Chapter 27 #2
“The thing is, I do trust you,” I said. Ridge looked as though the words would have knocked him over if he had been on his feet.
“Do you mean that?”
“Yes. I didn’t realize it until just now, but there is zero doubt that you would show up for Liam and me. No matter what, you would be there for us - both of us. I know that without a single ounce of hesitation.”
“I would also never betray you, Vi. You have to know that when…”
I turned my hand in his and squeezed. “I know that. I know that it was a damn mistake, one we paid dearly for. One that I don’t think you would ever make again, considering.
I don’t know why I didn’t tell you before.
It’s all been simmering near the surface.
Maybe that’s why I got scared and needed a reminder of what I might lose.
” I shook my head as if I could clear the rest of the cobwebs that were in the way.
“I said ‘yes’ to a date with another man because I wasn’t sure how to tell you that I wanted that man to be you. ”
“That was dumb. I think we should work on your communication skills, sweets.”
“That’s not a bad idea. Maybe we should work on things with a professional.”
“Like a marriage counselor?”
“Well, we’re not married, but yeah.”
“In my heart, we were never divorced, Vi.”
“Ridge, can we go home?”
“I’ll take you back to your apartment, but our home isn’t ready just yet.”
“What does that mean?”
“You’ll see soon,” he said to me as he stood and held his hand out for me to take after he tossed a wad of bills onto the table. We hadn’t even managed to order a meal yet, but I guessed Ridge was making up for the reservation we used up as well as the drama we’d obviously caused.
When we got back to the apartment, I was surprised to find a note on the kitchen counter.
DD took the baby to my parents’ house to hang out with Drake and my dad for the night.
Mom went to visit her sister in Alabama.
She and Aunt Janice had been estranged for more than a decade, though no one knew why.
I guess with the rest of her family mad at her, she felt the need to go fix at least one relationship.
“DD took Liam to my dad’s house.”
“I know.”
I turned in surprise to see Ridge smiling at me as he reached behind himself to lock the door.
“How exactly do you know this?”
“Well, you just told me, but also DD informed me of her plan earlier when she told me all about the date my wife went on.”
“She ratted me out?” I asked, shocked that my bestie would do so and yet not shocked at all. I knew she had been team: Get Back Together with Ridge as of late. I guess this was her version of a push in his direction.
“She did, and I have to say, I’m incredibly thankful. This dress was wasted on that asshole, sweets.”
“In all fairness, he only saw me for a few minutes before you interrupted.”
“Good. He didn’t deserve the view and couldn’t in a million years deserve the woman who goes with it.”
“I don’t suppose you could point me to someone who does?” I teased.
“Right here, baby.” Ridge shot back. He didn’t need to say anything else as he pulled me into his embrace and kissed me like he did on the first night we met. It left me breathless and wanting the way he always did in the past. “God, I missed your lips.”
“Is that all you missed?”
“Not by a long shot, sweets. I have to get you to your bedroom to show you the rest, though.”
I didn’t hesitate. I ran to my room. Screw the consequences, the potential outcomes, the talks we still needed to have, and anything else.
I missed my husband, the love of my life, and I couldn’t stand to be apart from him for another minute.
Most of that was probably my hormones talking, but I’d work through it after.
“Are you sure about this?”
“Positive,” I told him as he stripped himself of his clothes while I removed mine. My body wasn’t the same anymore. Having a baby changed a lot, but the one thing it didn’t sway was my belief that Ridge found me absolutely beautiful anyway.
“You are so much more beautiful than the last time I saw you,” he insisted, as if he could read my mind. I had faith that he felt that way and just like that, he proved me right.
“I don’t want to talk right now, Ridge. I want you to make me feel again.”
“I can do that,” he agreed as we moved to the much smaller queen-sized bed I had in my apartment.
We were both used to a California King, so there wouldn’t be as much room to move around, but that was okay.
Our first night back together wasn’t about acrobatics and how many positions we could find ourselves in.
It was about reconnecting, and the desperate need for intimacy with one another again.
“Lie here,” Ridge demanded as he kissed my lips softly then trailed those same feather-light kisses all over my body.
He started at my head, in the spot where I had only a few months of hair growth strategically covered with some of my other hair.
My belly tingled with butterflies as he did.
Then he trailed more kisses down my face and across my body before he added so many to my once broken arm.
I was still in physical therapy, but it had been out of the splint and sling for a while.
He kissed back toward my center and trailed his lips longingly over my belly. It had firmed quite a bit since having Liam, and I was nearly back to my pre-pregnancy weight. Still, there were harsh stretch marks that marred the lower portion of my stomach.
“Each one of these lines is like a finger,” he suggested.
I thought maybe he’d gone mad until he finished the sentiment as he continued to kiss over each one.
“See here, there are five predominant lines and it looks as though you had an extra hand to help carry our son when I couldn’t be there to hold you both. ”
Tears burned my eyes as they blurred my vision. It was a sad, yet beautiful sentiment and a reminder that he had missed so much. I couldn’t bear to let that woman take another moment from us. We might not be fully healed, but we would get there.
“I need you to make love to me before you make me cry,” I said. Ridge slowly made his way back up until his body hovered over mine and he could kiss me again.
“I love you, Violet. Never stopped. Never will.”
“I love you, too, Ridge.” I didn’t bother to tell him I never stopped. It was a given. I had been angry, betrayed, and so damn confused but one thing I never lost was the love I had for the man who had been my everything for more than a decade.