The Private Serials Box Set (44 page)

Authors: Anie Michaels

BOOK: The Private Serials Box Set

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So, we’d moved to Portland when I was seven months pregnant and never looked back.

Piper opened her parents’ front door and my little Nadia came bounding out, reaching directly for her father. He knelt down, scooped her up in his arms, and kissed the side of her head as she snuggled him.

“That one is a handful,” Piper said as she hugged me. “We stopped at nearly every store in the mall that could have even
possibly
had anything princess related.”

“Well, your first mistake was taking one of Lena’s kids shopping. Nadia here inherited her shopping gene. I avoid malls like the plague,” Preston said those words as he pressed his forehead right against Nadia’s, making her giggle. I slapped his arm playfully, pretending to be offended, but laughing because he was pretty right.

“Daddy, Auntie Piper bought me this pretty princess dress and even a tiara. I was a good girl so she took me to get ice cream, even though I hadn’t had dinner yet.”

“Oh,” Preston said, giving his twin sister the stink eye. “Sounds like Auntie Piper gets to take you home for a sleepover in that case.”

“Really, Auntie Piper? I get to sleep at your house?”

Piper laughed. “We’ll see, sweetie. First I need to snuggle your little brother.” She took the car seat from my hands and almost ran away with it. I would have tried to stop her except I didn’t mind not having to carry it and I knew I’d never be able to wrestle the baby from her. And once Preston’s mother got hold of him, it would be game over for sure.

If Nadia was the princess of the Reid family, our son Devlin was the prince. He was beloved by all and could do no wrong. I happened to agree with their assessment so I never argued with anyone about it.

We walked into the kitchen and my eyes found Piper lifting Devlin from his car seat and pressing her nose into his neck and taking a long, gratuitous sniff.

“Oh, my God. My ovaries are firing like a freaking machine gun,” she whined. “He smells delicious.”

Preston’s mother greeted me with a hug and I didn’t miss how her eyes found my hickey. “How’s my favorite daughter-in-law?” she asked, as she always did. Preston was the only child of hers who’d married a woman. Parker was married, but his husband was her favorite son-in-law.

“I am well, thank you.”

“Yes, I can see that,” she replied with a knowing wink. I tried not to blush but it was no use. I liked it better when she didn’t comment on the hickeys.

“Oh! Happy Anniversary!” Piper whisper-yelled, as Devlin lay asleep in her arms.

“Thank you,” Preston said, wrapping his arm around my shoulders and holding me close.

“Six years of marriage. That’s pretty exciting,” his mother said. “I still wish I’d been able to be at your wedding.”

There it was—the obligatory guilt trip that we’d gotten married in Las Vegas with no one but Elvis as a witness. We endured it every year, and his family didn’t mean any harm. They weren’t trying to make us feel bad about it; they just genuinely wished they could have been at our wedding.

“Maybe when we hit ten years we’ll renew our vows,” I said. It was my automatic answer to their obligatory guilt trip. But I meant it—maybe we would renew our vows. I never got to throw a big party when I married Preston, and if there was anything worth celebrating, it was our marriage. Marrying him was the best decision I’d ever made and everything that had come after that day had been nothing short of perfect. He’d practically rescued me from the worst kind of marriage and given me something I’d only ever dreamt about. He was my knight in shining armor. Well, my knight in a shiny black Lotus, anyway.

“I’d like to say that we invited you to dinner because we wanted to spend time with you, but actually, we invited you so we could kidnap your children for the night. You’ve got the night off from parenting.” Preston’s mother was making shooing gestures at us and pointing toward the front door.

“Here,” Piper said, holding keys out to us with her free hand. “Take the keys to my car. You’ve got reservations at Bartini at six, and a room reserved for you at the downtown Hilton. Happy anniversary.”

“Wait,” I said, still trying to catch up. “You’re watching the kids for us? We’re going on a date?” Devlin was only five months old, and we’d never left him overnight before, but my gut was telling me to take their offer and run off with my husband for a night of uninterrupted adult time.

“Piper is going to stay here with me to help take care of the kiddos; we’ll keep your car with the car seats in case we need to go anywhere, and you two go and have a good time. If you come back before ten a.m. tomorrow morning I’ll be very upset with both of you.”

“Are you sure?” Preston asked.

“We’re sure. You know Mom’s got that nursery just waiting for some baby time,” Piper said, gently rocking back and forth as all women tended to do unconsciously when holding a baby.

He looked at me and I looked at him, and I knew we were in agreement. We both walked toward our children and took turns kissing them both goodbye, and I shouted last-minute instructions to my mother-in-law before closing the door and walking to Piper’s car.

Once we were both in the car and pulling away from their house I turned to Preston. “I feel like we just got ambushed, but in reverse.”

“Yeah,” he said, reaching over and taking my hand in his as we drove. “But it’s a pretty sweet anniversary gift.”

“Yeah. Hey, can I ask you a favor?”

“Anything,” he said as he brought my hand to his mouth and kissed it.

“Can we go home first and get the Lotus?” Butterflies took flight in my belly at the thought of being alone with him in that car again. I very rarely ever got to ride in it, and he usually drove a more practical car to work.

“Just so long as you understand if I see you sitting in my Lotus, I won’t be able to keep my hands to myself.”

“I would never expect anything less.”

“You know I’m gonna take what’s mine.”

“And I’ll happily give you everything.”

The End

Acknowledgments

The first thank you definitely goes out to every blogger who took a chance on this serial. I asked you all to trust me and read something blind, support something without knowing much about it, and you gave your support in spades. From the beginning, creating this story has been a roller coaster ride for me and I appreciate everyone who read it, blogged about it, posted about it, shared a teaser or a cover…I appreciate it all. THANK YOU!

The second thank you goes to my street team. You guys go above and beyond for me. I am so glad I have a group of ladies that I can go to for advice and to be completely neurotic around. Also, thank you all who beta read for me on this project.

Becca, Kelly, and Andrea for always giving me such honest and invaluable feedback. I trust you all implicitly with my words and thank you for your help.

To the READERS! Thank you for loving Preston and Lena. Thank you for every time you told me you were excited to read the next installment; your words of encouragement kept me writing and motivated me to give you the best possible product. I started this serial because the story was there and I loved the characters, but I finished the project because of the love and enthusiasm you shared with me for Preston and Lena (along with Sam, Piper, and Parker).

Special thanks to Sprinkles On Top Studios for creating such a lovely cover for this beast of a book!

More books by Anie Michaels:

~The Never Series~

~The Never Duet~

Never Tied Down – Coming 2015

~Stand Alone Novels~

The Space Between Us

The Absence of Olivia ~ Coming 2015