Chasing Love's Wings (29 page)

“What did he say?”
 

“To be honest.”
 

“Uh oh.” I smile at his expression.
 

“Telling Vinnie and seeing his excitement was...it was...I don’t know, it was exhilarating.
For the very first time I actually felt a large amount of joy and excitement over
the fact that we’re going to have a baby. It almost made me want to send out a memo.”
He laughs. “Then we went to the board meeting.”

“Oh boy.”
 

“I was nervous, and Al, the one I feared, was the only one asking all the questions,
which I expected, but when it came down to it, Vinnie got them on board by telling
them that he believed in me and my plan. So it was settled. After the room cleared
out, I plopped into my chair and let out a huge breath. Vinnie came back into the
room then, scaring me.” I realize right now how much I am loving telling Tristan about
my day, and I smile. “He asked me if now was really the right time, but his intentions
were good. I told him what I told you, about how Bobby built it and left it for me,
and how I wanted to do the same. I also told him that I wouldn’t let Bold eat me alive,
and he said that he’d be sure that never happened.”
 

“Wow. I’m really impressed.”

“Me too. The reactions I had out of Vinnie were...they were the types of reactions
my father should’ve had to things, and I take a strange comfort in that. But I know
it won’t be all cupcakes and roses going forward. Eventually we will clash, and it
will suck, but we can make it work.” I take a bite of food. “Mmm, this is really good.”
 

We both eat for a couple of minutes. He regales me with his exploits of boredom for
the day. “I’m glad we live in Phoenix. I hate being trapped because I don’t want to
be seen.”

“I know, I’m sorry. You could’ve stayed in Phoenix.”
 

“Nope,” he says through a mouthful of food. “Not a chance.” He smiles.
 

“I have something for you,” I say as I stand up, and I walk back toward my bag, which
I dropped on the floor when I came in. I bend down and pull out the contract and the
script. I turn back toward him and he is staring at me, watching me walk and move,
and I love it. The only thing that has changed about our bedroom relationship is that
he’s more gentle now, despite my arguments about not being made of glass, and the
fact that he worships my belly any chance he can get.

“What’s all that?”
 

“A contract.”
 

His eyebrows scrunch together. “For what?” I hand it to him. I watch as he looks at
it. “Did you read this?”
 

“Not all of it.”
 

“Come here,” he says, and I go to him; he spreads his legs for me to take a seat on
his lap. I do, and he hands me the contract.
 

I begin reading it. I see where it says Tristan’s name, Vincent’s and Bold’s names,
along with a bunch of other stuff.
 

For the role of Tyler Garrison, main character. “Additional contract attached.”
 

I look up at him then flip the page.
 

Again, Tristan, Vinnie and Bold are named.
 

For the role of producer.

I squeal. “Ohmygod, Tristan! You got it, your first producing gig.” I hug him. “Why
didn’t you tell me?”
 

“I wanted to surprise you. But they also didn’t have much of a choice.” I scowl at
him. “You never looked very closely at the script. You, like me, became fixated on
the date.” He reaches for the thick stack of papers I’d set on the table. “Look at
it. Very closely,” he says, and I flip back the cover.
 

Finding Forever

Directed by Alexei Silverstein
 

I gasp.

Produced by: Tristan Michaels and Arnold Alberts

Written by: Tristan Michaels

I cry.

He doesn’t say anything to me for a minute while I take in what I’m seeing.
 

“Baby?” he says.
 

I look up to him, our eyes meet, and I feel a swelling sense of pride wash through
me, knowing that the man I love is seeing his dreams come true. “I’m so proud of you,”
I breathe, and I kiss him. “When did you write this?”
 

“A couple of years ago, but it holds a strange resemblance to the way things happened
between us. So to see this—” He points to the script. “—just gives me the opportunity
to portray how much I love you on screen.”
 

We don’t talk too much the rest of the night. Instead we wrap ourselves around each
other and enjoy one another’s company.

FORTY-THREE

******

Tristan

******

“Is everything all set?” I ask Beau on the phone.
 

“Yes, we’re here and we will have the entire island to ourselves, excepting the staff,
come the twenty-third, just as you’ve requested.”
 

“Good. We’re about to head to the airport.”

“She still doesn’t know?”
 

“No.” I smile at my little secret. “I have to go.” I hang up just as Cami comes out
of the bathroom dressed in a blue sleeveless baby doll top and black cotton capris.
I love her in the baby doll dresses and tops; I am so ready to announce this to the
world, but it will have to wait until after we return.
 

She comes out of the bathroom, and sitting in the middle of the floor are all our
suitcases. “What’s going on?” she says, looking at me.
 

“You have a doctor appointment in thirty minutes. We need to get going.”
 

“I know that, Tristan, but where did all these suitcases come from? We only came with
one between the two of us. Tristan Michaels, what are you up to?” She smiles at me.
 

“Later, we have to go.”
Knock, knock
. Saved by the knock.
 

Tyson stands on the other side of the door. “Ready?”
 

“Yep. Come on, love. We need to go.”
 

“Tristan?” She scolds me with her eyes.
 

“Doctor appointment. Let’s go.”
 

“You’re up to something, mister.” Though she is trying to be angry, she is excited
and I can tell.
 

We rush out of the hotel and we’re off to the doctor’s office. We get there with only
moments to spare, and we get called back almost immediately.
 

Cami is up on the bed, naked from the waist down, and seeing her lying there, and
her beautiful bump visible, is an amazing sight to see.
 

Dr. Burgess comes into the room. “Hello, Cameron, I’m Doctor Burgess,” she says, and
she extends her hand to Cami and then over to me. “Nice to meet you both. So, Cami,
you think you’re about sixteen to seventeen weeks along?”
 

“Yes,” she says to the doctor.
 

“Is this your first time seeing a doctor?”
 

“No.” She shakes her head. “I have a doctor in Phoenix, but when the time comes, we
will be living here in Los Angeles, so I wanted to get a start on prenatal care here.”
 

“Good choice.”
 

We go through the initial exam, and then it comes time for an ultrasound. Dr. Burgess
wants to take a look to be sure. She goes through the initial setup and gets Cami
ready, and my heart starts pounding. We haven’t had an ultrasound since she was in
the hospital and I’m excited to see our baby again. After a moment or two, Dr. Burgess
asks us the all-knowing question. “Do you want to know the sex of the baby?”
 

“We’ve decided we’d like to wait,” Cami says, but I secretly want to know.
 

“Okay, that sounds good. Let’s take a look.” She goes to work on the ultrasound machine
and I can vaguely make out the grainy black-and-white images from the angle I’m at,
but after only a few minutes Dr. Burgess turns the monitor in our direction. “It’s
got a great profile.” She points out the features, which are a little easier to see
this time around — more solid structure — and I wipe a tear from my eye. “Want to
really see what your baby looks like?” Dr. Burgess asks us, and Cami and I both look
at each other then back to Dr. Burgess.
 

“Sure,” Cami says, and we watch as she moves the wand a little, and then all of a
sudden the image changes from grainy black and white to a sepia-colored image where
we can actually see the baby’s eye sockets. “It’s sucking its thumb?” Cami asks as
we both watch the baby move.
 

“Sure is, did you feel that just now?” I look away from the monitor at Cami.
 

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Might be a little early, but sometime over the next couple of weeks you should be
able to start to feel your baby move.” Oh, wow. “I’ll snap a couple of souvenir pictures
for you to take with you.” She does that and then leaves the room.
 

I stand up, kiss Cami on the forehead and put my hand on her belly. “That was...wow,”
is all I can say. We’re both fighting tears. “Are you sure you don’t want to know?”
I ask her. “We haven’t talked about it, really.”
 

“Do you?” she asks me.
 

“I want to know what you want to know. If you don’t, then we will leave it a secret
until it comes. If you want to know, then we can know.” She smiles at me.
 

“You make this too easy sometimes.” She smiles and sits up, sliding off of the table
to get dressed.
 

After a few minutes we’re back in the car and on our way to the airport. “Where are
we going, Tristan?” she asks me as soon as we drive onto LAX property.
 

I smile. “It’s a surprise,” I say to her and smirk.
 

“We’re going to Tarah, aren’t we?” she asks, and I nod. She squeals and hugs me hard
around the neck.
 

“Remember that new Christmas tradition we talked about starting?” She nods. “Well,
this is the start of it.”
 

“I love you.”
 

“Ditto,” I say, and she laughs.

******

Cami

******

We’ve been in Tarah about a week and the weather is perfect. Tristan has been amazingly
attentive to anything I want. But I start to notice, when we go down for dinner or
to Blu, that there are not a lot of people here. I’d expected so many more people.
Spending the holiday break in paradise is the ultimate Christmas; but then again,
that just might be my opinion.
 

It’s Christmas Eve, and Tristan and I are going downstairs to have dinner. I’m very
thankful that I was able to improvise on at least one of his presents. The other ones
are back in Phoenix and I had no way of getting them, at least not without him knowing.
When we enter the dining room, it is completely empty except for a couple of servers.
Then I hear a lot of commotion coming from behind a wall to the left, and I suddenly
feel better about keeping the servers busy on Christmas Eve.

“Come on,” Tristan says, and he leads me around the wall where the commotion was coming
from a minute ago. We round the corner, and sitting there at a long table are Tyson,
Jolene, Travis, Naomi, Mick and Beau.
 

My hand comes to my mouth, and I look at Tristan, then back to the table. “My God.”

Tristan comes closer to me and whispers in my ear, “New tradition. Every year, regardless
of where we all are, we come to Tarah for Christmas. We are our own family and we
need to be with family for the holidays.” He kisses me and then drags me over to the
table.
 

The night is amazing; we have a great time together, talking and catching up. None
of us have seen each other much, with the exception of Ty and Jo. We’re all bantering
and talking, everyone is drinking — except me — and having a good time, when the sound
of silver on glass breaks us all up, and everyone looks to Tristan.
 

“Thank you, all of you, for being here and for helping Cami and me start a new tradition.
I know you all have families outside of our little circle, but it means more to me
than anything to have you all here.” I take his hand and squeeze it gently as he looks
around at everyone. “Now, for one of the real reasons why we’re here.” I see him wink
to everyone, and he moves around his chair to stand off to my right and gets down
on one knee and the waterworks start. From his pocket he produces a black box. “Cameron
Celeste Enders, you’ve made me the happiest man on earth and I want to spend the rest
of my life making you as happy as I am. Will you do the honor of becoming my wife?”
 

He opens the box, and inside is a beautiful heart cut diamond surrounded by no fewer
than two dozen smaller diamonds that extend down to create the band. The tears in
my eyes make it harder to see it, but I realize that he’s waiting for an answer. “Yes.
Absolutely yes.” He comes up and he kisses me, and the rest of the world is gone;
no one else is here but he and I.
 

Everyone at the table claps and there are girlish squeals of delight at Tristan’s
proposal. Tristan holds me close to him and he whispers in my ear, “Marry me on Wednesday.”
 

“What?” I blurt, and he laughs.
 

“The island is empty, all of our friends are here. Marry me on Wednesday, at sunset
on the beach.”
 

“Tristan, I— What do you mean the island is empty?”
 

He laughs. “I reserved the entire hotel, the only people in it are us and a small
amount of staff to service us.”
 

“Oh my God, Tristan. I have nothing to wear.”