Chapter 30
I feel so strange being here after everything that happened today.
Stella and I were whisked away like the first family under an immediate national security threat.
They’re the Abbot-Fritzes, and they’re not normal people.
I realize this, but I guess I just didn’t realize this.
I mean, who has a security team on speed dial?
That was a trip.
That and my father dropping dead on my front lawn. That was something too.
I expect Octavia Fritz to hate me on principle.
She should. My family threatened her family today.
But the second Stella is done hugging her grandmother and relaying what went down, the beautiful woman with the adorable blond wig parts her arms like the Red Sea and envelops me in a crushing hug like I’m the Egyptians who were racing after the Israelites.
I’m not sure that makes sense, but it’s been a day, and I think a modicum of slack should be awarded my way.
“You are everything Luca and Stella said you are and more.”
I can’t help but smile at that. “With the exception of Stella, that’s not as comforting as you might think it should be.”
She laughs, her green eyes sparkling, and now I know where her boys—except Carter, whose eyes resemble decadent dark chocolate—and daughter get it.
“No. I imagine it is not. Luca was always my troublemaker. But he’d never say anything he didn’t mean, and everything he told me about you was not only kind, it appears was right on the money.”
Money. I flinch at that, and she notices, giving me the warmest of smiles as if to say, you’re okay now, you’re one of us.
Landon told me the other night about his mom.
How worried he is about her health. How scared he is of losing her.
I had told him once that I’d take his mother over mine any day, and now more than ever, I mean that.
She is the family glue, lovely and gracious and kind.
“Are you worried about your dad?” Stella asks as they lead me through the house—house is a loose term for palace—until we reach some sort of room that’s not quite a dining room but clearly some meals are eaten here. A breakfast room? “You don’t have to be. My dad will save him.”
Oddly enough, I’m not worried about my dad. I mean, I don’t want him to die. I’m not that sort of evil. But I don’t want to hear from him again so…
“I have no doubt your dad will save him.”
“And my grandpa. He went to help too.”
Great. I’m sure that will fly like reindeer at Christmas in this family. “Will he be upset about working so late into the evening?”
Octavia—she insisted I call her that—places a hand on my forearm. “The man lives for surgery. Since I became ill, he’s unfortunately had to cut back his hours, so having any excuse to cut someone open, he’ll take.”
Oh. Well. I’m not sure what to say to that. Evidently, my father is getting cut open tonight, and my boyfriend’s father is doing it. What a motherfucking day.
“Are you hungry?” a woman wearing black slacks, a white button-down blouse, and a soft smile comes in and asks. “I’m Sophia. The Fritz family’s chef. Stella’s been telling me you’ve been teaching her to cook.”
I blink and stand up, somehow feeling like I’m stealing this woman’s thunder with that, though I think that might be in my head since she seems genuinely delighted by this. “Yes. Every Monday and Wednesday.”
“We should do a lesson here. All together. I’d love to be part of it.”
“You would?”
She laughs at my flabbergasted expression. “Of course. It would be fun. We’ll have Layla come too and make a party out of it. From what my little birdy here has told me, her uncles and aunt are very jealous they haven’t gotten to taste any of her creations.”
I’m totally about to start crying. “I’d love that.”
“Wonderful.” Sophia gives me an even brighter and warmer smile than she was two seconds ago. “So… hungry?” She checks with the other two women I’m with.
“Starved. Like… could eat a bear starved.”
Sophia rolls her eyes at Stella. “Tell me something new, kid. But dinner is ready unless we’re waiting on Dr. Fritz and Dr. Landon.”
Dr. Landon sounds so weird and formal, but I guess she’s the family chef, so it makes sense? I don’t know. I have zero frames of reference with this kind of money. These people put rich people to shame.
“I believe Dr. Fritz and Landon will join us later. Would you mind putting supper together for us?”
“Not at all. I’ll be right back with it.” She winks at Stella, then leaves. And wow. Just wow. These people are the nicest ever. Not a snooty bone among them. I hate that that’s precisely what I envisioned despite having met the other Fritzes, but yeah.
I fall back into my chair, staring out the back window at the magnificent grounds that seem to go on forever. That is until a hand over mine startles me back to the room. “A drink, dear?”
“Does it sound bad if I say yes?”
Octavia laughs, and it reminds me so much of when Rina did. They look so much alike, and I hope I get to know Rina better.
“Not at all.” She rises out of her chair and now I feel awful. I assumed she’d have someone do it for her, but nope, this woman is walking across the room—it’s a freaking mammoth room for what is likely a third eating room—over to a bar I hadn’t previously noticed.”
“What’s your poison?”
“I will honestly drink whatever you’re making.”
“Stella, should we give her our special Shirley Temples?”
Ummm… that’s not exactly what I was hoping for.
“I think she’d love them,” Stella replies, and now I can’t say a word.
“Mine is adjusted slightly from Stella’s, and I’ll make yours the same. Does that sound all right?”
Oh, Octavia Fritz. You are a very special woman. “That sounds wonderful.”
“I figured you’d agree with that.” She returns with three glasses—crystal glasses on a silver tray, no joke—for all of us.
“This one is yours, my sweet.” She places the very obvious Shirley Temple in front of Stella.
“These are ours, Ellery, but yours might have an extra punch of ginger beer in it.” She winks conspiratorially at me, and I think I love Landon’s mother.
“Thank you and thank you for welcoming me into your home so graciously.”
“It is truly—and I mean this from the bottom of my heart—my pleasure. To better days ahead of us now that you’re with us.”
“I will absolutely drink to that.”
Our crystal clinks with that perfect crystal sound, and we each take a sip, and yep, this is some form of a Moscow Mule with a lot of vodka and a splash of lime and grenadine, and a few cherries thrown in—likely for Stella’s benefit.
But it’s when Stella remarks, “Yeah, my dad is in love with you, so now our whole family is,” that I choke on the vodka that is now burning a hole through my esophagus. Thank Jesus it wasn’t a cherry or a Heimlich would have been necessary.
“What?” Stella asks, perplexed by my reaction. “He told me he was.”
“Stella, honey, I’m not sure your daddy has told Elle that yet, though. I think that’s why she’s so surprised.”
I nod. I gasp.
“Does that mean you don’t love him back?”
“Good question, Bellas,” Landon says, entering the room. “I’m curious about that myself.” He drops into the empty chair beside me, all smiles and grins and freaking hot sexy man. “Does your choking mean you don’t love me back, Elle?”
Bastard. He’s really going to put me on the spot like that. In front of his daughter, who is my student, and his mother, whom I just met. I glare, and he chuckles, patting my back and kissing my forehead. Right here. At his mother’s… some kind of eating room table.
Once I’m able to catch my breath, I go for my water, taking a hasty sip.
“Your dad’s going to be okay,” Landon announces, and the change in topic is giving me whiplash.
“He had a heart attack. One of his coronary arteries was completely blocked and another two were severely narrowed and unable to be stented. My father is performing bypass as we speak. He’ll spend tonight up in the CCU and then about three or so days in the hospital before he’s discharged.
I’ll see him again prior to that and get him set up with a cardiologist close to his home and that will be that.
I have their word on it, and I believe this time, it’s true.
In any event, I’ll be keeping tabs to make sure. ”
“Thank you.” My chin wobbles, and I suck in a breath. I don’t want to cry. Not here.
He takes my hand. “You’re welcome. It’s been quite a day. Are you okay?”
“I am now.”
A smile lights up his face and wow, this man and his smiles. They dazzle my insides.
Without thinking too deeply about it or second-guessing, I lean in and hug him, dragging him to me. And when his ear is by my mouth, I whisper, “I love you.” Because some things for the first time need to be said in privacy. Well, semi-privacy because I’m positive Octavia and Stella heard it.
Especially when Stella squeals and claps and bounces up and down in her seat.
Landon abruptly rises from his chair, taking me with him. “Mom, please ask if Sophia would mind keeping our plates warm. I need to speak with Elle alone for a minute.”
“Of course.”
Only her smile could power up Times Square after a blackout.
He plants a kiss on top of Stella’s head, then he’s dragging me along, through room after room, to the point where I’m already lost. I hope he doesn’t expect me to find my way back by myself.
We fly through a music room, loaded with instruments, up a back staircase and down a hall until he opens a door and practically shoves me inside it.
Before I can get my bearings, he’s pressing me back into the wall, getting right up in my face. “Did you mean it?”
I blink rapidly and nod. “Yes. I meant it. I love you. You’re the one who hasn’t said it yet after putting me on the spot. Twice now.”
His hands clutch my face, his fingertips brushing through my hair, his eyes wild and locked on mine.
“Ellery Jane Wilde, I love you. I love you for forgiving me for unforgivable things. I love you for your smiles and your warmth and your laughter. I love you for how you love Stella. I love you for pumping life back into my dead heart and reminding it how to beat again. I love you for your spunk and bravery. I love you for—”
I cut his words off with my lips, practically climbing the man like a spider monkey.
I can’t get close enough. One hand is in my hair, the other under my ass, holding me up and pressing me into the wall as he kisses me.
And kisses me. With tongue and teeth and lips and heat and so much passion, it suffuses my every molecule.
His lips drag down my neck, sucking and biting.
I gasp. “Landon, you’re going to mark my skin.”
“I know.”
“We’re at your parents’ house.”
His warm breath glides over the trail of wet skin he’s leaving behind, and I tremble in his arms. “I don’t want to stop. I need you.”
His mouth dives back in, and any remaining objections die on my tongue as his sweeps across it.
His hands are all over me, tugging at my shirt, palming my breasts, squeezing my ass.
Mine can’t be contained either as I grip at his shirt and grapple with his pants.
Our kisses are sloppy and wet, our movements frantic.
He breaks contact to tear my shirt off, but instead of attacking me again, he pauses, staring straight into my eyes.
“I know you’ve been through a lot. With David, with walking away from him, with your family.
I know this. I also know I’m not easy. I come with a family of my own that is no small undertaking.
And I have a child. A child who’s just hitting her teenage years.
I know I’m a lot, and I know you’ve been through a lot.
But I’m asking if you’ll choose us anyway. ”
And just when I didn’t think my heart could be any fuller.
I place my hand over his chest. Over his pounding heart. “Everything I went through led me here. And there’s nowhere else I’d rather be. Ever.”
His mouth slams back down against mine, our hands frenzied as we remove piece after piece of clothing. His fingers slip between my legs, finding me wet, and with a growl, he spins me around, and we go tumbling down onto a bed.
“Whose room is this?”
His head pops up, and he glances around. A chuckle rumbles his chest. “Kaplan’s. I’ve never fucked on Kaplan’s bed.” He grins. “Then again, I’ve never fucked on my bed either. This is all new for me.”
His fingers glide along my drenched heat, and I moan, falling back on the bed and no longer caring where we are. Pleasure ignites through my limbs as I climb on top of him, sinking down, taking him fully inside me.
Nothing matches the feel of this man inside me. Nothing ever will.
He thrusts up, and we both groan, but time is not on our side, and our movements become dirty and sloppy, quick as both of us chase our release with fingers and mouths and pants and moans.
He fucks me like a beast. Like a man who’ll no longer be denied.
And when we’re done, both breathless and smiling, he dresses me.
Piece by piece, he puts me back together. Same as I do for him.
“You ready for dinner with my parents?”
I laugh, shaking my head. “They’re going to know.”
“All they care about is that I’m happy. I’m a little too old to care about their thoughts on what I do behind closed doors.”
“This wasn’t the way I wanted them to meet me.”
His hands are back on my face as he lifts my chin up to meet his eyes. “I know, but like I said, you made what we all thought was impossible happen. Nothing else matters after that. It’s you and me now. And this is our second chance at getting it right. No more regrets.”