Page 341 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 2

"Present?" Bee offered.

"Yes! Wedding present." She slid it toward Bee. "Mommy, can I put on my dressnow?"

She had been asking me every half hour all morning.

"Not yet. The wedding isn't until tomorrow."

"But I don't mind sleeping in it. Pleeeeease?"

Bee laughed. "If you sleep in it, it will get all wrinkled. And you don't want that, do you?"

Scarlett scrunched her mouth to one side as she thought it over. "No. A flower girl shouldn't have a wrinkled dress. I'll go put it back."

"Put it back? Where did you put it?" I asked.

But Scarlett had already crawled down from Mason's lap and was running back up to her room.

"I promise I'm going to follow up on that," I said and sat down in one of the empty stools.

Bee laughed. "It's fine. The kids are going to be so cute tomorrow even if their outfits are wrinkled."

"Hopefully they'll be well behaved," James said.

"They'll be great, I know it."

I hoped that Bee was right. But I could just imagine Scarlett and Sophie throwing flower petals at each other instead of on the aisle. And after last night, Axel might just run off and try to find his mother instead of safely delivering the rings to the altar. It was good that the kids were coming to the rehearsal tonight. They needed all the practice they could get.

Bee set her empty mug down. "We really should get going. I'm in desperate need of a nap. Thank you for the tea, it actually made me feel a lot better."

"Of course. We'll see you tonight." I gave them each a hug goodbye and continued to sip my tea as James showed them out.

"Do you mind if I grade a few papers before we have to get ready for the rehearsal? I'm a little behind, especially since I'll be jet lagged after my flight tomorrow night."

"Yeah, that's fine. I need to get some work done anyway. What time is your flight?"

"I'm taking the red-eye. That way I won't have to cut out from the wedding early."

"Smart thinking."

He kissed my cheek. "Let me know when you're going to start hogging the bathroom so I can shower real quick beforehand."

I laughed. "You could just shower with me."

"I thought you'd never ask." He winked at me and grabbed a cup of tea before heading toward his study.

Now I definitely had something to look forward to. Just a few hours of work and I could get my favorite reward. I carried my tea to the library, sat down at my desk, and opened up my computer. Now that I had cleared the air with Hails, typing came easily to me. I poured my heart and soul out on the paper. I wiped away tears. I laughed. I immersed myself to the point where someone watching me probably would have thought I was suffering through emotional distress. I swallowed hard as I read the words that had once appeared in a note from James that I had typed up before I started writing the second book of myseries. His notes were one of the reasons why fiction blurred with the truth. Because I couldn't change the words in his notes. They were perfect just the way they were.

"Only with you am I strong. Only with you am I good. Only with you am I whole."

I wiped away the tears on my cheeks.That's not true.He was strong. And good. And whole. He was all of those things without me. For some reason I couldn't move past those words. My two hours of productive writing had come to a grinding halt.

I put my hand on my chest. What if something did happen to me? How could I leave like this? With him thinking that was true. I pulled up a blank Word document and stared at the blinking cursor. James had a will. It was irresponsible for me not to. I'd feel better if I had one too. Not necessarily for leaving monetary things to people. I just needed James to remember my words. I needed to leave him with something. My eyes continued to focus on the blinking cursor. Scarlett's weird snake fears had gotten into my head. James' capturing my laughter had too. I needed to do this.

But for some reason my mind only got as far as writing "James" before shutting down. I said I didn't want any bad vibes. Making a will was the worst possible vibe. I closed my laptop and slowly stood up.We don't need a will, do we baby boy?I thought to myself as I wandered out of the library. Besides, what wasthe point of focusing on something terrible happening when my husband was waiting for me naked in the shower?

The Light to My Darkness - Chapter 20

Friday