My Mr. Manny (21 page)

Dinner tasted sublime, and we decided to drive back to the hotel and walk around for a while. Dominic held me close while we kicked off our shoes and walked along the beach. The sand had cooled off, and the beach was lit by tiki lights.

“You know it’s almost been a year since you came to us?” I asked.

“Yup,” he answered.

“This has been the best year of my life, and I’m sure Lucia would say the same thing.” I said.

Dominic stopped walking and pulled me to him. He wrapped me in a tight embrace and kissed the top of my head. Just being surrounded in the essence of his love sent chills up my spine.

“Mia, this has been the best year of my life, too. And I know every year I get to spend with you will get better and better. You have given me so much, and I’ll never be able to thank you for it all,” he said while he gazed into my eyes, lighting me up like a firecracker.

“You don’t ever need to thank me for loving you.” I licked my lips and felt my heart pounding in my chest. “I want to go to the room now, please,” I begged.

He broke away from me and began running. “I’ll race you there,” he said into the wind.

I laughed and took off after him like my life depended on it.

Chapter 28

I Spy

The first morning, I awoke to Dominic’s hands and mouth turning my world upside down. My body stiffened, my toes curled, and my back arched when it shot over the edge. I was panting deeply, and my skin was moist with a sheen of sweat.

I grabbed Dominic’s shoulders, trying to pull him up and over me.

“Come here, baby,” I panted.

He slinked his way up, kissing every inch of my torso, my neck, my face, and finally my mouth. Dominic’s lips covered mine in a hungry kiss. His whiskers made the kiss feel rough, but it was offset by the warmth of his mouth. With one hand, he held himself over me while the other still caressed and explored my body.

“Hmmm.” The sound vibrated from Dominic’s mouth, and I moaned when our tongues tasted one another.
What a way to wake up!

The sound of waves crashing and birds chirping barely entered my awareness. The sun was already shining high in the sky, lighting the room brightly.

With Dominic settled between my legs, we connected in every way. The sense of going home always washed over me when we joined together like that. I lifted my feet to his ass and pushed him closer to me, wanting more.

“Stop it. I want to go slow and make love to you,” he said into my neck.

“I don’t want slow. I want it rough and fast,” I demanded.

“Later. I want to love you like this first. Now, shush. I’m busy,” he grunted.

Not able to deny him anything, I melted into his soft caresses and slow movements. I ran my hands up and down his back, scraping my fingers down his skin in pleasure. God, I loved his body, his skin, his face — everything about him. I wanted to be devoured—
consumed
—by him. Being that close felt right, as if we were magnets with pulls so strong that we couldn’t be pulled apart if we tried. This man owned me, body and soul. Soon, my body tensed, and stars shot out from behind my eyelids. I held on to his biceps so tightly that I left bruises. Dominic trailed little kisses with slight bites down my jaw and neck while he groaned in pleasure. My moans became more and more high pitched until I just let it all go and crashed in a wet spot on the bed.

“Wow, thanks for the wakeup call,” I said with a chuckle.

His body rested over mine, and his weight held me in place. My arms tightened around him, not wanting to let him move.

“Mmm, so good,” he said.

“Love you so, so much,” I whispered in his ear.

He lifted his head, bit my ear lobe, and said, “I love you, too.”

We opted to shower together because we didn’t want to separate, not even for a moment. Imitating his slow, worshipful mood, I took my time and washed him with soft, caring hands. In turn, he did the same for me. Our shower took about an hour too long, but it was necessary to stay in the tight bubble we’d created.

I was ready to try some of the infamous Hawaiian coffee. We went down to The Veranda restaurant for a delicious breakfast and the best coffee I had ever tasted.

“You know, we need to call Lucia after breakfast. I miss my little munchkin.” I looked up at Dominic with wide eyes. “I just realized I’ve never been away from her since she was born. It feels great though. Should I be guilty?” I asked with a nervous chuckle.

Reaching across for my hand, Dominic soothed me. “No, babe. You shouldn’t feel guilty at all. You have always been there for her, and if she needed you right now, you’d be there. You need time away, as well. We need time together as a couple sometimes. You’re a wonderful mother,” he said.

I nodded, because he was right. I had and would always be whatever Lucia needed, but there were times when I needed to be myself, not just Lucia’s mother.

“Are we going to the North Shore today?” I asked.

“If you want, or we can go to Diamond Head.”

“Let’s hurry so we can call Lucia; then we’ll decide,” I said.

~*~*~

Back in the room, I dialed Susan’s number.

“Hello?” she answered.

“Hey, how are you?” I asked.

“I’m great. How’s Hawaii?”

“It’s wonderful — beautiful, actually. Um, is Lucia around?”

She laughed. “You’re so transparent. Yes, she’s here.”

I sighed in relief, dying to hear my daughter’s voice.

“Momma?”

“Hey, baby. How are you? I miss you so much,” I said.

“I miss you, too. Where’s Daddy? Are you guys having fun?”

She was so cute, and it made me feel good that she was excited to speak to us as well.

“Yes, we’re having fun. And Daddy’s right here. You want to talk to him?”

Dominic was all smiles when I handed him the phone.

“Hey, baby girl. Yes. I know, I miss you, too. Yes, we did. Okay, I’ll tell her, and we’ll call you tomorrow, okay? I love you, too.”

I leaned into the phone and yelled, “Love you.” I heard her happy screeches through the receiver before she hung up.

Dominic was silent for a few moments, rubbing his hand along his jaw. His eyes were unfocused, and I could see the wheels turning in his head.

“I was thinking — how about we fly straight to New York from here? We can catch a flight from LAX to JFK and meet Lucia there. We could spend a week or so sightseeing together,” he suggested.

“I need to see if I can get another week off. I have enough time saved, but I only asked for these two. Let me email my boss and see what I can do,” I suggested.

~*~*~

Since we had gotten off to a slow start that morning, Dominic and I decided that we’d go hiking on Diamond Head volcano. A drive to the North Shore was about an hour, and we wouldn’t even have time to sightsee. However, Diamond Head was closer to our hotel.

Arriving in the parking lot, we saw a huge sign with the name of the volcano on it, so we asked a fellow tourist to take a picture of us with it. Then we followed the path to the entrance. The whole walkway up the mountain had metal railings, and we barely fit side-by-side. My legs began to burn because the hike was very steep, with portions featuring stairs that knocked the wind out of me from pure exertion. But when we got to the top, the view took my breath away. We stood there for a while with the wind blowing in our hair, looking at Oahu from three hundred sixty degrees.

Dominic’s lips met mine on the top of that beautiful volcano. We then took tons of pictures from every angle so we would have them to help us remember our trip and to share with our family. I had been texting Susan, Dom’s parents, my parents, and Lori with almost every picture we’d taken so far.

~*~*~

The rest of our trip passed much too quickly. One day, we drove to the North Shore to spend the day at the Polynesian Cultural Center, and we even stayed for the luau at the end of the day. The PCC introduced us to life from all the surrounding islands: Samoa, Fiji, Tahiti, New Zealand, Tonga, Hawaii, and Marquesas. We saw many shows with dances from the different islands. I learned how to sew a quilt square with a flowery, Hawaiian pattern in red and white. Once it was dusk, we headed off to the luau, which was preceded by a buffet dinner with foods like poi, poke, yams, fish, pork, and other island fare. After dinner, we sat down for the show. I was excited since it took all of those elements we’d learned about earlier in the day and magnified them. When it began, we were surprised by how beautiful the costumes and dancers were. Scenes from the history of each island were acted out in dance with drums and flame twirlers. We were in awe of the performances and happy to have had the experience.

Another day, we spent a few hours at Waimea Falls. We watched some professionals cliff diving over very high water falls, and it scared the crap out of me. My fear of heights wouldn’t allow me to get up to the top, but it was nice to watch from afar.

Dominic dragged me to Matsumoto’s Shaved Ice. He ordered the Matsumoto special with vanilla ice cream and condensed milk, and I got the banana cream with the same extras. I had to hand it to Dominic for making us go, because it tasted delicious. It was so good, in fact, that I craved one every day we were there.

We fell in love with Oahu and were very sad to leave. Knowing that we were going to see Lucia motivated us to leave, otherwise we could have stayed forever.

~*~*~

Using all of my vacation time for this expedition, I was able to book two more weeks off. We planned on spending them with Dominic’s parents. I almost regretted the decision to go directly to New York from Hawaii when we were forced to endure a six-hour flight from Oahu, a layover in Los Angeles for three hours, and then another six-hour plane ride to New York. We did get to run home during our layover since we lived so close to the airport. We exchanged some of the clothes in our suitcases and figured we could wash our dirty laundry at his parent’s house. The last leg of the journey was an all-nighter, which landed us at JFK at five-thirty in the morning. I felt too old to be trying to sleep on an airplane all night, and I knew Dominic felt the same way. Exhausted was an understatement for how tired we felt.

A town car picked us up from the airport and drove us straight to Park Avenue on the Upper East Side. I had never been to New York before, but I had heard about the apartments wealthier people lived in. They weren’t like any places I had seen in Los Angeles or Boston. These New York homes had doormen, concierge services, and elevator operators, and they were worth a lot of money. My jaw dropped when we first entered his parent’s apartment. It consisted of ten rooms, four of which were bedrooms. Dominic had tried to warn me, but nothing could have prepared me for what we walked into. Arriving on their floor, I heard my daughter’s happy, boisterous laughter. What she was doing up, I had no idea, since it was only seven in the morning. I hoped Emma and Dom weren’t in over their heads with my little girl and her level of energy. I knew at times she could be a bit much, but she also had good manners and knew how to behave when necessary. I trusted she had just been excited to see us.

Dominic rang the doorbell, and Emma answered with Lucia hard on her heels. I had a feeling she wanted to knock down her grandmother to get to us, but she stood there waiting as patiently as she could, bouncing on her toes. Emma received us with tons of love, and then stepped aside so we could tackle Lucia.

“Oh, my baby. I missed you so much.” I had her wrapped in a tight hug, but then pulled back to look at her. “Have you been having a good time?” I wanted to see if she was nervous or showed any signs of stress, but to my pleasant surprise she looked happy and comfortable.

“Momma, I’m having fun. Susan and Vitto took care of me on the plane, and then we visited Lori and Chris, and I stayed here while they went home. Grandma made cookies with me, and we colored and went to the park,” she said before taking a deep breath. “But I’m happy you’re here.”

She kissed me on the lips and jumped out of my arms and into Dominic’s. He knelt down just in time to catch her. Her little arms wrapped around his neck, and as they hugged, they whispered into each other’s ears and giggled. My heart expanded in my chest just watching how much they loved each other. When they stood up, Dominic addressed his mother.

“Where’s Dad?” he asked.

“He went to the office. But come, let’s get you two to your room,” she answered.

We walked through their spacious apartment. Passing through an open living room and dining room, we entered a long hallway with several closed doors. Lucia came bouncing behind us.

“Momma, wait until you see my room. It’s so beautiful. I want a bed like that for our house,” she rambled.

“Oh? There’s a bed you like? We’ll see it as soon as we put our stuff in our room,” said Dominic.

“Don’t get any bright ideas,” I told him, recognizing the tone he’d used.

“Once you settle, I’ll give you a tour of the house, okay? Come find me when you’re done,” said Emma.

“Thank you so much, Emma. I’m so happy to be here.”

Arriving at our room, my jaw dropped again. The parts of the house I had seen already were impeccably decorated. One of the rooms we had gone through had been paneled in beautiful blonde oak, and the foyer looked to be about the size of my whole condo. But this bedroom was incredibly beautiful. Every inch was painted in a shade of pea green and one wall lined with dark oak shelving. There was a sofa to match. I would never have imagined the layout and design on my own, so I was surprised at how much I liked what I was seeing. A closet sat on the opposite wall of the pullout couch, and a big window with a wonderful view of Park Avenue sat on the other. Different, but beautiful.

I set my suitcase in the closet, not bothering to unpack yet. Exhausted, I plopped myself on the sofa. Lucia climbed on my lap and just clung for a while. Dominic joined us while we reconnected. His strong arms wrapped around the both of us while he rested his chin on my shoulder.

“Can we go see my room now?” asked Lucia.

“Of course,” said Dominic.

She walked backwards, pulling on our hands to her room.