Intrigued By Danger (The Danger Family #3)

Epilogue

DECLAN DANGER

One Year Later…

I stood in the mirror fumbling with my already fixed shirt collar, needing to do something with my hands because they were sweating. In a few minutes, I planned to ask Elle to marry me. It was the first time since our kids were born that we’d had a night out together. Every time we tried to go out, Elle chickened out, claiming she couldn’t leave our kids without one of us here, even though our night nurse also worked with Greysen. I’d been trying to propose to her for the last month. My old thinking ways were trying to creep in, thinking that maybe she knew and didn’t want me to propose to her before I quickly realized Elle had never given me a reason to think otherwise. Diesel also warned me not to bring my old shit into our new relationship.

Walking out of the bathroom, I noticed Elle standing in the mirror, putting her earrings in. She looked at me and smiled.

“I cannot believe you chose this dress. It barely fits. I’m damn near busting out of it.”

I walked up behind her. “I wanted you to see how beautiful you looked in it, still. My girls plumped you up in all the right damn places. Talking about you busting out of it. No, you are not. Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

She grabbed her phone and sauntered by me out of the room. I wasn’t lying when I said my girls plumped her body up in the right places, even if she didn’t believe it. Around seven months, her doctor put her on bed rest, which came with a little more weight gain than she liked. While she hated it, I told her it only made me love her even more, knowing what her body went through to grow my girls.

“Hey, we going out through the garage.”

She turned and looked at me with wide, sad eyes. I knew if we went out the front door, she’d try to sneak down to the hall to the girls’ room.

“Daddy, please just five seconds, please. I promise, and we can leave.”

When she poked her lip out, I shook my head and looked at my watch. “I’ll give you one minute.”

We walked down the hall to the room and pushed the door open slowly. Their night nurse sat in the corner reading while the babies slept in their cribs. I cut my eyes to the nurse, and she shook her head, smiling because she knew what I’d been going through trying to get this girl out of the house. When I looked in the crib, my heart melted at seeing my girls Demi and Della Danger. They were approaching three months old and were already spitting images of me. Eventually, we’d find something different about them, but for now, we kept Demi in yellow and Della in pink. We had another name for Della, but when Mr. Thomas picked her up, he said that was Della, and we rolled with that. I already knew they were going to have me wrapped around their little fingers. I’d only been back to work for a couple weeks, and I missed them so much throughout the day that I took multiple fifteen-minute breaks just to return home and kiss their little cheeks. Elle wasn’t back in her shop yet, but she took a few clients in our house.

“Okay, so call or text me if anything happens,” Elle whispered.

“Will do.”

She sighed. “Okay, I can do this.”

“Yes, you can. Take a deep breath and just walk out.”

She obliged, and we backed out of the room slowly. After grabbing my keys, I tapped my jacket just to make sure the ring box was in its place before we walked out of the house. I walked around the passenger side and opened the door for her.

“My lady.”

She grinned before easing inside. After I closed her in, I walked around the car and joined her. The look on her face exposed that she was struggling but putting on a brave front.

“It’s okay, baby. We’ll be right back to them in a couple hours or less, I promise. And if you feel like you can’t make it through dinner, let me know,” I said, starting the car.

“I will. Thank you for being so understanding, baby.”

I backed out of the driveway and set the alarm on the house. Elle was comfortable living in the country, and wanted to keep some of her life private, so instead of moving into my house in the grove, I bought Ms. Sherry’s home and a couple more acres to have her dream home built as a birthday present. On top of having privacy, my house had a few bad memories. After Winter burned my clothes on the front lawn, she destroyed the house completely. Me and Donovan walked in on her taking a hammer to the walls while letting the water run in the house. I sent him over to his uncle’s so he wouldn’t see her like that, but when she noticed me, she came after me with the hammer and clipped my arm before running out of the house, calling after Donovan. I had to football tackle her because at that moment, I didn’t know what she’d planned to do. It hurt my soul to have to hold her down while she kicked and screamed until the ambulance came and took her away.

According to the doctors, she’d had a nervous breakdown and would be fine with therapy and maybe a low dose anti-depressant. At first, she did neither, not giving a damn about being a parent. She started traveling, trying to be a socialite while trying to imply that I was basically ‘holding her hostage’ through her ‘finding myself’ captions on social media. All that changed when Elle announced our pregnancy. She suddenly decided that she wanted to do right. When her therapist communicated with my lawyer that she’d been active and consistent with therapy, we scheduled one hour supervised video chats a week. After a couple months, she wanted to take the first deal I’d given her and move back, but that was out, even though the house was renovated. It would be a long ass time before I trusted her alone with my son. Now, Donovan looks forward to his one hour a week calls with his mother as she worked toward supervised visits.

I’d turned into JB’s and parked the car. I got out and opened the door for her.

“Are we the first ones here?” She asked, looking around at the slightly empty parking lot.

“Hell yeah. You know I been trying to get you out the house and you always renege, so they are going to wait until you get here.”

“Oh wow. So, y’all been talking about me behind my back. Bet that up.”

I chuckled. “Come on here, girl.”

When I opened the door for her, she walked inside and gasped. They’d placed a red carpet down and lined it with tealights. We followed the carpet out to the deck to the booth where it all began.

“Oh my gosshh,” Elle beamed.

“You remember this table, Lil Bit,” I asked.

The lone table was decorated fancy, though we wouldn’t be eating here.

“Hell yeah, I was about to knock you out thinking you were your big head ass twin.”

When she sat down, I sat across from her and gazed at her.

“You’re so pretty,” I said.

“You just saying that.”

“And I know you believe it, or you wouldn’t be blushing right now.”

Her hair was pulled up and out of her face like I loved it. Watching her smile eased my thumping heart and calmed my nerves. She always claimed I was the calm to her storm, but she’d done more for me and my anxiety than I probably would have ever done myself.

“You know, nearly a year and a half ago, I was sitting here in this exact same spot, lost and confused. Hoping and praying my life wasn’t about to change because you know how bad I hated that. But then I had a chance to offer a beautiful and sassy woman a drink. And that woman proceeded to turn my life upside down from that moment forward.”

Her lips spread across her face before they slipped opened, realizing what I was about to do.

“Dec…” She whispered and cleared her throat.

She reached for her collar and massaged the lock. I could see her chest start rising and falling quickly.

“Ella, I didn’t know I could ever feel what I’m feeling right now. You have helped usher me into the man I never knew I could be. When I look at you, even when you’re angry me, I still feel so happy. It’s almost strange to feel this shit every damn day. You’ve brought so much joy into my life that I could sell some of this shit and my cup would still be running over.”

“Declan,” she whispered, eyes filling with tears while making mine do the same damn thing.

Our relationship wasn’t perfect, but we were happy. I was happy. I couldn’t wait to come home to her. I looked forward to our weekends together, cooking out on the patio, playing board games with Donovan, and bonding with her father and Ms. Sherry.

If I didn’t try to make her laugh, we’d both be crying, and I wouldn’t get to say everything I needed to say.

“You’re going to hate this, but I loved when you were on bedrest, because I got to serve you, and cook and clean for you like you’re always doing for me. I got to lay up under you all day and night. You didn’t know how bad I was missing you when you were at work. I really don’t know what you did to me, man. My heart still skips a beat when your name pops up on my screen. Declan, where you at? Stop by Dad’s and pick up that batch of collards on your way home. Baby, it’s your turn to pick up Lil’ D and his friends from practice.”

She sniffed. “You’re not funny.”

“Did I tell you how much I’ve appreciated you stepping in and helping me take care of Donovan? I mean… not so much as tell, but show you how much I appreciate you? You really didn’t have to do any of that. It’s like you just fell right into being his bonus mom perfectly. There is no better sight than coming home from work and seeing you help with his homework or seeing y’all curled up reading together. I hope you know he loves his TT Mama. I knew you’d passed his test when you disciplined him and he didn’t go run and tell his grandma like he does when I punish him.”

“You know I loved him before I loved you. He’s such a smart and sweet kid and you’re raising him right.”

“We are raising him right. And I hope you would like to officially become his stepmother.”

Her tears started again.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the custom black ring box with gold lettering on the outside. She gasped and covered her lips with her fingers.

“Ella, I want to answer to you for the rest of my life.” I opened the box, revealing two bands that clasped into two D’s. “This is my promise to my girls, that I’ll always be there for them and their mother, and to be the best father I can be. These bands also work in a way so if you wanted to give them one when they are older, you could.” My hands started to shake, but I managed to slide the two trays apart, revealing her engagement ring. “And this is my promise to you, Della Mae Thomas…” I took the ring out of the box and slid out of the booth to my knee next to her. “I love you. I’m in love with you. I want to continue to grow with you. You’ve really and truly made me the happiest man. Will you marry me?”

She nodded vigorously. “Yes, Declan! Oh my God, yes,” she squealed.

Both of our hands trembled as I slid the ring on her finger.

“Oh my God, baby. This ring is so freaking beautiful.”

“And the special part about this ring is the small diamond in the center. It belongs to your grandmother. Your father gave me his blessing to ask you.”

She started crying again. “Declan, really? Like… for real?”

“Yeah, baby. Shocked the shit out of me too. You know I had to work hard to earn his trust, and sometimes, I feel like I still don’t have it.”

That made her laugh. “I won’t confirm nor deny, but he trusts me, and I trust you.”

“That’s refreshing to know. Hand me your feet.”

She turned sideways and put her feet on my knee. Her dress rode up, giving me the perfect view of her pussy because she didn’t have any panties on.

I hissed lowly. “Look at her. You’re feeling adventurous tonight.”

“Yes. I was hoping we could play sleepy girl tonight.”

I smirked. “Ella, baby girl, I need you fully awake and present for what I’m going to do to you tonight. Look at her clenching. Mmh.”

My dick started to get hard, so I unstrapped her shoes and set them on the table.

“Come on,” I said, standing her up. “Here put these on, too.”

I took the bands from the box and clasped them around her other ring finger.

“These are just too pretty,” she said, glancing over at the box.

“M. What does M stand…” she inhaled sharply. “The mafia?”

I chuckled. “I’m not doing this with you tonight.” I grabbed her hand and led her out toward the beach.

“Declan, if we are about to have sex on the—”

“She said yes!” I shouted.

“Why are you—”

Suddenly giant letters spelling Y.E.S lit up on the beach as our families stood up from their chairs, cheering and clapping. They’d been waiting silently while I proposed.

“Oh my God, Declan Danger, you are so unbelievable.”

I looked down at her and her eyes and mouth were wide with surprise, displaying I’d done good.

“Yeah, I know you once told me you wanted a private proposal, but a large celebration. I really didn’t know if you were talking about like now, or an elopement and then—”

She shushed me. “Declan, this is perfect. I love how you are still able to surprise me. I am completely surprised and so happy. You really don’t know, and I can’t wait—”

“About damn time. I was about to come see what the holdup was,” Kemba said, approaching us.

He dapped me up and looked down Elle. “You break my dog heart; just know I’m bussin’ that ass. I already owe you a few.”

“Whatever, Kemba. I am not going to let you take me out of my element. Do you see these rocks?” I held my hand up.

“I can’t insult you without insulting my boy, so—”

“Yeah, because these rocks leaving a mark, baby.”

“Bitchhh!” Greysen squealed, as she, Quinci, and my sisters came up and gathered around her, pulling her into a hug.

“Look at these rings y’all! He really ate this, like…”

“Girl, we seen these rings months ago,” Quinci said.

“What you mean months ago?”

“He been had those rings made,” Denim added.

She looked up at me. “And you just now asking me? Why?”

I held my hands up. “It ain’t my fault. Your sisters—yeah, all of them around you— said I shouldn’t ask you while you were pregnant. Your engagement needed its own day or something they said,” I admitted as my brothers walked up, dapping me up.

She squinted at me and then turned to look at them.

“So, I got a lot of opps around me? Because what you mean I could have had these rocks months ago and had my kids last name before they were born.”

We all burst out laughing while they all started trying to plead their cases at the same time, talking over each other. It didn’t help that Elle was covering her ears and shaking her head, making us laugh even harder.

Greysen grabbed her hands and brought them down. “Let’s talk about you filling out this dress. You definitely trying to get pregnant tonight,” Greysen said, spinning her around.

“Hell nah!”

“Hell yeah!” we said at the same time, forcing her to look at me with a scowl.

She told me she didn’t want to talk about having another baby until Demi and Della were at least three years old. I completely respected that.

Diesel pulled his camera from around his neck. “Okay, one picture for the newly engaged couple.”

I pulled her to me and pressed my lips to her temple, making her grin.

“One more, kids. Thank you.”

“Welcome to the family, officially, future Mrs. Declan Danger.”

“You really mean that, Diesel?”

“Of course. Have I not properly shown you that you were welcomed?”

“Uh…” she paused, blushing.

To this day, we hadn’t brought up Elle and Greysen’s conversation regarding them wanting to switch us out, but we’d made it a thing to lightly flirt with them just to see the looks on their faces.

“Girl, let’s go get some drinks while none of us have to eat and drink for other people,” Greysen said before pulling her away.

“Look at you. You a big boy now,” Dymon said, dapping me up again. “How you feeling? I know yo’ ass finally relieved you asked.”

“I’m glad so he could stop crying,” Diesel said, laughing. “He was talking about, what if she says no. He knows that girl is crazy about him.”

“I really feel good. You know I keep telling y’all it feels strange to feel so happy like this, damn near weird.”

“I told yo’ ass, when you could look in the face of the woman who’s pissed you off to the highest level and still be like damn, I love yo’ sexy ass, that’s when you know. I tell Princess all the time she better be lucky, she’s turned me into a jealous crazed nut that wouldn’t know how to live without her,” Dymon joked.

Kemba waved Dymon off. “And I told his ass not to mess with a woman with an old lady name, and now look at him. Down bad. Nigga don’t listen.”

“Fuck you, Kemba.”

I looked out at my fiancée and her sisters dance in front of the letters while they all recorded her. Quinci planned everything, and I couldn’t thank her enough for taking over. If it was up to me, I would have proposed to her in the house. Every time we were all together like this, I couldn’t believe I used to pretend I didn’t want this or could live without it. I didn’t want to ever compare Winter and Elle, but this was the difference. Elle really brought out the silly side of me, forced me to stop thinking my brothers wouldn’t love me for who I really was or would judge me. It felt good to not be living in those thoughts anymore.

“Leah, stop trying to get up, damn.”

“I’m trying to help you, Benjamin.”

I turned to see Benjamin pushing Leah up in a wheelchair.

“Heyyy, D. Finally got that girl out of the house, huh?”

“I did; however, you’re supposed to be in the house, and in the bed, young lady. Don’t get up.”

I leaned over and hugged her while palming her round belly.

“Tell her again because when I told her that, she told me if she didn’t get here, I’d be divorced by next week. I didn’t want to weigh my options,” Benjamin said, laughing. “Congratulations, man.”

“Don’t be acting like that. We agreed to this stupid wheelchair and only staying out here long enough to say hi to everyone.”

“Uh-huh. So, let’s go do that, so we can get you back home.”

He threw his head back at my brothers and Kemba before pushing her across the sand. Leah and Benjamin had become our good friends, and they were the third set of Godparents for the twins. Between Leah and Elle getting pregnant, and both of their asses having to be on bedrest, our last scene together was a while ago. We started hanging out outside of that, and it was straight. Only my brothers and Greysen knew about the extent of our relationship, until one day, my dad noticed Elle caressing Benjamin’s neck one night when he hugged her. My father pulled me to the side and asked me about it. I told him the truth and didn’t feel an ounce of shame admitting that I loved watching my girl be with other people. Ironically, Elle and I never discussed boundaries because we just understood each other.

In my peripherals, I saw my dad and Mr. Thomas walking up.

“Congratulations, young man. I was getting ready to ask for my wife’s ring back,” Mr. Thomas said, stretching his hand out toward me.

“Thank you, Mr. Thomas.”

“It is way past my bedtime. I don’t know why you young people choose to start these types of things this late.”

“I’ll walk you out, Bill. Give me a minute with my son.”

We walked a few feet from the group before he stopped and pulled me into a tight hug.

“Son, I am so happy for you and proud of you.” He released me and stared at me. “You know your mom is mad she couldn’t be here tonight.”

“No one told her to be out day drinking,” I said, shaking my head.

Earlier, her and some of friends were at brunch, and she’d had one too many cocktails and tripped up the stairs to her condo, twisting her ankle. Donovan was over there nursing her back to health.

“Yeah, right. She needs to have some fun, but tell me, are you happy, son?”

“Dad, I’m the happiest I’ve ever been in my life,” I confessed.

I looked out at Elle giving Leah a fake lap dance while Benjamin held the wheelchair steady.

“That’s what I like to hear. Well, I’m going to get out of here, so I can get home to your mama. How she call herself having another man but I gotta take care of her when shehurt?”

“I’m not getting in that. Goodnight, Dad.”

He hugged me again before we walked back over to the group. Him and Mr. Thomas headed out of the door.

My dad and Mr. Thomas had been building a relationship outside of us, and I thought it was pretty cool. Imagine my surprise when my father told me he was getting up at six in the morning to go pick some collard greens with Mr. Thomas.

“Wait! Wait! Wait!” Elle shouted. “I want to say something before people leave.”

We all nodded and began to gather around her.

“So, I don’t want to get mushy… but I’d like to thank y’all for being here tonight. I know I’ve been cooped up in the house for the last few months, but you guys have made this transition into motherhood seamless for me. I also want to say thank you for supporting me and Declan’s relationship. He is such a good man and is so deserving of this wonderful support group and community. If I keep going, I’mma cry, so that’s it.”

“Aww… I do not know who this mushy girl is anymore,” Greysen said, wrapping her arms around her.

After she said her goodbyes, Elle approached and wrapped her arms around me. I looked down at her, smiling, immediately getting lost in her eyes. It suddenly felt we were out here alone.

“You really don’t know how happy you’ve made me tonight, Declan Danger.”

“I’m looking forward to doing that for the rest of my life, Ella Danger,” I said, and kissed and kissed her forehead.

THE END!