I shrugged. “It’s my party, not to mention my birthday. So I’ll be the rebel for once and say I don’t care if it is.”
Taking my hand, he helped me wave to the smiling couples who watched us leave. “Please tell me you have a room here tonight in the hotel?”
I nodded, thankful I’d decided it would be better to stumble upstairs later than to try heading back to my place after the party.
Which floor?” He tugged me down the hall at a breakneck pace.
“Eleventh, but slow down. My heels can’t keep up with you.” I said this on a laugh and then squealed when he lifted me up over his shoulder.
He then strode into the elevator, just like he’d done in Sydney. Once he pressed the button, he slid me down his length, his lips meeting mine again. “I know we need to talk,” he said in between kisses.
“Uh-huh, but I’m afraid what you might tell me is you’re leaving again after tonight, so maybe it should wait.”
“I told you. I’m here to stay. And here for you. That is, if you’ll still have me.” He kissed me like a starving man before the floor dinged and the doors opened.
This time I grabbed his hand and led him three doors down to my room. He followed me inside and flipped off his mask to reveal his handsome face before taking mine off.
“What does that mean? What happened over the last couple of weeks?”
He sat on the bed, pulling me down onto his lap. “Where to begin? I guess first by apologizing it took so long. But I had a lot of things to work out and felt like if I’d given you pieces, I’d be building false hope. I wanted to wait until I knew one hundred percent I wouldn’t have to move.”
I wasn’t sure two weeks qualified as a long time, but I had to admit it had felt like a lifetime because I hadn’t known if he would return or not. Now I stayed quiet and waited for his explanation.
“Before going to Australia, I first went out to LA to speak with my father. When I finally asked him why he’d left my mother destitute, he was totally clueless. He told me he’d been trying to give her money for years, but my mum would never take it. When I relayed some of their hardship, he broke down and said she’d always insisted she didn’t need anything from him. He’d interpreted that to mean she had it covered. He’s had an account set up to help pay for Thomas’s care for years.” He snapped his fingers. “And just like that, he prepaid the next eighteen months. He seemed almost relieved to finally be able to contribute something.”
I could hear the frustration in Will’s voice about learning the other side of the story after all of these years.
“After I spent a few days with him, I traveled to Australia and talked with my mum. It didn’t go well when I told her my father had contributed. But once I confessed I’d been working at a risqué club, living on the floor of a bedroom, and going without medical insurance in order to keep up the payments, she broke down.”
My eyes went wide. “You told her you worked at a sex club?”
“Not in those words, but I had to allude to it because she wasn’t getting it. I think, in her mind, living in New York and having modelling contracts meant I’d made it and had this money to spend. Plus, if I’m being brutally honest, I think she felt like I owed Thomas, almost as if I was the proxy she could guilt instead of my dad. Her resentment over my father leaving won’t change overnight, if ever, but this is about Thomas. It’s not about her, the divorce, or what happened so many years ago. And you’re right in saying I get a vote in whether I accept my father’s contribution. Frankly, so does Thomas, who after all these years wanted to see him.”
“Wow. So your dad flew out to meet with him?”
He nodded.
“How did that go?” I couldn’t imagine, as a parent, facing a child who for the past seventeen years had thought I’d abandoned him.
“Rough for both of them, but I think it’s an important step towards healing. My father didn’t always make the best decisions, but he’s willing to acknowledge that and apologize. It’s up to Thomas whether or not he can forgive him. The decision doesn’t belong to me and certainly not to my mother.”
He paused, sighing heavily. “Hopefully, she’ll eventually understand. But given how much she’s sacrificed it’s not easy for her. I think part of me will always feel some guilt over the fact that I’m healthy while my brother isn’t, that I wasn’t there to help my mum or spend holidays with them. But it wasn’t as though I had a lot of choices, being a child. I need to stop punishing myself or letting my mother make me feel as though it was somehow my fault that we left.”
A small part of me felt bad he’d gone to all this trouble because of me.
As if sensing my thoughts, he shifted me to the side of him so we could be face to face. Tucking my hair behind my ear, he remarked, “This was a long time coming, Cath and it’s such a relief to finally deal with it. You told me things which weren’t easy to hear that night I called you on the phone, but you loved me enough to say them anyhow.”
He paused, taking a folded paper out of his pocket. “This here, your goodbye note, I kept it with me the entire time, counting the days until I could get back here.”
I swallowed past the lump in my throat. I hadn’t known how to say goodbye, nor had I known the best way to convince him that I loved him, so I’d reverted to something I did do well. I wrote a list. A list of twenty-five reasons I loved him.
“Do you know which one was my favorite?”
I shook my head.
“It’s where you said I make you the very best version of yourself. That you’re not perfect, but are perfectly happy when you’re with me. Or maybe the one where you said you loved my body.”
I laughed. “Hm, I don’t remember saying anything about your body.”
“Must’ve been an interpretation on my part.” His playfulness turned thoughtful as he shifted back to the serious stuff. “I allowed my misperceptions of what happened between my parents to affect my life for too long. But until I had something or, in this case, someone to lose, I hadn’t felt the need to question it. You’ve made me realize I deserve love and support from those close to me. I’m only sorry it took me so long to get there.”
A tear slipped out that he’d spent so many years disbelieving he was worthy of love.
“Don’t cry for me, love. All roads, no matter how rough, led me here to you. And I wouldn’t change it for the world.” He brought our joined hands to his lips, feathering a kiss over my knuckles.
Just as my road led me to him. “So you’re back for good. In New York?”
“I am. After speaking with Josh, he’s agreed to let me rent his extra apartment.”
“Oh.” My face must’ve given away the thought that he could’ve stayed with me.
“I went to him because when we move in together, I want it to be because it’s an important step in our relationship, not because I need a place to stay. Okay?”
I nodded, appreciating his reasoning. “I’m impressed you asked him at all.”
“Then this one will really blow your mind. I also asked Haylee to use her charity connections with the Children’s Hospital in New York. I have a job interview on Monday for a patient counseling position. I’m only a semester and a thesis away from having my Master’s degree, and it’s what I ultimately want to be doing with my life. Working with kids and families.”
I was shocked, but in a good way. For the first time, he’d demonstrated he was willing to accept help. He wasn’t looking for a handout, only a chance to earn something on his own merit. “You’d be great at it.”
“I’ll never be the man who can take care of you financially, and I know you said you don’t need that but—”
I entwined my fingers with his, holding his hand to my heart. “I’d rather have someone to take care of my spirit and, most of all, my heart. But if you break it again, I’m not sure I can take it.” It warranted being said because I was all for second chances, but at the same time, I couldn’t go through this again.
He blew o
ut a shuddering breath. “Never again. I promise.” He kissed me sweetly before smiling. “Sasha and your mother were also very clear about what would happen if I moved away and put you through this again.”
My brows lifted in surprise. “At the party?”
He chuckled with a nod. “When you went to the restroom, they converged on me.”
“What did they say?” I was both amused and apprehensive.
“Sasha, along with Kenzie, said something to the effect of stabbing me in the face with her stiletto. But to be fair, they’d both had quite a few drinks. Kenzie also muttered something about silly men taking forever to get their shit straight, which I can only assume was more a comment about Colby a couple months back, but is also applicable to me.”
“Uh, okay. And my mother?”
He smirked. “She was a little more subtle, informing me that she made amazing Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, and if I didn’t fuck it up again with you, I was invited. Shirt optional, of course.”
Only my mom. “Of course. By the way, Sasha’s shoes are way too expensive for her to chance getting blood on them, and my mom’s sweet potato casserole is legendary,” I deadpanned. We both burst out laughing.
Will caressed my face, turning serious again. “God. Do you have any idea how lucky I feel?”
“Oh, I think I’m the lucky one. Lucky I requested someone else instead of Derek at Club T the second time, lucky I was horrible enough at flirting to get Kenzie to help me so you could realize I was Kat in Vegas, and even luckier that you had appendicitis.”
He shook his head, smiling. “I never thought I’d consider having my appendix removed as good fortune, but clearly it was.” He hesitated but then went on. “I know I still need to work on being too prideful at times, but I swear, I’ll try to keep in mind the joy it gives you to be generous and not begrudge you those opportunities. I trust you, Cath.”
We were both a work in progress. That he acknowledged his flaws gave me the opportunity to fully admit mine. “And I will try to be mindful to consider your feelings and input before making decisions which impact the both of us. That being said, I’m serving notice that in a few months when you earn your Masters, I’d like to take you on a tropical vacation to celebrate?”
He gave me a lopsided grin. “That sounds amazing.” Pulling me off the bed, he enveloped me in an embrace. He then stepped back to meet my gaze, clearly needing to ask me something serious. “What about starting a family?”
This was the one nonnegotiable thing on my list. From his previous comments, I’d assumed he wasn’t opposed to it, yet I realized we hadn’t had an actual conversation about it. “You don’t want kids?”
His eyes danced with laughter. “I want loads of them. Matter of fact, thinking about our future beautiful, blue-eyed, blond babies makes me want to knock you up right this very instant, but I’m wondering if you’re okay with waiting a while? Just until we can do things properly and I get settled into a job. ”
“I don’t want you to feel like I’m rushing you.” The panic I’d once felt over my biological clock had calmed now that I realized the importance of having the right man versus a perceived right time. “And there’s a chance, given my history, that we’d have to go through in vitro. Even then, it isn’t a guarantee.”
“First, you’re not rushing. Second, we can always look into other options if the epic amount of sex we’ll be having doesn’t do the trick the old-fashioned way.”
Swoon.
Now I knew where the expression came from. It came from moments like these where an amazing man says the perfect thing to make you realize any perceived imperfection isn’t a big deal. I wasted no time in kissing him. I kissed him for the time he’d been away. I kissed him for the love I felt, and most of all, I kissed him for the promise of tomorrow.
“Uh, not to complain, but it seems over the last two weeks something changed in your pants.”
He chuckled, pulling back with mischief in his eyes. “I almost forgot.”
I watched him pull a handful of tootsie rolls out and started laughing. “I can’t believe you remembered my favorite Halloween candy.”
“Well, you did have one of the reasons you loved me was that I remembered the little things, from how you take your coffee to your favorite salad, and that it made you feel special.”
“It does.”
He put the candy to the side and weaved his hands into my hair, pulling me closer while his tongue found mine, setting off a spark that had us both frantic to shed our clothes. Off came my pants first, but then Will held up his hand.
“Don’t move.” He stared. “Jesus, you in that leather bustier and a thong is about the hottest thing I’ve ever seen.”
A smile of pure feminine satisfaction took over my face. “Juliette told me all I needed was a whip to display a completely different type of costume.”
He grinned. “Can’t say I’ve ever been into that kind of thing, but with you, I might be game.”
We both laughed until he unceremoniously flopped onto the bed, taking me down with him on top.
“From boring to dominatrix—I don’t think so—ooooh—”
His hand playfully spanked my ass, causing us both to laugh and for me to remember his punishment when I used the dreaded B word.
“What happens when we’re in public, and I accidentally say that word?”
He nuzzled my neck, kissing down my throat. “Say it and see for yourself. After all, my alpha tendencies will not be fenced in, woman.”
I giggled, considering Will was about the most thoughtful alpha I’d ever known. “Throwing me over your shoulder, smacking my ass, and calling me woman. Yeah, I think you’ve officially earned your stripes.”
“Whew. Mission accomplished in the nick of time to balance out the other.”
“What other?”
His hands framed my face, blue eyes full of such emotion that I had to remember to breathe. “The part where I say I love you, Cath, the depths of which I can’t begin to put into words. And now, instead of living a life where I’m going through the motions to fulfill obligations, I’m looking forward to building a real one with you. One which is full of new adventures together.”
I adored this man unequivocally. “I love you too. So much. And if we’re planning new adventures, we probably need a new bucket list of sexual fantasies.”
He flipped me over onto my back and dropped his lips to mine. “Mm. I can think of five things I’d like to put on it right now that we can scratch off tonight.”
I smirked. “Only five? I’ve got twice as many, which may take us into tomorrow.”
EPILOGUE
I loved the surprised look on Catherine’s face when I dropped by her office on Christmas Eve morning, coffee in hand. We were due to take the train up to spend the holiday with her parents in a few hours, but she’d needed to go into work for a while first.
“To what do I owe this pleasure?” she asked in that sexy voice of hers, getting up in an equally sexy red dress, something which probably cost more than the average mortgage payment.
But over the last couple months, I’d stopped caring about things like that. Wearing high-end designer clothing was as much a part of her job as a uniform in any other. Besides, she made it easy not to dwell on such matters since not one bit of her was superficial.
“I finished up a morning appointment at the hospital and thought I’d bring you some coffee after.”
She crossed the room to throw her arms around me and turned her face up for a kiss, not caring one bit that her lipstick was about to get smudged.
I gladly accommodated her.
Taking the cup, she sniffed. “Gingerbread latte, my holiday favorite. Thank you.”
It really was the little things which continued to make her so very happy. If I doubted that for a moment, she reminded me with text messages whenever one of us was out of town like the one from last weekend when I’d had a modelling shoot in the Bahamas.
“I love a man who bring
s me breakfast in bed on a Sunday morning and miss him when he’s gone.”
It had been complete with a number of emoticons which she enjoyed using in her texts these days. Although we were months into our relationship and she no longer had to convince me of all the ways she loved me, it absolutely made my day whenever she did.
“You’re welcome. I’ll let you get back to work and meet you at your place in a couple of hours. Yeah?”
I was still staying in Josh’s extra apartment but spending the weekends at her condo. We had a standing Friday night pizza-and-movies date and Saturdays were typically something with friends or a night out. Then Sunday was my favorite because we spent most of it in bed, which of course started with the breakfast I’d make and bring her.
“Actually, I was just finishing up here. I sent out an email letting everyone take off by noon and enjoy the holidays. How was your appointment this morning? Was it with the Murphy family?”
“It was, and thanks to you, they’re all spending it together. Here.” I handed her the paper that held a crayon-drawn picture ten-year-old Cecilia Murphy had made of the entire family together for Christmas.
She dabbed her eyes of the tears that had come and pinned the picture on her board. “You didn’t tell them it was me, right?”
I shook my head. “Nope. Santa got all the credit, and I got asked to pass on that picture to him.”
I’d always thought Catherine generous, but the more I got to know her, I realized that word wasn’t enough. Case in point, one of the patients I’d been counseling over the last month who was battling leukemia had four brothers and sisters down in South Carolina. They wouldn’t be able to afford traveling up to the hospital here in New York where their sister was receiving chemo. Catherine had not only ensured they’d all been flown up, but had also taken upon herself, with a little help from yours truly, to decorate their hotel room with a tree. Of course, this was in addition to having Santa come in to pass out toys to all of the children in the hospital over Christmas.
Three months ago, I wouldn’t have believed that I could have an amazing start to a career I thoroughly enjoyed, let alone a partner I unequivocally loved even more. Or that I’d deserve it. But that was then and now—Well, now, thanks in part to working every day with people who didn’t take one day for granted, I realized I’d be a fool not to appreciate the things I was fortunate enough to have in my life.
Teach Me Something (Something Series Book 4) Page 27
