When my lips start to hurt and I need to breathe, I pull back. “I’m your dream?”
“Yeah.” He laughs like he’s confused. “Yeah, you are.”
“Why is that funny?” I laugh.
“Because Sisco is going to have a field day with this.”
“The guy from the studio in New York?”
“Our first date?” He smirks, and I laugh. “That’ll be our story, okay?”
Our story, I sigh to myself.
“So, what do you say, sweets? Do we choose to become a happy, mundane couple? I’ll work in New York, you’ll work for your dad, and we’ll see each other when we can. Or, do we take this opportunity and travel for the next five to eight months, fuck in ten different cities, and help make some other’s dreams come true while we’re living ours?”
“Hmm …” I pretend to consider the choices. “I’ll take fucking you in ten different cities, final answer.”
He picks me up, twirls me around, and then sets me on my feet and gives me another breath-stealing kiss.
Twenty-Four
To the Moon
Tags
Standing outside the studio, my first day back, waiting to share the news with Sisco, I take a picture of the exact spot I saw Bella for the first time, that moment she turned around and I knew she was going to be mine. Then I send it to her.
She sends me back a picture of her tits.
“Well, fuck.” I laugh as I zoom in on her nipples.
Then a text pops up.
Bella: They miss you. ~ B.S.
Laughing, I send a reply.
Me: Wonder if I have flood insurance on my phone. Thing’s soaked. ~ Tags
Bella: Now you know how my panties feel every time I look at you. ~ B.S.
Me: Miss you, sweets. Love you and your nips. ~ Tags
Bella: Have fun with Little Luna. ~ B.S.
Me: T minus three hours and counting. ~ Tags
“They kick you out already?” Sisco laughs and gives me a bear hug.
“Actually, I got kicked up to producer.” I step back. “How’s business?”
“You don’t get to ask how business is until you explain how the fuck you got a promotion. And it better not start with I got fucked up and banged the wife I was trying to divorce,” he says as he unlocks the door.
“Actually, you remember the chick from my last night here?”
“Who could forget that?” He laughs and locks the door behind me.
“She showed up in Miami.”
“Another Beverly wanting to sweep you off your feet?”
“No, she was hired as a producer. Shocked the shit out of me, but in a good way.”
He looks up from his appointment book. “Yeah?”
“She’s it, Sisco. She’s the real fucking deal.”
“So, you work together with this Beverly, your wife, and her father? How’s that going?”
I explain pretty much the whole story in about two minutes, and when I mention Jase Steel, he laughs.
“Italian from Jersey?”
I nod.
He turns and pulls up the back of his shirt. “Gave me my first professional piece. Good man. He’s her father?”
“Yeah, and I’m not sure he likes me.”
“Tell him you love the Yankees, and he and his brothers will talk baseball with you for hours. So, Steel’s girl, huh?” He laughs.
“My girl now.” I sit down and lean back. “Unreal.”
“You got your ass kicked for years; don’t overthink it. Just enjoy.”
“I plan to, Sisco. I plan to.”
Coming home on a Monday was hell. She didn’t want to go to school, but I could tell it was helping her grow. Was also kicking her ass.
She was exhausted. She fell asleep clinging to me, and I sat there holding her for a couple hours while Paula grilled me about Bella. Day one, and she’s already asking when she and Luna get to meet her.
My morning and evening calls are with Bella. My every thought is Bella.
I try to figure out how soon is too quick for them to meet, but honestly, if we weren’t taking over the show, I’d already have introduced them. But I don’t want Luna to get attached and be missing her and me both.
Day two, and Luna has a full-blown breakdown, saying she doesn’t want to go to school and manages to get so worked up that she vomits all down the front of me.
Two hours later, and she’s passed out with a fever.
Lying in bed with her, my phone rings.
I look at the screen and hit accept. Or, at least I meant to.
Fumbling with my phone, I hit FaceTime on accident, and she answers too quickly to right my wrong.
She smiles. “Hey.”
“Didn’t mean to hit you up on FaceTime, but I’m working with one arm here.”
“Tell me where that other hand is, and I’ll join you.”
I pull the phone farther away so she can get the full view. “Not so sexy, huh?”
“Oh my God!” She smiles. “Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
“My ovaries just exploded. I don’t think I could handle seeing you two in person like that.” She bites her bottom lip. “Damn.”
“You know what’s worse than exploding ovaries, sweets?”
“What?” She lies back on a plush, pale pink blanket
“Popping wood while your kid’s laying on you because you are looking at the most beautiful chick on the planet, knowing what she tastes like.”
“Carly warned me this would happen.” She shakes her head.
“And what’s that?”
“That I was gonna fall in love with her the moment I saw her. She said she already has.” She rolls over onto her stomach and continues, “She also told me Dad mind-fucked her and my first meeting, and he almost blew it. So, while you’re lying there like that, all I am thinking is when can I meet her and hoping you don’t screw it up.”
“I don’t screw shit up. And you should’ve been here a couple hours ago when she threw a fit the size of Texas because she didn’t want to go to school then threw up all down the front of me, Bella. Now that was hot.”
“I’m ignoring that and just gonna put it out there that Dad and Carly rented a plantation in Richmond for two weeks. There’s a pool, a pond, and some cute little places to visit. Join us.”
“She’s got school.”
“She’s three, Tags. She can miss a couple weeks.”
“She needs it, Bella. She’s got some issues that are best dealt with early on so she doesn’t struggle later.”
“Daddy.” Luna sits up and looks at me. “I’m gonna get sick.”
Sitting up, I put her head against my chest and mouth, “Gotta go.”
She nods and whispers, “Feel better, beautiful girl.”
I wink at her then end the call, drop the phone, and grab the bowl on the floor next to the bed.
Day two of the fever, and I took her to the pediatrician. My moon has strep throat. She’s on her first antibiotic and now is sound asleep.
Walking out of the bedroom, I see Paula looking over a pile of bills at the table. I smile to myself, knowing there isn’t going to be a struggle this month or the next two. Plus, there’s an added cushion for all the shit she doesn’t do for herself often, because even without us here, things are tight for her. I don’t know how she did it for the year I was gone, but she did.