The midwife checks Jenna and looks as us with a smile. “She’s at ten. She can push with the next one. I did cut it very close making here in time.”
Jenna looks at me with a red face and tears fall. “Reed, we’re about to meet our daughter. Our baby girl.”
I kiss the tears away and give her hand a little squeeze. “I know. Are you happy, Jenna?”
She nods. “More than I ever thought possible. Thank you, Reed. Thank you so much.”
I tweak her nose. “Thank you, Jenna. You’re the one who made this life we share possible. I love you more than you will ever know.”
“And I love you.” Jenna’s lips touch mine. Then they harden as she pulls back from me with a deep groan. “It’s time!”
We look back at the midwife, who’s wiping tears out of her eyes so she can see. “You two are so perfect for each other. It pulls at my heart. Okay.” She sniffles. “Let’s see what we have here. A head full of blonde hair, it seems.”
Jenna pushes, and her face goes really red. Then she stops and looks at me. “Wow! That was hard, and she’s not even out yet.”
I gently stroke her arm. “You’re doing so good, Mama.”
With another wave, Jenna goes red again and makes a loud grunting sound. Then I hear our daughter crying.
It’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard. “You did it, Angel.” I kiss her cheek, and she closes her eyes.
“We did it, Reed. You and me. Together, we made ourselves a family.” Her head leans against my shoulder as the midwife holds up our daughter and we gaze at her like she’s a precious work of art.
We did it!
ROD
My brother moved his family out to a place in Wyoming to get his kids out of the city and into the country. Seems his twelve-year-old son, Glen, was getting into trouble already, and they wanted to see if a change in environment might help him to straighten up.
When Jenna called and asked if I could bring my family to come see their new place and maybe see if there was anything I could say to Glen to get him on a better path, I had to come.
“Wow,” Ashley says as we turn into a driveway lined with giant trees. “This is gorgeous. I like it better than the mansion they had in Bel-Air.”
I roll down the windows and take in the fresh air. “You and I are going to take the bike out for a ride while we’re here. The kids can visit their cousins for a little while, so you and I can spend a little Mommy-Daddy time.”
Our two daughters in the backseat of the truck both groan. Miranda, our fifteen-year-old, whines, “The cousins!”
Her twelve-year-old sister, Hope, joins her. “Dad, do we have to? Can’t you take us with you?”
“No room. Sorry,” I say, and give Ashley’s hand a squeeze. “Your Aunt Jenna will probably take you girls shopping. That will be nice, won’t it?”
“I guess,” Miranda says. “But this isn’t Beverly Hills, Dad. It’s the middle of nowhere.”
I pull up in front of a monster-sized place that looks like a hotel instead of a home. The front door opens and there stand my brother and his wife.
My heart always does this little dance when I see my old flame. I love that girl still, but in a sister-in-law way now.
My legs are stiff as I climb out of the truck, followed by my family, and Jenna has me in a hug before I know it. “Rod! I’m so happy you came all this way.”
After exchanging hugs and hellos we go inside, and I see young Glen looking at me with eyes just like mine. The steel-blue in them glistens as he sees me.
That kid and I are cut from the same cloth, and he saunters his little twelve-year-old body up to me. “Hey, Uncle Rod! How’s it hanging?” He holds out his hand, and we do this little hand clasp thing I showed him.
Out of the corner of my eye I see Reed rolling his eyes. I chuckle. “It’s hanging, little man. I hear you like to take cars out on your own already.”
He shrugs and leans back against the wall, putting his foot up behind him. Jenna calls out to him, “Glen, what have I told you about putting your feet on the wall?”
With a smirk and a nod, he takes his foot down and puts his hands in his pockets. “The car was this guy’s mother’s. This guy hit my little brother, Pat. I told him if he ever did that again, he’d be sorry he did.”
“I see,” I say, as I lean up against the wall with him. “And how did his mother’s car help you make him sorry?”
“After I told him that, he ran to his mommy like a little snitch and told on me. She came up to me at the playground and griped me out. So then I needed to teach her not to ever talk to me like that. Two days later that guy hit Pat again at the same playground. So I went to her car and got in. She’d left the keys in it, another thing my taking her car was going to teach her not to do again.”
“Of course,” I say, as I listen to his logic.
“And I started the car and proceeded to chase the guy down with it. My parents didn’t see what I did as a good thing. Especially since it ended with me hitting the monkey bars, because the little chicken climbed up on them to get away from me. His fault, I thought.” He nods and looks at me for confirmation that he did all the right things and everyone else was wrong.
“You know, Glen, I was a lot like you when I was a kid.”
Jenna adds, “And a grown up.”
I glance sideways at her. “Okay, fair enough. Anyway, like I was saying, Glen, I was a lot like you when I was younger. I thought I needed to teach lessons. But what I found out is that’s not up to me. I just needed to live my life and let the lessons in other’s lives get taught to them in their own ways. Leave the punishing by the wayside. People get what they have coming to them in other ways. It wasn’t up to me. You’ll do better the quicker you figure that out.”
He nods then looks hard into my eyes. “So, you’re saying, if another guy hits my brother, let my brother deal with that?”
I nod. “Or your parents. It takes a load off your shoulders if you let someone else figure out what to do about something you think isn’t right. And just live your life. Saves you a ton of trouble, I assure you. Don’t try to change a person. Pick people to be in your life who are already like you or like the people you want to be around. And leave the punishing and teaching up to someone else. You get me?”
A smile moves over his face. “I got you, Uncle Rod.” He slams his fist against mine as I hold it up.
I run my hand over his little dirty blond head, the only kid they have with the same color hair I have. “Wanna go with me on a ride? I brought my Harley.”
“Will you teach me how to drive it?” he asks with a gleam in his eyes.
I see Jenna shaking her head and Reed nodding his. “Yeah, I’ll teach you how. Come on.”
And maybe I can help this kid not to be a screw up like I was!
JENNA
The stars in the Wyoming sky are a bit brighter than anywhere else I’ve ever lived in. Reed and I sit under a tree in our backyard and look up at them, as everyone else has gone to bed.
His lips touch the side of my head. “Maybe Rod’s being around Glen will change things.”
“I hope so.” I turn and take Reed’s mouth in a hungry kiss. “Want to make love to me under the stars?”
“Do you even have to ask that?” He pushes me back and I run my arms around his neck.
Next week is our twentieth wedding anniversary and, still, Reed’s touch sends me to another place in my head. A place where only he and I exist.
His mouth leaves mine as he looks down at me. “I love you, my angel.”
With a smile, I say, “I love you, my prince. And I always will.”
As he takes my mouth with his, I think to myself how lucky I am to have found the man who can make me feel so amazing, and I will never let him go for the rest of my life.
And we all lived happily ever after …
The End
The Intern Installment
A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance
Damon James is a thirty-y
ear old CEO of the top Architecture firm in Boston, Elkus Manfredi Architects. He is obsessive with detail, rigid with his schedule, and a hard boss to have for his staff, as well as a tough man to have an interest in.
He is also a Dom, and very casual with his dating life, if you could call it that at all.
Damon is six foot two and muscular, due to his workout every morning after he jogs for five miles. He keeps himself in the best shape that he can be in, though he is already gorgeous, with dark brown, spiked hair that is never out of place and crystal blue eyes that are capable of expressing what he is feeling most of the time, much to his dismay. They can turn cold or burn hot, depending on the situation he is in and the emotions that he is feeling. Normally, he is in control of such things, and it is an intimidating factor about his looks and his personality.
He is a hard worker, even being head of the company, and he keeps it successful and top rated in the nation. He is worth billions of dollars, in part due to his father passing away when he was ten and the trust fund that was started for him at the time by his mother. She’s remarried to the owner of the company, who decided to give Damon the reins once he retired to travel with his new wife at the age of sixty. That is where the rest of the money comes from, but he is Kenneth Matthews only child and heir, once he passes away, along with Damon’s mother.
Damon lives alone in the top story of one of the best buildings in Boston, with no pets and just a few staff members who he pays well to run the house and keep his life private.
Elisa Moore is twenty-one, and a junior at MIT in Boston. She is at the top of her class and was recommended for an internship at the firm, which has two openings.
She is five foot seven and curvy, though still slender. She has pale, strawberry blonde hair and eyes the color of green grass, with a hint of shimmer. Her skin is pale and dusted with light freckles and full pink lips.
Elisa is confident where school is concerned, but shy otherwise. She’s put her all into school, after seeing her single mother work up to three jobs to support her after her father left the family when she was eleven. Elisa got a scholarship to college, a full ride, and she’s worked every minute of every day to stay at the top of her class.
Some would say that she’s a nerd, but Elisa thinks that it all paid off when she’s notified of the internship. Elkus Manfredi is the best, and it would look great on a resume, but it would be even better if she was hired on once she graduated from college.
With that money, she could get her mother settled in a better part of town and not working so hard, since Mary was fifty-five now. Elisa could also get out of the tiny dorm room that she shared with three other people, and into her own place, where there would be some peace. She wasn’t a social butterfly, and the girls that she lived with drove her crazy sometimes. There were only two bedrooms and a tiny living room, and sometimes the girls acted like they owned the entire room.
Elisa blamed that on the fact that she didn’t truly enjoy her college experience, but she was withdrawn to begin with.
Part 1
Damon
I ran one of the most successful architecture companies in the world, well-known to everyone in the business. I was involved in every aspect of the daily activities, though one of my least favorite parts was interviewing for interns every year.
It was something that came along with the company. and it was a great learning tool for the students, so I kept the policy. I just typically left it to my managers, who were more hands-on with the teams, to decide who to hire out of all of the faces that we saw.
I started caring more, however, the moment that Elisa walked in the door. She was everything that I didn’t look for in a woman: sweetness, innocence, and inexperience. She was guarded and intelligent, and I fought to keep her out of my company, against the wishes of everyone else at that interview.
Elisa
I was excited about the interview to intern at Elkus Manfredi Architecture, since it carved out a perfect future for me. I excelled at school and was recommended for the position, a condition that wasn’t easy to fulfill. I dressed the part, made the perfect resume outlining my experience, and went into the building with my head high.
Then I saw the most gorgeous man that I’d ever seen in my life. He first caught my attention in the elevator and then in the room where I was to be interviewed.
I knew that, regardless of whether I got the position or not, I’d never forget the way that he had made me feel. I’d never forget the way he heated me up and shook me to my very core.
Could I handle working with him? Could I ignore the intensity between us with my future in mind?
Damon
It was dark and cold outside as I left my building for my morning run, nodding as the doorman told me to be careful. I loved fall in Boston and preferred it to the crowds that jogged in the summer, getting in my way and throwing off my day. I started to jog at an even pace and headed towards the crosswalk to go over to the Boston Common Park as I looked around at the empty streets, apart from cabs and early morning commuters. This was when I liked the city—when I could focus.
It was still dark outside, and I took deep breaths of the chilled air and started through the trail that made its way through the center of the park. Everything was in shades of fall now; the leaves, yellow, orange and red as they drifted down to the ground in the early morning. It made it worthwhile to avoid this place later in the day, when everyone would gather with their cameras of various kinds and go on about the foliage.
Yes, it was pretty enough, and I appreciated fall. I just didn’t see the need to keep talking about it. I wanted quiet and peace. I wanted to think about my day and prepare my mind for the hour-long workout that I’d be doing after this five-mile run. It was a ritual of mine, followed by a long, thorough shower before I dressed for work.
I was the CEO of one of the most successful architecture companies in the world, Elkus Manfredi. The company was established fifty years ago, and had several locations in some of the bigger American cities and even in a few other countries. I could work wherever I chose to, though I preferred to stay in Boston. I knew the city and could find my way here without a lot of fuss, though I traveled when needed for the company. It was a welcome break from my day-to-day routine, and I enjoyed seeing what was happening in the company, feeling great pride over the growth I’d seen in the last six years.
Home was home, though.
I ran past the pond, where the ground was covered with leaves and the wind blew around me. I was dressed in my new jogging clothes, light enough to run in, but warm enough to keep me comfortable. I jogged steadily as I let my mind move ahead to what my day entailed.
Every fall, we hired interns from some of the top schools in the area, depending on our current needs. This year, we would hire two to help with the teams that planned our buildings, some of which were world famous. Working with interns wasn’t something that I dealt with personally, apart from being involved in the panel interview. I wanted to make sure that they were a good fit for the company, given that most of them were close to graduating, and we did consider hiring them after graduation. I just didn’t have any part of the training and, therefore, took on a lot of responsibilities myself.
I learned about hard work from my father. He ran a construction company, until he passed away from a heart attack when I was eleven years old. In the summers, I went into work with him, learning everything that I could. Being from a family of wealth didn’t make me lazy, and I wanted to be the one running a successful company.
My father had nothing to do with my current job, though he’d set aside a generous trust fund for me before his death, as well as seeing that Mom was well taken care of. Apparently, at eleven, I could not take over his company, so his brother did and ruined it within three years. I always vowed to be better than that.
My job had belonged to my stepfather of five years before he decided to travel with Mom at the ripe old age of fifty-three. Mom was five years younger than he was, and
they were in great health to go all over the world on their adventures.
I ran by the statue and toward the other side of town as I thought back to those first days. Some men were capable of taking over the company, men that had a lot of years invested as well as the talent. Kenneth saw me for what I was: sharp, intelligent, with a mind for business, and offered me the position of CEO. Some people resented me there, even hated me. I heard the whispers when I walked around, but I didn’t care. This company improved after I had started running things. I had five managers that I got on well with and could share ideas with, knowing that it stayed between us.
Those were the men who were joining me in the panel interview in just a few hours. The interns would be working under them, making their opinion valuable, even though I wanted to be involved in any of the final decisions. They understood that, and the process generally went smoothly, giving us a handful of new employees over the years.
I had changed a few things within the company after I had taken over, considering the internships. However, Kenneth explained the value of the program to me. It made the company look exemplary to the public, as well as offered some brilliant students who worked hard a chance for a good future, or even just experience. I’d agreed, kept it, and muddled through the interviews every time they came around. Some of the kids were still dumb as rocks, and I wondered how the fuck they did so well in school.
After I had graduated from Phillips Academy with honors, I had tooled around a little with college. I had a degree in Business as well as a minor in Accounting, because it made sense from a business perspective. I didn’t have to struggle with finances or even worry about scholarships, living in one of the nicest apartment complexes in town as I made my way through the three years it took me to get my BA.
I turned the corner once I hit the main street and headed towards the gym in my building. It suited my needs without all of the bright lights and crowds that some of the others offered. I just wanted to do my routine and get upstairs to get myself ready for work.
Rockstar Untamed: A Single Dad Virgin Romance Page 56
