Flat out, p.23
Flat Out, page 23
The flight back home isn’t long but I’m anxious the entire ride to see Alyssia.
As soon as I push through the lobby doors, however, my phone rings. A call from my Uncle Brutus.
I answer on the first ring.
“You were right. There are a few other drivers who’ve received information about your car changes,” he tells me.
I curse as I punch the elevator button.
“We’re working on tracing who’s behind it, obviously. But it’s definitely someone at Amato.”
My stomach clenches. Betrayal is one thing. Deceit by someone who you think is working on your side is a son of a bitch.
“Doubt it’s Horner,” he says. “He looks on the up and up.”
The problem is, it could be anyone. A regular paper pusher, an engineer, or even—
“Do you think it could be Skyland?”
My head juts back. “This would negatively impact him, too. The changes made to my car are made to his also,” I remind my uncle. “I doubt it.”
Skyland’s young and one of the most easy-going guys on the grid.
“I’ll keep you updated,” Uncle Brutus says.
I tap my phone against my leg on the elevator ride up, wondering if it would’ve been quicker to take the stairs.
A voice in the back of my mind reminds me I live on the twelfth floor.
The moment I open the door, I spot Alyssia on the couch. But when she lifts her eyes and I see the tears streaming down her face, my heart drops out of my damn chest.
“What’s wrong?” I toss my bags aside and go down on my knees in front of her.
She emits a watery laugh, wiping her eyes. “Nothing’s wrong,” she says. “I … Did you do this?”
“What?” I’ll admit to anything if it makes her stop crying.
She lifts a thick photo album that I completely missed from her lap.
“It came today. Special delivery.”
I blink at the leatherbound cover until she flips it around. There’s a picture of beautiful, visibly pregnant woman dressed in a floral dress. ‘My Pregnancy Journal’ is scrolled in cursive below the image.
My eyes meet Alyssia’s again.
“Uncle Theo said you asked him if my mom had any mementos from her pregnancy that he knew of.”
“Yes,” I say. “You said you wished you knew what she experienced while pregnant. I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask your uncle if he had anything that could help.”
I’d pulled him aside and told him what Alyssia told me, and he remembered the album that he’d kept for years among some other belongings.
“He said he’d forgotten about it but knew to keep it because she left a note saying she wanted to pass this to me when I had m-my f-first b-ba—” She doesn’t finish her sentence.
I swallow her in my arms.
She cries into my neck, actually alternating between laughing and crying.
“Thank you,” she whispers. “I … thank you.” She pushes out a shaky breath.
“Can we look through it together?”
Her smile brightens as she nods. I take a seat on the couch, pulling her into my arms, and we spend the next hour reading the entries her mother left throughout the nine months of her pregnancy.
CHAPTER 37
Alyssia
“Don’t forget your hat,” Travis says.
We’re standing in the parking lot of the harbor. Travis has brought me here for another one of his surprises.
He reaches back into the passenger side of his car and plucks out my wide brim straw hat, placing it carefully on my head. My eyes scan the contours of his jawline, the way the sun heightens the golden flecks in his eyes that if you’re not close enough one could easily miss.
“What are you smiling about?” he asks, the sparkle in his eyes matching his grin.
“I was thinking how wonderful it is that our baby gets to grow up in a place as beautiful as this.”
With a wave of my hand, I gesture to our surroundings.
A group of young people dressed in sundresses and Polo shorts laugh carelessly as they head toward the one of the docks. They look so carefree, exactly how people their age should feel on a beautiful summer day.
My hand goes to my belly. Quietly, I pray our child is able to live happily like that.
“Our baby is lucky because you’re going to be his or her mom.” He brings my hand to his lips, kissing the outside of my palm.
I part my lips to tell him I’m not the type of person who believes in luck, but the words don’t come out.
“My baby daddy is a flirt.”
“If we have a boy, I’ll teach him everything I know.”
I pull my hand away. “You’ll teach our son to be a ho? What if it’s a girl?”
He frowns. “She’s not leaving the house until she’s at least twenty.”
My eyes round in shock. “That’s a completely sexist and outdated mindset.”
He shrugs. “Call me old school.”
“I’ll call you a male chauvinist who has his head stuck up his—”
He leans in and kisses my lips.
“I’m kidding.” He chuckles as he pulls back. “She can leave the house when she’s sixteen. By then I’ll have taught her everything I know about avoiding men all together.” He twists his lips, thinking. “On second thought, she’ll have round-the-clock security. That’ll take care of it.”
“Ridiculous.”
He squeezes my hand. “When it comes to my family, I am.”
It’s the words “my family” that melts any fiery response I might’ve come back with.
“Now about your surprise.” He gestures toward the marina.
“We’re going sailing?” I ask.
“Sailing, no. But we are spending the next few days on a private yacht with stops at some of the most gorgeous beaches in Monaco and the South of France.”
“Are you crazy?”
The smile he gives me is dazzling. “Yes, but that’s beside the point.”
“Which is?”
“That you told me you’ve never been on a yacht. And as much as you enjoy walking by and sitting out on the balcony watching the boats, I figured it was time to take you out on one.”
My heart melts all over again. I don’t think I’ll ever get over how I can mention something once and he remembers it. I’ve never had anyone pay that type of attention to what I say, not a boyfriend, at least.
I love you.
The words are right there, on the verge of falling out, but I hold them back.
Travis opens the trunk of his car, revealing a bag of mine he’s already packed for the day.
“It would’ve been my preference to not have to bring any clothes on this trip, but …” He trails off with a lifted eyebrow.
“Clothes are a must,” I insist, laughing and taking my bag from him.
“There are some beaches in France and Italy where the laws on nudity are more relaxed, you know.”
“Stop it.” I swat at him.
Travis pushes out a defeated breath. “If you insist,” he says before leaning in and kissing my cheek. “Wait for me here, while I go check with our host to make sure our yacht is ready.”
Watching him stroll away, I sigh. As I rub my belly, I think about how full my heart is, both for this baby and the man who brought my heart back to life after years of suppressing any emotion remotely related to love.
Maybe one day soon I’ll actually be able to tell him.
CHAPTER 38
Travis
“She can’t go that damn deep,” I yell at the yacht crew member who’s also a highly trained snorkel instructor.
My knees bend, body filling with tension as I poise myself to jump back in the water from the deck of the eighty-foot yacht, when Alyssia pulls the snorkel from her mouth and yells, “I’m fine.”
She waves me off, putting the piece back in her mouth after the instructor says something that makes her laugh.
I glower at both of them. A second later, I jump back into the warm waters off of Plage Mala private beach. I’ll be damned if I let Alyssia or my baby drown because the fucking instructor I hired for our trip wants to flirt with her.
As I approach, Alyssia pops up from the water. She pulls her mouthpiece out again, smiling.
“You decided to come back in?”
Beads of water that stream down her face, her brown eyes glitter like diamonds from the sun shining on us from behind, and the joy on her face all leave me breathless for a beat.
“It’s time to come back to the boat,” I say in spite of my soft heart wanting to give her whatever she wants.
Instead of waiting, I swim closer and turn my back to her. “Wrap your arms around my neck, I’ll swim us in.”
“I’m capable of swimming on my own. The boat’s right there.” She points out the yacht that’s less than twenty feet from us.
“You’ve been swimming for hours. You’re probably more tired than you realized.”
“I know my own body,” she huffs.
I take one of her arms and wrap it around my neck. When I go to do the same to the other, she reluctantly does it for me. Waiting to make sure she’s secure, I use my legs with the fins on my feet to propel both of us back to the yacht.
Our boat’s captain is already there, waiting to help Alyssia first, then me.
“You do know that was unnecessary. I could’ve swam back,” she insists.
Momentarily, I get distracted at the sight of her in the plum, ruched one piece bathing suit. The suit has a peek-a-boo cutout above the midriff, giving a nice view of the soft skin directly beneath her breasts.
Seeing her like this, I can’t help but think, I can’t wait until I see her pregnant with our second child.
“Do you want more kids?”
“What?” she shrieks.
I lift my gaze to hers. “Kids? Do you want more than one? My brother and sisters could be a pain in the ass, but I wouldn’t trade them for the world.”
“Uh, weren’t we having an entirely different conversation?”
“No,” I tell her without hesitation. “We’re having a discussion on what exactly you want the chef to make for tonight’s dinner. Also, you need something to drink. You’ve been swimming for a while, and you need to stay hydrated.”
Alyssia glares but allows me to wrap a beach towel around her and walk us toward the second level to the yacht’s galley where the crew has put out some pre-dinner hors d'oeuvres.
“I could use some water. Maybe,” Alyssia mumbles while taking a glass of water from the tray one of the crew offers us. “Thank you.”
I watch out of the side of my eyes as she finishes half of the glass in nearly one sip.
“Told you.”
“What was that?” she asks, tersely.
“Nothing.”
She rolls her eyes as she finishes the rest of the water and quickly takes a second glass.
“How is it?” I ask when she dips a carrot stick in hummus and begins chewing on it.
She gives me a thumbs-up.
I try the hummus before leaning back onto the couch, wrapping one arm around her shoulder, stroking it. “Did you have fun today?”
Her eyes light up. “How could I not? Did you see all of those beautiful fish in the water?” She turns to me, sitting on her knees and resting a hand on her belly. “I think the baby likes the water. They were moving around a lot out there.”
Her laughter sends a sharp sensation down my spine.
She turns to look over her shoulder, then back at me. “Charles said he took pictures. We’ll be able to see them at the end of our trip.”
Alyssia launches into an excited summary of all of the different wildlife and scenery we saw while snorkeling and kayaking.
“You know, I thought about something,” she says right after we give Charles our dinner orders.
I follow her up to the back deck where we’ll eat our dinner in order to watch the sunset.
“What was it?” I ask, helping her lower to the leather sofa that’s set behind the deck’s table.
“It made me think of the kids we worked with a few weeks ago. For the Monaco race,” she says. “Especially Alain.”
I remember the name of the little boy who lost his mother only weeks before the race. What I recall the most, however, is the way Alyssia cried in my arms after working with him.
“Éléanor keeps me updated on how he’s doing. He lives with his mother’s parents,” she explains. “He’s still interested in tech and says he wants to be an engineer one day.”
“That’s wonderful.”
She nods. “It made me rethink graduate school.”
The grad school brochures she had in New York come back to mind. When we talked about it before, she acted as if thinking going back to school was completely out of the question now that she’s going to be a mom.
My heart sinks at that thought. I get to have the career of my dreams, so should see.
“I want to get my Ph.D. in psychology and to help kids like Alain. I haven’t thought through all of the details, but meeting him reminded me of how lost I felt after the accident.
“Not only did I struggle with my own injuries and fear and loss of my sense of safety, but obviously the loss of my parents. My grandmother and uncles did their best to help but I completely shut them out.”
She turns to me, eyes sparkling.
“It’s taken me years to unravel the feelings and grief, and I’m still working through it, to be honest.” Her hand moves to her belly. “But the past few months have given me a little more clarity.”
I watch her as she looks back at the vastness of the ocean, the green cliffs in the distance, sun preparing to tuck behind them for the night. But I can stop watching her.
I trace over her features with my gaze, committing this picture to memory.
“I haven’t fleshed out all of the details yet,” she continues, “but I’d like it to be a tribute to my parents.” She turns to me. “My mom was preparing to go back to get her Ph.D. in education before she died.” Alyssia’s voice wobbles a little, but she quickly covers it up.
“And my dad,” her smile grows, “he loved nature, the outdoors, and science. I want to incorporate that into my practice somehow, too. Maybe some sort of grief summer camp. My dad taught me to swim.”
“Really?”
“Mom used to joke that he was part fish. She made him wait as long as possible, but by the time I was two he insisted that I start learning to swim. He would take me to the pool every week, even during the winters.”
Alyssia looks over at me.
“She could swim but didn’t love it as much as he did. By the time I was six, she would come to the pool to cheer us on from the stands, but it was dad and me in the pool for hours at a time.”
She shakes her head as if pulling herself out of the memories.
“Our baby has to learn to swim earlier than two since we live so close to the water and there’s a pool in the apartment building.”
I nod, adamantly. “I already have a couple of instructors on speed dial.”
She laughs. “Of course you do.”
“One of my claims to fame in my elementary and middle school was that my teachers used to write ‘always prepared’ on my progress reports and report cards.”
Alyssia’s eyebrows raise.
“What happened in high school?”
I smirk. “Girls.”
She throws her head back and laughs. “No wonder you don’t want our daughter to date.”
“Or leave the house. At all. For anything.”
“How about we don’t go there right now,” she retorts. “I’d hate to have to remind you that our daughter, if this baby is a girl, will likely have a mind of her own and give you a run for all of the money in your bank account if you tried to keep her locked away from the world.”
My frown is instant.
“I bet her mama would help her, too?”
“Damn straight I would.”
I shake my head. “Now I see what my father had to deal with between Mom and my two sisters.”
I run my hand through my hair then shrug.
“Either way, I’m up for the challenge.”
With that, I lean in and silence Alyssia’s counterpoint by sealing my lips over hers. She sighs as she opens up to allow me to deepen the kiss.
The remnants of saltiness from the sea on her lips mix with her natural sweetness, setting off a new addiction in me. A fire revs up within my belly, and I pull Alyssia onto my lap.
I press a kiss to her neck, making her shiver.
“We’re going to miss dinner.” Her voice comes out husky.
“Are you hungry, Alyssia?”
She nods.
The moment I tug at her bathing suit string, someone clearing their throat interrupts me.
Alyssia pulls away, and I turn to see Charles with two of his staff behind him, holding the first course.
“Your Caesar salad with shaved parmesan,” Charles says as the staff sets down our plates on the glass table in front of us.
As soon as the crew leaves, I lean into Alyssia. “Make sure you eat up, because you’re not getting much sleep tonight.”
CHAPTER 39
Alyssia
“Travis,” I groan out his name as he uses his tongue to circle my left nipple.
He’s figured out that my breasts are extremely sensitive these days, which has led to him taking every opportunity he can to worship them.
Since I’m on the verge of coming from his mouth alone, I’m not in a place to complain about it.
Even if this is our second time in this position today.
We’re on our third and final night on the yacht before returning to Monaco in the morning. And Travis is particularly ravenous tonight.
He lifts his head with a devilish glint in his eyes. “Keep saying my name just like that.”
His comment causes another rush of moisture between my legs.
He sinks lower, charting a pathway down the length of my body with his mouth. Every kiss, lick, or flick of his tongue makes goosebumps rise over my skin. It’s like only he has the special talent of bringing my body alive in a way I’ve never experienced before.
