Page 70 of Made For You
When Talon and I finished all the little projects around the house, we had a housewarming, post-wedding shower type of party. It was for my family, but only my parents and Aspen showed up. I tried not to let my disappointment show that night, but I knew everyone could read me like a book. Talon paid extra-close attention to me after they left, in the best kind of way.
“That’s okay. You’ve been busy.” As she headed for the front door, I asked, “What time will you be picking them up?”
“Nine?”
“Okay. I’ll text Talon to grab us something to eat on his way home. He was picking up the new plans for the lodge.”
She paused by the door, her hand resting on the knob. “Things still going well?”
“Yep,” I replied with a smile. It was going better than I could have ever imagined, and it made it harder with each passing day to remember it was all fake. This was all going to end soon. Gigi had let it slip the other night on hers and my weekly call that Talon’s grandfather’s health was declining rapidly, but she hadn’t had the heart to tell him yet. That meant our timeline could be over sooner than planned.
Talon’s overtaking of the CEO position was being pushed through the legal department, which was something he hadn’t anticipated when he set the six-month timeline for our marriage. It seemed Gigi had pulled some strings and was having it fast-tracked. But three weeks ago, they signed over access to his trustfund left by his mother. I knew he didn’t need a penny of it, but he wanted what his mom had set aside for him, just because it was from his mom.
“Good, I’m glad. You look happy, Rory.”
“Thanks.” I smirked, wondering if I looked miserablebefore.
“Girls, be good for Aunt Rory!” she shouted before heading out the door.
I turned to find the twins sitting around my coffee table with a bag emptied out. There were palettes of eye shadows, blushes, and bottles of nail polish. Looked like it was going to be a fun evening of makeovers.
With Talon’s insistence, I turned on the television that hung on my wall in a gold frame that matched the pictures hanging. I didn’t know how he’d done it, but Talon reprinted all the images that had once belonged there. They had been some of my favorites, but when Jeremy and I started dating, he called them “amateur.” Then one night when I’d been on vacation with my parents, he’d thrown them all away. I’d been devastated, but I was too cautious then to say anything. Jeremy was the kind of guy everyone wanted to be with, The good-looking politician’s son.
In the time since our breakup, I could have replaced them with something new or found the old images, but something held me back. I feared that my hobby was something silly. Jeremy’s lack of support made me question my deepest passion.
Even with Talon’s history and expertise, he’d only ever been supportive of my photography. When my mother learned what he’d done with both the camera and the images, she hugged him for a solid five minutes. My dad had been the one to help Talon search the attic in their house for the original film.The two were nothing alike, but my dad filled a void for Talon that he missed out on at a young age.
When Gigi told me that Talon’s father passed away in a car accident, then his mother died a few months later from what Gigi thought was a broken heart, I cried the entire evening. Talon had come home to find me curled up in the middle of the mattress, hugging the pillow from his side of the bed.
I wasn’t sure if Gigi told him that I knew, but I suspected she had when he asked me the next morning if I wanted to see a picture of his mom and dad he found in a photo album stored at the lodge in Knoxville. I wondered what other secrets Talon could learn about himself from that place.
“Where’s Talon?” Eloise asked as she brushed a blue eye shadow across my lids.
“He’s on his way home from work. He’ll be here in a little bit with some pizza.” I’d texted him about the last-minute change of plans before I subjected myself to the six-year-old version of a makeover.
The corners of Eloise’s mouth tilted upward, revealing her wide smile that was missing a front tooth. The two of them had a special little bond. One night after we met up with Alex, Nate, and the twins downtown for some ice cream, Talon had given her his full ice cream cone when hers toppled out of her hand and onto the sidewalk. Since then, she thought he hung the moon.
Headlights passed across the wall, and I looked through the window to see Talon’s Ferrari in the driveway.
The girls cheered when he came inside carrying the two boxes of greasy goodness.
“Hi, peaches,” he said as he leaned down to kiss me. “Loving the blue.”
“Thanks. It’s Eloise’s specialty. Do you mind sitting with them while I grade some papers? I’ll be busy for like an hour, tops.”
“Sure, take some pizza with you. Sorry about the probation. I could have the guy fired if you’d like.”
I giggled. “Maybe just get rid of Jeremy. That would do us all a favor.”
“It’s like you don’t think I know powerful men who could do just that,” he said as he chuckled, then hollered at the girls to wash their hands as he pulled plates down from the cabinet.
I grabbed two slices and a bottle of water before heading to my office to grade the pop quizzes from today and get a head start on the essays that had been turned in. They weren’t due until next week, but I had a few students who liked to get them out of the way.
An hour and a half later, I rubbed my eyes and pushed back from my desk. The words on the paper were all starting to blend together.
I carried my dish out to the kitchen and checked up on the girls. Hopefully, they hadn’t tied Talon to a chair or anything. I’d heard horror stories from Franny about her preschoolers.
The moment I stepped into the living room, I gasped in horror. Talon sat on the floor, eyes closed, with a green shadow on his eyelids, hot pink on his cheeks, and bright-red fingernails. But the catastrophic part was that both Eloise and Molly held scissors in their hands.
