Page 73 of Mine for a Moment

“I’m so proud of you,” she says, stepping closer and gently pushing one of my curls out of my face. “Look at everything you’ve accomplished, Ser.”

I smile and pull away from Archer to hug her, and she squeezes me tightly. I know it isn’t easy for her to be here today, but she still showed up for me. Even if it hurts, she’s trying her best to keep me in her life, to find a new normal that doesn’t involve us losing each other.

“I hope you won’t be mad at me,” she says, pulling back. “But I brought guests.”

She steps away, and my eyes widen when my parents turn the corner. Dad smiles, but Mom looks at me with a hint of reluctance blended with disdain. One look, and it’s clear she’s only here because Dad made her.

I’m so startled to see them that it takes me a moment to realize that my dad is holding a canvas. “It was you,” Archer says, sounding somewhat aggravated. “You bought the one painting I couldn’t get my hands on.”

Dad holds it out and looks at it, smiling ruefully as he takes in the painting of a girl standing in a field of tulips, the sun shining down on her. It’s a self-portrait, one that depicted me at my happiest. “I’m not willing to sell it,” he says, his tone resolute. “But I brought it because I felt it deserved to be on display here.”

One of the gallery employees takes it from him, and all the while, I just look at my father in disbelief. “You bought one of my paintings?”

He grabs my hand and nods. “Of course I did, honey. This may not be the career trajectory that I’d have chosen for you, but it’s something you clearly excel at. It may take me some time to understand it all, but I’ll do my best to be supportive in the meantime, like I should have been all along.”

He looks at Mom then, his expression expectant. She looks intohis eyes, and then she sighs. “Your father and I are on the same page in that regard,” she says, her tone conveying her displeasure. “I do not understand your art, but it’s clear you’re successful at what you do, and ultimately,that’swhat mattered to me most. Financial security and independence, that’s what mattered to me, and though I don’t like to admit it, I was narrow-minded in my views of how to get there.”

Dad smiles at her like he’s pleased with her words, and I can’t help but grin. It’s more than I’d ever expected of them, and the relieved look in her eyes makes me suspect I owe a lot of it to Tyra. I have no doubt that she spent hours wearing Mom down.

Archer pulls me back to him, his hand wrapping around my waist like it was before, and Dad’s eyes widen, pure confusion crossing his face. “What do you think you’re doing, grabbing my little girl like that?”

Archer freezes and looks down, like he didn’t realize he’d been touching me. It’s so instinctive for him these days. He won’t go more than a few moments without touching me if I’m anywhere near him, and I don’t think he’s aware of the quiet reassurance he’s been seeking.

Mom tenses for a moment, looking between Archer, Tyra, and me, and then the edges of her lips turn up. “He’s merely holding his girlfriend, Caleb,” she says, shaking her head bemusedly.

“Hiswhat?”

Tyra chuckles and takes my father’s arm. “His girlfriend,” she repeats. “I distinctly recall you once saying that he’s a fine young man that you consider family, so I can’t imagine it being a problem if he ever does become family, right?”

My dad stares at her speechlessly, and I burst out laughing, my heart overflowing with joy and contentment. I didn’t think we’d ever fully recover the happiness we experienced months ago, but we did.

This is it.

This is the happiness I’ve always dreamt of.

Epilogue

Archer

Three years later

Serenity looks out of the window of my private jet, excitement radiating off her as we slowly begin to descend near Keukenhof, where we’ve gone every single year to see the flower displays and the endless rows of tulips.

This year, a whole field of flowers was planted to recreate one of her paintings from above. It’s absolutely surreal what she’s accomplished, and I couldn’t be more proud of her. In a mere few years, she has become an international sensation, like I knew she would be.

“Oh God, I can’t wait,” she says, sounding giddy.

I grin and pull her onto my lap, my arms wrapping around her. “We’ve got about five minutes before they come tell us that we need to put on our seat belts,” I murmur, my mouth caressing her neck.

She giggles, her head falling back on my shoulder as my hand slips underneath her dress. She turns her head slightly, her lips brushing against mine, and I grin when she reaches behind her, her hand wrapping around the back of my neck as she kisses me slowly, leisurely.

“I can’t get enough of you,” I murmur against her mouth, and she draws a shaky breath as she pushes off me long enough to straddle me.

“The feeling is entirely mutual,” she says, cupping my face with one hand as she pushes the other up my neck and into my hair. It’s unbelievable that I get to call her mine and that she still loves me the same. If anything, as time passes, our feelings just seem to grow deeper.

We moved in together very quickly, but now we’ve truly built a life together. She spends her days painting in the apartment below ours that she bought and converted into a fully equipped studio, while I go to the office and try to find every excuse I can to work from home instead, so I can watch her do her thing. I miss her terribly when she travels for exhibitions, and though I try to join her as often as I can, I love that we’ve both built our own careers while simultaneously building a home together. I didn’t think life could get better than when we first started dating, but it did. I’ve never been happier, and judging by the way she still looks at me, neither has she.

I sigh as I pull her closer, kissing her right until the seat belt sign comes on, and she laughs when I struggle to let her go, my cock throbbing from one single kiss. She still does that to me—drives me wild with one single touch, and she knows it. “If you can wait for an hour or so, we can disappear in a field of tulips, just me and you,” she whispers, before kissing my neck in that way she knows I can’t resist.

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