“You guys better be nice. I don’t know why you two are pissed at each other, but don’t take it out on Bastian,” I warn them both.
“We’re just gonna rough him up a little.”
I elbow Luca in the side, and he drops his arm, pretending like it actually hurt. I spin around at the door and point my finger at them.
“I’m serious. I love him, and he’s the one,” I say, and after a moment they both nod, understanding.
When I feel satisfied they’re not going to go crazy, I turn toward the house and walk inside.
“Bastian?” I say as I step in the living room and freeze. I hear the door close behind me, and I realize my brothers didn’t follow me in. “What’s happening?” The entire entryway is covered in rose petals and candles, and I’m wondering how the hell this happened so fast.
“I think you know, Bunny.”
He had to have been talking to my brothers all along, knowing what family means to me. There’s no way they’re not in on this. Tears fill my eyes. Bastian walks in front of me and slowly drops to one knee. When he holds up the box in front of me and opens it, I can’t stand it anymore.
“Yes!” I blurt out before he can even ask a question.
He takes the ring out and slides it on my finger. Tears start to roll down my cheeks when I see my grandmother’s ring in the box.
“How?” I manage to ask as I look down at it in surprise.
“A few of my late-night meetings might have been me coming out here to win over those two knuckleheads outside.”
I laugh through the tears, and he wipes them away. “Just when I didn't think you could be any more perfect.”
“I was nowhere near perfect. Not until I found you.”
Epilogue
Bastian
Twelve years later…
“Good evening, Mr. Starnes, will Mrs. Starnes be joining you?” Albert the waiter asks as he holds out the chef’s private menu.
“She is running late, but she’s on the way. We’ll have a bottle of the usual.”
“Of course, sir.” He bows and steps away from the table.
I check my watch, surprised Lux is running late. Normally for date night we meet at the house and drive into the city together, but she had a day at the spa today and wanted to come straight from there. I even offered to have our driver pick her up, but she was insistent.
Our three boys are at a sleepover in the country with their cousins for the whole weekend. I told Cooper and Juno that they were crazy, but they love the boys like their own, and I couldn’t complain about three days alone with my wife.
Sometimes I wonder if they bought all that land just so the kids could run wild, but the boys love it, and it’s good for them. They camp out under the stars and will probably fish all weekend long. They’ll come back dirty and stinky, but that’s pretty much how they are even when they’re not camping.
I don’t know how Lux manages to still smile, even on days when they’re being rowdy and tearing up the house, but I think part of it is that this is the life we always dreamed of. Our home is loud and messy, even with housekeepers. But we have dinner together almost every night, and we are there for the boys in everything they do. Our lives are about them, and our family, and we wouldn’t want it any other way.
After I quit my job at Balman and Pierce, their house of cards came tumbling down. Luckily I’d made enough contacts during my time there to set up my own business. I knew I wanted to do things differently and not only work a hell of a lot less, but work smarter. The first thing I did was hire Lux as my director of marketing and Selma as my director of finance. I even brought in Katie on a part-time basis until we got everything the way we wanted. Starnes and Cross, Inc. became an overnight success, and after ten years of doing the work we wanted, we decided to retire completely.
Now we spend our days taking care of our boys and running them to all their activities. Between that and visiting our extended family in the country, we travel the world. It’s more than I could have ever hoped for after my mom died, and I can’t help but think she sent Lux to me. She knew when I’d need her the most and how she would change my life. That’s the only way to explain the magic of finding my soul mate.
“Sorry I’m late.” Lux’s voice is soft, and I smile as I look up from my menu.
But what greets me has my smile dropping and my jaw clenching so hard I hear it crack. “What. Is. That,” I say, glaring at the red dress that’s practically painted on her body.
“Oh, this old thing?” She smooths a hand down the front of it, drawing attention to her tits that are quite literally spilling out of the top.
It’s fire-engine red with a chunky gold zipper right down the front. It’s unzipped at the top so far down I can see the dark edges of her areolas. And to make matters worse, she’s got it unzipped from the bottom so far up that it’s barely covering her pussy.
“I just thought I’d dress up a little tonight. You don’t like it?” She pops her hip out and places her hand on it, accentuating the curve of her waist and round ass.
Her hair is blown out and falls in waves, and her lipstick and heels match her dress. She might as well be walking around with a bullhorn screaming for people to look at her, and oh, are they looking.
“Lux,” I warn, and she winks but still doesn’t take her seat, like she’s trying to provoke me.
“Oh, you haven’t seen the back,” she says as she turns around.
I groan and bite my knuckle as I see the back of the dress plunges down to the top of her ass, and then there’s another chunky gold zipper that basically covers her ass crack and nothing else.
“Goodness, I’m hungry.” She takes her seat like nothing is wrong, and I glare at her. “Have you ordered the wine yet? Oh, here comes Albert now.”
“G-good evening, Mrs. Starnes.” He stumbles over his words, and the bottle shakes as he pours her a glass. “Might I say you look beaut—”
“Enough,” I cut him off, and he swallows hard then disappears back into the shadows. “What game are you playing, Bunny?”
“Who, me?” She shrugs, and the motion causes her tits to spill out a little more.
“You’re going to flash the entire restaurant,” I hiss, leaning forward to stare at the exposed skin. My mouth waters, and I ache to unzip it a little more and taste her there.
“Oh, goodness. Wouldn’t that be terrible.” She winks at me as she looks at her menu and does nothing to cover up. “I was more worried about people seeing my pussy because I forgot to put on panties.”
My silverware clatters to the floor as I nearly lose control. Albert appears at my side, picking up what I dropped, and I get angrier because he’s probably doing it to get a look for himself under the table.
“I’ve got it,” I growl.
Another waiter comes over and smiles at my wife as he replaces my silverware and a glass I didn’t know I’d broken. I can’t get a hold of myself, and suddenly another busboy appears on the other side of our table to help. They’re all staring at her, and she’s leaning back in her chair, watching me the whole time.