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And Rocky, while content with just Ellie and me, deserves all the family she can get.
And at this point in her life, Luca is the only other family she has. Her parents haven’t shown any interest in their daughter’s life or the life she created in Ellie. They haven’t called or written or sent a card of congratulations. I don’t know what kind of poison Hollywood injected into the Weaver parents’ veins, but it seems to me as if they’ve written their kids off as people entirely. Both Rocky’s and Luca’s lives are products of their abandonment, and as such, they need to lean on each other.
I make my way into the room and settle onto the couch behind Rocky, stretching my arms across the back cushions, and Ellie cranes her little neck as much as possible to try to look at me.
Immediately sucked in, I drop my cool guy act and dive down onto the floor beside my woman so we can both make silly faces at our girl.
Ellie laughs and coos, and I swear to God, being a father is the best gig I’ve ever had. She makes my days special.
Well, her and her mother—who, as of a few weeks after Ellie was born, just so happens to be my gorgeous wife too.
That’s right. My Rocky got her wish for a small, elopement ceremony at City Hall.
She wore a sexy little white dress, I wore a suit, and our Ellie had on a little dress and one of those frilly bows her mom is always putting on her head.
And we said “I do.” Just the three of us.
I never dreamed I’d be this blessed, but my good fortune is undeniable. I have the best woman in the whole world, a little girl made in an unexpected night of love, and the best friends a guy could ask for.
In fact, Heidi Morris should be neck-deep in legal proceedings for the next twenty-five years thanks to my awesome friends. My loathing for her rivals that of Joe Exotic for Carole Baskin, though, so I’m not sure it’ll ever be enough.
Not to worry. I draw the line at murder for hire. I have too much good stuff to lose.
When Ellie eventually tuckers out and Rocky nurses her to sleep, the woman of my dreams and I finally get the alone time I’ve been waiting for.
Normally, we’d find something both salacious and satisfying to do with it, but today, the sexual tension will have to stop at the meeting of our lips.
I taste and taunt and then pull away to fluttering eyelids.
When she ultimately forces them open, I turn her palm over with my free hand and settle the weight of her phone into the cradle of it with the other.
“It’s time, Rock. Call Luca back.”
She shakes her head, and the heartache in her eyes makes me pause. But I know I’m doing the right thing here. They both deserve to have each other.
“I don’t even know what to say.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I assure her. “You can be mad or accusatory, or you can be civil and distant. All I know is that you have to be something. This conversation might not be the best, but eventually they’ll get better. They just have to start somewhere.”
She sucks her lips into her mouth and nods, flipping the phone over and dialing before she can turn back.
My brave, forgiving girl.
She chews at her lip as it rings, and I reach out to take her hips with my hands. No matter what, I’ll be here to steady her.
“Hello?” I can barely hear Luca’s voice when he answers, but at the sound of it, I’m immediately catapulted right back into our childhood in the Weavers’ backyard. Both Luca and me climbing trees, while Rocky chased us. Only, eventually, she got big enough to make it up the trunk along with us.
She followed me right into the tree and plopped down on the branch next to me. Impressed, I’d tossed my arm around her slight, five-year-old frame and shaken her into my side. Luca started singing instantly.
Harrison and Rocky sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G! First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a baby in a baby carriage!
I never could have imagined just how right he was—or how wrong he was about the order.
“I know,” Rocky says forcefully, cutting into my trip down memory lane. “But calling a hundred times all of a sudden doesn’t make up for not calling at all for eight freaking years, Luca! I know you needed to leave. I know you needed a clean start, but did you really have to cut me out, too?”
My chest squeezes at the hurt in her voice, and a knot forms in my throat as I listen to her go on.
“You know about the baby? I didn’t realize you could get news in the middle of nowhere,” she says sarcastically, and I can’t help but laugh. Mostly because there’s just a hint of a smile starting to curl the corner of her lips.
