dad.”

  Kim rolled her eyes. “He’s gonna freak out.”

  “Yep.” Olivia jumped up.

  “I’ll help you,” Lia said again, and was rewarded with one of Kimberly’s fast hugs.

  Downstairs, the morning rush was its typical chaos. Maddie couldn’t find the shoes she wanted to wear, Olivia’s braces were killing her, Kimberly’s hair looked “terrifying!” and Emmy just wanted to stay home and bake brownies. While Gabriel scooped bacon and eggs onto plates, Lia helped tame hair, administer medicine, and locate shoes and backpacks.

  As soon as everybody sat down at the table, Lia took a breath and said, “Gabriel, Kim wants to invite a friend from school over one day this week. I said it would be okay on any day except today, because our schedule is so packed. His name is Kaden.”

  Gabriel’s fork froze halfway to his mouth. “His name?”

  “Yes. He invited Kim to the dance next month. I think we should meet him before then, don’t you?”

  “Yes. Yes, I absolutely do. Is he one of those guys who wears eyeliner and has tons of piercings?”

  “Um. Gabriel. You wear nail polish.” Lia took one of his hands. He snatched it back.

  “I wear nail polish because it makes my girls smile. I’m not rebelling against anything or anybody.”

  “I’m only suggesting you keep an open mind,” Lia said, holding up both hands.

  “We’ll discuss this tonight. Girls, let’s go.”

  He stood up, kissed Lia, and walked down the driveway with the girls. Lia set the dishes into the sink to soak and watched their neighbor, Donna, stop for Emmy. The pre-school drop-off was Donna’s job. Lia did the pick-ups. Emmy adored playing with Donna’s little girl, a quiet child named Jennifer, who loved to draw. Lia adored Donna, who was fast becoming a close friend. Gabriel buckled Emmy into the back seat of Donna’s minivan, where a booster just for her waited.

  The buses chugged up their street. Maddie’s was first. Lia watched from the front window as Olivia ran up the steps to her bus, calling something over her shoulder that made her father smile and wave. The high school bus was last.

  She watched Gabriel stand there until all the buses and all the girls were long out of sight. She moved to the front door, stood on the porch, until he turned and noticed her there. He jogged back up the drive. She met him at the bottom of the porch steps, put her arms around him.

  “You knew this day would come.”

  “She’s fifteen, Lia.”

  “Almost the same age you were when you first set eyes on her mother.”

  He groaned and shut his eyes. “You are so not helping.”

  “Yes. I am.” She wrapped her arms around his waist, rose up on her toes to kiss him. “I’m reminding you that you’ve raised a whole crop of good kids. She’s not going to do anything risky.”

  “It’s not her I’m worried about, it’s him. What the hell kind of name is Kaden, anyway?”

  “That’s what we’re going to find out when she invites him over. And one of us will drive him home so we can check out the family, too.”

  Gabriel stared at her in amazement. “Every once in a while, you show a devious side. I like it. It’s kind of a turn-on.” He glanced at his watch. “You know, I don’t have to be anywhere for fifteen more minutes.”

  She smiled at him. “We’ve discussed this. You know how I feel about rushing these things. We have all night, every night.”

  She saw the cloud pass over his face, the one that told her he was scared that might not be true for them, just like it wasn’t true for Janey. But in true Gabriel form, he battled it back and kissed her cheek before heading for his truck. “Okay. See you later.”

  As she watched him walk away, the way he wore his jeans made her think pat
ience wasn’t always a virtue. “On the other hand,” she called out. “It is a long, long time until tonight.” And then she ran.

  It took him a second. Then he was chasing her into their house, shedding clothes as he ran up the stairs to the bedroom where they would make the most of however much time they’d have, knowing even if it was a lifetime, it would still never be long enough.

  The End

  More by Patty Blount

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  About the Author

  Powered by chocolate, Patty Blount is a hopeless romantic who frequently falls in love with fictional characters, only to suffer repeated broken hearts when the story ends, kicking her back out into the real world. Goodness and Light is her first contemporary romance for adults—to date, three of her novels for teens have been published, with a fourth expected in 2015.

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