“She’s gonna be fine, sweetie,” I assured him. “She’s here, she’s safe, and she’s surrounded by people who love her. We’ll get her through this.”
His throat worked on a swallow before he nodded his head. I took a few steps in his direction, lifting up on my toes to press a kiss to his cheek. “Get some sleep, honey. Tomorrow’s a new day.”
“All right.” I began to turn away when he called my name. “Dani? Just so you know, I think you’re awesome.” Oh God, I was going to cry for sure. “Macie does too. That’s why I know she’ll be good. ’Cause you’re here.”
I cleared my throat, only speaking when I was sure I wouldn’t burst into tears. “You know I love you and your sister both, right? Very much.”
His grin looked so much like his dad’s just then it was uncanny. “Yeah. I know. We’re super lovable.”
I rolled my eyes and gave him a playful shove. “Goodnight, Hardin.”
“Night, Dani. And just so you know, we love you too.”
On that declaration, he closed his door, leaving me shell-shocked. It took a few seconds for that to wash through me, warming me up from the inside out, and once it did, I was able to move, going down the stairs to Leo’s room.
He was sitting on the edge of the bed, elbows braced on his knees when I walked in. “Well?” he asked, his frantic eyes hitting mine as I closed the door behind me. “She’s okay?”
“She’ll be fine. It’ll take a bit, but we’ll get her there.”
He grabbed my hips just as soon as I was close enough, spreading his legs and pulling me in to stand between them. “She open up to you?”
She had, and it wasn’t fun recounting everything she’d told me, but he needed to know. As it turned out, Hardin had been shielding his sister from their mom’s drama, and unfortunately, once he was gone, that shield was gone too.
Where Hardin had gotten mad at his dad because of all the things Whitney fed him, Macie got upset and confused. She knew she loved her dad and she knew she cared about me, so she didn’t know how to act when her mom talked ugly about us. Something she did on a more-than-regular basis when she wasn’t bad mouthing us to her friends on the phone—all of which she said in earshot of Macie.
I’d had to tell him about the conversation Macie and I had in my car earlier that night, and how scared and embarrassed she’d been over her first period; something no girl should ever have to feel about something so natural.
After I finished telling Leo everything I’d learned, he dropped his forehead to my chest and let out a deep breath.
I placed my hands on his shoulders, pressing him back so he’d look up at me. “I talked her through everything,” I assured him. “She knows I’m here for her no matter what.” I smiled, pressing my fingers into his muscles. “She even asked me when our next baking lesson was.”
The relief was written all over his face. “She’s gonna be okay.”
“Yeah, honey.”
“Because of you.”
My heart flipped. “And because of you.”
As soon as the words left my mouth, Leo moved, whipping me around and tossing me onto the bed. Some of his weight came down on me, pinning me in place as he reached up to brush my hair from my face. “There’s somethin’ I’ve been wanting to talk to you about, but I was afraid you’d think it was too soon.”
My heart began beating double time. “Oh?”
“Yeah. If you’re not ready, I’ll understand, but I want you to think about putting your place on the market and moving in with us.”
“Done,” I said so fast his chin jerked back.
“Just like that? You didn’t even think about it, sweetness.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him close enough that he was all I could see. “There’s nothing to think about. I love you. I love your kids. Your bed is softer than mine. You let me sleep in your tees. And I like your house better. So, done.”
He smiled down at me. “Just like that?”
“Just like that.”
“God,” he whispered, lowering his head to rub his nose against mine. “I love you, Danika. More than you could ever imagine.”
“Oh, I think I have some idea.”
With that, he kissed me. Then he did other, even better things.
Epilogue
Danika
Three months later
I pushed through the door of my parents’ house, shouldering it closed behind me and calling out, “I’m here.”
Hardin shot out of the dining room like lightning, grabbing the box from my hand and flipping it open. “Yes,” he exclaimed when he saw the lemon raspberry bars. I’d been feeling a little nostalgic earlier that day, so when I was deciding on what dessert to bring for dinner, I’d gone with the one that started it all.
The box I’d been carrying was double the size it used to be to include Jed’s half since the whole Drake clan now joined our bi-weekly dinners.
“These look awesome, Dani, thanks,” Hardin called out as he bolted for the kitchen.
“Not before dinner,” I shouted after him, knowing my mom wouldn’t be strict so I had to. Where she’d never let me get away with that when I was a kid, Hardin and Macie were wrapped around her little finger and basically got everything they wanted.
Hanging the handle of my purse on the hook by the door, I headed for the dining room. Jed was sitting at the table, Roscoe at his feet. He was feeding my boy treats as he worked to teach him new tricks. I came up behind him and bent to place a kiss on his cheek.
He looked back at me with a smile. “Hey there, darlin’. Good day?”
“Great day,” I replied. Then again, every day for the past few months had been great, even if they weren’t all that fun. I had my man. The court had granted Leo full custody with only limited visitation to Whitney, so now they lived with us full time, only seeing their mom for a day every other weekend. At first I’d worried how they’d handle the change, but they both seemed to be thriving.
Darrin Callo’s murder was still unsolved, which was hard on Leo and Micah both, but I’d never once stopped having faith in them. I knew it was only a matter of time before there was a break in the case.
Until then, Hardin, Macie, and I would just keep doing what we’d been doing and giving Leo a safe place to come home to so we could work on bringing him back to happy, which we always succeeded in doing.
“Good, sweetheart,” Jed said quietly. “I’m glad.”
Just then, my mom’s voice came echoing from the kitchen. “Cal Parrish. If you don’t step away from my stove, I’m gonna smack you upside the head with a cast iron skillet.”
That was quickly followed by Macie’s and Hardin’s laughter. Macie was in there having a cooking lesson with my mom, and Hardin was—I was sure—eating half the lemon bars before anyone else could get their hands on them.
“I was only tryin’ to help, woman,” my father returned.
I tuned them out and looked to Jed. “So I see they’re at it already.”
“Started pretty much the moment we walked in,” he replied on a chuckle.
I placed my hand on his shoulder, giving it a squeeze as I asked, “Leo in there with them?”
“Nah, you know the kitchen isn’t his place.” Jed shot me a wink before continuing, “Think he headed upstairs about five minutes ago.”
I gave Jed’s shoulder one last squeeze and smiled before dropping my hand and heading up the stairs. Sure enough, a minute later, I found Leo standing in my old room, looking out the window I used to sit at.
“Hey,” I said softly, moving to him and pressing against his back. “What are you doing in here?”
He turned around, winding his arms around my waist as I looped mine over his shoulders. “Been in this house more times than I can count in the past few months, and only realized today that I’d never seen your room before.”
“It’s just a room, honey. Nothing special.”
His lips curved up in that smirk that always got to me and
his eyes warmed. “Oh, that’s where you’re wrong, sweetness. This room is special. It’s where it all started.”
My forehead puckered in a confused frown. “What do you mean?”
Shifting me around to face the window, he pressed in behind me, lowering his head to speak in my ear as he held on to my hips. “This is where you said you used to watch me. You said you fell in love with me from this very window.”
My chest got hot as I looked down onto the street, remembering Little Boy Leo with his bright green cast.
“I’ve been standing here, staring across the street, and I suddenly remembered something.”
“Yeah?” I asked, my focus on the blacktop below. “And what did you remember?”
“I remembered a little girl crossing the street on one of the worst days of my life,” he said, causing all the air expel from my lungs. “Didn’t register until I saw that magnolia tree from here. But as soon as I did, that day came back to me.”
“Leo—” I tried turning, but he held me in place.
“I remembered thinking she had the prettiest gray eyes I’d ever seen and that her smile was the best smile ever. I remembered that she made the ache in my chest at my mom leaving just a little bit better just by being there.” My heart began to race. I hadn’t thought he remembered that day, and I certainly hadn’t expected it to have as big an impact on him as it did me. “I was a dumb fifteen-year-old kid back then, so I didn’t realize that my whole world was sitting right beside me. But I get it now.”
His heat left my back his voice a little farther away as he said, “So it only made sense to me that this would be where I should ask you to be my wife.”
I sucked in a gasp and whipped around to find Leo on his knee, holding the most gorgeous ring I’d ever seen between his thumb and index finger. “Danika Parrish, you’re the sweetest, nerdiest, shyest woman I’ve ever known. You’re the only woman I’ve ever loved. You’re the one who taught me what it feels like to truly be happy. Marry me, sweetness.”
I left the tears running down my cheeks unchecked as I dropped down to my knees and cupped his face in my hands. “Leo, do you have any idea how much you mean to me?”
He chuckled taking one of my wrists and pulling it away as he lifted the ring up in front of my face. “I do, baby. So put me out of my misery and say yes already, yeah?”
“Of course I’ll marry you,” I cried as he slipped the ring on my finger, smiling so big my cheeks hurt.
His eyes came back to my face, and he whispered, “There it is.”
“There what is?”
He leaned in, pressing his forehead against mine as he pulled me into his arms. “My smile. The one you’ll only ever give me for the rest of your life.”
He had that right.
I’d barely pressed my lips against his when my mom’s voice rang out from very close.
“She said yes!”
“Mom!” I shouted as the house filled with cheers.
I whipped around to see her huddled near the doorway and glared viciously. “What?” she asked innocently, giving me a shrug. “Someone had to tell the family. You two would’ve locked yourselves up here for the rest of the night and we’d have all been left in suspense.”
“Okay,” I snapped. “So now that you know, you can go away.”
“Fine, fine,” she huffed with a roll of her eyes.
“And close the door behind you,” I called after her.
When the door clicked shut, I turned to Leo to see he was fighting back a laugh. “You find it funny now, but just a heads-up, if Dad outlives her, we’re putting her in a home.”
“If that’s what you want, baby.”
He was so full of it. His kids might have had my mom wrapped around their fingers, but my mom totally had Leo wrapped around hers. His mom had bailed when he was just a kid, so as soon as my parents’ found out about our relationship, my mom had swooped in to mother the hell out of him. And my traitorous fiancé—man, I loved using that word— loved every minute of it. No way he’d let me put her in a home.
“Now come on, sweetness,” he said, standing and pulling me up with him. “Let’s go celebrate with our family.” He bent his head, pressing his lips against mine and finishing in a low, seductive voice that made me shiver, “Then we can go home and celebrate in private.”
I took his hand and let him lead me out of the room, thinking to myself that I could wait to get home for our celebration. After all, I’d been waiting for this man forever. Now he was mine.
The boy I’d spent years secretly loving.
My dream.
The End.
Thank you so much for reading, and don’t forget to leave a review.
Keep a lookout for Micah’s story
Love to Hate You
Coming November, 2020
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Waiting for Forever (Hope Valley Book 8) Page 24
