Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 45361 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45361 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
“My daughter would be my sister-in-law,” Elena says, then laughs softly.
The soft laughter becomes louder until she’s gripping the table, her head thrown back. Layla glances at me with panic. Her eyebrow is arched as if silently asking me if her mom has lost it.
I shrug, waiting until Elena has stopped laughing.
“The world is a strange place,” she says, wiping a tear from her eye. “I want to tell you to stop, but when I look at you…”
She glances at our hands joined on the table, then at her daughter.
“I see the commitment. I see the love. When I look at the two of you, I get the same feeling as when I look at our wedding photos.”
“Does that mean…”
Layla cuts herself short as if concerned about pushing too hard, too fast.
“I’ll tell you what it means,” Elena says, looking at me now.
There’s a mother-bear ferocity in her expression, the same I’ve spotted in Layla’s expression many times. She’s ready to go to war for her daughter, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
“If you ever hurt my daughter… if you decide one day that you got caught up in your emotions and this isn’t real after all—”
“Mom…”
“I have to say this.” Elena doesn’t take her eyes off me. “I’ll never be able to see you again. It will tear mine and Noah’s marriage apart because I’ll hate you. I’ll never be able to forgive you.”
I sit up straighter. “I’d expect nothing less, but you’ll never have to worry about that.”
“Swear,” Elena says.
“I swear, if the impossible happens—it won’t, but for the sake of argument—I’ll leave your life forever. You, Noah, and Layla will never see me again. I’ll disappear abroad, but…”
Leaning forward, my tone gets darker. It floods with the certainty that will never wane.
“I swear, that will never happen. The only thing stopping us was the guilt. Nothing is standing in our way if we don’t have to live with that anymore.”
Long moments pass. Layla anxiously moves her thumb over my knuckles, making a path one way and the other. I can feel the fear radiating from my woman. Then Elena smiles again, wider this time. It’s like she’s letting all the tension seep out of her.
“Okay, then I give you my blessing, but I meant what I said.”
“Mom.”
Layla springs to her feet, her voice shaking, her hands shaking, and I know her soul is shaking too. It’s the same trembling I feel deep within me, the place destiny and fate live, telling us it will all work out.
“You mean it. You’re not joking. You’re not going to take it back.”
“I’ve never seen you this happy or excited,” Elena replies. “So yes, as long as you’re certain, I can’t be why your happiness ends.”
Layla rushes around the table. Elena stands, and the two women embrace tightly.
Noah looks across at me with a big grin on his face.
“Who would’ve thought we’d both find so much happiness one day, eh, bro?”
“Not me,” I say breathlessly, still struggling to believe it.
Nothing is standing between us. Nothing is making it impossible to do what I’ve wanted ever since I laid eyes on my step-niece. Fall on one knee, open a ring box, and ask her the most important question of my life.
Noah walks around the table, clapping my arm and pulling me to my feet. We hug like we used to as kids after I took a beating for him.
“I’m so happy for you, bro,” he says. “You deserve this.”
“I’m going to spend every single second for the rest of my life making your daughter happy,” I tell Elena once the hug ends.
Elena grins. She has a mischievous glint in her eyes. “I’d expect nothing less from her step-uncle.”
This time, when she laughs, we all join in. Mine is pure relief. If Elena can joke about it, it means she approves.
It means I’ll need to speak to her again later… to ask for a different kind of blessing.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Layla
“You must love it here,” Tess says, running her finger along the obsidian kitchen surface across the lightning-like streaks. I smile broadly at my friend, sun shafting through the window.
Miles rented us an apartment the day after Mom gave us her blessing, and we’ve spent a week here, living as boyfriend and girlfriend without worrying if it’s all going to implode in a mess of guilt and pain.
“Every morning is a gift,” I tell her. “Waking up next to him. Not having to worry if we’re doing the wrong thing. Knowing we’re doing the right thing.”
Tess grins. “I get that, but I meant the kitchen.”
“Oh.” I chuckle. “Yeah, for sure. I’ve been cooking every night that I’m not at the restaurant.”
“How is the restaurant after your conversation with Graham?”
“He’s still tough,” I reply, “but less mean now. A couple of days ago, he pulled me aside and apologized. He said that he thought of Dad and what they shared every time he looked at me. Dad was his second chance at love, and he lost him too, which made him cruel.”