Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 56217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 281(@200wpm)___ 225(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 281(@200wpm)___ 225(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
“You’re not supposed to play with your food,” Lily said to him.
Blake entered the kitchen, looking sexy and put together as always in his expensive suit. “Finger painting again, Bubba?”
Liam looked up at Blake as he leaned over to kiss him on the head. “Bu bu bu.”
“How are you, princess?” He kissed Lily.
“Fine. Daddy, Bubba is so messy.”
“You were too at that age.”
“No, I wasn’t.”
Blake laughed. “I remember how you used to drop oat cereal off the edge of your tray. Piece by piece.”
“That’s something to look forward to,” I said, bringing Blake some coffee.
“How are you this morning?” He wiggled his eyebrows. He knew exactly how I felt since he woke me up with caresses and gave me an orgasm.
I loved being married and a mom, but it made it harder to have sex. Fortunately, Blake was good at finding opportunities. Four in the morning before Bubba would wake up. In the shower, while we got ready for work after Mrs. Douglas arrived and took over with the kids. And then, there was work.
“Quite satisfied.” I kissed him. “And you?”
“Hoping for a repeat later.”
I sat at the table, looking over my family. Last year, I was alone and secretly in love with my boss. Never in a million years would I have thought I’d end up here. Madly in love and married with two children. It made me wonder if my mother was looking out for me. When I said that to Blake one night, he admitted to having a similar thought about Joanne.
“Sometimes I wonder if Joanna arranged this. Wanting me to be happy. And Lily. Without you, I’d have never been happy again.”
His words filled my heart with more emotion than I thought possible. I loved him so much. The miracle was how much he loved me too.
Not that there hadn’t been some tough moments in the beginning. People couldn’t just turn off their hang-ups or unload their baggage, and Blake was no different. Occasionally, his conflicted feelings about Joanna would surface. At first, he tried to hide them, which only made me feel insecure. Of course, when he learned to share them, I didn’t always like being reminded of her. But we’d navigated them, and now a year later, we had a strong marriage and two beautiful children.
Lily gave up on Liam and turned to me asking in French whether she could go to her friend Rebecca’s house over the weekend. She’d blossomed too, shedding her shyness and making friends at school.
Now that she was in first grade at a French immersion school, she and I had many conversations in French. Blake would watch us and frown, having no clue what we were talking about.
“Hey Bubba, ba, ba, ba.”
I smirked at him. He joked, but he liked that Lily was quickly becoming bilingual. And I assured him that if the information was important, I’d have Lily speak in English or I would translate.
An hour later, Mrs. Douglas had taken over childcare duties and was getting ready to take Lily to school with Liam in the stroller so they could go to the park afterward. Blake and I headed out the door to the office.
Not much had changed at the office. I still did much of the work I did before, but now instead of his assistant, I was a president to match his status of CEO. Luckily, the board didn’t express any concern about our relationship and there didn’t seem to be any backlash from the staff about me becoming his wife and helping him fulfill Joanne’s dream. It was a reminder to me that I often worried about things needlessly.
The company was doing well. Our exportation of products to France had gone so well that we were looking at other countries in Europe.
“We’ll have to find someone who speaks German or Italian,” Blake said about moving into those markets.
“You know what happened with your assistant that spoke French. I hope you’re not thinking you’ll repeat that,” I joked.
“The French is sexy, but it’s not why I fell in love with you.”
The truth was, I never worried about Blake straying. I knew first-hand how deeply he loved and the depth of his commitment to those he loved.
At the end of the day, Blake sauntered into my office, taking a seat on my couch. “You going to be ready to head home soon?”
I closed the file I was working on. “Yes.”
“I’ve been thinking that we arranged export to France without ever having gone there.”
“Did you want to go?”
He shrugged. “It wasn’t necessary at the time, but now, I’m thinking we should go. We never had a real honeymoon.”
We married in a small, intimate ceremony not long after he proposed and spent a week hidden away at a bed-and-breakfast in upstate New York.
“What are you talking about? I don’t think we got out of bed the whole week after we got married.”