40. Cecelia
Six hours stuck in a car with Sterling didn’t feel like much time at all. We flirted and talked about nothing. It was wonderful.
“I want you to move in right away,” Sterling said.
“Okay. My apartment is pretty small, but I still have furniture and stuff to move.”
“Do you really need your furniture?”
“What’s that supposed to mean? Yes, I need a place to sit down and a table to eat at and do my craft projects,” I pointed out.
“I have couches and tables, and my bed is infinitely bigger and more comfortable than yours,” he pointed out. “Keeping that in mind, what do you need to keep? Anything sentimental or given to you by your parents?”
“I don’t have parents,” I blurted out.
“Everyone has parents.” Sterling chuckled.
“Georgie doesn’t,” I pointed out.
“She does. She has us. We’re her parents. We will be her parents.”
I blinked back tears. I loved that so much. I let out a long, slow breath through pursed lips. “Well, she’s lucky. I wasn’t. I was Georgie. My bio-mom had me young, no clue who my bio-father was. At some point, she took off and left me with a cousin.”
“A cousin?” Sterling asked.
“Technically, my grandmother’s cousin, so kind of like an aunt, I guess. Anyway, my extended family had me, and they resented being saddled with me. They made sure I knew I was a burden every day of my life. I walked out the door and never looked back the day after high school graduation. It’s why I pushed you so hard at first. It’s why I even suggested that it would be better to give her up if you couldn’t be bothered to really take care of her.”
I wiped my face and looked out the side window at the low scrub and dirt rolling past.
Sterling put his hand on my leg. “I didn’t know.”
“How could you? It’s not exactly something I go around telling people. It’s why I went into social services. I want to help people. I know the foster care system is seriously broken. It needs a complete overhaul, but it does do some good. There are kids out there who end up with forever families who want them. And there are people like you. You really just didn’t know what you were doing, but your heart was in the right place.”
“I really was, no, I really am still clueless about what I am doing when it comes to Georgie, but I love her, and I want to be the best father I can for her.”
“That counts for a lot, Sterling. That counts for a whole lot.”
Two weeks later…
The elevator doors slid open. I carried the last box of stuff from my apartment into the penthouse. I didn’t know exactly where I would put it. It wasn’t that I had a lot of stuff—I didn’t—or that the penthouse was small—it wasn’t. But combining two households filled up space.
Almost all of my furniture was donated to a women’s shelter.
Sterling didn’t do garage sales, and my stuff was barely good enough for that, but it was better than junk to set out on the curb, so we donated it. He wanted to keep the dinette set I had. It was old and Formica with vinyl covered chairs. Mid-Century standard kitchen design. Apparently, Sterling had a preference for Mid-Century furniture. I should have guessed looking at the interior décor of his place. Then again, I hadn’t really gotten much past big and no baby furniture.
I’d learned a lot in the last two weeks of living with him. He did have a style preference, and he liked good food. And even though all the overflow of my belongings were taking over his home gym as a storage space, he seemed to really like my being here.
I loved it. I had a family, one that wanted me. One that I loved with my whole heart.
“What are you doing?” Sterling asked. He took a few steps toward me and took the box out of my hands. “You’re pregnant. Why are you carrying boxes?”
“It’s not that heavy, and it’s not boxes, it’s box, singular. The last one. I’m officially all moved in. Well, until tomorrow when I drop the keys off at the leasing office.”
“You should have told me you needed to move more stuff. I would have gotten you a work crew or an assistant.”
“Last box. It’s just last-minute junk. I didn’t need a moving crew.”
He glowered and grumbled at me. “You’re my wife and?—”
“Not for another week, I’m not. Sterling, you have the box under one arm. It’s not heavy,” I pointed out.
He hefted it, testing the lack of weight. “Where do you want it?”
“I was going to take it downstairs to add it to my pile in the gym. Sorry about that.” I did feel bad for taking over his space. He was making room for me in his home. I had to remember that I wasn’t impinging upon him. He asked for it, literally.
I followed as he began walking in that direction.
“It’s quiet around here. Georgie asleep?” I had been out running errands and getting the last few things from my apartment all morning.
“Nanny Fletcher has taken her to the park. I need to go into the office, put out a few fires.”
“You still have time left on your leave, don’t you?” He should have been able to take twelve weeks off based on the Family Medical Leave Act, but I didn’t know what his company’s policy was beyond that.
“I’m due back on a regular basis in another week, but I’m taking a much-needed vacation immediately.”
“Vacation?”
He placed the box on top of one of the many stacks that I was going to have to start digging through and finding homes for everything.
“Yes, vacation.” He turned, and his arms slid around my hips, pulling me in close. I loved being in his arms. “More like a honeymoon.”
“Honeymoon? You’re taking me on a honeymoon?” My eyes went wide, and I dropped my jaw. We hadn’t discussed going on a honeymoon. We had talked about wedding plans, and neither of us could see any reason we should wait any longer than it took his lawyers to draw up a prenuptial agreement. I had insisted, much to Sterling’s lawyer’s relief.
The wedding was going to be small—an officiant, Wayne, Georgie, and Nanny Fletcher. The zoo administration said we could have the ceremony by the tiger exhibit as long as we kept it small. So, first thing in the morning in the middle of the week when the zoo was full of mommies and babies, we were going to get married.
“What about Georgie? She’s too young to leave with someone she doesn’t know.”
Sterling smiled wide. “She’s coming with. I couldn’t see any way we could leave her. You’re right, she’s too young. And I can’t legally take her out of the state. Not until her custody situation is cleared up and finalized. I’ve gotten us a cabin by a lake. It’s only for a few days, but I thought it would be good enough. When the kids are older and we have someone we can trust to watch them overnight, I’ll take you to Rome or Paris. Wherever you want.”
“Really, wherever? So if I said I wanted to go to Oklahoma?”
His brow crinkled up. “You want to go to Oklahoma for your honeymoon?”
I shook my head and laughed. “Not really, but if that’s what I wanted?”
“Then, yes, I’ll take you to Oklahoma if that’s what you want.”
“It’s not. Just testing the waters, so to speak. Dubai? Tokyo? Mauritius?”
“Mauritius?” Sterling laughed.
“Dodo birds,” I explained. “I know they don’t exist, but I’ve always wanted to see the home of Dodo birds.”
“We’ll take a trip every year, and you can choose the place,” he said. “We can go everywhere.”
“Or nowhere?” I cupped the side of his face. “Cabin by a lake?”
He nodded. “Let’s start with nowhere and go from there.”
I tipped my face up, inviting him in for a kiss. He obliged me immediately. His lips were soft and warm. He held me tighter, and his firm muscles pressed against me.
“We could always just stay here,” he growled into my mouth.
“That’s a fun idea. How soon before Nanny Fletcher gets back with Georgie?”
“Too soon to do anything properly this afternoon,” he complained.
“We can always put Georgie to bed early,” I suggested.
Sterling pressed his face into the sensitive spot along my neck. I flinched and giggled as he kissed and tickled me. “That sounds like a brilliant idea. Let’s put Georgie to bed early, and we can start the honeymoon tonight.”
“I think we started the honeymoon two weeks ago,” I said around my laughter.
“So much lost time to make up for.” He planted a firm kiss on my lips and eased his grip on me. “I love you, Cecelia Alexander. That name sounds good. One more week.”
“And I love you. I think husband sounds pretty good too.”