Page 76 of His Forever

She was lost in her thoughts when she heard a rap on her door jamb. Looking up, she saw Zeus standing there and she went over pulling him close for a hug. “You doing alright?” she asked him.

“Si, as good as can be expected, mi siempre hermosa. I just, I cannot wipe those images from my brain.”

“I’ll listen to whatever you want to tell me, you know that, right?” she asked. While she didn’t want to trip down memory lane with him regarding his past with Suri, she would pull up her big girl panties and do it if that’s what he needed.

“I know, Marleigh. My concern is you.”

“Me? What about me?”

“I don’t want you thinking that me talking about her means I regret anything, do you hear me? We grew up together and dated through high school, so there are a lot of memories that play through my mind. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we never loved one another the way a couple should, and I sure as hell never loved her the way I love and adore you, so I don’t want you believing otherwise.You are my forever, mi siempre hermosa. You’re the first woman in my life to show me what love really is and I will not allow what happened to them to make you think differently.”

She looked up at him, seeing the sincerity in his eyes even as his words wove themselves around her heart. “Zeus, I love you. The past I wasn’t part of because it made you the man you are today; the present because we are living it every single day with one another; and the future because it will be whatever we make of it. If you need to talk about Suri, then talk. I know I’ve been working through the memories of Colton and college myself. So, we work through this together, knowing that neither of us can change the past but we can love one another through any grief we may feel.”

As he lowered his lips to hers, she heard him murmur, “This is why you are perfect for me, mi siempre hermosa,” before he kissed her senseless. Long minutes later, when he pulled back and leaned his forehead against hers, he asked, “Are you done for the day? I feel the need to be alone. With you and our animals.”

“I am, yes, was just looking over my calendar for next week. Mamá said the funerals are on Tuesday so we will be closed. What am I going to do with an extra day off?”

He chuckled as he grabbed her tote bag while she picked her purse and tips off the shelf. “I know what we will be doing for the next few days, mi siempre hermosa.”

“Well, we’ve already done the shopping and the house is clean thanks to Moira, so tell me, handsome, what will we be doing?” she asked him.

“We will be curled up in bed, sleeping, eating, and making love.”

“I like and approve of this plan, handsome. Quite a bit, actually,” she told him as they headed out to the front.

“What plan, chica?” Paulie asked as he finished up his last client.

“Ah, no. Just.no. You don’t need to know that,” she said, blushing.

Looking her over, he started chuckling. “I can only imagine. So, we should call before we come over, huh?”

“We’ll be busy this weekend, Paulie,” Zeus finally said. Glancing at him, Paulie nodded.

***

The funeral had been hard. Her parents, lost in their grief, glanced up in surprise as Zeus walked over to them. “I’m sorry for your loss,” he said quietly, his arm around Marleigh as he faced his former in-laws. He didn’t fault them entirely for how their daughter had been – she was the only girl in a houseful of boys and had been spoiled.

“Thank you, Zeus, for everything,” Mr. Abercrombie said. “We understand from Cory that you identified her…her body to save us from seeing that.”

“Si, I did, sir. Regardless of how we ended, I have always respected you and your wife and I couldn’t let you see her like that,” he replied.

“Who is this lovely young woman?”

“This is Marleigh Cross, my girlfriend. She was with me the other night and knew Suri’s date.”

“My condolences on your loss, Mr. and Mrs. Abercrombie,” Marleigh said. “Suri was also one of my clients at the salon and I know she was happy to be back in her hometown.”

Zeus smiled inwardly. His woman knew what to say to ease the tension that shrouded the cemetery. “Si, she was,” he agreed. Seeing the line growing behind them, he once again said, “Again, we are both sorry for your loss,” before he led Marleigh back to his truck.

Getting in, he sat there for a moment before he started the truck. Feeling a hand on his thigh, he looked over and saw tears in her eyes. “Why are you crying, mi siempre hermosa?”

“They looked so lost Zeus. Do you think they knew how she was with people?”

“I don’t think so, but I know her brothers did and it’s one reason why I didn’t get my ass kicked when I divorced her.”

She raised her eyebrows at him and said, “Really? Do you think they would have kicked your ass?”

“They were overprotective of her in many ways, sometimes to her detriment.”

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