Second Chances (Dreams Come True #2) (13 page)

“You stuck up for me.” I could’ve smothered him with kisses. Luckily there was a console in between us to prevent me from making a damn fool of myself. “No one has ever done that before. Hell, I barely stick up for myself with him.” I inhaled deeply, hoping to calm down.

Finally, I felt ready to explain. “My mom died in a car accident. My dad was drunk at a bar and she went to pick him up in the middle of the night. Normally, she’d take me, but it was a particularly cold night and she figured she wouldn’t be gone long.” I hiccupped as I talked about it and fresh sorrow kicked in. “She skidded off the road, rolled a few times, and hit a tree. She died at the crash. My father drove home, passed the crash site, and told me about it in the morning.” New tears poured down my face. “It’s not like we had this wonderful, loving relationship before then, but after her death, he was out of control. It felt like he hated me. And I don’t know why. Maybe he wanted me to be in the car with her. Then he’d have been a free man.” I shrugged. “All I know is he never mourned my mom. Never shed a tear. My mom loved him, beyond sanity and reason. Trying to save him killed her.”

I grabbed for a new napkin and blew my nose again. “I can never go through that. I can never end up in a miserable one-sided marriage being treated like nothing.” My skin hurt from the saltwater bath after the beating it had already received. Carefully, I fanned my face while I struggled to contain my emotions.

We pulled into the McDonalds parking lot and Sebastian found a spot. Immediately, I panicked. “I thought we were going through the drive thru. I can’t go inside looking like this!” My eyes darted back and forth from his face to the restaurant.

“Hey, hey, Marisa. Hush. Calm down. We’re not going in.” He ran a hand through my hair and cupped the less damaged side of my face. His tone and his touch had magical healing properties. I closed my eyes and soaked in his love.

“Okay,” I murmured, eyes still closed. Then I opened them again in alarm. “I’m not some fragile whiny girl,” I began to explain.

“I never thought you were.” Sebastian offered a comforting smile.

“How could you not? I’m over here sobbing over my daddy issues.” I sniffled and tried to look away.

“They’re his issues, not yours.” He leaned over and kissed my forehead.

“How’s that?” I wanted to understand. I wanted him to make sense to me, help me overcome my past.

Carefully, he grazed my lips with his. “All you’ve ever done, as far as I can tell, is try to be a good and loving daughter. If he can’t love you back, those are his issues. Don’t make them yours.” Sebastian cradled my head against his neck and I inhaled his cologne. “I know it’s easier said than done. I know you’ve spent years wondering why the one man who’s supposed to love you most, doesn’t.” He squeezed me extra hard. “Maybe he’s loving you the best he can. Maybe he’ll change when he comes out of his liquor-induced haze. Maybe he’s just the shit person I accused him of being. All I know, for certain, is we’re not your parents. We don’t have their relationship and we sure as hell would never have their marriage.”

Pulling my head back, I blinked up at him. That was some good sense he talked. There was a lot of truth in there. It would take some time to digest, along with my McGriddle, but maybe he was right…about everything. I mean, I couldn’t very well tell him that. It would only go straight to his head. Slowly, I managed a lop-sided grin. “What kind of marriage would we have?”

“Well, first of all, I’m going to need you to keep working. No freeloading around here.” Sebastian started to count off on his fingers. “I’ll need dinner on the table by six every evening. You’ll be sure to greet me at the door with slippers, of course. I expect my clothes to be ironed and laid out for me every morning. I’m far too busy to have to waste time planning my attire. Most importantly, we both were only children. I can’t have that. Hard to build a dynasty on one baby. We’ll need three or four.”

I giggled. “Four children?”

Sebastian pulled at his chin. “You’re right. What was I thinking? How many do those Duggars have? I’m feeling a bit competitive.”

This time I howled in laughter. “You’re crazy.”

“Of course I am.” He bent low and kissed the tip of my nose. “I’m crazy for you, sunshine.” He grinned. “I don’t know what kind of marriage we’ll have. No one does. There are too many variables.” Sebastian reached out and held my hand in his. “All I know for certain is I love you. While you may have grown up feeling like nothing, to me you are everything. Together, we’ll face whatever comes our way.”

My head tilted to the side. Already, I felt like a new woman. Why did people struggle so with love? Relationships weren’t that hard. Or maybe they were just easier if you were with right person. I smiled at him. “Could we face a Bacon McGriddle and a large Coke first?”

“No hashbrown?” He looked at me like I had two heads.

“None for me,” I laughed.

“Can I have your hashbrown?” He tried to appear serious.

“I don’t know. You seem to want it pretty badly.” I rubbed my neck. “Seems like this hashbrown may be more valuable than I suspected. What are you going to give me for it?”

“Wait. So I’m buying breakfast and I have to give you something to keep the hashbrown?” He raised an eyebrow.

I nodded vigorously despite the pounding in my head. “You are correct, sir.”

“I don’t suppose you’ll be satisfied with my undying love and attention.” Sebastian smacked his lips.

“Eh, throw in a lifetime supply of chocolate and we have a deal.” I held out my hand.

“I’ve never seen you eat chocolate.” He crossed his arms over his chest.

“Then you haven’t been paying attention. I
love
chocolate.” My insides were dancing as we played.

“Do you love chocolate more than you love me?” Sebastian looked at me sideways.

I sighed blissfully. “I can’t think of a single thing I love more than you. If you understood how much I love chocolate, you’d realize that’s really saying something.”

“Deal.” He leaned in impulsively and smashed his lips against mine without thinking. I whimpered and he drew back immediately. His eyes widened in concern. “I’m so sorry, Marisa.”

“This is gonna cost you,” I warned.

Sebastian laughed. “I’m sure we can work something out.”

Chapter Twelve

Marisa

Thankfully, the gallery was closed on Sundays. The last thing I wanted to do was face Sylvie fresh out of the hospital. We ate our McGriddles up in his kitchen, then talked about our plans for the rest of the day. The only downside I could see was I had zero clothes.

“They won’t let us in. I’m telling you. We’ll figure something else out,” Sebastian explained.

“How come we could get in the gallery right away? Are you sure you aren’t making this up as an excuse?” I flopped down on his sofa, forgetting all about the ribs until I landed, feeling exhausted, and fighting the urge to take another pain pill. “I don’t mind staying right now. Being alone freaks me out a bit at the moment, but I do have work to finish and a looming deadline and…no clothes!” I threw my hands up in the air.

“I get it. This isn’t some ploy on my part. I promise.” He sat beside me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “The gallery…that was essentially breaking and entering, vandalism. Your shop…breaking and entering, but the intruder was killed. Big distinction.” Sebastian was silent a moment. “Hey, let me make a phone call.” Pulling out his cell, he selected a contact, hit the green button, and placed it on speaker immediately.

“Hello, Sebastian!” I recognized Gabriel’s voice immediately and smiled.

“Gabriel, any chance Isabella can help us out today?” He pulled me closer while he spoke.

“You’re in luck. We’re in the city, but we were planning on spending the day with the kids. What do you need?” Gabriel sounded concerned.

“Well, there was an incident. Suffice to say, Marisa can’t get back into her place to get clothes and she’s a little reluctant to be seen in public to buy more…” Sebastian glanced at me and shrugged, clearly at a loss.

Without thinking, I snagged his phone and hit Face Time. A moment later, Gabriel’s face came into view and he gasped when he saw mine. “Oh no! Marisa what happened?”

Suddenly, Isabella’s face filled the screen. “Marisa, how can I help? Are you at Sebastian’s? We’ll be right over.” The phone screen showed the ceiling, then Gabriel’s face again. In the background, I could hear her speaking to her children. “Coats and shoes!  Let’s go!”

“I just thought she might let me borrow a couple pairs of yoga pants,” I croaked. “I didn’t mean to alarm her.”

“You need clothes? No problem! We’ll see you soon.” Then Gabriel ended the call.

For a moment, I sat stunned, staring at the now dark screen. Who did this? “These friends of yours…” I stared at Sebastian with tears in my eyes. “I can’t believe it. They barely know me.”

He beamed. “Gabriel and Isabella are really good people.” His face fell for a moment. “I wouldn’t have said that not so long ago.” He seemed ashamed at his admission. “I was jealous of everything about Gabriel. I might have even flirted with Isabella to upset him.” Sebastian glanced at me for a reaction. “Then I met you and it put everything into perspective. I didn’t have to be jealous anymore because I’m too busy being happy with my own life. It has only been a few weeks, but it seems like a lifetime since we met.” He kissed my forehead. “Thank you for making me a better man.”

I shook my head. “I didn’t do anything.” Then I yawned and curled up into his lap.

“Oh, but you did. Rest, Marisa. I’ll wake you when they arrive.” Sebastian laid his head on mine and I soon fell asleep.

When the doorbell downstairs rang insistently, I woke without him even having to nudge me. It’s a good thing, since he’d passed out too. “Hey, get up!  They’re here.” Though I hated the idea of being around people at the moment, I felt incredibly excited to have the opportunity to get to know Isabella better. Because of Sebastian, I finally had opened up to the idea of having friends.

“What?” Sebastian mumbled and stretched, then the bell rang again and his eyes shot open. “I must love you,” he grumbled, “because I really hate that bell.” He lurched to a standing position and started toward the stairs. When he saw me behind him, he whipped around and grabbed my upper arms. “Stay here. I’ll be right back. You don’t need to do any extra moving around right now.”

My eyes wide with excitement, I nodded and stood waiting at the top of the stairs like some kid. It only took a few minutes before Isabella and Gabriel were striding up the stairs. The moment she saw me, she held her arms out and I walked into her hug. “Thank you,” I gushed, then I winced when she found my ribs.

“Sorry!” She released me and jumped back a step. “As for the clothes, please, you haven’t even seen what we picked up yet.” She waved a hand to show it was no big deal, then we walked into the condo arm in arm, like old friends. “Nice face,” she commented once we were inside away from the darkened stairwell.

“It could’ve been worse.” I shrugged and instantly regretted it.

“Ribs?” She glanced at me and lifted my shirt to check out my torso.

With Gabriel and Sebastian right behind us, I tried to tug my shirt back down. I didn’t have to feign modesty. In all my years, I’d never bared a midriff.

“Why don’t you go take a shower and I’ll lay these clothes out for you?” She smiled warmly.

Slowly, I looked around. “Hey, I thought you had kids?”

Nodding, she laughed. “It’s Maggie’s day off, but she didn’t have anything planned so they kids decided to stay with her.”

“Maggie?” My face scrunched up as I tried to recall if I recognized the name.

“The nanny,” she whispered. “Ugh. I hate saying it out loud because it sounds so pretentious. To us, she’s family.”

“Family we pay,” Gabriel joked as he wandered over to us with bags in his hands.

“Sorry it took so long, but I had a really fun time shopping for you.” Isabella grinned. “I took the liberty of guessing your size. I wasn’t sure how long you would be here, so I planned for a week.”

Staring at the bags, I swallowed hard. “A week. You bought a week’s worth of clothes.” I shook my head. “Oh my God. You seriously just doubled my wardrobe.”

“I didn’t even try to guess on a bra size, but there are panties in a couple different styles and some shirts, the yoga pants you requested, and a few leggings and tunics that I thought you might look really good in.” She beamed at me, obviously proud of her efforts.

“Thank you, but it’s too much.” I felt guilty even touching the bags, until Sebastian walked over and insisted.

“Take the clothes. If they didn’t want to do this for you, they wouldn’t have offered.” He pressed his lips to my temple. “Enjoy your shower. Let me know if you need help getting dressed.”

I smirked. “I’m sure I can manage. Nice try. We have company.” Then I started to walk toward the shower when I paused. “Wait, you’re not leaving before I get out, are you?”

“Nah.” Isabella shook her head. “It’s almost eleven now. We’ll leave after we have lunch so we can spend the rest of the day with the kids.”

“Good.” I smiled at her. One day I hoped to be that comfortable in my own skin, that confident and at ease. “I’m really looking forward to getting to know you better,” I admitted shyly before I went into the bathroom and closed the door behind me.

***

Sebastian

While Marisa showered, I relayed her harrowing experience to Gabriel and Isabella. “And you have no idea who the intruder was or why he was there?” Gabriel tugged at his goatee.

“None.” I frowned, feeling more than a little helpless. “And she’s so headstrong, I had to work to get her to come home with me.” I shook my head, feeling both proud of her and frustrated at the same time.

“Well, I’m glad she wasn’t hurt worse than she is.” Isabella leaned back against her husband and sighed.

“Listen, I know this is a terrible time, but I don’t suppose there’s any chance you want to look at Isabella’s photos?” Gabriel asked sheepishly. “I feel guilty even asking, but they’ve been in the trunk of my car for weeks now and I need the space back.”

I laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. “Of course. With any luck, we can leave them all here.” I glanced over at Isabella to see if she was paying attention.

“We’ll see, Sebastian.” She eyed me warily. “I’m not sure if they would be a good fit for you. You might not like them. It’s a new series I’m working on.”

Fifteen minutes later, Gabriel and I had managed to carry everything up on the elevator. We had even set everything out around the living room for me to study them. By the time Marisa emerged from the bathroom looking fresh, clean and considerably more bruised than I remembered, I had decided I wanted the whole series.

“Wow. Are these yours, Isabella?” Marisa eyed the photo closest to me.

With a nod, she responded. “Guilty.”

Around the room were black and white images of abandoned homes from around the world. These weren’t shacks, but manors, estates, plantations and the like. In every image, she managed to capture the beauty despite the desolation and destruction. There were winding staircases with ivy growing up them, furnished rooms that had remained untouched for probably more than fifty years, crumbling porches, boarded up windows, and even trees growing through floors.

“Some of these are nicer than my mansion,” I joked.

Marisa slid her hand into mine and stared up at me with those gorgeous eyes of hers. “We’ll save it,” she murmured.

Given the combination of her touch and the way she looked at me, I somehow forgot we weren’t alone. “Well, let me know when you’re ready. You know what we have to do.”

Suddenly, she wilted under my gaze. “Is it lunch time yet? We should totally get lunch.”

Squeezing her hand, I nodded. “Let’s order something. Gabriel and I can go pick it up while you two relax.”

“Oh, we have to set up a time to get the dresser. What about next weekend? Do you have any plans for Saturday?” Gabriel looked first at Marisa, then at me while he waited for a response.

“As long as we can get back into Marisa’s place, we’re good to go.”

***

The week passed far too quickly for my liking. It had little to do with the looming deadline and everything to do with savoring my time with Marisa. Though I should’ve been concerned, I really wasn’t. Somehow, I’d accepted my fate. Marrying someone after only a few weeks? Who did that? I certainly couldn’t expect Marisa to make that kind of commitment for me. She took the vows seriously and if she didn’t I probably wouldn’t love her so much. I’d decided having her in my life meant more than all the money in the world. Even if I lost all of this, it wasn’t as though I’d be destitute. We’d manage. Being together was what mattered.

During the week, I’d grown accustomed to falling asleep with her every night and waking up with her every morning, tucked in at my side. By Wednesday, we were meshing so well, I couldn’t remember what my life was like before her. The police finally removed the crime scene tape and relinquished control of the shop on Friday morning. The idea of going to bed alone that night ate at me, but Marisa seemed determined to get home.

“I have so much work to do,” she complained. “This week, I only managed to pick up a few small pieces from neighborhoods to work on in that cave of a storage room.”

“I thought you like working across from my office.” For some reason, I felt snappish and offended easily.

“Stop. I do, but there’s no place like home,” Marisa joked while she ran her fingers through my hair. The swelling in her lips had diminished completely and her smile once again could light up a room. In fact, aside from an occasional twinge from her ribs if she overdid, Marisa was the picture of health.

“Why don’t you stay tonight, and then tomorrow we can meet up with Gabriel and Isabella together?” I pouted some as I grasped at straws to keep her here. She’d already made it abundantly clear he wouldn’t be staying over at her place with Mattie around.

“I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon,” Marisa insisted.

“Will you at least let me install an alarm system in there? I’m sure the company I use could get it done quickly.” My concern grew the closer it came to her leaving.

“It’s not my place. Mattie would have to agree to it and I’ve had a horrible time reaching her lately. She doesn’t text. She never seems to have her cell phone on her.” She grumbled as she explained her frustrations.

“Well, just make sure you always have your phone near you. Call me if you need anything.” I pulled her close one last time before she walked out of the gallery, even though I’d offered to drive her.

It was only four in the afternoon. She had insisted on getting back to the shop before dark. I couldn’t blame her, but now I felt miserable and lonely without her. To make time pass faster, I worked on setting up Isabella’s photos, rearranging everything in the gallery to work around her images. At some point, Sylvie had come over.

“Sebastian, I’m leaving now. It’s closing time.”

“Be sure to lock up behind yourself. I have my hands full here.” I gestured to the walls, now covered in Isabella’s work. Taking a step back, I studied the placement to make sure I liked it.

“I’ll see you in the morning.” She must’ve waited for a reaction from me, but I barely nodded.

Then a while later, my stomach grumbled and I reluctantly gave in and went up to the condo to eat and go to bed. I knew Marisa was likely hard at work, lost in her passion, but I had to hear her voice once more. Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I leaned on the kitchen island and waited for her to answer.