The friends to lovers co.., p.54
The Friends to Lovers Collection,
p.54
When she curls up against me for our first night together as husband and wife, I hold her hand, studying our rings.
“I love our rings,” she says, snuggling against me.
“The best part is what’s engraved.”
She laughs and dots a kiss on my nose. “That is the best part of these rings.”
After all, it says what’s always been true.
The cat knew first.
EPILOGUE
A few months later
“And then you need to bring caviar for the cat.”
Camilla laughs at my final tip. “What would any glamping feline need but caviar?”
Zeus stretches a paw across my leg, and raises his chin at the WRBC Channel 10 anchor. He’s become a regular on the Tips and Tricks for Enjoying the Great Outdoors segment. Turns out when you’re a hiking cat, you’re in demand. The first segment with him was one of the station’s most popular, so they asked if I could bring him back for each and every one.
Gladly.
He’s one chill feline, and if he helps more people and pets enjoy the world around them, then I’m a happy camper.
And Camilla says she’ll be a happy glamper if she follows my tips.
“I know you’ll have a great time, Camilla.”
“I’ll report back on whether my curling iron works in the woods.” Then she turns to the camera. “And that’s all for today. Join us next week for another segment from our outdoors expert and his cat, Zeus.”
Camilla thanks me again, shakes my hand, and tells me she’ll see me next week.
I load Zeus into his pack and head home.
To see my wife.
Since it’s Friday morning, she’s just finished her shower and is rubbing coconut lotion into her shapely legs when I return to our place.
“Ah, just like I imagined,” I say, then press a kiss to her cheek.
After she tugs on her skirt and zips it up, she tosses me her damp towel. “And now for my fantasy.”
“Laundry,” I say in a deliberately husky tone, as I drop it into the basket I’ll be sending out later today.
“Mmm. You get me so excited when you talk about chores. Tell me more about the household tasks you’ll engage in.”
I loop my arms around her waist, and press a kiss to the back of her soft neck. “I’ll order some groceries,” I say seductively.
“Oh yeah,” she hums.
“I’ll pay the utility bill.”
She cries out, as if in pleasure.
“I’ll even pick up a gift for Max’s wedding.”
She laughs and slides around in my arms so she’s facing me. “Silly kangaroo, I already did that.”
“I have no doubt you did.”
Then she slips away, puts on a blouse, and blow-dries her hair. When she’s done, she tells me she’s leaving for the office.
“Same here,” I say. I give Zeus a goodbye scratch on the chin, and we take off together.
Mia heads for the Pure Beauty offices, and I head to meet Dana to review our upcoming trips. Dana handles Pure Beauty’s regular excursions now, and that works out just fine. In fact, everything has worked out just fine.
Sure, Mia and I argue every now and then. Like last week, when she wanted to give me head before I went down on her. Insistent little thing, she was sure she’d win.
She didn’t.
I can be pretty convincing with my tongue.
There was another time we didn’t see eye-to-eye, but she was right on that count. It turned out that fresh strawberries and champagne did make a better gift for my sister’s engagement party than my idea to give them a backpack. In my defense, my sister didn’t have one, and I still don’t understand how anyone can function without one.
In any case, I let Mia pick a gift for her brother’s wedding. Besides, I’ve been the recipient of the greatest gift of all. Not just Mia, obviously. But the gift of teasing Max relentlessly about the fact that I beat him in the marriage game. He’s the last of our crew to tie the knot, even though he was engaged well before I started seeing his sister.
But hey, every man goes at his own pace.
Some just go a little faster than others when they fall in love.
That’s evidently the kind of guy I am.
The next night, Mia is a radiant bridesmaid as she stands across from me at the front of the ballroom in the Plaza Hotel while Henley and Max exchange their vows.
The venue was Henley’s choice. She works on cars all day long, so she said her inner girlie side needed nothing less than a full Plaza wedding, and that’s what she’s having.
Chase and Josie are part of the wedding party, too, while Spencer, Nick, and Wyatt are parked in the front rows with their wives and kids. Spencer and Charlotte’s son is adorable, perched in his mom’s lap, with blond hair to match hers. Nick holds his infant son, who has blue eyes the same color as Harper’s. Wyatt’s toddler daughter holds his hand.
Briefly, I wonder when Chase and Josie will head down that path, but there is plenty of time for that.
When the officiant tells Max he can kiss the bride, Henley jumps in his arms then smothers him in kisses.
They have the right idea, so once they’re walking the other way down the aisle, I give my wife a kiss.
She smiles and sighs happily. “Everyone’s married off now. Does that mean the rest of us have to get knocked up soon, too?”
I tense for a moment. “Is that your way of telling me you’re pregnant?”
She laughs and shakes her head. “No. But the abject terror in your eyes is all I need to keep taking my birth control.”
I grab her hand tighter, tug her in closer. “I’m not scared. You just caught me off guard. Do you want to have kids soon?”
“Maybe not today, and maybe not tomorrow, but someday. Someday is soon enough.”
“That sounds good to me, too.”
Then we join our friends and family, and when I dance with Mia later that night, I remember the last time I danced with her at a wedding, when I was ready to fly clear across the country to date her long distance. Now, several months later, she’s here with me every night.
I run a finger across a strand of her hair. “Sometimes, I think this life we have is everything I imagined. But then I realize, it’s even better than I could have dreamed.”
“Me, too.”
ANOTHER EPILOGUE
A little after that
By now, most women have met enough players, enough guys who don’t ever want to settle down. I suppose that’s fine. There’s a time and a place for everyone.
As for me, I knew what I wanted from the first night I met Mia. I wanted her, and for more than one night.
But you don’t always get what you want just because you’re ready for it. Even though I like to think I’m easygoing, laid-back—hell, even normal—I discovered I had my own baggage.
I had to let go of what I thought I needed—proximity—before I could get it.
I needed to be willing to take what I could get. When I fell in love with Mia, the problem I had to solve was learning that she was worth the distance, worth the miles, worth the wait.
Now I have everything I could ever have imagined and then some. Sometimes, you just have to say why the hell not? and go after the life you want to lead.
That’s what I have now. A great job, fantastic friends, a healthy family, a cat who isn’t like any other cat, and a woman I’ve pitched my tent with.
Speaking of tents, I’ve made good on my promise to introduce Mia to the true joys of camping. We’ve spent many nights under the Milky Way, and I make sure she always sees stars.
If you catch my drift.
After all, we both like camping best . . . with our particular style.
AND ONE MORE EPILOGUE
Sometime soon enough
Conversations with the Cat
Zeus
He padded toward the bathroom on the quietest feet in the home. The woman had gone in there the second she woke, springing out of bed.
She never bolted up in the morning. Perhaps she needed to stroke his soft fur to feel better about whatever was making her nervous. He’d sensed her nerves. He was talented like that.
Now, as the man slept deeply, Zeus nudged his shoulder against the ajar door, pushing it open.
The woman was perched on the toilet bowl, holding a stick. He cocked his head to the side, watching her. She stretched her arm to push the door closed.
“Shh. I don’t want him to know I’m even taking this.”
Zeus parked his rear on the tile and stared at her, while she stared at the stick.
Tick tock.
She set the stick on the sink and flushed. She watched the stick more as she washed her hands.
Zeus never looked away from her.
At last, she peered at the stick once more. She gasped.
She dropped down to him, scooped him up in her arms, and pressed her lips to his furry face. “You’re going to be a big brother.”
Then she set him down and burst out of the bathroom, waving the stick and waking up the man, who erupted into the kind of cheer that Zeus could only assume accompanied a fresh can of tuna.
Whatever was exciting the man and the woman, he found great satisfaction in the fact that he had known first.
THE END
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