She immediately noticed the flames. “When did you do all this?”
“I had some help.”
On a table next to the two Adirondack chairs was a bottle of Fireball and two small glasses.
“In honor of Mrs. Angelini, we’re going to enjoy some Fireball outside tonight. I know she would have loved to be here and celebrate with us.”
Felicity’s eyes sparkled with tears. “I didn’t think I was going to cry another time tonight, but you managed to make me.”
I pulled her in for a kiss. After I poured us each a glass of Fireball, we saluted Mrs. Angelini in the sky and clanked our glasses together, chugging the liquor.
Through the fire, I pointed to the house across the bay. “I much prefer being on this side of the water with you. But I’ll always be grateful for that house. If I hadn’t chosen it, we would have never found each other.”
She jumped as the first set of fireworks burst into the night air.
“You’re just full of surprises tonight!”
“I thought this would be a fitting ending to our evening,” I explained. “Fireworks are exactly what I’ve felt from the moment I laid eyes on you.”
“This is incredible,” she said, gazing up at the sky in wonder. Felicity moved her chair closer to mine and leaned her head on my chest as we watched the rest of the spectacular display.
Perhaps the only thing less than perfect was that the heaters were just not cutting it. It was damn frigid outside.
When the fireworks finally ended, Felicity straddled me in my seat and covered my face with kisses. When her lips landed on mine, I could still taste the cinnamon from the Fireball on her tongue.
Her teeth chattered as she announced, “This night has been a dream. Thank you so much for everything. But…”
“But?”
“Can we go inside and have sex now?” She laughed. “I’m freezing my nutsack off!”
* * *
Leo
Final Track: “All You Need Is Love” by The Beatles
FOUR YEARS LATER
Westfordshire, England
“Do like Daddy.” I dipped my brush in the yellow paint and demonstrated how to draw the sun.
It was a gorgeous, sunny day in the countryside, and I’d set up two easels in the back of our estate, deciding to give our three-year-old a painting lesson today.
Unfortunately, instead of following my lead, Eloise dunked her entire hand in the paint before slapping it against the paper.
“That’s amazing, darling.” I laughed.
She giggled and flashed her adorable baby teeth, her red curls blowing in the breeze.
“I wonder what time Mummy’s coming back. Must be soon now,” I said as I filled in my sun with more yellow paint.
Sigmund appeared out of nowhere, interrupting our painting lesson. I’d invited him over for birthday cake.
He smiled at the mess my daughter was making. “Lady Eloise, your painting talent is just as magnificent as your father’s.”
Sigmund lifted her up, not seeming to care that she got paint all over his shirt—just another testament to how much he’d changed over the years.
He closed his eyes as she dabbed some on his face. “You’re adorable, Eloise. You know that?”
“Miraculously, she looks nothing like Ed Sheeran, now does she?” I teased.
“No. She looks like you with a small dusting of freckles and Ginger’s hair. The two of you have finally morphed into one another. Congratulations.”
I chuckled. “How are things over at the Bettencourt project?”
“We break ground on Wednesday.”
“Good,” I said, putting the paintbrush down.
After getting his MBA two years ago, Sigmund was now managing a good portion of my properties, which allowed me more time to spend with my family.
“Do you have any plans for the weekend?” I asked him.
He gave Eloise one last kiss on the cheek before placing her down on the grass. “No. Why?”
I hesitated. “You know how Felicity’s been working part time teaching American law at the university?”
His brows drew together in suspicion. “Yeah…”
“She said one of her female colleagues is really attractive and single with a nice personality. She wants to invite her out here to dinner.”
He glared at me. “No.”
“Okay, but hear me out—”
“No.”
“All right. All right. Can’t say I didn’t try.” I sighed. “And I’ll keep trying.”
“Oh, I know you will.”
Sigmund had had a few meaningless one-night stands over the years since losing Britney. But he hadn’t dated or met anyone he’d connected with. Everything had to happen in its own time, I supposed.
Eager to drop the subject, he pointed in the distance to where Felicity was approaching on one of the horses as she returned from her morning ride. “Ginger seems to be enjoying farm life.”
It was hard to believe we’d been living in England full time for a year already.
Our daughter, Eloise Leonora Covington, had been born three years ago today, in fact. We’d moved to Brighton House on her second birthday.
Not long after Felicity and I got engaged four years ago, she found out she was pregnant. Fortunately, it was just after she’d passed the bar. She’d been switching to a new kind of birth control, and we hadn’t been careful enough. But honestly, it was the best news I could have received. We got married shortly thereafter in a small ceremony on the bay in Narragansett. Sigmund flew to the States to be my best man, and Felicity had her best friend, Bailey, by her side. We celebrated after with a clam bake by the bay and fireworks. It was perfection—everything coming full circle.
I decided to take control of the situation with the local press back in Westfordshire, cutting a deal with a paper to print a photo from our Rhode Island wedding to announce that I’d gotten remarried. I donated all the money from that article to Mrs. Barbosa and her foster children. After the story went to press, I didn’t bother to monitor the situation online. I just let everyone have a field day while I stayed in America. I no longer cared what anyone said or thought about me. My mother still hadn’t been speaking to me at that time, so she saw the photos in the paper along with everyone else. The only person I’d contacted with a warning was Darcie. She deserved at least that and appreciated the heads up.
Shortly after Felicity and I got married, she took a part-time job working as a legal advisor for the Department of Human Services in Rhode Island. She was finally doing what she’d always wanted to: advocating for children. She continued working there until we moved, and she vowed to look for a way to continue that work as soon as we were settled in the UK.
The first time I heard from my mother was right after Eloise was born. She asked if I would be willing to come back for a visit with Felicity and the baby. So that’s what we did when our daughter turned six months old.
My mother did the best she could. She was cordial to Felicity and tried to pretend we’d never been estranged in order to be in her grandchild’s life. Eloise was the game changer. Things weren’t perfect with Mother even to this day, but they were better than they had been.