Page 51 of Beautiful Life

I lean down to kiss her and the dog starts jumping on our legs barking. A smile spreads across my lips and I say against hers, “I told you not to get an apartment. Fin comes home in a week, what are you gonna do then?”

I feel her slump in my arms and her head falls, resting her forehead on my shoulder. She shakes her head while saying, “I don’t know.”

But her ‘I don’t know’ is a resigned ‘I don’t know’ which means she knows exactly what’s going to happen in a week.

I give her a squeeze and chuckle. “Come on. Let’s go shopping. Then we get to christen your apartment, not many more days to do that sweetheart.” She looks up at me in a glare this time, not resigned but definitely vexed.

“Fine,” she huffs and moves out of my arms toward the house. I lean to grab her hand and pull her to my side as we walk to the house to get the boys with Fin lumbering at our feet.

“I’m glad you like my new dog, gem.”

“Don’t ‘gem’ me, Tony Carpino. I know what you’re doing. I cannot just move in with you.”

“You can,” I respond easily.

“Well, I won’t,” she corrects me. I put my arm around her neck to pull her to me and kiss her temple. I can’t help but smile because she’s cute when she’s pissed.

She walks rigidly in my arm as I move her toward the house. “Whatever you say. But you promised not to take yourself away from me, I’m holding you to that. And now I have Fin. What are we going to do without you?”

We walk in and I yell, “Soph, is it okay if we take the boys shopping with us?”

“Twist my arm!” Sophia yells back from the kitchen.

I grin down at Leigh. “Come on, let’s go shopping for my new dog.”

Leigh gives me a half grin while shaking her head.

Yeah, totally resigned. She’ll admit it soon enough.

I pull her to the door where my nephews are jumping up and down waiting for us.

Chapter 13 – The Ugly Road

Leigh

“Hurry up with the key, sweetheart, I’m gonna drop the salsa.”

“I’m coming, sorry.” I climb the stairs to get to the door of my new apartment where he’s waiting while balancing Mexican take-out with four bags of groceries dangling from his arm.

I’ve got another three bags of groceries, along with my dress from the wedding and overnight bag. My overnight bag that’s getting more use than it should lately going between whatever bed Tony and I decide to sleep in. It’s past dinner time and we’ve had a busy day.

After meeting Finny—who honestly, is the sweetest puppy ever and even though I know what Tony is doing by getting a dog, there’s no way I can be mad at him anymore because I’m going to love Finny way too much to hold a grudge—we went to the pet super store and spent too much money. Noah and Cayden came with us and Tony let them pick whatever they thought Finny would like. He’s going to have more toys than any puppy could ever play with. I got into the fun as well and chose collars, leashes, doggie shampoo, and a dog bed. The bed is too big for him now, but he’ll grow into it. It’s chenille in the perfect color of grey with a smoky blue piping. I’ve decided not to think about why I picked that specific bed and told Tony it was the perfect color for a boy. Heck, I won’t even admit to myself why I picked that color—even though it’s because it matches Tony’s house perfectly and I’ve come to love Tony’s house way, way more than I want to think about loving his house. Tony put himself in charge of choosing an enormous dog kennel, stating resolutely, “He’s gonna be big. He is not sleeping with us.”

After our Finny shopping spree, Noah and Cayden wanted ice cream, so off we went. Cayden, being four years old, made a hellacious mess of his waffle cone and was blue from his nose to his waist with Birthday Cake flavored ice cream. I guess kids mature into ice cream eating somewhere between four and six years old because Noah only made a mess from his nose to his chin and was much easier to clean up. They were hilarious, ornery but cute, and talked a mile a minute sitting across from Tony and I in the booth at the ice cream shop.

Once Cayden was mostly mopped up—he still had blue stains all over his shirt—we took the boys home and Sophia didn’t blink an eye when she saw him. She jabbered with me, never breaking eye contact while whipping his shirt off and tossing it toward the laundry room while holding little 5-month-old Isabella on her hip who was pulling her hair the whole time. She’s honestly the definition of a multi-tasking mom.

We stayed to gab with Sophia and Lanny for another hour. I looked over at Tony when he had started to play with the ends of my hair where we were sitting on the sofa. His gaze swept my face, but when he finally looked into my eyes, his were heated in a way I knew exactly what he was thinking about. When he announced, “We need to go,” I couldn’t help but smile because by the look on his face, he was remembering last night and this morning. There was no way I could resist the look. Of course, I agreed and off we went.

Tony wasn’t happy when I told him I had no food at my new apartment so we had to stop by the grocery store. His face went tight because I can promise you this, he did not look like he was in the mood to go grocery shopping. I honestly have no idea what’s in my seven bags of groceries, because Tony dragged me through the store at the speed of light.

Once we loaded the groceries, I mentioned I was getting hungry so Tony asked, “What are you hungry for?”

“What do you want?”

“Leigh, you’re the one who said you were hungry. Tell me what you want.”

“I’m good with whatever you want.”

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