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The Ludar playboy was falling in love.
When we walked out of the woods, our group of seniors wandered off in various directions. Ollie spotted Mara on a chaise and jogged across the lawn to kiss her and sit on the grass beside her chair. Those two were perfect for each other, and they had something I never used to think I wanted—real, soul-deep, forever love. The idea of that kind of connection had always sounded like baloney to me, but the more time I spent with Heidi, the less dumb it all sounded. I guessed that was because I was falling for her.
And I liked it.
I saw Heidi at the instant she saw me. She was with her girlfriends, whose names I couldn't remember offhand, laughing and making hand gestures, probably to go along with whatever jokes they were telling each other. When Heidi noticed me, her face went blank for a second, then her expression lit up with the most brilliant smile I'd ever seen.
A pang stabbed into my chest, and my throat went thick.
Heidi sprinted across the lawn to me, flung her arms around my neck with her feet off the ground, and kissed me. When she unglued her lips from mine, she slid down my body until her feet touched the ground, but she kept her arms wrapped around my neck. "I missed you, Damian."
She felt so damn good crushed against me that I couldn't stop myself from admitting, "I missed you too."
And I grinned as wide as she was still doing.
No doubt about it. I was in love.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Heidi
For the rest of the week, I hung out with Damian as much as possible. Whenever he needed to work, I spent time with the Kittens or with Mara. The wedding plans came together quickly, and we got all the right venues booked and ordered all the right flowers and other accoutrements. Mara and I had been friends for a while now but working with her on the wedding stuff made us even closer. I couldn't have been happier for her and Ollie. Better still, I'd stopped feeling guilty over my half-assed attempt to steal Ollie from Mara all those months ago.
The past was the past. No point in dwelling on it.
Wow, was that me thinking those words? Guess I'd changed more than I realized.
No, not changed. I got back to being myself, and a large part of the reason for that was Damian.
The Petrescus went home after four days, but before they left, Monica took me aside for a little chat. I'd realized a few days ago that she wasn't trying to scare me off. She simply wanted to make sure her son ended up with the right woman. I'd kind of assumed since she'd announced she accepted me provisionally that she would hold off on welcoming me to the family until I had a proven track record with her son.
But on day four, Monica and I stood under the bows of a big pine tree on the far side of the lawn, alone.
She eyed me up and down, her expression indecipherable. "Do you love Damian?"
"What?" The question surprised me, but I collected myself and gave her the most honest answer I could. "I don't know yet. We haven't been together for very long. I like Damian so much, and I want to get to know him better. He means a lot to me."
Monica nodded slowly. "That's good. My son is in love with you, but I'm sure you've realized that on your own since the first time I told you that. If you break his heart, I will lay a hex on you."
"Do whatever you feel you need to do. But I have no intention of hurting him." When I was with Damian, I felt more like myself than I ever had in my entire life, but I couldn't tell Monica that, not unless I told Damian first. "He's the sweetest, kindest, smartest man I've ever known. Whatever happens between us, I'll always care about him."
"I'm glad to hear it." She picked up my hand, sandwiching it between her palms. "I sense you're a good, strong woman, but I'd feel better knowing more about your soul. With your permission, I'd like to do a tarot reading for you."
"Sure, I'm cool with that." I doubted Monica's tarot reading would be as much fun as Damian's palm reading, but I would do whatever it took to win over his mom. If she wanted to hypnotize me and make me grunt like a monkey, I'd go along with that too.
Monica pulled a boxed deck of cards out of her pocket. "We can do it right here. Let's sit cross-legged on the ground."
We sat down facing each other, and she slid the deck out of its box and onto her palm. "This is the old-style Rider-Waite deck. I've tried newer, fancier ones, but the old-school version works best for me."
"Tradition is good."
"I'm glad you feel that way because tradition is extremely important to my family."
"Yeah, I figured it was based on the things Damian has said. It's nice that you guys all get along so well."
While she shuffled the deck, Monica studied me again, though this time her lips curled at the corners the tiniest bit. "You are a clever girl, Heidi. I'm sure that's part of the reason Damian adores you. But what you just said makes me think you and your family don't get along well. Is that true?"
"Yeah." Would that be a black mark against me in Monica's book? Even if it were, even if she rejected me, I would stay with Damian for as long as he'd have me.
