Page 95 of Let It Be Me
She smiles a watery smile and looks at her ring again. I know she’s thinking about her Mom. But it turns out her Dad filed for divorce right before he came up here. He said her treatment of Sarah, plus the infidelity that he was never okay with, were two things they couldn’t come back from. David is using this week as time to decompress and possibly look for a house. He hasn’t told Sarah that part yet. But get a man alone and he’ll spill all his deepest secrets. He doesn’t want to be away from his daughter anymore and this is just one step of many that he’s doing to repair their relationship.
“I love you.” She tells me.
“I love you, too, Blue.”
EPILOGUE
Sarah - 10 Years Later
Ishut the refrigerator with my hip just as a gaggle of kids run past me. “No running in the kitchen, please! And take it outside.”
It’s a very busy week in the Jones household. My husband played his final game last week and is set to announce his retirement this weekend. Along with that we’re celebrating our oldest, Jagger, as he turns six today. So our house is overrun with kids, pets, parents from his hockey team, and Riley’s teammates along with their partners.
I pinch myself when I wake up and realize that this is the life I live now.
My husband, who’s only gotten more attractive with age, strolls into the kitchen with our daughter Avery perched on his shoulders. My eyes track him like a sniper and he’s my only target.
“Down girl,” Emily says in my ear, noticing where my attention has landed.
At thirty-nine, I feel like I’ve lived a fuller life than most. After Riley and I got engaged all those years ago, we put off wedding planning as he was about to head into training for his third season with Columbus. And I was working with more athletes as their publicist. A year went by and we still had yet to hire a wedding planner.
“Do you have a white dress?” Riley asked one night after dinner as we’re sitting on the couch. I was perfectly content sitting next to him with my legs in his lap, but my touchy-feely boy couldn’t stand not having me closer. So he dragged me onto his lap where I’ve been for the last ten minutes fiddling with the strings from his hoodie.
“Have you seen my closet?”
“Right. Silly me. Well, how about tomorrow we go down to the courthouse and just get married.”
“Really?” I asked hopefully.
He holds me steady as he leans back on the couch. “Yes. Neither of us really want a big wedding. And I’ve been ready to call you ‘my wife’ since I put a ring on your finger. Let’s stop avoiding the inevitable.”
“Yes, yes, yes,” I cheer and throw my arms around him.
“Damn. And I thought that word was only reserved for when my tongue is in your pussy.”
I pinch him on his side and his laughter is one that’s rare, but freely let loose around me, sets free a swarm of butterflies in my stomach. “Stop that.”
True to his word, we got married on a Wednesday at the courthouse in Columbus. Momma, Pops, and my Dad were our witnesses as we committed to and tied our lives to each other. Of course, the girls were livid when they saw we got married, so they took it upon themselves to throw us a kick-ass reception. Which is what we always wanted.
“There’s my girl,” Riley announces when he sees me inthe kitchen. He picks Avery up off his shoulders and places her on the floor. As soon as she’s on her feet, she’s off to find Kamryn’s kids.
“Hi, baby.” I greet him when he joins me at the kitchen island.
Despite us living in this gigantic house since before Jagger was born, I’m still getting used to all of this space. Sometimes I miss my townhouse and his condo where everything was steps away. Riley takes my hand and pulls me into the open walk-in pantry and pushes me up against the wall, devouring my mouth while our kids, and friends and family are just outside.
“I missed you.” He tells me when we come up for air. His lips have taken on my lipgloss and I wipe them off on my jeans.
My hands slide around to rest in the back pockets of his jeans. “You just saw me this morning. Matter of fact, you saw a whole lot of me this morning.”
Having two kids hasn’t lessened the drive between us. Nope. It’s only forced us to get more creative about where we have sex. Having Jagger walk in on us when he was three was enough for us.
“You act like that was enough for me.” Riley says and presses his body to mine. His eyes roam over my body before landing back on my eyes. He has that look that I know means something.
“What…why are you looking at me like that?” I ask him and twine my fingers through his, swinging them side to side.
“I found a breeder,” he tells me and looks like the boy I met a decade ago.
“You did?”
