Chapter 31
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Kim
I read Leo’s text a hundred times over the course of the evening, his words and my mother’s pinging in my head.
Finally at about midnight, lying on my mom’s couch, I lift my phone to type a response.
I miss you.
It’s simple, it doesn’t make promises. Drawing in a deep breath, I hit send.
My phone rings almost instantly.
I shake my head. Patience is never going to be Leo’s virtue.
“Hello?”
“It’s late, baby, you need your sleep.”
I smile. “I’m on my mom’s broken-down couch. It’s not very comfortable. Which means I’m not likely to sleep.” The truth is, though, that I’ve just been thinking about him. Thinking about all the things he’s done for me since that one time that he didn’t act in my best interest.
“I can get you a hotel room.”
I shake my head. See. That’s the Leo I know. “No. It’s okay. I’ve got to help my mom anyway.”
“With what?”
“She’s always rented her dance studio. We moved to a million different apartments, but the dance studio was always constant. She told me tonight that her landlord is retiring, and he sold the strip mall. The new owners aren’t renewing her lease, and she has to move her business.”
Silence meets my words. “Can I help?”
“I don’t think so,” I answer automatically.
“Real estate is actually something my family excels at, you know.”
I smile into the phone. He’s not wrong. “It’s less about real estate and more about money. She hasn’t got any.”
More silence meets my words. I know what he wants to offer but I can’t take his money for my mom. Things are convoluted enough.
I hear him draw in a deep breath. “Just tossing out an idea…wherever we move, if we go together, maybe your mom could come too. That way you’d have family besides me. Might make you feel more secure with me being me?—”
“Leo,” I sit up with a cry, my throat clogging. Because that is an offer that doesn’t just throw money at me. It’s personal, and with a baby on the way, it’s exactly what I need.
“What’s wrong, baby? Did I upset you?”
“No,” I feel my eyes welling. These pregnancy hormones are a killer. “It’s perfect, actually. It’s exactly what I need.”
“We could all move to New York,” he starts. “And in the meantime, we’ve got a guest house here,” he offers up. “She’d be right on the property without being able to hear how I make her daughter cum?—”
“Leo!” But in the background of the call, I hear an intercom. “Wait. Where are you?”
“The airport.”
“Why? Where are you going?” I feel panic rising. Where is he off to and how long will he be gone and how far away will he be from me? It’s one thing to think of him waiting in Las Vegas for me to return when I’m ready.
“Don’t be mad.”
“Why would I be mad?” My worries replaced with suspicion as my eyes narrow and I sit up straighter.
“I was thinking of following you.” He says quietly. “I know you haven’t made up your mind, but I didn’t want to sleep in that house without you. You don’t have to see me, but I want to be close, and I won’t pressure you I promise?—”
“Leo,” I whisper into the phone, relief, not irritation pulsing through me.
“Yeah, baby?”
“Just get here already,” I say with a smile. “And I’ll pitch moving to my mom in the morning. You get a hotel room. We’re definitely not sleeping on this couch together.”
“I sleep anywhere you are, Kim. I mean it.”
My smile grows. “Me too. Turns out, I can’t sleep without your chest as a pillow.”
He chuckles. “That’s because I’m comfortable.”
He is. And his strength makes me feel safe. I want his body next to mine. “I went to my mom’s studio this afternoon.”
“Yeah?”
“It’s the most comfortable place in the world to me besides being with you,” I say with a sigh. “I don’t think I want to be a professional ballerina, Leo.” I swallow down a lump. “I think I want to be a teacher. Open a little studio of my own. What do you think about Henderson? Seems like a good suburb for it.”
“Seriously? You want to stay in Vegas?”
“I do. I want to be with you, and I want our baby to grow up with a big family. Not like mine.”
I hear his silence. “Baby?”
“Yeah?”
“Hang on a minute? My plane is boarding.”
“Okay,” I answer, disappointed. Did he not like my plan? I hear the attendant in the background speaking to him and then it goes quiet again.
“I guess I want you to know that I meant my offer. We can go to New York.”
My insides melt. “I can’t even imagine the hours and dedication it would take to recover from the baby and then be a professional dancer.” Something is shifting. My mom worked three jobs because she had to, there weren’t any choices. But I’ve got them. “I think I know what kind of mom I want to be and that’s the kind that’s around for the kindergarten plays and the first dance recital or little league game.”
But it’s more than that. “And if I’m honest, I took a hard look at why my dreams have always been what I thought I needed to prove to the world that I was worthwhile. And maybe to my father, whoever he is…”
“Your father?”
“Yeah. I’d envision this moment where we’d meet and I’d be like, my mom could have been a professional ballerina, you know, that woman you didn’t want. But she raised me, and I ended up being the professional dancer because she was right to keep me, and you could have been part of this.”
“Sweetheart,” Leo sounds pained.
“I know. It’s raw. But I need you to know that it matters to me that you’ll be there, Leo. That you’re going to stick with us.”
“I’m sticking, baby. Don’t you worry. Where you go, I go. Including Minneapolis. Speaking of, the flight attendant is glaring. I’m not used to flying commercial and I think I’m pissing her off. I think I need to hang up.”
I almost smile at his words. “Okay. But you’ll be here tomorrow?”
“I’ll be there. Get some sleep.”
Amazingly, I do. The moment we hang up, I’m out, and when I wake, I hear my mom softly speaking from the kitchen.
I open my eyes and Leo is sitting at her tiny kitchen table. He looks ridiculously large in this place.
I gasp as I vault off the couch.
He turns and stands in one fluid move, catching me in his arms.
Wrapping my arms about his neck, I kiss him several times. I don’t stop until my mom clears her throat.
“Promise me the next time we fight, we can stay home?” he chuckles into my ear.
My mom’s place isn’t great for makeup sex. I kiss his neck. “I’m going to run to the bathroom and then maybe we’ll head out for breakfast?”
He gives me a squeeze before setting me down. “Mom, we’re probably going to hang for the day, Leo was up all night so he needs some sleep, but how about we all do dinner tonight?”
She gives me a wink and a nod as I collect up my stuff, brush my hair and change my clothes.
I’m assuming we’re going back to the hotel to eat, shower, and go to bed, all of which I’m down for.
Where and how many times we make up is the only question on my mind as Leo takes my hand and leads me out to his rental car. A Toyota Camry.
I’m used to his sports car so I stop, my brows lifting.
He sighs as he opens the door for me. “They didn’t have anything else and I thought I might as well get used to a sedan. A baby seat is not fitting in the back of my 911.”
“You’re thinking of car seats?”
“Did you know that the Camry has some of the best crash-test ratings?”
I slide in, marveling at the man who comes around to the driver’s side.
He sits in the driver’s seat, adjusting the review mirror before he starts the car. “I have to be honest,” I say, turning to him. “I’ve never found a guy driving a Camry hotter.”
He puts on his sunglasses, giving me a sexy grin. “Well get ready, cause we’re about to do thirty-five through this whole town.”
I laugh as he starts up the GPS and then leaves my mom’s street.
Noting the route, I tap his shoulder. “We’re going to go right by my mom’s studio. Mind stopping? I’d love to show it to you before it’s gone.”
“I don’t mind at all,” he answers.
Two minutes later, I’m pointing out the turn and we’re parked in the back of the studio.
I know where my mom hides the key, it’s been in the same spot for twenty years and a minute later, we’re in the familiar space.
This is where I lived my life and I breathe in the scent of aging wood as we walk down the narrow hall past the office and bathroom and into the main dance room. It’s a decent space with mirrors on the back wall and a bar attached for the girls to use. I step up to it now, slipping off my ballet flats as I do a few kicks, warming up my legs.
Leo comes in behind me. The whole front of the room is windows out to the parking lot, but my mom pulls curtains across them to lower the air conditioning costs in the summer and they’re closed now.
In my bare feet, I spin about the room, humming to myself as I dip and sway. Not like a cage dancer, but as the ballerina I’ve been trained to be since the age of two.
“You’ve never looked more beautiful,” Leo murmurs when I finally stop.
I smile at him.
“You’re sure you don’t want to go to New York? I can be a stay-at-home dad. I bet I could rock reading time at the library.”
I stop, staring at the man I know I love. “I can see it now, all the stay-at-home moms hitting on you,” I wrinkle my nose. “We’ll take turns going to the library, how about that?”
“I like it,” he murmurs before he pushes off the wall.
“And I’m sure I want to stay in Vegas. Charlotte is there. Your family is there and tonight, we’ll pitch my mom the idea of moving too. Maybe we can even open that studio together.”
“Another family business?” He stops right in front of me, wrapping a hand around me to cup my ass in his palm and pull me close.
But I don’t want to talk about my mom anymore. My hips press to Leo’s and I can feel his already stiff cock rubbing me right where I need it most.