Home for Love (An Adult Contemporary Romance) (18 page)

“Sounds good,” Todd nodded, looking
thoughtful. “There’s just one obstacle though.”

“Oh?” Bree probed.

“I have to be back at my place by nine
for a party,” he clarified.

“Are you throwing a party?” Bree asked,
waving her hand to stop his response. “No, don’t worry. You’re doing so much
already by having us invade your home for the trick and treating. If you want
to have a party, go ahead. That’s okay. The main thing is that you see Amber
and gush all over her princess costume.”

“I’m delighted to host the trick or
treating, as you put it, from my place,” Todd stated. “But, I’ll be coming to
the farm, too. I’ll just have to leave by eight.”

Bree smiled broadly at him, “Thanks.
That would be great and Amber would probably be close to asleep by then anyway.
Who am I kidding?” Bree thought better of that wish. “Amber will be too fixated
with her friends and high on candy to be concerned with any adult.
Unfortunately, that includes us as her parents.”

“I figured that,” Todd returned. “But, I
was hoping that you’d join me as my guest.” When she looked at him in
confusion, he clarified, “I was hoping that you’d come to my party.”

Inside Bree was jumping up and down like
a kid on a trampoline; she’d had some horrific Halloween imagery of Todd
getting to up close and personal with a hot vamp-attired guest. With her being
on the invitee list, at least she’d get her fair shot. Maintaining a semblance
of outward calm, Bree responded with a broad smile, “I’d love that.”

“Great,” Todd grinned, looking as though
he’d won the lottery. “We can leave the farm together.”

The Ramsay farm was a joyful, noisy
center of activity as the Halloween party venue. Despite the late hour, the
children were even more active than they’d been earlier when they’d been trick
or treating. Given that that activity had been colored with eagerness and
chatter, it wasn’t a small feat to best it. Yet, little girls screeched as
little boys teased with ghoulish stories and scary pranks, and some of them
played and ran around the garden. In the living room, decorated to rival even the
toy store, a horde of fascinated young faces listened attentively as Daniel
embellished telling the tales of his homeland to them. Scary treats made of
classics like ‘witch finger’ biscuits, ‘mummy dogs’ and ‘ghosts in the
graveyard’ competed for tummy space with modern experiments such as brain jello
and meatballs made to look like realistic looking eyeballs with sweet-chili
sauce disguised as blood. And of course, there were loads and loads of candy in
a variety of ghastly shapes and colors - the reason why the children were still
running around as though it was early morning.

Bree found Amber and her grandmother and
greeted them before moving on through the crowded dining room to wave at her
grandfather. Worrying that Todd wouldn’t find her; she decided to wait for him
on the porch. Todd had excused himself earlier to fetch the food platters he’d
ordered from The Lodge. Bree had raised a brow at that, thinking that he could
just as well have helped himself to half the food at the farmhouse and he still
wouldn’t have made a dent in the supplies. She’d used the time though to change
into a more adult Halloween, though decently covered, costume.

The gasps from the little girls playing
in front of the house and the hoots from the little boys drew Bree’s attention
to the massive, beautiful white horse that entered the property. Squinting to
get a better look, Bree noticed that the person riding the horse was dressed as
a knight. Giggling at the reactions of the children and the difficulty the
knight had in securing the horse while keeping the children at a safe distance,
Bree decided to lend a hand. “Amber,” she called out as loud as she could,
“come quickly.” Fortunately, Amber was in the dining room listening to Daniel’s
tales so she was close enough to hear her mom holler.

Amber knew that when her mom called to
her in that excited tone that it was worth leaving whatever she’d been doing
and run. “Wow,” Amber exclaimed, flying down the stairs, very unlike a
princess, to join her mother as she crossed the lawn. “That’s a real prince and
his horse.”

Bree, giggled. Thank goodness,
fairytales and knights in shining armor still existed in the minds of little
girls. She’d believed in that fairytale too, but now she was ecstatic with a
guy who flew a plane and made a living out of hosting Alaskan adventures. Come
to think of it, Bree grinned, that sounded so much sexier.

“I think our prince is in trouble,” Bree
said to Amber. “It looks like the village children are swarming him, preventing
him from venturing into the Ramsay castle.”

Amber giggled, rolling her eyes for good
measure. “Mom, we don’t live in a castle.”

But, Amber didn’t say that the prince
wasn’t real, Bree thought, grinning at the selective attention of children.
“Okay, well let’s help the prince out anyway.”

Hand in hand, Bree and Amber made their
way to the Prince… Todd?

Todd, dressed as a knight, a prince to
Amber, came towards them grinning widely and looking embarrassed. Amber,
delighted, squealed, and ran to her father, jumping into his arms. Amber then
placed a sweet kiss on his cheek and confessed, “I always knew you were a
prince, Daddy.”

“Of course,” Todd puffed for her
enjoyment, “how else could you be a princess?” After a number of appreciative
kisses from Amber, Todd settled her on the ground and hand in hand with his
daughter, approached Bree. “Our transportation awaits, milady.”

Bree burst out laughing. When Todd
continued to hold out his hand and remain silent, she realized that it wasn’t a
prank. “Really?” she checked.

Todd nodded before leaning down and
kissing Amber goodnight. “I’ll see you in the morning princess.”

“Good night Prince Daddy,” she curtsied
before giggling and running to hug Bree. “Good night, Princess or Queen Mom.”
Then Amber dashed to the porch, laughing as though she were being tickled and
chattering away about her daddy being a real prince to her great-grandparents.

By now, all the party guests, adults and
children alike, were gathered outside or on the porch. Smiling with
embarrassment, Bree took Todd’s hand and allowed him to help her get on the
horse. When he donned the knight’s helmet, she couldn’t help joining in the
laughter as Todd expertly turned the horse around and rode away from the farm.

“Where did you get the horse?” Bree
shouted to him, not sure if he could hear her through the helmet.

“The helmet’s not real armor, so no need
to shout,” he replied laughing. “And, I loaned it from The Lodge,” Todd
replied.

“You’ve made Amber’s night, Todd. Thank
you.”

“Did you enjoy it too?” he asked.

“It was adorable and cute,” Bree
replied. “It’s definitely an experience I won’t forget. I must say though that
you definitely go all out for your parties.”

“You have no idea,” Todd shot back.

xxx

“What time is everyone arriving?” Bree
inquired when they arrived at Todd’s house.

“Everyone is nearly here,” Todd
responded, cryptically.

After Todd had secured the horse in the
makeshift shed, he placed a call to The Lodge and asked them to bring his car
back and fetch it in the morning. Bree saw that Todd had prepared the shed with
hay, blankets, buckets of food and water so that it resembled a real stall.

Even though the ride from the farm to
Todd’s house was relatively short, Bree found that it took a few minutes until
she felt as though she was walking normally again. Todd had been so gallant
about the whole, sweet gesture that she didn’t have the heart to tell him about
it. He, on the other hand, having experience in riding horses, suffered no such
side-effects.

“How did you manage to convince Jack to
let you hire out his horse?” Bree wondered.

“That’s between us,” Todd teased. “Long
story short, we’re entering into a business agreement and I asked for a favor.”

“Okay,” Bree shrugged, Jack was rather
generous but then again, Todd’s skills in the outdoors were legendary in this
part of Alaska and if Jack wanted to keep his guests safe while offering an
adventure of a lifetime then Todd was the right one to help.

“Who put the lights on? And, why are we
going around the front?’ Bree asked.

“Because it’s prettier,” Todd explained.

He sure is talkative, Bree thought
sarcastically. But he was also right. It did look ready for a Halloween party.
Jack o’ lanterns lined the path to the front door, where fake cobwebs, hollow
bones and plastic spiders were ready to creep out eager trick or treaters.
Tiny, plastic pumpkin tea-light holders were placed on the porch along the
balustrade and a huge sign had been placed on the door, a boney finger pointing
to the words, “Enter Please."

Expecting more of the same, Bree let out
a gasp as she entered the house. Baffled, she looked at Todd, the house, and
back again.

“Welcome to the party,” Todd smiled down
at her, delighting in her reaction.

“I don’t understand,” Bree whispered.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Todd grinned. “This
is for you, milady.” He bowed and held out his hand to her.

Fascinated and touched, Bree took his
hand and allowed him to lead her. When she entered the living room, it was even
more beautiful. The hallway had been decorated with rows of glowing white
candles, illuminating the space and casting a warm glow throughout the room.
The glow from dozens of candles accentuated the colors of the profusion of
flowers placed on every surface in the living room. Bree had always loved
country flowers, preferring them to the more predictable rose and the more
colorful and unusual, the better. The room held every country flower she’d ever
seen and colored the room in hues of bright blues, pinks, yellows, and every
color imaginable on a flower.

In the middle of the room, space had
been created for a small two-seater table, which was draped with a long, white
tablecloth on which stood a tall simple vase with a few sprigs of flowers. Wine
glasses and an ice-filled bucket with a bottle of champagne stood sentinel,
flanked the vase.

“I couldn’t give you the flower-filled
meadow you deserve," Todd said seating her, in all her witchy regalia, at
the table. “So, I thought I’d create one for you.”

Taking off the pointy black hat, she
looked at him in the chair that he’d pulled up next to her. The feel of her
hand in his, the room, and the thought and preparation it had taken to create
this masterpiece, left her breathless and in a mild state of shock.

Todd grinned, he’d never seen her
speechless before and he was going to take full advantage of it. “When we had
‘the fight’,” Todd began.

“No, please don’t go there,” Bree
requested.

Todd shook his head, “I want to mention
it so we can wipe it away for good. Let me explain please?” When she nodded, he
continued, “When we had that argument,” he amended, “you said that you want and
deserve a man who will want to be with you, look for you when you’re not
around, cherish you, and love you.”

Bree bit her lip and nodded. Taking a
breath, Todd declared, “You were right to ask for it and I was wrong to think
that we could have a marriage of convenience. You see, such a marriage between
us wouldn’t work.”

At her sharp intake of breath, he smiled
gently and carried on. “It wouldn’t work the way I foresaw it then, because I
hadn't fully realized how much I love you.”

Bree couldn’t speak because what she was
feeling was so overwhelmingly wonderful. The shock slowly wore off and she
started to regain her breath, excitement, relief, joy, and most of all the love
she felt for him and felt from him flooded her senses.

“This isn’t coming out of nowhere,
Bree,” he confessed. “After you told me about the depression, I did a lot of
thinking and went to see Doctor Roz myself.”

“And of course, as it’s confidential, no
one knew,” Bree interjected.

“Yes,” Todd agreed. “After I’d completed
the therapy, I paid a visit to my mom’s grave and then travelled to Ketchikan
to visit my dad’s grave too. The therapy made me realize that I needed to
forgive them before I could move on. More importantly, because I hadn’t forgiven
them or myself, I wasn’t able to forgive you for keeping Amber a secret from
me.”

“Oh Todd,” Bree stroked the side of his
face, mixed tears of sorrow and happiness sliding down her cheeks. “I’m so
sorry for what I did.”

“I know,” Todd replied, taking her hand
and kissing it. “And we already had this conversation and what I said then
still stands true. I’m proud of how you’ve raised Amber and I’m happy that
you’re both in my life now. When you told me about the depression, I decided to
go for therapy and work on the issues I had with my past. It wasn't an easy
decision to make, but I figured that if you could do it and it was obviously
helping you, then maybe I’d benefit from it too.”

“Going to therapy was easy. It took a
while longer for me to work around to forgiving my parents and myself. I
realized very early on though that I still loved you. In fact, I loved you more
because you’ve evolved from the vivacious, gorgeous girl I worshipped to a
beautiful woman with a kind and generous soul that I adore, respect and love
even more.”

“So why did you wait so long?” Bree
ventured. “I didn’t know if you were being friendly or if you were interested
in me.”

“I wanted to journey into the next part
of our relationship at my best, which to me meant that I needed to let go of
the past with my parents. That took a bit of time. I also wanted to make sure
that you were okay, and to give you the chance to focus on you and what you
needed to do to work through what you were going through. So, I offered
friendship first and then when that got too unbearable because it just wasn’t
enough, I decided to slowly woo you.”

“Woo?” Bree raised a brow.

“I Googled romance ideas,” Todd
confessed, smiling sheepishly, “and they used that word often.”

Giggling, Bree leaned in for a kiss. It
was a soft, sweet kiss, drawn out to relish in the sensation of being kissed by
someone who loved you completely. Gently pushing Bree away, Todd cleared his
throat. “If we carry on doing that, I won’t be able to stop, and I need to tell
you something first.”

“Okay,” Bree sighed, playing with the
armor he still had on, “although I’m happy with what you’ve said. I love you,
you love me, and you want us to be a couple again. Now, can we get to the juicy
parts please? My knight needs to rescue me from this sexual frustration I’ve
been experiencing for longer than I care to remember.”

Todd leaned in and clamped his lips on
hers. Sighing in relief, Bree matched his passion and sank into the kiss. It
was hot, brutal, and all-consuming. Then just as she ran her fingers through
his hair to pull him closer, he pulled away.