Chapter 46 #2
It took me a bit to realize Jack didn’t hold any power over me anymore. He no longer dictated my life. I no longer needed to be scared that he was going to show up at my door and start harassing me for choosing myself instead of him.
He may not get life in prison, and if he doesn’t and comes looking for me when he gets out, I will be protected. This time I will truly have the cartel at my side and Elliot too.
A breeze come through where I’m sitting and I can’t help but to smile.
Though its early, I can still feel the heat that will hit later in the day, so any breeze that hits my skin is welcomed.
For a few minutes, I get lost in the waves of the ocean and the sounds of people in the resort waking up. It feels nice to not do anything, to just sit here and enjoy the sun and the beauty that this ocean has to offer.
It’s crazy to think what would have happened if I had stayed in Austin. If I hadn’t felt the need to leave the life I once knew behind. If I had stayed, Jack would have destroyed me more than he already had. No doubt I would be a shell of a person, and it would be all thanks to him.
If I hadn’t found the listing for the position in Chicago and applied, I wouldn’t be here right now.
I wouldn’t be loving my life, loving being in Chicago and working at Memorial.
I wouldn’t have made friends in Sophia or Grayson.
I wouldn’t have walked into a penthouse and reconnected with the man that has held a special place in my thoughts for the last three years.
All I would have of Elliot would be Vegas.
I’m happy that I don’t. I’m happy I have everything with him.
Footsteps muffled by the white sand come from my left and when I turn, I find Elliot approaching me.
He’s dressed in a white t-shirt, black board shorts that hit the right spots on his tights, sunglasses cover his eyes and his flipflops hanging on his finger.
Sorry, his chanclas. He corrected me when we first got here.
“You found me.” I say when he sits down on the beach chair next to me.
“I found you.” He threads his arm between my head and the back of my chair and brings my face closer to his.
Our lips touch and my body buzzes with excitement.
I want more and more and more, but he pulls away before I can suggest we go back to the room to deepen the kiss and possibly move it to other body parts.
When Elliot pulls back, his hand still resting on the back of my head, he gives me a questioning smirk.
“Why are you up so early?”
“What? A girl can’t enjoy the sunrise and the early morning breeze? We are in paradise after all, we got to take advantage of it.”
The way he laughs warms my heart. “I’ve been telling you that all week and you finally decided to listen to me on day six?”
I throw him a wink. “Better late than never.”
He smiles at me, but even with his sunglasses on, I can tell it doesn’t reach his eyes.
“What’s going on?”
Leave it to him to see right through me.
I could lie but I’m pretty sure he’ll see right through that too. So I go with the truth.
My shoulders shrug. “I was just thinking how different my life would be if I had stayed in Austin. How I wouldn’t have you or Sophia, though I would still have Serena and Noah and everyone else, but I would be suffering in silence. I don’t know if I would have ever told the about Jack.”
“You would have.” His hand messages my neck, reassuring me even more.
I give him a nod.
He’s probably right. Eventually, I probably would have told Leo that I spoke about the cartel and told Serena who I was seeing. Probably not until I couldn’t hold it in anymore, but I would have gotten to it.
For a few minutes, we sit in silence. Our eyes to the ocean and Elliot’s hand in my hair.
I start to forget the conversation we just had when Elliot starts talking.
“The what ifs are always going to be questions we are going to have. Questions that may never be answered and that’s okay.
We don’t need the answers to everything.
What’s in the past happened and there is nothing we can do to change it.
We can only continue and hope what happened before doesn’t repeat itself.
I lean my head back on the chair and look over at him. His eyes are still on the ocean. Are his words for me? Or where they something that he was needed to hear too?
Shifting just enough, I pull his hand from behind my head and bringing it to my lips, planting a kiss on one of his knuckles.
“Have what ifs been taking over your thoughts too?” I ask, squeezing his fingers with mine.
He nods, his eyes moving to meet mine. “Have for years. I always wondered what it would have been like to be raised by both my parents, if we never went to Chicago. I’ve always thought about it, but I think I never truly wanted the answer. Things happen for a reason.”
“Like us meeting in Vegas.” I say, biting my lip.
Another laugh from him. “And you being by brother’s nurse and walking into my home.”
“And the fact that my friends are your friends.”
The smile he gives me is one I want to see for the rest of my life. “So many damn coincidences.”
“Would you have it any other way?” I raise an eyebrow at him.
He lets out a snort. “Never in a million years.”
I push myself off chair and close the distance between us, one of my hands landing on his face. “Good because you are stuck with me forever.”
Our lips meet for a few seconds, his hand coming up and keeping mine from moving from its place.
Like earlier, I want the kiss to keep going, and this time when we pull apart, I latterly groan.
We need to stop with this hot and cold or I won’t make it through the day.
“When did you buy this?” Elliot asks.
I didn’t notice in that while I was nearly scolding him in my head for getting me all hot and bothered, he was inspecting my wrist.
His fingers glide against the bracelet Henry gave me.
“I didn’t or trust me you would have seen it on the credit card bill. Henry gave it to me.”
He slides his glass off and scrunches his eyebrows at me. “Henry gave it to you?”
I smile. “Yeah, he said it was a thank you for making sure Grayson had a good recovery.”
That reminds me, I need to ask Sophia what she got. It keeps slipping my mind every time I see her.
“When did he give it to you?” He continues to inspect the piece of jewelry like it’s an ancient artifact or something. I’m a little surprise he hasn’t it noticed it. It’s always on my wrist. Though I’ve kept it off this past week because I didn’t want to lose it in the ocean or pool.
“When we went to dinner with your family.” I’m trying to understand his reaction, but I can’t.
“That was before we made thing official between us.” He muses, his eyes still very much on my wrist.
Its times like these that I wish I was a mind reader. What I wouldn’t give to see what the hell is going on in his head right now.
“Okay?” I’m confused by what’s happening right now.
He finally looks up to my gaze.
“This bracelet belongs to my grandmother.”
I feel my eyes go wide and my mouth pop open. “What?!”
That’s what Henry meant by the bracelet having some sentiment behind it. Why would he give me something like this? If I were him I would save it for a special occasion, not me helping his would-be grandson get better after knee surgery.
My head starts to shake. “Nope. Take it off. I can’t have something that belonged to your grandmother on my wrist. I’ll lose it and it’s probably worth a gazillion dollar or something and I won’t be able to replace it.
My fingers go to unclasp the piece, but Elliot stops me, a laugh on his lips.
I narrow my eyes at him. “This isn’t funny. Sand could get in the crevasses and we will never be able to clean it. Take it off before something happens to it.”
He laughs some more and instead of helping to take off the bracelet, he just brings it up to his mouth and places a chaste kiss on the inside of my wrist, an inch above where the piece of jewelry falls.
“Keep it on.” He tells me when he pulls away.
“But it’s a family heirloom. I should not be wearing it.”
“Henry gave it to you, so it means you should.”
I look down at my arms trying to find the answer. “Why would he give me something like this?”
“Because he saw your importance.”
I swear if dumbfounded had a picture in the dictionary it would be my face in this very moment.
“What does that even mean?”
“It means,” he shifts just enough to wrap his arms around my waist and bring me over until I’m sitting between his legs.
My back to his front. “That Henry doesn’t give out jewelry to just anyone, especially not something that belonged to Cathrine Lane.
If you received that bracelet, it means he saw us together that day and knew you weren’t going anywhere.
He knew, without even talking to us, that that you were important to me, that we were committed to one another and he was about to gain another granddaughter. ”
My eyes go wide as I look out to the water.
“But we aren’t getting married.” It’s a stupid thing to say. We had talked about it once and haven’t touched on it again. But given that my words don’t affect Elliot, they don’t make him flinch or pull always from, simply smile, what I said still applies.
We don’t need a piece of paper to be committed to one another.
“We’re not, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be his family. It doesn’t mean that you won’t be mine until I take my last breath.”
I look down at the bracelet again and loving it even more now that I know why I truly have it. It could have very much been a thank you for helping Grayson, but I think there’s more to it. I think it’s also a thank you for loving Elliot.
I shift ever so slightly to face the man of my dreams. “Your last breath, huh?”
He nods. “Yup, my very last one.”
“Do I get you money after you take it?” I joke, giving him a grin in the process.
The booming laugh he lets out music to my heart and my body. “Every last scent. You better start planning how to take me down. I won’t leave you easily.”
“I have a few tricks up my sleeve to prolong a death.” I say before my lips meet his and I kiss him with an urgency that couldn’t be met with chaste kisses. Urgency to tell him I love him, to thank him for making my life better in so many ways, to tell him I will never let him go.
I’m the one to pull away this time.
“I love you.” The words are a whisper on both our lips.
“I love you too.”
“I am so damn happy I took Serena to Vegas that weekend.”
“So am I.”
“Want to go back to the room and see how many dirty things we can do in the jacuzzi?”
“Lead the way and I will always follow.”
Before we make it to the room, I shoot off a text.
Aria
Thank you for the bracelet. I will love it as much as I love your grandson.
The reply comes in not even twenty seconds later.
Henry
I’m glad you love it. You are the perfect match for Mr. Elliot, Miss Aria.