AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Please join me for breakfast on the Big Spender at slip number seven at the Marina del Rey Yacht Club this morning. I want a chance to apologize.
Dec
It wasn’t a wordy note, but she found she couldn’t resist the chance to see him and hear what he wanted to say. To be honest, she’d had a miserable night and looked forward to a lifetime of lonely nights without Dec. If he wanted to apologize, then she wanted to hear it.
She got herself and DJ dressed after having the concierge send up outfits for them and drove over to the yacht club. She didn’t need to ask directions to find Dec’s yacht, as there was a trail of hearts with her name on them that led down the dock to the slip where she found the Big Spender. The gangplank was down and there were a trail of rose petals that led up to the deck, where they formed a huge heart.
“Hello?” she called out as she stepped on board.
“Hello,” Dec said coming up the steps. He looked tired, as if he hadn’t slept a wink the night before. He came over to her as soon as he saw her and took her into his arms. He kissed DJ on the head and then he kissed Cari on the lips.
“I love you,” he said. The words hung in the air and he felt naked in front of her. For the first time he realized why Cari hadn’t tried harder to contact him. She must have felt this fear when she thought of trying to get the man who’d fathered her son involved in her baby’s life. The life of the child she loved so much.
She started to speak but he put his finger over her lips to keep her from saying anything. He couldn’t let her tell him all the reasons why she didn’t love him. He knew he’d screwed up yesterday and that it was going to take him forever to win her back. But he was okay with that.
“Yesterday morning when we left your place I knew it was going to be a difficult day. I also knew there was no way I could fire you and ask you to be my wife. And that’s what I wanted, Cari. I don’t know how things got so out of control.”
“I think it was your cousin,” Cari said. “He wants our blood. But it was also us. I wanted you to stop thinking like a businessman and just do what I wanted in my heart. And I made the meeting and the outcome into a big test.”
“First, Kell did want your blood. But I said things to you I shouldn’t have,” he said. “You were right when you said that things are different now that we have a son. Everything changed for me the night you told me about DJ, and I was too afraid to admit it.”
“I said things I shouldn’t have, too. I was just so mad,” she admitted.
She tipped her head to the side and stared up at him, and he saw tears in the corners of her eyes. “I love you, too. I want us to be a family, but I don’t know how we can do that with the feud still going on.”
“I agree,” he said, cupping her face in his hands and using his thumbs to wipe away her tears. He hugged her close. “Business first so you can stop worrying about that. Kell, Allan and I have agreed to give your sisters a chance to prove they should keep their positions in the company. It’s no guarantee for their jobs, but it’s better than nothing. And Kell has agreed to be more civil from now on.”
“That’s a start,” Cari said, wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her head on his chest. And finally he felt like there was a chance he might be able to really win her back.
“Did you mean it when you said you loved me?” she asked in a quiet voice.
“Yes, I did. I know you thought I didn’t have a heart, and you’re right. I don’t have a heart because it belongs to you,” he said.
“I love you, too, Dec. All those hearts that led the way to you…thank you for that,” she said. “No one has ever done a big gesture like that for me. You make me feel special.”
He leaned down and kissed her. “You are so special to me. I’m afraid to tell you how much you mean to me. I don’t want you to have that kind of power over me, but no matter if I say the words or not, you still have it.”
The tears were back in her eyes and she hugged him so fiercely that he felt the strength of her love.
“I want you to be my wife. I want to get married as soon as we can and start to live like a real family.”
“I want that, too,” she admitted. “It’s the one thing I’ve wanted since we had dinner that first night you were back. I didn’t want to believe that you could be the man of my dreams, but you are that and more.”
“I hope I can live up to that, Cari,” he said. “I’m going to make every effort to be that man. In fact, after we eat breakfast I have a surprise for you.”
