Chapter 34
LILA
The idea that life imitates art is something I’ve always identified with, but it’s never felt truer than in this moment. A thousand competing emotions and questions spatter across my mind like paint begging to form a coherent picture as my husband takes me by the hand.
“Come with me?” he asks.
“Of course.”
I allow him to lead me without asking where we’re going or why—because I’d follow him anywhere. I’d trust him with anything. He’s my person, and while everything else is swirling in confusion right now, this is the one fact that remains true in the midst of it all.
We walk outside onto the street, and around the corner from the gallery.
The sky is dark now, the bay breeze cooling my skin.
I smile, thinking back to the day just a few weeks ago when I found out Rebekah was selling the gallery and I anger-painted late into the night.
The cherry blossoms on my canvas went from pink and full bloom to dark purple and bruised.
I thought losing the firehouse meant all hope was lost, too…
but that very same night, Fisher showed up at the front door.
A beautiful, Herculean stranger who warmed my life from the inside out.
It’s like he brought the spring with him when I’d felt dead inside, an endless winter in my soul.
Standing here tonight, the thought of losing the firehouse is still heartbreaking, but it no longer feels hopeless.
“So first of all,” Fisher says, interrupting my thoughts.
“I don’t want you to feel sad that my family took my trust fund and my inheritance.
” He turns to me, his green eyes locking on mine.
“I don’t care what they think of me anymore, and I no longer want their money.
I realized a while back that I truly want to make it on my own, and to do that I need a clean break.
No handouts of any kind.” He smiles at me.
“I may not be insanely rich now, but I feel richer than I ever have.”
I smile back up at him, my heart buoyant to see his new-found belief in himself—not the cocky veneer he’s worn for so long to protect his heart, but something much deeper. Real self-assurance, at a core level. Like he finally recognizes his worth.
“All I want is for you to fully be your own person, because that person is wonderful,” I tell him.
“And you living in freedom means more to me than the firehouse ever could. I love it there and cherish the memories it holds, but at the end of the day, it’s just a place.
” I put my hand on his chest, spreading my palm over his heart.
“It’s no longer my home…because you’re my home now. ”
“The first time I saw a Santi painting, I had the strangest feeling…I was comforted by it, like I was coming home.” Fisher’s voice cracks and his hands shake as they circle my waist. “I think my soul fell in love with you before we even met. And now, I can’t believe I get to know you, be married to you, love you.
Because I’m so in love with you, Lila. More than I could ever express with words. ”
“I love you too, Fisher.” My eyes, which were finally dry, well with fresh tears all over again as I press my hand into his chest, finding comfort in the way the echo of his heartbeat moves through me as I dare to say my next words. “And I love being yours.”
He smiles, and it’s pure sunshine. “Marrying you, crazy and impulsive as it was at the time, was the best decision I ever made. I know our initial contract is for a year of marriage, but I was hoping we could just rip the damn contract up and I can be your husband for as long as you’ll have me.”
“Screw the contract.” I laugh, fisting my hands into his shirt so I can pull him towards me.
My heart rate spikes, and my eyes flutter closed as he leans in. I need to feel his lips on mine, but just before he kisses me, he stops.
“Good,” he whispers against my mouth. “Because I want forever with you, Wife.”
And with that, he’s kissing me with a desperation that is only matched by my own need for him. The kiss is heat and fireworks and passion, but it’s underlined with an achingly tender love for each other. It’s a promise, spoken without words, that we belong with each other, now and always.
Fisher tangles his hands in my hair, angling his face to drive the kiss deeper, and I gasp into his mouth. I slide my arms around his neck and press my body against him, wanting to be as close to him as possible…
“Get a room, Fishy!”
“Seriously, or we’re going to have to bail your ass out of jail after you’re arrested for public indecency.”
Fisher and I spring apart, and I whirl around to find the 3B gang, not to mention my whole art collective, standing on the street outside the gallery, looking at us like we’re the guppies in the 3B Boy Aquarium.
My husband laughs. “I guess the show outside was just as good as the show inside, huh?”
“Well, that, and also we were really nosy about what your surprise for Lila was,” Penn says with a shrug.
I blink. In the rush of Fisher telling me he wants to cut himself off from his family completely, then telling me he loves me and wants to be with me forever, I’d totally forgotten why we went outside in the first place.
“I can tell you what it was.”
The voice comes from the back of the crowd, and my mouth falls open as Rebekah takes a few shaky steps forward, using her cane for balance. Masha rushes forward to assist her.
“Rebekah!” I cry in delight. “You made it.”
I’ve barely seen her lately; she hasn’t been well, so it means the world to me that she’s come to my show tonight.
I hope I can get a moment alone with her before she leaves.
I want to thank her for having been so open to the idea of Fisher and I buying the firehouse, and to reassure her that even though our financing fell through and she will now have to go ahead and sell to the Fisher Group, I’m going to be okay. We all are.
“Perfect timing.” Fisher grins, then grabs my hand and leads me over to the older woman.
She reaches out with the hand not clutching her cane and pats my shoulder affectionately. “What a show, my girl. Your mother would’ve been so proud of you.”
My chest tightens. “Thank you so much,” I whisper.
“And I don’t just mean in terms of your art. She’d be proud of the person you are. Of the decisions you’ve made.” She looks from me to Fisher, her face softening. “Of the man you’ve chosen.”
“Yeah, he’s not so bad, is he?” I grin, then swallow as I look up at her. “I’m sorry our deal fell through.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, dear.” Rebekah smiles, her wrinkled face glowing.
She reaches into her pocket and takes out a key.
We all use a fob system to get in and out of the firehouse, but I recognize it as the master key to lock the deadbolts.
“Congratulations, you two,” she says as she holds the key out to us. “It’s officially yours.”
I stare at the key, shaking my head as my mind goes numb. “No, we didn’t get the money so we can’t, you can’t—”
“I could,” Fisher cuts off my incoherent rambling as he reaches out and takes the key. “I bought the firehouse, like we always planned to.”
My mouth falls open. “But how?”
Sure, my husband makes an excellent salary compared to what most people make, but it’s his first year in the NHL. Without his family money, it’s not like he has spare millions lying around to buy a whole damn building.
“He came to see me a couple of weeks ago,” Rebekah says in a fond tone. “Told me he wanted to try to buy the firehouse without using the family money.”
I gape at Fisher. “You were never going to take the inheritance?”
He shrugs, a little bashful. “I knew I wanted to be with you, Lila. For good. And I didn’t want my family’s money having any part in what I hope will be a very long and happy marriage.
So I planned to buy the firehouse myself, and if I got the inheritance, I was going to donate it to the Arts program at the ‘crappy state school’ I graduated from.
” He grins. “And put the donation in my father’s name, of course—on a plaque somewhere everyone would see it. ”
I snort with laughter.
“I offered to give him a much lower selling price when I heard his story, but the boy insisted he wanted to pay full price,” Rebekah says, shaking her head in wonder. She’s clearly enamored with him—and I don’t blame her.
“Where did you get the money for this, Fisher?” I ask, frowning at him.
“Well, I got a five-year contract extension for the Lions, which helped a lot. I brought it to Rebekah, and she was kind enough to draw up an installment plan for payments.”
I feel a little sick all of a sudden. “You can’t spend all your money on this.”
“Not my money, our money. We’re a team now.”
“It’s too much…”
“It doesn’t even scratch the surface of what I’d do for you, Lila.
You’re my world now. I love your art, and I believe in what you’re all doing at the firehouse as much as you do.
Even if we weren’t married, even if I didn’t feel this way for you, I’d want to do this.
It just makes it even better that we get to do it together. ”
Gratitude fills my heart as I stare at the man I’m lucky enough to call mine.
The perfect gentleman who never fails to make me smile, who understands my deepest needs and desires.
A man who would stop at nothing to make me happy.
He’s given me everything I could ever want and then somehow, managed to still give me so much more.
“Best surprise ever,” I tell him, reaching up on my tiptoes to kiss his cheek.
“Well, I have one more surprise so don’t say that yet…” Fisher scratches the back of his head, glancing around at everyone. “I was planning to show you this alone, but I guess they’ll all find out soon, anyhow.” He gives Penn a look. “Just don’t make too much fun of it okay, Matthews?”
Penn grins. “Can’t promise anything, Fishy.”
Noah rolls his eyes. “What did you do, start an OnlyFans?”
“As ridiculously successful as an Archibald Fisher OF would be, I did not.” Fisher pulls a key ring from his pocket. He slides the key to the firehouse onto it, then presses the button on a battered-looking key fob.
On the street, a tiny red hatchback meeps, its lights flashing.
“What the hell is that thing?” Penn demands.
Noah squints. “I think it’s a…Fiat 500?”
“Do you even fit in it, Fisher?” Ally raises a skeptical eyebrow.
“It’s European,” my husband says like this explains everything. “Very chic, if you think about it. Great on gas mileage, too.”
“Where’s your G Wagon?” I ask.
He shrugs. “I needed cash for the downpayment on the firehouse.”
“But you loved that car!” I say, aghast.
“Nowhere near as much as I love making you happy.” He smiles, then wrinkles his nose at the tiny vehicle on the street. “I just hope you’re not going to be too embarrassed being driven around in this thing for a while.”
“Not at all.” I shake my head, not sure whether to laugh or cry, so I end up doing both. “I love it. I love you.”
“And I love you, Lila.” Fisher smiles and puts his arm around me, drawing me close. I lean in, snuggling against this perfectly imperfect masterpiece of a man’s chest and feeling like the luckiest girl in the world.