Surrendering Series Box Set

“Shoes!” Fiona yelled. I’d taken my heels off, and she was trying to put them on. Lucah came to help her and somehow he got her standing and shuffling as she squealed with glee.

“I wanna try!” Gracie said, abandoning the tiara and going for the shoes. Girls after my own heart. Then there were shoe races from one end of the room to the other, which were quite hilarious.

“Rory? Lion. Grrrr,” Fiona said, turning her hands into claws and throwing herself at me. I caught her and she kept growling and trying to claw me. I tried tickling her sides, and that seemed to work as she collapsed and giggled while Gracie slid from one end of the room to the other in my shoes.

“I don’t think you’re getting them back,” Lucah said.

“I have other pairs.”

“Rory?” Gracie said, skating past us.

“Yes?”

“Do you do sex?” For a second, I thought I’d misheard her sweet voice.

“What did you say?” She stopped skating and faced me, her hands on her hips.

“Do you do sex?” I looked at Lucah and I could tell he was trying not to laugh. I had no idea what to say.

“Um, I think that’s something that we should talk to Mommy and Daddy about, okay?” Lucah said, picking her up and throwing her over his shoulder. My shoes dropped to the floor. I stood up and put them on and Fiona held her hands up.

“Uppy, uppy.” I lifted her up and settled her on one hip. God, she was a lot heavier than she looked. Were children more dense or something? Maybe it was the candy and the cookies.

We took the girls downstairs and Lucah whispered in April’s ear what Gracie had said. Her eyes went wide and she looked mortified.

“I am so sorry. She asked about where babies come from last week, so we’ve been talking about that kind of thing. We wanted to give her the right terminology and so forth. I am so, so sorry.” I glanced at Lucah and I couldn’t hold it in anymore.

I lost it. Holding onto my knees and gasping, tears running down my face kind of laughing. The kind of laughing where you feel like you’ve gotten a workout. What made it even worse was Gracie hopping around asking, “What so funny?” Lucah laughed with me and eventually Tate and April joined in and a chuckle was had by all.

After we recovered, April took the girls (kicking and screaming) upstairs for their very overdue nap, and I was left with the Blythe men.

“So I know he’s going to kill me for it, but I’m guessing you’ve never seen any pictures of Lucah growing up, and I just happen to have some.” He walked back into the living room and pulled an album off a high shelf in the hutch next to the television.

“I haven’t, actually,” I said, looking at Lucah. He’d tensed up again. What was it about his childhood that he didn’t want me to see? I knew he’d been poor. Why would seeing pictures make any difference?

“You knew I had to do this,” Tate said to Lucah, who was silently fuming. “Mom and Dad would have done it, if they were here.” At the mention of his parents, the room got really quiet and still. Tate cleared his throat and turned to the first page of pictures.

There he was. My Lucah Blythe, boyish, with that out of control hair and those lovely eyes. He smiled up at me (sometimes missing a front tooth or two) from each picture. Christmas, birthdays, first day of school, here he was. His whole history that I hadn’t been a part of.

I sat on the couch and kept turning the pages. There were a few of him cuddling with his mother, and fishing with his father. A hand stopped me from turning to the next page. Lucah sat down next to me and stared at the pictures.

He got his hair from his mother. She had the kind of beauty that was timeless. Curvy and with a face that looked like it was pulled from a skincare ad. His father was built like him, with a ruddy complexion and Lucah’s sideways (and cocky) smile.

A tear fell from my eyes and dropped onto the album. I wiped it away, but another one was right behind it. I turned to look at Lucah and he was crying too.

His childhood had been a poor one, moneywise, but the love that radiated from his grinning face in every picture made my heart twist. Tate and April had left the room, so it was just the two of us.

I put the album on the coffee table and leaned into Lucah and he put his arms around me. I cried, and he cried and our tears mixed together and fell on our laps. Neither of us said a word, but sometimes, you didn’t need words. You just had to let yourself feel.

“I love you,” I said, holding his face like he so often held mine. “I love you so much.” His eyes were red and swollen, but in that moment he was so beautiful.

“I love you, too.” He pulled me forward and our lips met for a wet and salty kiss. But his lips were sweet and warm as they moved with mine.

“Thank you for letting me see this,” I whispered as I broke the kiss. “Thank you for letting me in.”

“I didn’t want to. You tricked me, Sunshine.” He tweaked my nose and wiped my eyes with his thumbs and then I did the same for him.

“I didn’t know I was going to need tissues for this visit,” I said getting up and going to get my purse from the table in the foyer. I knew I had a pack of tissues in there somewhere. I fished through until I found them and then Lucah and I blew our noses at the same time. Tate cleared his throat from the back of the room and Lucah and I both turned.