Page 35

Hannah

It still feels like a dream every morning when I wake up next to Leo. Moving in with him was the best decision I’ve ever made. Actually, quitting The Yellow Door was. Without it, I never would have met Leo, nor would I find myself in bed with him, wrapped around his warm body.

“Good morning,” he purrs into my hair, his voice hoarse and raspy but so fucking sexy. I still can’t believe I get to wake up next to this man every single day. It’s completely crazy to me that somehow, despite all the bullshit, we were able to get past it.

Things with Roy are good. It’s like the incident with me quitting never even happened, and if anything, it’s made him change his approach.

He’s getting better, taking little steps to change the things that have been ingrained in him since he began studying to be a chef.

I understand it’s hard to change after so many years, but he’s putting in a solid effort and it’s showing in his business.

He’s retaining employees and he even seems happier when we see him.

“Good morning,” I murmur back, sliding my hand down the taut muscles of his stomach and finding what I’m looking for. “How is it that you wake up this way every morning and somehow, we get out the door without having sex?”

“I’m hoping we don’t get out the door today,” Leo flirts back, his fingers tracing softs circles on my bare skin as I begin to stroke him.

“Well, we have to leave at some point, but I think we can arrange a quickie,” I say, smiling as I kiss him.

I take in a deep breath, memorizing his smell and no matter where I go, I have that smell with me.

He smells like the place I love, the place I found myself and the place I found the person I want to spend the rest of my life with.

He smells of wonderfully cooked food and apple orchards and wine. He smells like my forever.

“What if I want to go slow?” Leo asks, dragging out his words, his tongue tracing a path along my neck and up to my ear. “What if I want to taste you and make you come over and over?”

“Leo,” I shame, but loving every word. “You are a very naughty boy, and you are very hard to turn down.”

“The baby isn’t going anywhere,” he replies, settling himself between my legs. Looking up the length of my body with his gorgeous brown eyes, there’s no way I can say no, especially when his mouth begins its delicious assault.

“Yes,” I moan, trying not to make it sound like it’s in response to what he’s currently doing to me, but I fail miserably. “But we still have to go to work and the baby…” Fuck my life, he’s damn good at this. He has my thoughts completely lost in what he’s doing and I totally forget my argument.

“We’ll get there, Hannah,” Leo now says, smirking at me. “But first I need to get you there.”

A few hours later Leo and I are pulling up outside Dylan and Tessa’s house. We’re shockingly only about twenty minutes late, which isn’t so bad given all we accomplished. And if I’m being honest here, Dylan’s already expecting me to be late. It’s kind of my thing. Why change now?

“You ready to meet your niece?” Leo asks me, and as much as I am ready, what I’m not ready for is dealing with my mother and her million questions about when I’m going to have a baby.

She’s not going to like the answer I give her, and more than likely will brush it off telling me that I just need more time to think about it.

But Leo and I have talked in quite a lot of detail and our decision is firm.

We love our jobs and our quiet life and it’s not like we came to the decision to not have kids lightly.

I’m so happy for Dylan and Tessa and I know Dylan is going to be an amazing dad, and I’m going to be a kick ass aunt, but that’s all I want to be.

I want to spoil their baby terribly and then hand her back over to her parents.

I want to keep my life exactly as it is, working late into the night in the kitchen and falling into bed with Leo.

This is who we are, and I love it. We love it.

“I am and are you ready to give Dylan a bunch of shit again for inventing a sex toy?”

Leo’s head falls back, laughing. “I don’t think today is the time for that, Han. Aren’t your parents supposed to be here too?”

“They are, but do you think they don’t know he invented a sex toy? I mean, he’s rolling in the bucks, living in this place, working a job he loves because he doesn’t even have to work.”

“I gotta say, your family is pretty interesting if they’re all cool with Dylan raking in the money off something we keep in our nightstand.”

“My family is interesting?” I question, narrowing my eyes at him. “You are named after a rapper and an actor, and there was a time when your dad was known as the meanest chef in San Francisco.”

“Ah, yes, but my amazing girlfriend showed him the error of his ways and he’s a changed man.”

“And to think, I thought it would be the end of us,” I tease, reaching over and resting my hand on his cheek. It seems funny now, but I really did believe that what happened between Roy and me would ruin what Leo and I have. Now it feels like nothing could ever separate us.

“Never. You weren’t getting rid of me that easily,” Leo replies. “I was fucking obsessed with you, Hannah, from day one and I still am.”

“The feeling is mutual.”

He leans over and kisses me quickly before exiting the car and opening the trunk. I follow him around to the back of the car and we begin to take out the boxes.

“You think this is enough?” I ask, worried that I haven’t done enough. Being a new parent is hard but being a new parent and having the dad be pretty much clueless is probably even harder.

“Hannah, you can’t be serious.” Leo slams the trunk, almost like he’s trying to drive home the point of his rhetorical question.

“I am serious. Do you think this will last them a while? I don’t want either of them worrying about what they’re going to eat. I’m sure they’re already exhausted.”

“Well, let’s see, we made seven breakfasts, six lunches and fourteen dinners, and both of us work at restaurants, so if they do run out, I’m certain one of us can whip something up and run it over to them.”

“Okay, fine, you made your point.” I roll my eyes dramatically as we haul everything up the stairs to Dylan and Tessa’s house.

I’m kind of hoping we beat my parents here, but I also can’t imagine my mom staying away for more than a few hours.

I’m sure she’s been up Dylan and Tessa’s ass the second they came home from the hospital with her first grandchild.

I kick the door with my foot, since neither Leo nor I have a free hand. I can hear Dylan grumbling from behind the door, muttering something about me using my key.

“I can’t use my key, you jerk!” I yell, as Dylan flings the door open.

“What the hell, Han?” Dylan quips, reaching out to take one of the boxes I have. They’re stacked so high I nearly can’t see over them. “What is all this?”

“It’s food. Meals for you and Tess so you don’t have to cook.”

“Holy shit, you didn’t have to do this,” he says, walking toward the kitchen with several of the boxes.

“They’re all labeled and ready for you to just put them in the oven or microwave. Breakfasts, lunches and dinners.”

I open his refrigerator, placing a couple of each meal in it and then I begin to unpack the rest, making room in the freezer for them.

“Where’s the baby?” I ask, looking over my shoulder as Leo shakes hands with Dylan, wishing him a congratulations.

I feel like a complete asshole, it totally slipped my mind that I needed to congratulate him too.

Not that I haven’t a bunch of times already, through text messages and phone calls, but still.

Tessa had requested that no one come to the hospital, wanting some quiet time with just the baby and Dylan.

I totally respect that because she knew she would be inundated with visitors once they got home.

“Oh my god, I never even said congratulations,” I wail, flinging myself into Dylan’s arms. “How’s it feel to be a dad?”

“It feels fucking amazing. She’s so fucking perfect and wonderful and Tessa is this badass mom who jumped right into everything like she was made for it.”

The tears well up in my eyes. I’m so proud of Dylan for changing his entire life for Tessa and the baby. I hug him harder, squeezing him and when I pull back, his eyes shine with the same tears that are now spilling from mine.

“Big change, huh?” I say, smiling at him now.

“Yeah, but I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

Just as I lean in for another hug, Tessa comes out of the bedroom carrying the baby. She’s asleep in Tessa’s arms and looks like a tiny little doll.

“Here she is,” Tessa whispers, looking down at the little bundle in her arms. “Meet Birdie Murphy, your niece.”

She hands the baby to me, cradling her in my arms, I can’t help but let out a contented sigh. It feels good to hold her and look at her and see her sweet little face. She’s absolutely perfect just like Dylan said.

“She’s gorgeous,” I whisper, walking over to show Leo. “Dylan with a baby girl. I’m not sure who I feel sorrier for, Birdie or Dylan.”

“It should probably be me. She’s got a little bit of you in her and a little bit of Tessa which to me feels like she’s going to give me a run for my money,” Dylan jokes, making us all laugh. He’s right, this little peanut is going to have Dylan wrapped around her finger before she can even walk.

My parents walk in a few minutes later, my mom immediately coming over to take Birdie from my arms, snuggling her and smiling. I’m happy my mom has gotten to have this as part of her life too. Dylan and Tessa may not have planned this, but it has changed all our lives for the better.

Leo throws an arm over my shoulder, standing next to me as I look on at my mom holding Birdie.

“So, Hannah,” she says, and here it is. The question that really should be banned from being asked of any woman. “Are you and Leo thinking about having kids?”

I look up at Leo, his beautiful face looking back at me, giving me the confidence to tell my mom our decision.

“Actually, no and more than likely never.”

She looks over at me, her eyebrows narrowed as if she’s trying to judge if I’m joking. No jokes here, just full-on honesty. Maybe she thinks it’s selfish. Maybe she thinks I’ll change my mind, but whatever it is, I’m firm in my decision. We both are.

“That’s a tough decision, but I’m sure you’ve given it a lot of thought. I just want you to be happy, Hannah and it’s obvious that Leo makes you happy.”

Her response nearly knocks me on my ass. This baby has done wonders for our whole fucking family. I step away from her, not fully acknowledging what she said, afraid that if I do, she’ll change her mind and say something crazy.

While my parents are busy swooning over the baby, and Dylan and Tessa are resting on the couch, Leo and I go down the hall to check out the baby’s room. I’m sure it’s perfect, because Tessa never does anything half-assed. But before we get there, I stop off at the guest room.

“This is where I hid from you when everything went down.” I push my bottom lip out being overly dramatic, still feeling the sting of thinking I was losing him.

Leo steps into the room, looking around, he walks toward the attached bathroom. “Seriously, this is where you came? I’m shocked I got you to leave.”

The bedroom and bathroom are pretty fucking epic, especially in comparison to where I used to live and to mine and Leo’s place now.

“Wanna christen Dylan’s bathroom and give him shit about it later?” I tease, winking at Leo.

“Oh, you know how hard it is for me to say no to you, but we have a kitchen to get to and food to prepare.”

“We do, and we’re working together tonight. My favorite kind of night,” I reply, leaning into him. “There’s nothing sexier than seeing you in the kitchen.”

“And there’s no one else I would rather share a kitchen with than you.”

“I love you, Leo,” I say, pushing up on my toes to kiss him.

“And I love you so fucking much, Hannah Murphy.”