To Do List (10 page)

68

www.samhainpublishing.com

To Do List

She wound her arms around his neck and kissed him. “Oh, why thank you. I’m glad it doesn’t freak you out. I’ve never really, you know, let it all go before with anyone so I’m relieved you didn’t think I was a skank.”

His hands slid down the curve of her back and cupped her ass. “Belle, you couldn’t be a skank even if you dressed as one for Halloween. You’re a lady through and through.

Tough, smart, good hearted, organized and when the door closes and you let your hair down, you’re hot and not a little naughty. Truly, the perfect combination. Now, let’s go before I fuck you right here in the hall and my mother comes looking for us.”

They drove over and he held her hand the entire time. Funny how she’d simply fit into a spot in his life he hadn’t really known was empty but there she was, sitting in the passenger seat, his truck filled with her presence, filled with
them
in a way he knew was right.

“Crap! Rafe, how many people are here?” She sat up straight as they pulled up the long drive to the house. Cars filled every available space.

“There are probably seventy-five people here tonight. My dad always has to bring out all the table leaves and my aunt and uncle and other relatives bring extra tables and chairs. A house full of people who all know about you. Just saying that up front. You know a lot of them and they love you already. The ones you don’t will once they meet you. And my grandma is here.”

“You never told me that, Rafe.” Belle fanned her face and looked panicked. “Rafe, the only exposure I’ve had to her has been glimpses when she visits every other year. I’ve never met her! I have to admit, I’m scared of her.”

“My grandmother is very nice, don’t look scared. She’ll love you. She’s just a bit, um, well yeah. Anyway, you’ll love her and she’ll love you but she’s going to pretend she only speaks Portuguese until she gets to know you.” He got out quickly and ran around to her side to open her door before she could reply.

“I’ll get even for this,” she said in an undertone.

www.samhainpublishing.com

69

Lauren Dane

He grabbed the gigantic bag filled with presents he told her not to buy to begin with and shook his head at her defiant look. Giving in and grinning, he took her hand in his free one and they headed in.

The house was insane with activity. Four generations of Bettencourts and Pereiras swarmed the place. He caught sight of his grandmother holding court in the living room, surrounded by grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She caught sight of him and smiled, waving him over.

Keeping a tight grip on Belle’s hand he dropped the bag of presents near the tree, knowing she was probably having a stroke that he didn’t take them from the bag and lay them out nicely. He tugged her toward his grandmother, thankful his mother saw them and moved in their direction to head off any potential trouble.

He knelt and kissed his grandmother’s cheeks, speaking to her in rapid-fire Portuguese, telling her who Belle was and how special a person she was to him. His mother nodded, adding her own observations.

Belle stood and smiled at the scene, she’d met many of the people there at least a few times, as Brian and Rafe were so close. Really, it was pretty much like her house at a holiday. Kids running around, a cat hiding under the couch, rich scents of yummy stuff coming from the kitchen and people just happy to be with each other, or pretending to in some cases.

She also tried to pretend she didn’t know they were all talking about her. Belle made a mental note to get herself some Portuguese language tapes. She knew bits and pieces, enough to say please and thank you, she knew how to ask for bread and that sort of thing.

But beyond that, she was lost.

“Hey there, Annabelle!” Rafe’s little sister, Rosemary, came and hugged her.

“Rosemary, man you look marvelous! I love the new hairdo.”

Rosemary touched her hair with a smile. “Thanks. Ben was worried about it being short but with two kids and a third on the way, the long hair just wasn’t worth the hassle for me. I hear you’re seeing Rafe? It’s about time!”

70

www.samhainpublishing.com

To Do List

Belle laughed, keeping her ear tuned to the conversation with Rafe’s grandmother so when it was time, she could meet her and not appear rude.

“Don’t worry, she’s really a cool old woman. She just likes to play the boys off like this. Be yourself, she’ll like you,” Rosemary whispered of her grandmother.

“Belle.” Rafe stood and touched her arm and she turned to face his grandmother with a smile. A smile the older woman returned, a bit of mischief in her eyes.

“This is my grandmother, Lourdes Pereira. Grandma, this is Annabelle Taylor.”

Belle knelt so she faced Lourdes and held out her hand. “It’s an honor to meet you, Mrs. Pereira. Raphael and his brothers and sister speak of you often.”

Lourdes nodded and looked to Rafe, who hadn’t bothered translating. She snorted and looked back to Belle. “I was going to be threatening and old, like my husband’s grandmother did to me but I decided I like the look of you. Beatriz tells me you’re a good girl and Raphael tells me he loves you and has known you most of your lives. I like that. I don’t come around often. But next time we see each other, you’ll speak Portuguese to me.”

Belle stifled the urge to gulp and kick the carpet. Instead she laughed and nodded.

“Yes, ma’am. And I love Raphael too. I have since I was a teenager. Only he never looked at me twice.”

At that, Belle found herself seated next to Lourdes the entire evening. For dinner and dessert afterward, she told Belle all manner of great stories about growing up in the Azores and then coming to the United States to meet the man she was to marry, Rafe’s grandfather who later died in the Korean War.

When they moved to the living room after the mess from dinner was cleaned up, Belle sat, snuggled up to Rafe. This was more important than letterhead any old day.

He’d reminded her without preaching it. He’d simply let her see it.

It took some time to get through the presents, even with several people taking the used paper out of the way and Rafe’s father and uncle handing out the presents in shifts.

Belle received several presents much to her surprise and delight, including a hand knitted wrap she planned to wear that very night when they left for mass.

www.samhainpublishing.com

71

Lauren Dane

“One last one, Belle,” Rafe said. “Well not last, there are more from me at your parents’ house for the morning.” He laughed. “But for now, well.” He stood and brought her with him. “Five years ago I saw you at your law school graduation and suddenly you weren’t that annoying little control freak sister of my best friend. Something had changed and that day is when I started falling in love with you. I told myself it was silly, Brian would kick my butt if he knew and then we both worked so much I didn’t see you as often as I’d wished to even start something with you. But a few days ago and some mistletoe let me finally realize what I’d known all along. I love you, Belle Taylor and I want us to be together. I want you to be my wife and share my life. Be here with me for the good times and the bad and bear our children. I want that with you, I want there to be an us tomorrow and for all the rest of our days.”

Belle blinked back tears. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“I know! I know it seems sudden but you know me and I know you. I’ve known you since I was eight years old and you were four. I’ve been a part of every major important day in your life and the same goes for you. You know what I believe in and you hold those beliefs as well. I respect your drive and ambition. I love that you iron towels and organize my spices. Make my house a home, Belle. Say yes.”

It wasn’t sudden. Not really. He was right, he’d been her friend for decades, a member of her family and certainly a man who’d held her erotic and romantic imagination for years. Rafe Bettencourt was her fantasy man come true. He was real.

“I’m so not an impulsive person. You know that. I do most things on a schedule and I keep endless lists and yes, I iron tea towels and organize spices. Marriage is on my list you know. The big life list I have laminated and in my wallet. It’s on the schedule for three years from now.”

Rafe stared at her and she grinned.

“But I guess I’ll have to laminate a new one because marriage just moved up the list and I’ll have to cross it off.”

“Is that a yes?”

She nodded. “If you’ll have a very organized contracts lawyer as your wife.”

72

www.samhainpublishing.com

To Do List

He huffed out a sigh of relief as the room let out a whoop of celebration. “Belle, you had me going there for a bit with all that talking.”

“Yeah, I know. But I can’t have everyone always thinking I’m predictable now can I?”

He dropped to one knee and opened a velvet pouch into his palm. Two rings slid out, glittering in the lights from the tree and the lit candles in the room.

“These were my great-grandmother’s rings. My grandmother brought them with her so I could give them to you. Then our grandson can give them to his wife-to-be. Will you wear them?”

She held out a trembling hand as he slipped on a very beautiful opal and diamond ring. “It’s gorgeous.” Feminine and classic. The ring fit her style perfectly.

“The band we’ll save for the wedding.”

“Gosh, the watch I got for you just doesn’t quite measure up,” she said quietly as they pulled up in her parents’ driveway after mass.

“Belle, you agreed to marry me. That’s way better than anything I’ve ever gotten.”

“We should have stopped by your house like I said. I hate that I won’t be naked with you until tomorrow night.”

He helped her out of the car, grabbing her overnight bag. Bending down, he captured her lips for a kiss. “Tomorrow once we get to
our
house, I’m going to have you every way I can think of. For now, let’s just pray your mother doesn’t kill me for asking you to marry me without her there.”

“Yeah, that’s going to be a close call. But I think you’ll be all right. She likes you.”

Belle laughed quietly but she needn’t have bothered as everyone seemed to still be up when they went into the house.

More insanity when Belle’s mother, who’d been making hot chocolate for everyone, caught sight of Belle’s ring after she’d changed into her pajamas and came out into the living room.

www.samhainpublishing.com

73

Lauren Dane

“Is that what I think it is, Annabelle?”

“If you think it’s an engagement ring, yep. Rafe asked me to marry him and I said yes.” Belle grinned as people got up and rushed at her and Rafe, hugging and kissing cheeks, slapping shoulders and congratulating them.

“You move fast! Why didn’t you tell me you planned to do this tonight?” Belle’s mother demanded of Rafe.

“I just decided yesterday to ask her so soon. My grandmother brought the rings because I knew I wanted to ask Belle to marry me but I’d planned to wait until Valentine’s Day.” He shrugged and hugged Belle. “But yesterday it just hit me that it was time. I’d wasted five years knowing she was everything I ever wanted in a woman so I decided to stop wasting time and marry her.”

They stayed up until nearly two-thirty, talking, planning and laughing. Finally everyone snuggled down in sleeping bags and decided to try and sleep before the kids woke up at the crack of dawn.

74

www.samhainpublishing.com

To Do List

Chapter Eight

It’d been a good day with the Taylors. Rafe knew they’d accepted him, not just in the way they had before but as their daughter’s soon-to-be husband.

He’d watched while she played with the wooden block set her youngest nephew had received, while she rubbed Chelsea’s back and had run around, taking care of people.

They’d had a huge lunch and half his family had come over to join them and much talk about consolidating Easter had begun.

Finally, it was nearly nine that night when they escaped. He hesitated to even bring up what would happen the next day. He was mulling over how to broach the subject when she bypassed his house and got on the freeway instead.

“We’re going to my condo for a bit. We’ll talk when we get there, all right?”

He wondered if she planned to sleep there so she could get to work early the next morning and told himself that was all right. He’d work around her schedule. It wouldn’t be easy, but he’d commute back to Davis if he had to.

Instead, he’d simply stared, utterly dumbfounded when they’d walked in her front door.

“This is your house? Wow, Belle, this is like a spread in one of those home magazines. God, I hope I don’t stain your carpets.”

“You won’t be here long enough for that to be a worry.”

“Belle, if you think you’re going to live here while I live in Davis and I see you once a year, you’ve got another thing coming. I’ll live here and commute every day. I can work it with Gabe so I won’t always have to be out there so early. And the reverse commute isn’t going to be that bad.” He put his hands on his hips and dared her to argue.

Instead she burst into tears and threw herself into his arms.

“What? What is it, honey? Don’t cry. We’ll work it out. I’m okay with you working, I promise.” He rubbed a hand up and down her back.

www.samhainpublishing.com

75

Lauren Dane

“No, not that. Rafe, you’d give up hours of your day, every day to live here, in a tiny condo with white carpets when you have a huge house a mile from your job? I love you so much. I can’t believe you’re mine.” She smiled up at him and he smiled back.

“Of course I would. Belle, I love you. I’d rather be with you and commute than not be with you. Even for ten minutes a day.”

“Well that’s not necessary. I stopped over here yesterday to get the dress I wore last night and I thought a good long time about my life. And my job sucks. I hate to admit it, it was on my list and it’s a hugely important firm and all that. But I handed in my letter of resignation yesterday. I have some stuff to tie up and it’ll take me a month or so, but I’ll work on my resume and look for something in Sacramento or even Davis. I don’t want to trade my life for a job. Especially now that you’re in it.” Belle took a breath and watched his face as he realized what she’d said.