Читать книгу Wedding Belles - Beth Albright - Страница 13

8

I stared up at Sonny’s ceiling and let out a satisfied sigh.

It might sound silly, but I like to think of myself as a free spirit. Okay, I know I’m not like Vivi. Few are. But I will take on an adventure here and there. Let’s say I’m a free spirit with a five-year plan. I’m old-fashioned. I’m the girl who loves to have my hand kissed on meeting a new gentleman. And I have always believed I was born in the wrong decade. That was one of the things that first bonded Vivi and me. We loved anything from the turn of the century through the 1940s. When we played dress-up as children in my grandmother Meridee’s basement, we loved to put on her dresses and listen to her old standards, like Cole Porter or Gershwin, before adding several long strings of pearls to our costumes. Then we’d dance. This love of all things vintage is what inspired Vivi’s wedding planning, and the entire reception was set to have a ragtime theme.

Yes, I was old-fashioned, but I now had proof I was also a girl who could live on the fly. I could be unexpected. I was lying in bed, not in my own house...and not even by myself. And I was wearing a policeman’s uniform! Well, I had been wearing it. The shirt’s current whereabouts remained unknown, but it was definitely my new favorite article of clothing.

I lay snuggled up next to Sonny, completely satisfied and utterly mussed, my appetite roaring.

“I’m starved,” I said. “Let’s have dessert.”

“I just had dessert,” Sonny said. “But I think I know just the thing for you, baby. You still love pound cake?” He remembered from our junior-high days.

“You know it,” I said, not knowing what he was planning. It was 2:00 a.m. and I mean, really, was he gonna bake a pound cake right this second?

That would be a yes.

Sonny sauntered into the kitchen, fastening his pants as he walked.

The kitchen was small but well-appointed with marble counters and dark oak cabinets to go with the craftsman style of the rest of the house.

There was a farmhouse apron-front sink in porcelain-white with a sprayer nozzle faucet. The oversized island held an array of cookbooks on the shelves underneath and had an additional sink for vegetables. Was Sonny a chef? Sure looked like it with that setup. I found that really sexy.

Sonny had prepared a dinner for me but we never got around to it. He wrapped up the steaks he had thawed and slid them back into the fridge. Then, he covered the potatoes and green beans and put them next to the steaks.

“I’m so sorry I messed up your dinner plans,” I said.

“Are you kidding? That was the best dinner I’ve had in years. It was delicious,” he said, and winked at me.

Sonny wiped the countertops down, then opened the stainless-steel fridge and pulled out several sticks of butter and a carton of eggs.

“Don’t tell me you can make pound cake from scratch, too, on top of your many other talents.” I sauntered around the kitchen, teasing him now that I was back in his shirt and barefooted.

“I can if you let me concentrate.”

Outside, it was raining a steady drizzle, and the massive kitchen window was streaked with the sudden condensation. Sonny had the cake in the oven in minutes. He had thrown in a can of 7-Up instead of milk. Meridee made it that way, too.

“Okay, Officer,” he said to me, “we got about an hour with nothing to do. Need to make an arrest?”

Sonny put his wrists together and held them in front of me as if to say, Cuff me.

“Yes, sir. I do need to make an arrest. I’ve heard you’ve been a very bad boy.”

He lifted me up onto the cool marble of the island and pressed me against him. “I intend to be a lot worse,” he whispered.

He moved against me as I sat on the countertop, my legs wrapped around him tightly. Heat surged through my body as he kissed me. He slipped his arms around my waist and pulled me up into him, passionately kissing my neck, causing chills to join the heat.

The showers outside grew heavy, hitting the window harder until it sounded like it was coming down in torrents, adding a little music and rhythm to our passion. Sonny carried me to the couch, my legs still wrapped around his waist, and we made love with the sounds of the storm all around us. Afterward, Sonny looked down at me and smiled.

“I do love you, Blake. So much.”

“I love you, too, baby.”

“I think I’m hooked,” he said, kissing my nose.

“I know I am.”

“Let’s go have a drink on the porch.”

I knew he wanted to talk. And I liked that.

We stopped by the hallway closet for blankets and went outside to the porch swing. Sonny wrapped us tightly together in cozy cotton quilts I was sure his grandmother must’ve made. It made the cuddling even better.

“I’ve had fun with you tonight, baby,” Sonny said, snuggling closer. “I enjoy being with you more than I can say. I always have. When I’m with you, I feel like I can come up for air, you know?” He let out a sigh. “You just make me happy, that’s all.”

I was melting in a cool rainstorm. I gazed up at him.

Sonny was being serious and that was a rare occurrence. He was a playful person. He found the fun and funny in almost every situation. But in this moment, his deeper side was coming out. I relaxed into him, feeling the wonder of what was happening between us.

He kissed my forehead and pushed my mussed hair from my face, his fingertips caressing my cheeks. With a gentle touch, he lifted my mouth to his and kissed me softly. His lips were warm in the wet chill of the rainy night.

“Sonny,” I said, pulling away and looking at him, “I want to stay here with you.”

“Of course. I sure didn’t plan on having you home in this,” he said, referring to the downpour.

I bit my lip, hesitating. “No, I mean I want to stay here, like...move in with you.”

He was terrifyingly silent.

I died inside. Oh, good, Blake, here you go, jumping the gun with your incessant planning and thinking ahead. Embarrassed, I tried to get up. I couldn’t believe I’d just blurted that out! Here we were having a beautiful night together, and now I’d ruined it by proposing the next step in our relationship that, by his stunned silence, I was sure Sonny wasn’t ready for.

But before I could make it inside, he grabbed my hand and pulled me back down beside him. He cradled his hands around my face. “Oh, baby, I would love that. I thought you weren’t ready. That’s the only reason I haven’t asked. I don’t want to push you, but I can’t imagine anything more special than finally waking up with you beside me after all these years.” Sonny was genuinely excited at this prospect, and nothing could have made me happier.

At that moment, I knew in my heart I would never go back to live in the house with Harry again. He had moved out the first few nights after the big breakup, but he’d recently moved back for the duration of the campaign. We had separate rooms and avoided all extraneous contact with each other, so the living arrangements were totally for show. Even still, it was a difficult setup. Though our divorce wasn’t final, living with Harry felt sort of like a betrayal of Sonny. Here was this man who was giving me the most honest, true and deepest love I’d ever known, and I was forcing us to keep it a dirty secret while I played house with my soon-to-be ex.

Vivi now had her own full life with Lewis and Arthur at the plantation, so I couldn’t just barge in on her home. But I never wanted to live alone. I wasn’t even sure I could, and everything inside me let me know that living with Sonny was where I wanted to be.

I was so out of my comfort zone, but I knew it was what I wanted. “It will have to be after the campaign because I promised, but being with you feels so right. What do you think?”

“You seriously need to ask?” He was grinning as he pulled me into him. “To be able to go to sleep with you in my bed and wake up every mornin’ with you next to me has been a fantasy of mine for longer than I can remember. I’m here and ready, whenever you are.” He kissed me. “Actually, I’m not so sure about the sleepin’ part, but I know you’ll be in bed with me.”

A damn of emotion broke inside and it was all I could do to hide my tears of joy. I would remember this moment forever. The soaking rain, the night air, the front porch swing and resting in Sonny’s embrace. Nothing had ever felt so right.