Armor, page 11
part #13.50 of Firsts and Forever Series
Charlie smiled at me and said, “Really?”
“Yeah. I mean, we’re not going to rush into anything, and honestly, I don’t know if I’m up for the challenge of raising an infant. But there are a lot of kids out there who need homes, so maybe we should consider taking a page from Nana’s book and adopting one of them.”
“I love that idea.”
“Good.” I kissed him and said, “I know I shouldn’t have brought this up today. We just got home, and there’s so much to process. Also, it’s not like the Messinas were the last of our enemies. But still, I guess I’m just feeling…optimistic.”
“It looks good on you.”
I searched his eyes as I asked, “Are you okay, Charlie? Really okay?”
“I will be. You’re right that there’s a lot to work through, and that we shouldn’t be making any major decisions right now. But it feels good to think about our future.”
I kissed him as I ran my fingers into his hair, and then I whispered in his ear, “I love you more than anything, angel.”
“I love you too, Dante, and I’m looking forward to having you all to myself in our own bed tonight.” He smiled at me and added, “Right now though, we need to get our asses downstairs. I have no idea what a ‘flaming fountain’ involves, but I’m pretty sure a key ingredient is the fire department.”
He had a point. We hurried down to the kitchen hand-in-hand, and got there just as the smoke alarm went off. Nana slammed a cookie sheet down on top of a huge bowl of flaming, reddish-orange liquid and exclaimed, “That was one humdinger of a fireball! Do I still have my eyebrows? It’s fine if I don’t, I can always draw them on.”
When the fire was out, she tossed the cookie sheet aside and peered intently into the punchbowl. Maybe she was looking for those missing eyebrows. Her little girlfriends lined the counter, forming a rainbow in their shiny leotards, and assured her she looked just fine without them.
Meanwhile, Ollie was rushing around in a tall chef’s hat, trying to get his Chihuahua and Nana’s big mutt to calm down. The dogs were running back and forth and barking at the shrieking smoke alarm. For some reason, they were both wearing miniature chef’s hats, held on with chin straps.
Darwin ran into the room, grabbed a broom from the closet, and hit the smoke alarm so hard that it flew off the ceiling and crashed into the booze bowl. It looked like a miniature UFO as it bobbed on the surface. Apparently Darwin thought so too, because he reached into his pocket, pulled a little, plastic alien off his keychain, and tossed it in after the mothership. The grinning green spaceman seemed right at home as he floated around in his hundred-proof ecosystem.
Charlie and I were both chuckling as I drew him into my arms. “You married into a hell of a lot of crazy,” I told him. “You know that, right?”
My husband kissed me, and then he flashed me a radiant smile and said, “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
The End
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Thank you for reading!
For more by Alexa Land
Please visit her Amazon author page:
http://www.amazon.com/Alexa-Land/e/B00AR2EJ76
Find Alexa on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008216261875
on Twitter @AlexaLandWrites
And on her blog:
http://alexalandwrites.blogspot.com/
Books by Alexa Land Include:
Feral (prequel to Tinder)
The Tinder Chronicles (Tinder, Hunted and Destined)
And the Firsts and Forever Series:
1 Way Off Plan
2 All In
3 In Pieces
4 Gathering Storm
5 Salvation
6 Skye Blue
7 Against the Wall
8 Belonging
9 Coming Home
10 All I Believe
10.5 Hitman’s Holiday (novella)
11 The Distance
12 Who I Used to Be
13 Worlds Away
13.5 Armor (novella)
The series will continue from here.
Alexa Land, Armor
