When Sparks Fly (Sexy Secrets Book 2) (20 page)

“Did you see that?  He smiled
and
winked at me!” 
Audrey squeals out once Isaac is out of earshot.

I slowly turn my head to look at her and she is dead
serious.  I watch her rummage through her wristlet and she pulls out a small
mirror.

“When he comes back around, I am going to stop him and ask
him out for coffee or something,” she says as she runs her fingers through her
already perfect hair before putting on lip-gloss.  I refrain from laughing out
loud when she lowers the zipper of her fitted jacket to show cleavage.

I know this is where I should tell her that Isaac is my
boyfriend so she won’t embarrass herself, but I don’t.  It might be immature,
but I am going to enjoy watching this unfold. 

Yappy barking grabs my attention and I see that her dog is
trying to bully Chewy off a section of the obstacle course.

Imagine that - asshole owner = asshole dog.

Figuring that Isaac will be done soon, I go get Chewy.

“What kind of dog is that?”  Audrey asks as I enter the
enclosed dog park and pick up Chewy. 

“A French bulldog.”

“What’s his name?”

“Chewy.”

“What kind of name is Chewy?” she asks distractedly, leaning
forward and looking down the running trail, no doubt looking for my boyfriend. 
“You were always so weird.” 

I choose to ignore her and raise my middle finger to her
back instead.  I spend a few moments soothing Chewy.

“Oh!  Here he comes,” she whisper yells to me.  “Do I look
okay?”  She smooths down her still perfect hair.

I just smile, trying not to laugh as I clip the leash to
Chewy’s collar and place him on the ground.  We both stand behind the bench as
Isaac comes into view and starts to slow down.  When he is almost to the bench,
Audrey stands up and smiles.  When he reaches the bench, he barely glances at
her and comes over to Chewy and me. 

“Hey,” he says getting all up in my space and giving me a
kiss with a hint of tongue.

I smile against his lips, wishing I could see the look on
Audrey’s face. 

I step back some and reach down to the bench for my
backpack, pulling out a bottle of water and offering it to Isaac.  I watch him
drink the water down in one continuous swallow, his Adam’s apple bobbing sexily
up and down.

“Olivia,” Audrey says.  I can sense a little indignation her
voice.

I peek around Isaac and she is glaring at me – which makes
me smile bigger.

“Do you know him?” she asks incredulously. 

No, I just randomly let strange men who are out for a run
come up and kiss me. 

“Yeah, this is my boyfriend.”

At my declaration, Isaac turns and gives her a head nod in
greeting.  He then wraps his arm around my waist, pulling me against his
side.   

“Audrey,” I say as I start my introductions.  “This is
Isaac.  Isaac, this is Audrey.  We went to high school together.”

Audrey looks like she has been sucking on a lemon.

“Nice to meet you,” she murmurs, sucking her teeth.

I see a frown marring Isaac’s forehead.  I know he’s
wondering what the hell is going on.  He gives me a brief, but puzzled look
before looking back at Audrey.

“Nice to meet you too,” he finally responds.

I can tell that his deep voice affects her because I see her
shudder.  I bury my head against Isaac’s chest so I don’t laugh outright in her
face. 

Chewy becomes impatient and starts to whine a little.  Isaac
picks up my backpack and pulls out a dog biscuit, offering it to Chewy. 

“You ready?”  Isaac asks me softly.  “I’m ready for the
breakfast your mom promised us.”

I nod eagerly as he slings the backpack over his broad
shoulder and takes my hand, threading our fingers together.  He gives a nod to
Audrey in parting as he leads me away.  And because I can, I tug on Isaac’s
hand, stopping him.  He looks down at me.  I reach up and grab his ears
lightly, bringing his head down to me and then I proceed to kiss the shit out
of him.  When I finish mauling him, he chuckles against my lips.

“Did you just piss on me?”  He asks with obvious amusement.

“Yep!”

__________________________

Isaac

When we get back to the house, we both shower before heading
back upstairs for breakfast.  It’s just us and Liv’s parents as her nieces are
still asleep.  After breakfast, I ask Mr. Simone if I can talk to him in
private.  He gives me a look as if he already knows what I want to talk about. 
Liv looks at me with confusion when her dad and I head off to his home office
and close the door. 

Before sitting down behind his desk, he pours himself two
fingers of an amber-colored liquid from the rolling bar cart next to his desk. 
I cock my brow at him. 

“If I think you are going to ask me what I think you are
going to ask me,” he says gesturing to his glass of amber-colored liquid, “I am
going to need this.”

“And what do you think I am going to ask you?”  I ask,
trying to hide my smile.

He gives me a long penetrating look.  I hold his stare.  My
pop does the same thing when he tries to rattle me.  My urge to smile
disappears as he continues to hold my stare.

“You love my daughter,” he finally asks.  It’s a statement,
not a question, but I answer anyway.

“I do,” I nod.

He nods too.  I watch him swallow thickly as if swallowing
back some emotion. 

“You know, Olivia is my baby - my Sweet Pea.”  He smiles. 
She’s also a Daddy’s Girl.  Even though she has had boyfriends in the past, I
have been the main man in her life.  She used to look at me as if I could do no
wrong and could fix anything.  I say used to because she looks at you the same
way now.”

We sit in silence for a while.  I can tell he is emotional,
so I keep quiet.

 “You want to marry my baby?”

“I do.”

“Do you have a ring?”

I nod and dig into my front pocket.  Knowing that I was
going to speak to Mr. Simone about marrying his daughter, I brought the ring. 
I place the Tiffany blue ring box on the desk.  A faint smile graces his lips
as he picks up the ring box and opens it.

The faint smile blooms into a full smile. 

“She’s going to love this,” he says.

“Yeah?” 

“Have you had a woman’s opinion on the ring yet?”

I shake my head no.  Only the guys and my dad have seen the
ring and they all agree that it is a nice ring. 

He takes out his phone and texts someone.  A few minutes
later Mrs. Simone opens the door before quickly closing it behind her.  She
squeezes my shoulder before going to stand behind the desk next to her
husband. 

“Where’s Sweet Pea?”  Mr. Simone asks his wife.

“She’s upstairs with Daisy and Dani.  Now spill!  What’s
going on?”  She asks.

Mr. Simone motions his head towards the ring box on the
desk.  She looks at the ring box, then at me.  She picks the ring box up,
opening it up.

“She is going to love this!”  Mrs. Simone exclaims,
mirroring her husband’s sentiments.

Mr. Simone looks at me, his eyebrow raised, letting me know
that I need to do what I came to do.

I take a deep breath and say, “I want to marry your
daughter.  Olivia is my entire world.  I’m not asking your permission, per se,
but I do want your blessing.” 

A few seconds tick by, then a full minute.  I start to feel
a bit of panic when Mrs. Simone cries out – “I win!  You owe me one hundred
bucks!  I told you he would ask!”

Turns out, Liv’s parents had a bet on when I would come to
them and ask for their daughter’s hand in marriage.  Mr. Simone figured
sometime after the first of the year, while Mrs. Simone stated around
Thanksgiving.  Obviously, she won, which is why Mr. Simone takes out his wallet
and hands his wife five twenty dollar bills.

As she folds the bills, she looks at me.

“So when do you plan on popping the question?”

Olivia – Christmas Eve

I snuggle deeper into Isaac’s arms as I slowly come awake. 
My eyes flutter open and it’s still dark in the room, so it has to be early.  I
look over at the bedside clock and it is only 5:43am. 

Why am I awake at this hour?

For once, I am grateful that Isaac’s body is like a furnace,
because I can tell the room is on the chilly side.  Like me, Isaac lowers the
thermostat at night.  The temperatures have finally dropped and today’s
temperatures aren’t supposed to climb above thirty-five degrees. 

I close my eyes and try to go back to sleep, but it’s not
working.  I am wide-awake.  As I lay in Isaac’s arms, I let my mind wander back
over the past few weeks. 

Spending Thanksgiving with my family and Isaac was a new
experience for me.  It was my first time spending a family holiday with a
boyfriend.  I was glad that Isaac got along with my sister Paris and my brother
Leo Jr.  My nieces liked him a lot too. 

I still get a fluttery feeling in my belly when I think
about how they asked if he was going to be their new uncle.  I refuse to dwell
on that because I don’t want to get my hopes up.

Mama had continued with her pseudo-crush on Isaac during the
visit while Daddy was being wishy-washy.  One minute, they were the best of
friends and the next he acted like Isaac stole something from him.  However, my
boyfriend took it all in stride.  There was also a moment when Daddy and Isaac
disappeared to his home office.  Later that night, I asked Isaac what it was
about, he told me nothing and then proceeded to distract me with his hands and
mouth.

When we got back to Richmond, I found myself quite busy. 
Due to the upcoming gift-giving season, my Simply Simone jewelry line had a lot
of orders that I had to package and ship.  I had a deadline to provide new
jewelry designs to the corporate office for my jewelry design job and I had to
cram in all of my Christmas shopping.  Although I was busy, I still made time
for Isaac and my friends.  I even made the time to volunteer at a women’s
shelter with Ms. Ronnie.  We wrapped a bunch of presents that had been donated
for the women and their children.  That was the day that I learned Isaac’s mom
grew up in an abusive household. 

I think of my own family.  This is the first time in my life
that I am spending Christmas away from my family and I feel a twinge of
homesickness.  Back in August, my parents had decided to take a fourteen-day
Italian Mediterranean cruise for the Christmas holiday.  Of course, they
invited my siblings and me but I really didn’t want to spend my Christmas on a
cruise ship.  I had decided then to spend Christmas with Isaac (obviously). 
Paris declined as well, so I invited her to Richmond for the holidays, but she
told me she had plans with her latest boy toy.  Leo Jr. and his family went –
they all left on four days ago and will be back the first week in January. 

Since I always spend Christmas in Atlanta with my family, I
never put up a Christmas tree, but this year, I picked out my first Christmas
tree for my house.  It was so much fun that I convinced Isaac and Judah to get
a tree for their farmhouse.  They always spend Christmas with their parents, so
they have never bought a tree for their house either.  They let me pick out the
biggest tree I could find to place in their den.  We and the rest of our friends
spent a Sunday afternoon decorating it. 

Today, everyone – well almost everyone will convene at
Isaac’s parents’ house.  Ivy and Wood traveled to London to spend Christmas
with his family, while Maddie traveled to Barbados to spend Christmas with her family. 
However, they will be back in time for the Rossi’s New Year’s Eve party, which
I am excited about.

Ms. Ronnie wants us all at her house no later than 10am for
brunch today.  After brunch, Zoe and I will help her cook various dishes. 
Isaac told me that they don’t do the traditional Christmas Eve or Christmas
dinner.  Instead, it is their tradition to have several dishes of food – mostly
bite-sized portions of dishes, an assortment of appetizers and desserts – and
then they ‘graze’ all day and night.

I look back at the clock and see that it is almost 6:30am. 
I decide to get up.  I carefully maneuver myself from Isaac’s hold and brave
the cold bedroom as I dash to the bathroom.  I am only in the shower a few
minutes when big hands wrap around my waist.

“I woke up and you were gone.”  Isaac pulls me back against
his hard body, placing a kiss against the side of my neck.  “You know I don’t
like waking up without you.”

This man always knows what to say to make me melt. 

His hands slide around to my front, one hand cupping me
between my legs and the other thumbing my nipple. 

“Come back to bed Baby Girl.”

“But I’m not sleepy.”

“Who says we’ll be sleeping,” he replies as two thick
fingers sink into my heat.

__________________________

Olivia - Later in Rossi Kitchen

I shake my head and smile when Chewy comes strutting into
the kitchen wearing a cute lime green sweater that looks perfect against his
blue-black fur.

“I just had to get it when I saw it,” Ms. Ronnie says as she
comes back into the kitchen looking quite pleased with herself.  Because of
her, Chewy now has a wardrobe of colorful sweaters.

I laugh and shake my finger at her jokingly.

“And this is why he is so spoiled.” 

I love that everyone loves Chewy as if he is their own.

Isaac comes up behind me, wrapping an arm around my
shoulders as he whispers in my ear.

“If you think it’s bad now, imagine what she will be like
when we have kids.”

I turn my head and look up at him.  I am sure my eyes show
the shock at his statement.  He just winks at me; giving me a look I can’t
decipher and gives me a quick kiss. 

“I’ll be hanging with the guys in the TV room,” he says and
I watch him walk out the kitchen.

Kids – with Isaac?  Yeah, I have thought about it – a
lot.  I have also thought about what it would be like to be married to him. 
However, I keep those thoughts under lock and key.  No need to get my hopes up
– I mean we haven’t even been dating for a year yet - way too soon for those
thoughts – right?

Something hits me softly on the side of my head and I look
to see Zoe preparing to launch another marshmallow at me. 

“What’s got you looking so shell-shocked Livy?  What did my
brother say to you?”

I plaster a smile on my face, hoping that it doesn’t look
fake.

 “Nothing – he was just being Isaac.”

She squints her eyes at me, but lets it go. 

We spend the next two hours or so chopping, blanching,
sautéing and kneading various ingredients for numerous dishes.  Around the two
and half hour mark, Ms. Ronnie breaks out the wine and I couldn’t be happier.  While
Ms. Ronnie sips on her glass of wine, Zoe and I quickly down ours and open
another bottle.  When the guys wander into the kitchen in the afternoon looking
for a snack, we are sufficiently tipsy – and giggly.  So giggly that Ms. Ronnie
declares us done for the day and shoos us off with the guys along with trays of
snack food.  Zoe also snags another bottle of wine.

The Rossi’s TV room is not as elaborate as Isaac and Judah’s
theater room, but it is just as nice.  The huge sectional sofa with built recliners
has space for all of us and then some.  Another tradition in the Rossi
household is having a movie marathon on Christmas Eve.  This year, they are
watching the
Die Hard
movies.  I settle into a recliner on the sofa. 
Isaac sits in the recliner next to me and places a bowl of white cheddar
popcorn and a plate of various snacks on the console between us.  

__________________________

When we have finished with the first
Die Hard
movie,
Ms. Ronnie comes in and lets us know that Charlie’s mom and date are here.  I
have met Charlie’s mom a few times and she is very nice.  She is the head nurse
of the emergency room at the VCU Medical Center.  I sneak a glance at Charlie
and he doesn’t look happy.  From what Isaac told me earlier, Charlie’s mom has
a boyfriend and Charlie doesn’t like it.

I watch Mr. Matty follow his wife to the kitchen and on the
way, he leans down and whispers something to Charlie.  Whatever he says to
Charlie has him looking chastised.  He gets up and pulls Zoe with him as they
follow him out of the room; I presume to greet his mother and her boyfriend. 

Before we start the next
Die Hard
movie, Judah makes
a quick trip into the kitchen to get the fried ravioli that Ms. Ronnie has just
made. 

I am going to gain so much weight this Christmas.

When we are about thirty minutes into the movie, Judah says,
“Do you think he’s had enough?”

“Probably,” Isaac replies as he pauses the movie.  “Let’s go
save him.”   Isaac pulls me up from the sofa and he and I follow Judah out the
room.

This is what I love about these two – no matter what;
they have Charlie’s back – like true brothers.

__________________________

Isaac - New Year’s Eve

As I enter the house, I hear faint laughter coming from the
theater room.  I make my way to the room.  My three little cousins (Uncle
Daniel’s kids) are all reclined in loungers watching a movie.  I guess I
shouldn’t say little since they are 18, 19 and 20 and in college.  Ava, Chloe
and Lily are staying over and dog sitting Chewy tonight, since Liv and I will
be staying at the hotel after the party.  They haven’t seen each other in a
while (they go to different colleges in different states), so they are skipping
the party, but offered to dog sit. 

I walk further into the room and it takes me a few seconds
to find Chewy; he is nestled against Chloe and is fast asleep. 

“Do you guys have everything you need?”  I ask, surveying
the concession area on the right wall where a copious amount of junk food is
laid out. 

Three pairs of equally pretty, big brown eyes turn my way. 

“Yep!” they all say in unison.

“Where’s Livy?”  Ava asks.

“I’m about to go see – she should be ready by now.  We’ll
stop by on the way out,” I say as I leave the room and head up the stairs.

I have been dressed for a while.  All I need to do is put on
my tux jacket.  As I enter my bedroom, I say a little prayer that the night
goes how I want it to.  I sit on the bed and open the nightstand drawer, making
sure what I put there earlier is still in there.

“Liv – are you about ready?”  I call out to her in the
bathroom.

“Yeah, I’ll be out in a minute.  I am just putting on my
jewelry,” she responds.

My only request for her attire tonight was that she wears
the halo diamond earrings and matching pendant necklace that I gave her for
Christmas.  When she walks out of the bathroom, she is a vision.  Her dress is
a very pale light blue color, so light that it looks almost silver.  It’s
strapless and has some sparkly shit on the top half.  Her dress reaches the
floor, but I get a peek of her matching shoes.  Her normally wavy braids are
curly and are in some kind of fancy up-do.  She is breathtakingly beautiful. 

“Do I look okay?”  She asks shyly.

“Come here,” I say softly. 

She walks over until she is standing in front of me.  I
carefully pull her down until she is sitting across my lap.

“Do you know how beautiful you are right now?”

She casts her gaze down; I see a pretty blush spreading
across her cheeks and down her neck.  I lift her chin with my forefinger.

“You are – you look amazing and you smell good too,” I say
kissing her neck softly, which causes her to giggle.

“Thank you,” she finally says.

“So, I have something for you before we go.”

“Isaac if you bought me something else, you are going to be
in so much trouble!”

I let out a chuckle.  When I gave her the earrings and
necklace, she fussed that the Sonoma trip that I paid for was her Christmas
present. 

“It’s just a little something.  I think it will go perfect
with what you have on tonight.”

She just narrows her eyes at me before saying, “Okay but no
more presents for a while.”

I don’t respond as I reach into the nightstand drawer and
pull out the engagement ring.  It matches her earrings and necklace.  I keep my
hand closed around the ring. 

“So,” I start off, “This little something actually matches
your earrings and necklace.”

I open my hand so she can see the ring in my hand.  I take
her left hand and place it on her finger.

__________________________

Olivia

“It’s up to you,” he says softly.  “It can be a promise ring
or an engagement ring.  I know we have only known each other for ten months,
but I know.  Hell, I knew within the first fourteen hours of meeting you that I
wanted to spend the rest of my life with you.”

He lifts up my arm, the one with the long fading scar that
starts at my inner elbow and goes down almost to my wrist.  He places a few
kisses along the scar before he continues.

“So if you want it to be just a promise ring that is okay. 
You can just let me know when you want it to represent more.  Your parents
already know, although they don’t know when I am going to ask you.  I
originally was going to ask you on your birthday, but I can’t wait that long
and it seems cheesy.  My pop knows that I am going to ask you and the guys know
too.  At Thanksgiving, when I asked your dad for a private…”

I place my hand over his mouth, silencing him because he is
starting to ramble.  He must be nervous because he is never unsure of himself,
he is always so confident.  So seeing him like this, vulnerable, makes me love
him even more.  I look down at the ring he placed on my left ring finger.  It
is a round halo diamond – it’s at least a carat and it’s so pretty and
sparkly.  I look at him and there is so much love in his eyes that I almost
lose my breath.  I already know what I want the ring to represent.