"And additionally, Tanner has mentioned that you're interested in planning a charity function of your own, much like the Poverty Ball," Linda went on. "We would love to help out and make sure it gets just as much of a positive reception."
I smiled, even though she couldn't see me through the phone. I had continued to draw up plans for a charity function, out in the O'Callahan gardens, but I would love to have Linda's expertise. "That would be wonderful, thank you."
"Then it's settled!" she declared. "The next Stone family brunch is going to be at your place!"
"Wait, what?" I hadn't expected that.
"Don't worry," she assured me. "We'll take care of everything. You just have to provide the kitchen facilities, and we'll bring everything else. It will be great fun. You'll see!"
Julius hadn't looked thrilled when I told him about the upcoming brunch, but he couldn't complain – Tanner, as soon as we managed to stop ripping off each other's clothes, had gone to him and told him that he was about to become a manager. "Seriously, we need to get this place cleaned up and restored to its full glory," he told Julius. "So right away, we're going to look into hiring some maids and cleaning staff."
Previously, when I'd suggested the same thing to Julius, he told me that it wasn't necessary – but Tanner insisted on it. And, to my surprise, Julius turned out to be a great manager, directing the maids with a firm but not unkind voice and making sure that every detail was addressed. In a matter of days, my old, dusty, rather dirty mansion transformed itself into a new and amazing building.
Before we reached the front entrance to my house, Tori turned off to one side.
"Into the lion's den," she whispered conspiratorially to me as she turned towards the living room, where the husbands of the women in my kitchen had set up residence. Tanner had greeted Richard with a formal handshake, Teddy with a hug, and Sebastian with a slap on the back, as if they were all former fraternity brothers who hadn't seen each other in years. He even bent down to give a little wink and wave to Sebastian's young daughter, a move that made my heart swell up in my chest to the point where it felt like it might explode.
Now, I watched as Tori confidently knocked once on the door to the living room and then, without waiting for a response, opened it and strode in. Now that, I thought with a little twinge of envy, was the kind of woman that I'd always considered to be above me. She had a child, a beautiful new baby girl, but she still seemed to possess utter confidence in herself, could handle any social situation, master any room from the moment that she entered. Tori probably never listened to any rumors at all.
All the Stone women, in fact, were amazing, each in their own way. Linda might ask like a mother, but she also knew how to handle any situation, instantly taking charge and keeping everyone calm as she fixed any problems before they could become anything more than minor. Callie cracked jokes with a devil-may-care attitude that was totally genuine, and her petite little frame overflowed with confidence. Tori was the perfect combination of grace, style, and poise, and even now, a new mother, I didn't have to try hard to imagine her striding down a red carpet or across a model's catwalk.
And they wanted me to be a part of their circle! Even now, I sometimes had to surreptitiously pinch myself to make sure this wasn't a wonderful dream. None of them had said a single thing about my former husband, about the Black Widow nickname, about the rumor that I'd killed him for my money. They embraced me as the woman that Tanner loved, and that apparently meant that I was worthy in their eyes – no further proof needed.
I finally reached the front grand entrance, where Champagne still stood, turning in a slow circle as she stared around at the interior.
"What's different?" she demanded, once I appeared.
"Everything is clean," I answered, beaming as I moved forward to give her a hug. "Tanner insisted on it. I can't believe that I went so long without having a professional cleaning service take care of everything. It's like I've gone back in time to when the mansion was brand new!"
"That's not the only thing that's brand new," Champagne said, releasing me from the hug but holding my upper arms as she examined me. "Girl, you are positively glowing! Either you've, like, taken up cocaine, or falling in love has had a huge impact on you!"
"I don't think it's cocaine," I sighed, rolling my eyes. Same old Champagne. She and Callie would probably hit it off instantly. They both had the same penchant for potentially inappropriate humor. "Did your husband come along with you?"
"Tarquin?" She glanced over her shoulder. "He's parking the car. Insisted on driving us instead of just using the chauffeur, like normal, but he's apparently 'getting back into driving'." She held up her hands to emphasize the finger quotes. "He'll be in soon enough."
"Well, he can join Tanner and the other Stone men in the living room."
"What are they doing in there? Comparing details, eh?" Champagne waggled her eyebrows as she bumped an elbow against me, and I giggled even as I pushed her away.
"Knock it off, would you? I think there's some sort of sports event going on. Tanner said he'd make it interesting with some side bets, so they're probably cheering wildly over absolute nonsense."
"That's men, most of the time." Champagne looked again at me, narrowing her eyes. "You really are different, you know."
I paused in leading her back to the kitchen and the other women. "What do you mean?"
"Before, I never would have said anything to you, but you were... a shell," Champagne said, and for once, she seemed totally serious. "I really was worried about you, Helen. You're one of the people who listens to me, puts up with all my bullshit. You and Tarquin. If I lost one of you, I'd be hopeless. And I really thought, for a little bit, that I was in danger of losing you."
Tears rushed into my eyes, and I pulled her into a hug. "I'm not going anywhere," I promised her, the words slightly muffled as I pressed my face into her shoulder.
"You're going to make me start crying, too, and ruin my makeup!" Champagne sobbed back into my chest. "Stop making me emotional!"
"What's going on here?"
We both pulled back apart as Tori reappeared from inside the living room where the men were now loudly shouting about something. She held the door open so that Lord Tarquin Phillips, Champagne's husband, could duck inside. He was a massive bear of a man, well over six feet in height and looking wide as a fridge. Despite all that muscle and strength, however, he treated Champagne like a queen, would bend over backwards to please her. Now, he spared a quick glance for the waterworks on both Champagne's and my own faces. Tori pointed at the room with the other men and Tarquin headed in that direction, appearing rather grateful that he had the opportunity to make his escape.
"Nothing," I told Tori, reaching up to wipe a tear away with one finger. "Just a little shared happiness over how much better things have gotten. That's all."
Tori smiled. "You don't need to worry about telling me," she promised, stepping forward to rest a hand on my arm. "Trust me, when I look back at who I was before I finally opened up and realized my true feelings for Sebastian..." she looked down, blinking. "Our baby, Lily, was unexpected, but she turned out to be the best thing to happen to me."
"Well, let's get back to the kitchen, before we all start bawling out here!" I said, sensing more tears coming.
"Oh, Helen, while we're walking," Tori spoke up as we headed back towards the rear of the house. "Seb reminded me. Do you have any extra copies of Tanner's books lying around?"
"Which ones?" I asked, rolling my eyes. "Of course we've got extra copies. He's gotten to the point where other celebrities are sending copies to him with their signatures in the front cover, hoping to convince him to consider casting them in the movie adaptations!"
"Movie adaptations?" Champagne asked, perking up. She still insisted that she hadn't read a single one of my future husband's novels, but she certainly looked at Tanner McCallister differently, now that she'd seen the size of his book sales numbers.
I nodded. "At least for The Cl
imb, his first. Two studios are in a bidding war over the script, but Tanner's already picking out the actors and actresses he wants for the roles. When he's not writing, he's watching movies, trying to figure out the range of the different actors. He's picked out someone named Jake Burne as the main man, to the point where it sounds like he's more in love with Burne than with me!"
We arrived back in the kitchen, where we found Julius topping off the drinks of the other two Stone wives. I waited for him to finish pouring the prosecco, then caught his attention.
"Julius, could you grab a few copies of Tanner's books for Tori, please?"
He turned and gave Tori a nod of his head. "Of course. Anything else I can do for you, Miss O'Callahan?"
"You know, in a few months, you'll have to call her Mrs. McCallister," Callie Vere added. "Unless she's going to keep her last name, like I did."
I didn't say anything, just smiling, but I knew already what choice I'd make. Helen McCallister did have a nice sound to it, I thought. And Tanner would be overjoyed. He'd never pressured me in the slightest to consider adopting his name, but I knew how his face would light up when I told him my decision, made entirely on my own.
I loved seeing his face light up like that, loved that special smile that he gave me. When he smiled at me like that, I knew that, in his eyes, I was the only woman in the world.
His muse.
"How are things going in here?"
I blinked in surprise as the man himself asked that question, sticking his head around the corner! Tanner's eyes tracked around the room, checking on each of the other women before returning to my face. "Everything okay? Need anything?" he asked.
"Yeah, for you to butt out!" Callie fired back immediately, grinning as she waved a finger at his face. "I know you're probably still obsessed with your fiancée, but give us a bit of time to ourselves! Go back to your farting and belching with our husbands!"
Tori and Champagne both immediately joined into the teasing, shooing Tanner back out of the kitchen. I let him go – but then, impulsively, darted out into the hallway to catch him before he went back to the other men.
"Hey," I called, and he paused.
His whole face lit up in a heartwarming smile as he saw me, and he swept me up into his strong arms. "Hey, yourself," he answered, pulling me in close and giving me a kiss that made my eyes briefly cross.
"What was that for?"
He shrugged one shoulder. "Just glad that I found you. Before I met you, I'd talk to the Stone brothers, Richard and Teddy and Sebastian, and I thought that they were so confident and relaxed and fulfilled in life because they were rich."
"That wasn't the reason?"
He shook his head solemnly. "Not at all. They were happy because they'd found their other halves, the women who gave them a real reason to strive to be their best in every area of life. I didn't have that, and I couldn't see, before, how much I'd been missing."
"And now?"
His smile widened, and he kissed me again. "Now, I wake up every day feeling like I've finally found the piece that I was missing, all these years."
"You're also rich, too," I felt like I had to point out.
He flapped one hand dismissively. "Not what makes me happy. I don't care about the number of zeroes on my bank account." His arms tightened around me, squeezing me in a hug. "I care about the woman waking up next to me."
I matched his smile, leaned in to give him one last, long, lingering kiss. "I love you so much, Tanner McCallister," I whispered, "and I can't wait to marry you."
"I love you too, my muse," he whispered back. "I've been searching for you, even if I didn't know it before I found you."
"And now that you've found me?"
He gave me one last smooch, this one on the forehead. "And now, I'm never letting you go," he finished. He released me from the hug, but his eyes, sparkling and filled with love, kept me mesmerized. "Go back in and have brunch with your friends. But afterwards, you're all mine."
"And for the rest of my life." His gaze, his love, filled me with warmth.
Tanner headed back down the hallway, and I returned into the kitchen. Champagne was right; I felt like an entirely different woman from the one I'd been, only a few months earlier. I knew that many more twists and turns lay ahead in life, but with Tanner at my side, I'd handle them all.
I might be his muse, but he was my lifesaver.
That's all - for now...
Tanner and Helen, along with all the other characters of the Stone series, will return in the next novel:
For Love of the Game
Coming soon!
Still want a little more of Tanner and Helen?
There are a few chapters that didn't make it into this book! I love writing about both these strong heroes, and I had to leave out a chapter where Tanner takes Helen to her very first dive bar.
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A Billion Little Clues
Melinda Gaines, overworked personal assistant, is cursed with permanently bad luck. Her boss keeps making unreasonable demands, and no guy has seen the inside of her apartment in months.
But when Melinda is sent to a party at the CEO's house, she ends up on a romantic, moonlit balcony with an unnervingly handsome stranger. Melinda is convinced that her run of bad luck is over.
That is, until she finds that her latest crush is being accused of murder...
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If you enjoyed this story, check out other works by Samantha Westlake:
On Duty - A Small Town Police Romance
"I glared up at my father's house, my unhappy childhood home. I'd sworn that I'd never come back..."
Seven years ago, Kasey Clayton left her unhappy hometown of Roseburg, Oregon. Since then, everything's gone downhill. Her apartment's tiny, her job sucks, her car's a rolling bucket of rust, and she hasn't been on a date in months. And now, her father has died - but he's left his dilapidated house in Roseburg to her.
Back in high school, Jameson was the town's "rebel without a cause." Now, he's tall, sexy, flirtatious - and yet more irritating than any other man Kasey knows. But he's also good with his hands, and she needs his help. As they grow closer, Jameson's flirting grows more intense - and Kasey reciprocates. For now, he's everything she needs to take her mind off her worries.
How can Jameson offer a future, when Kasey wants to flee the town he defends? What will Kasey choose, when forced to decide between the hottest man she's ever known, or finally escaping her hated hometown for good?
A Foolproof Marriage
"She needed a husband. He needed cash. Their plan was foolproof."
Jillian Claymont knows exactly what she needs - a husband. A husband would impress the Vice Presidents at her company, open the door to a big promotion, and give her the success she craves. A husband would also finally satisfy her needy single mother, who keeps pestering Jillian to find a man. A husband could even take care of all the errands she never manages to check off her to-do list.
Only one problem - Jillian has zero dating prospects, and she doesn't know a single man she'd consider "husband material." So Jillian does what
any sensible, high-powered businesswoman would do in her situation. She has a couple glasses of wine and turns to the internet...
The Stolen Girl: A Wild Roads MC Novel
"Hello, little kitty," the big biker leered at me as I shrank back in fear. His black glove reached out for me. "You're coming with me!"
When Senator Leonard Sterling comes home from the day's Congressional session, he finds his daughter missing from their family home, her bedroom window shattered, and a spatter of blood on the pieces of glass...
When Elizabeth Sterling wakes up, she discovers that she's in a cheap motel room. Her hands are shackled behind her, attached to a radiator, and she can hear the thudding of heavy boots outside the motel room door...
When Roads, the motorcycle gang's second-in-command, enters the room, he finds that the young woman, forced into a kneeling position on the motel carpet, is glaring up at him. Her beautiful face is filled with fierce defiance as she stares back without a shred of subservience...
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Samantha Westlake has an unfortunate habit of staying up far too late, reading romance and saucy stories when she really should be sleeping and preparing for work. Samantha currently lives in San Francisco, CA. She draws her inspiration from the wonderful people of the city around her, and can often be found relaxing on the wharf, gazing out in the mornings as the fog burns off the bay.
For Love of Passion (Stone Brothers Book 4) Page 20
