Epilogue 2
Close to Perfect
One Year Later
Interviewer: So, what’s your legacy?
Carbone: I thought this book wasn’t about legacy.
Interviewer: I’m the author here. I can ask whatever the fuck I want.
Carbone: You need a snack.
Interviewer: Don’t fucking tell me what I need! Well, actually, yeah, some trail mix would be good. The kind with the little peanut butter cups. Thank you.
Interviewer: God, I was hungry. Now. Your legacy.
Carbone: I don’t need a legacy. You’ve got enough for both of us.
Interviewer: Goddammit, Danny. Of course you have a legacy. It’s your bar that makes so many people happy. Your family who couldn’t survive without you. Including Mia and me.
Carbone: If you know, why’d you ask me?
Interviewer: Because you needed to hear it.
Transcript from untitled manuscript about parenthood
LUCIE
“ D on’t you think it’s a little much for a one-year-old’s birthday party?”
Standing on the stepstool, Danny pivoted from the streamer he was hanging to face me. “What’s too much?”
The streamers. The full-sheet cake. The signature cocktails. Fifty guests. But I didn’t say any of that. Because his question was rhetorical. For Danny, there was no such thing as too much for those he loved.
“Never mind, babe. In fact, keep going.” I crossed my arms and put one finger on my lips. “Your ass looks great from this angle.”
And it did. His faded Levis put his taut glutes on display, and I could fully appreciate them from a few feet below him. Actually, if he turned and came down one step, I could unbutton his jeans, pull out his glorious cock, and?—
“Oh, no,” he said. “We don’t have time to satisfy that gleam in your eye. The grandparents will be here any minute, and Mia’s waking up.” He nodded at the video monitor, where our one-year-old daughter stretched her little arms over her head in her crib.
“I was the one who did all the work a year ago. I should get a present too.” I pouted.
He ripped the streamer so it dangled from the wall, then descended from the stool. His arms wrapped around me, and his familiar scent surrounded me. “I promise you’ll get yours tonight.” His hand wandered down to my ass and squeezed.
I cheated. I tunneled my hand inside his jeans, under the waistband of his boxers, and cupped his butt. He hardened against my belly.
“No fair,” he grumbled, ducking his head to kiss my neck in the spot under my ear that made me shiver. “Now I’m going to have a hard-on when I open the door for your mother.”
“Or…” I stretched my neck and let my fingers wander toward his hips on their way to the promised land. “We could have a quickie on the couch in my office.”
“I don’t want quick,” he said, kissing down to the base of my neck. “I want slow. Leisurely. All.” He kissed my lips. “Night.” He pressed his hips closer, preventing my hands from squeezing between us.
There was a tap at the door.
“Damn it,” I muttered. “There goes our quickie.”
He stepped away and adjusted his jeans. “I was never on board with the quickie proposal.”
I stared pointedly at the bulge in his pants. “Sure you weren’t.”
“Da-da.” Our daughter’s voice burbled from the monitor.
“Duty calls.” With a wink, he turned toward the spiral staircase we’d installed to connect our apartments into a single unit.
With Barb’s permission, we’d converted my apartment upstairs into a large bedroom for Danny and me and a smaller bedroom for Mia, plus a combination family room and playroom. Danny’s former apartment housed the main kitchen and dining area, plus my office, where I now worked full-time, thanks to the income from the bar and the advance for my second book. Dropping my resignation letter on Mario’s desk and watching his expression crumble was one of the most satisfying moments of my life.
Danny had built bookshelves on two walls and made me promise to reserve one shelf for books I’d written. I’d slid the first copies of my book about legacies onto that shelf last month.
At the second sharp rap on the door, I strode toward it. “Coming!”
“You wish,” Danny teased, already halfway up the stairs.
“You’ll pay for that later,” I called back.
“And I’ll enjoy every minute.”
I threw open the door to find Leo there with two assistants holding heavy insulated bags of food.
“I should charge you extra for the stairs,” he grumbled as he entered.
“Hello to you, too,” I said. “As I recall, you refused when we offered to pay you.”
“I can’t charge you to cater my niece’s birthday party,” he said, unpacking a stack of foil trays that smelled like oregano and heaven. “Especially since you and Danny provide liquor for my events at cost.”
“That’s how family works,” I said. It was a lesson I’d learned over the past year as part of the Carbone family. Everyone did favors for everyone else. And everyone was accepted for exactly who they were. Including me.
“Bar was busy downstairs,” Leo said.
We’d made a lot of changes since I’d pooled my book advance with Danny’s savings to buy the bar from Barb. But not the kind of changes Tad had envisioned. (He hadn’t been back since Danny had taken over.) “Saturdays are family days. After cake, we’ll take all the kids down there to see the balloon artist.”
He shuddered. “As long as I can stay up here, put my feet up, and have a beer, I’m good.” He turned on the two ovens and stacked the foil trays inside.
“You know Mia’s going to want her favorite uncle with her.” I stole a pepper from the antipasto tray his assistant had unwrapped.
“She’ll be so hopped up on cake she won’t even notice me enjoying a little peace and quiet away from the kiddos,” Leo said. “Besides, she has an entire fan club.”
“Hello!” Carly called from the doorway. “I’m letting myself in.”
“See what I mean?” Leo said as Tessa and Savannah followed Carly inside.
I rushed to hug my friends. “Where are the guys?”
“They stopped at the bar to watch the end of the game since we’re early.” The tray Savannah carried bumped my stomach as I leaned in to kiss her cheek.
“What’d you bring?” I asked, my mouth watering at the savory scent.
“Just some spinach dip and homemade crackers,” she said. “If there’s room in the oven, I’ll keep it warm.”
“Check with Leo. If not, we’ve still got the oven upstairs,” I said.
Danny’s heavy steps sounded on the spiral staircase. “Look who’s up,” he sang out.
Savannah shoved the tray into my hands. “Mia, my love!” She rushed to greet my daughter, Carly right on her heels.
Tessa hung back beside me. “You doing all right, Luce?”
I watched Danny smooth down the skirt of Mia’s rust-orange party dress. He’d even managed to wrestle her into leggings and a pair of soft, grippy booties that helped her take her toddling steps, provided anyone would let her feet touch the floor today. Her face lit up when she saw my friends. She reached for Savannah first, curling her fingers into her pink hair. Fortunately, Savannah didn’t mind. Danny stood by proudly, hands on his hips.
“Yeah,” I said. “I’m excellent.”
“Still one-and-done?” she asked.
“Not you too.” I glared at her. “Danny made his family promise not to ask me that anymore.”
“Hey.” She held up her hands. “You know I’m not into kids. I’m just saying, your man could make anyone burst an ovary.”
“True. But I promise to keep my wits about me, despite his ovary-exploding powers. Our family is perfect as is.”
“Hello!” My mother’s voice rang out behind me. “We came early to help.”
“Just what I need,” I muttered.
“Need me to run interference?” Tessa asked. “I can ask your dad about his research. That’s good for an hour-long conversation.”
“I’ll let you know. Code word is mayday .”
She snorted, then headed off to greet Mia and Danny. I turned to face my parents.
My mother hugged me. “How’s the proud mama?” she asked.
“Doing fine, thanks.”
“We watched Danny’s video of Mia’s first steps a dozen times, didn’t we, Marvin?” she said.
“We did. And how many words does she have?”
“Dad,” I warned. “Don’t start.”
“What? I’m asking about my granddaughter’s development.”
I raised my eyebrows. “You’re testing her.”
“Why would I do that? She’s a baby.”
Because that’s what you did to me, I didn’t say. “We talked about this, Dad.”
“I know. But there’s no harm in trying to teach her to say ‘Grandpa,’ is there?” He rubbed his hands together.
“I guess not. And she’d love it if you’d read her a book.”
“It’s excellent that you’re instilling a love of reading in her,” he said.
I blinked at his praise. “Thank you.”
My mother nudged him, and he cleared his throat. “I read your book.”
“You did?” My heart pounded. “The—the whole thing?”
“The whole book. Your mother and I read it together.” He didn’t let any expression cross his stoic face.
“And…” It was hard to squeeze the words out past the constriction in my throat. “What did you think?”
My mother squeezed my father’s arm. “Stop teasing her, Marvin.”
He smiled. “We loved it. I loved it. You conveyed the complexity of being a woman in today’s challenging times. I’m so proud, Lucie.”
“Proud?” My fingertips tingled, and I shook the feeling back into them. “Thank you.”
“Now I’m going to say hello to my granddaughter and Danny. I have to thank him for the videos.” He strode toward Mia, who was now perched on Carly’s hip.
My mother lingered for a moment. “He’s trying, you know.”
I rolled my eyes. “Could’ve fooled me.”
“He realizes he didn’t do the best job parenting you. He’s trying to do better at grandparenting. He loves you both, and he’s striving to show it.”
I took a deep breath and sighed it out. I was trying to be less hard on myself. I should extend that grace to my father too. “Okay.”
“I’ll make sure he doesn’t try too hard with the ‘Grandpa’ thing,” she said, following my father.
I stayed back. He was proud of me. They both were. At forty-one years old, I shouldn’t care. But I did. I felt warm inside.
“Hey.” Danny put an arm around my shoulders. “You all right?”
“Yeah.” I smiled up at him. “You?”
“You, me, and our family on Mia’s first birthday? I can’t imagine being happier.”
I rose on my tiptoes to kiss his cheek. “Me neither.”
T hank you so much for reading Books and Hookups.