Rocked & Romanced, page 56
I can’t wait to be there for Christmas. Our first Christmas as a family. I hope it’s the first of many more.
I love you, my sweet Ivy. I see the light at the end of the tunnel.
David
January 2, 1965
David,
Having you home for Christmas was a dream come true. Our first family Christmas and I promise there will be many more.
We will make our own traditions, and it will be the perfect end to every year.
My love, there are only 8 months, 9 days left. 252 more days!
I love you with all my heart.
Ivy
April 11, 1965
My sweet Ivy,
Today, I start my last movie from this stretch in California. Being this far from you and the kids is killing me. I don’t think I will be able to do too much more in California after this. I made the promise for this movie, and I think this will be the last of my movie career.
There is something comforting being at Ivy Hill and being near you, surrounded in you, and the possibility of you walking in the door at any minute.
Exactly five more months.
All my love,
David
July 28, 1965
David,
If you are reading this, then things are hard again. We are so close to the end of this. The kids and I can’t wait to see you. I have special plans for when you are mine again. Plans that will make all this waiting worth it.
If you need to take a break and come and see us again, then do it. Even if it’s just for a weekend. The kids miss you, and of course I always miss you.
I again feel like I need to say I’m sorry we have to go through all this, but we will come out on the other end of this even stronger than before.
We can do anything together, David. Please hold out for me and for the kids. We need you.
I love you, baby. Come home to me.
Ivy
July 28, 1965
Ivy,
I read your “if things get hard” letter today. Anna won’t let me see my son and is making all sorts of threats. I know you say the divorce will be final, but it’s just hard to think the end is really less than two months away.
The closer the time gets, the worse Anna gets. I am about to wrap up this movie in the next few days, and then I will be heading back to Ivy Hill. Back to us. I am going to try to hold on until this is over. Spend some time with my mom and dad.
Before I head home, I’m going to go spend some time with your grandparents. They have forgiven me to a point for marrying Anna, and we talk every few months. Your grandfather has given me some great advice.
I love you, Ivy, and these letters mean more to me than you will ever know.
Your David
Chapter 22
Ivy
September 3, 2017
Eight days. I am on edge. I have been pacing the house for three days now, and Brian says I’m wearing a rut in the carpet. I don’t care. I’ll replace it if I have to.
I’m already packed for my trip. The guys are excited to have the kids to themselves for two weeks. I’m not looking forward to being away from the kids for two weeks, but David and I need this time too. Then I plan to bring David here and spend some family time together.
But best-laid plans and all that.
I wish I could say it’s been four years since I’ve been here, but I cheated. Twice, I cheated. As I walk by the familiar newsstand, I check the date once again. September 11, 1965.
I normally get here in the morning, but this time, I wanted to make sure he got the papers, so it’s just before dinnertime.
I walk the street to Ivy Hill and take in the changes. A few new houses have gone up on the street. Sad to think they won’t be there in fifty years when the museum is built.
One of them across the street has some kids playing on a tire swing with their dad, and I can’t help but watch and smile. Soon, I tell myself. I have to believe that soon I will have my David with me always. The alternative is something I can’t think about right now.
I walk toward Ivy Hill and see a few people out front of the gates taking pictures. Well, this will be fun. As I get closer to the gates, I recognize one of David’s security members, Clint. So I take a chance and walk up to him.
“Hello, Clint,” I say with my best smile.
His eyes light up. Thank god!
“Miss Ivy, I was starting to think you weren’t coming,” he says as he opens the side gate for me to walk through.
“Don’t tell David, please. I want to surprise him,” I say, and he nods. I also notice a few dirty looks from the fans at the gate. I guess I will be spending time inside instead of out in town on this trip.
When I walk in the side door via the kitchen, I can hear the notes from the piano playing in the house.
His parents are in the kitchen. When they see me, I can tell they are about to make a big deal, so I hold my finger to my lips, asking them to be quiet.
They hug me and tell me they are so glad I’m here.
“Did he get the papers today?” I ask because I have to be sure.
“Yes, dear. He got them this morning, and he has been waiting on you ever since. I think he’s given up hope that you will be here today,” his mom says.
“I didn’t know when he’d get the papers. So it’s done?” I have to be 100% sure before I truly get my hopes up.
His mom and dad just nod.
I set my bag down on the counter and make my way to the piano room. Stopping just around the corner, I take a moment to watch David play. From here, his back is toward me, and he has the bench perpendicular to the piano just as he always does when I’m in the room with him so I can sit behind him while he plays.
I watch him play, and I can feel his parents observing from behind me. I take in a few changes like the new stained glass of roses over the window with the letter M in it. Roses like the scent of my bath product that he loves so much, and I can’t help but smile.
His mom places a hand on my shoulder, and they both head back into the kitchen, leaving me to watch David play.
When the song ends, I clap, and he looks over his shoulder slowly as though he’s scared at what he might see. I see him take a deep breath, and his whole body shakes before he stands up and walks over to me. When he’s right in front of me, he falls to his knees and wraps his arms around my waist, pressing his head in my belly. I can tell he is crying, even if he’s trying to keep it silent.
I rub up the back of his neck and run my hands through his hair. For a few minutes, no one moves, and no one says anything.
“Please don’t ever make me do that again,” David says just above a whisper.
“Not a chance. You are mine now. Forever and always.”
He stands up and pulls me tight against him and kisses me slow but hard, and his tongue makes love to my mouth. His hands are in my hair, pulling me even closer, deepening the kiss until I let out a soft moan. He then pulls back slowly and rests his forehead against mine.
We are both breathing heavily but don’t say a word. A moment later, he bends down and swoops me into his arms, bridal style, and starts up the stairs. I can’t help but throw my head back and laugh.
He walks into our room, and I see it hasn’t changed. There are a few pictures of the kids now, but otherwise, it looks exactly as I remember it. I can’t explain how it makes me feel that this room is strictly ours and has been left untouched this whole time.
He lays me down on the bed gently, then sits down on the edge and just looks at me. Leaning in, he kisses me again long and slow.
He then stands. “Clothes off, beautiful,” he says with a smirk. I can’t get them off fast enough. Once we are both naked, he leans down to kiss me again and wraps one arm around my waist, moving me to the center of the bed while never breaking the kiss.
His kisses trail down my jaw to my neck while his hands travel up my waist and grab my breasts. He nibbles at the pulse point on my neck before his kisses trail down to my nipple, sucking hard and nipping at one then the other.
His kisses head farther down to my stomach, and he kisses each stretch mark, telling me how much he loves them. His kisses continue to travel down until his lips wrap around my clit.
I am already on edge, so it only takes to good tug, and I’m flying over the edge, screaming his name. He doesn’t let up and continues making love to my pussy with his mouth, sending me into orgasm two and three before he starts kissing back up my body.
“I’ve missed you so damn much, beautiful,” he says before kissing me. I can still taste myself on his lips. I never thought that would be such a turn-on.
The slick head of his cock is at my entrance before he pauses. I try to arch and angle to get him to slip in, but he just keeps rubbing it over my clit.
“You want my cock, beautiful?” he asks as he is driving me crazy.
“Yes, David, please!” I beg.
“Tell me you will take me home with you so I can spend some time with the kids.” He grinds harder on my clit. “Tell me, and you can get the relief you are looking for,” he whispers into my ear and then takes my earlobe into his mouth.
I gasp for air. “Yes.”
“Yes, what? I need your words, beautiful.” He slows his thrusting on my clit before stopping.
“Yes, you can come home with me and spend time with the kids,” I say and watch the blinding smile of pure joy stretch across his face right before he slams into me.
He grabs my hands and intertwines our fingers and holds them above my head as he builds a steady rhythm. His face is replaced with pure pleasure, one I know only I get to see.
It doesn’t take long for both of us to reach our peaks and tumble over. But David remains hard and starts the buildup all over again. This time, we take time to explore each other’s bodies, and we spend the night making love and whispering how much we love each other.
The next morning, he brings me breakfast in bed, and we just talk about everything and anything. He tells me about his son, and I tell him about the kids and some events that have happened.
“Will you help me redecorate? I want any sign of Anna out of here, and I want it all to be you.”
I smile. “This is why I always felt at home at Ivy Hill on the tours.”
We spend the next few days going over plans for the décor. We are talking about the plans for the living room when he comes up behind me and wraps his arms around my waist.
“I need you to know I never touched Anna in this house. Not a kiss, not a handhold, not a hug. It didn’t feel right. I couldn’t tarnish your memory here because I see you in every room. I see the time I took you on the dining room table, or the pool table, or on the piano bench, and I couldn’t lose that. She was never in our room. She stayed in her own room on the other side of the house.”
I turn in his arms and wrap my arms around his neck. “That takes all the fun out of it.”
I laugh as a confused and horrified look passes over his face.
“I was looking forward to making new memories in each room of the house once it’s redecorated.” I kiss him lightly on the lips and feel his smile against mine, and he deepens the kiss.
He pulls me closer. “I want to go home with you and never come back, beautiful.”
“You have to soak up time with your son. Four more years, David, he deserves that time with you.”
“I agree, and I will try, but I don’t even know my son.”
I jerk back to look at him. “What do you mean?”
“Even though I have visitation, Anna holds him from me every chance she gets. She has told me before she would let me see him if I slept with her. I’m sure it’s so she can get pregnant again and get more money from me each month.”
“David… I don’t know how things are here, but where I’m from, she can’t do that.”
He shrugs. “She’s the mother. I don’t hold many rights.”
“And she has spread many rumors about the drugs she can threaten to use against you.”
“And if I prove they aren’t true, then I ruin any chance of us being together.”
I rest my head against the center of his chest. “This is the most selfish thing I will ever do in my life.”
“My sweet Ivy, you are the furthest thing from selfish. Where do you think I want to spend my life? Here without you, with a woman who I can’t stand to be around who is poisoning my son against me, and with a kid I don’t even know. Or with you, the love of my life, our two kids who know me and love me thanks to their amazing mother, and where I can watch over 100 TV channels in color.”
I can’t help but laugh. “Well, when it comes to the TV channels.”
“I will make sure my son is set up and taken care of. I am working with my lawyer now. My dad will be the trustee, just like you said. He will have everything he will ever need, and as soon as he is old enough to take over, all this will be his. I am going to iron out the details when we head home next week.”
I smile again. I love that he calls 2017 home.
Chapter 23
David
“Daddy, Daddy, Daddy! Uncle Brian told us you were coming!” Adam comes running up to me, and I swoop him up in the air, causing him to laugh and squeal.
“And how did Uncle Brian know I’d be here?”
“’Cause Mommy had planned it.” Brian comes in laughing with Kevin right behind him with a sleeping Clara in his arms.
She wakes up, rubbing her eyes, and looks at me. “Daddy?”
“Hey, sweet pea.” I smile and reach for her. She climbs into my arms and rests her head on my shoulder.
“I missed you, Daddy,” she says, and with that simple phrase, I know this is where I am meant to be.
“I missed you too, sweet pea. I missed you too.” I kiss the top of her head and hold her just a bit tighter.
The afternoon is filled with me singing songs for the kids, TV, and cuddles. Right here, I truly feel like a father, and I know I have to fight for this life. It isn’t going to be easy, and we have a short timeline to figure it out. A little less than four more years. But we will figure it out because, in my eyes, there is no other way.
After I help put the kids to bed that night, I sit down with Brian.
“Okay, what do you need?” he asks as he opens his laptop.
“First, I need to know how to set up my will. I want to make sure my son gets everything, and Anna can’t touch any of it. I want to have my dad set up to run it for the time being. I also want to make sure my parents are taken care of for the rest of their lives.”
“Let’s see what the almighty Google can show us first.”
I shake my head as the word Google shows across his screen.
“It’s a search engine. Think of it as the library reference section, but for everything that's on the internet.”
What Brian can pull up in a few minutes blows my mind. There is a copy of my will word for word, showing my father as the trustee until my son turns twenty-five. Once my son turns eighteen, he is to work alongside my father, learning how to manage it all. At the age of twenty-one, he gets half, and at the age of twenty-five, he takes over full management. There is even a section stating at no time is Anna to receive any part of my estate and no increase of her living expenses per the prenup.
Brian prints it off, minus the part with the signatures on it. I should be able to take it to my lawyer and say this is what I want, and he can fix it up pretty for me.
“What else do you need?” He eyes me like he knows what I’m going to say.
“Two more things, but I want you to think about them, and we can work them out before I leave.”
“Hit me with it.”
“First, I want to make sure Ivy and the kids are taken care of, and I have an idea on how to do so. I just need you to use your fancy computer for the details.”
“And the other?”
“Okay, I have an idea as to the how surrounding my death on my end, but again, I need your fancy research.”
I head back to our room and hear Ivy taking a shower. I think about joining her, but something in the corner catches my eye. It’s a footlocker like the one I had in the Army. I head over and take a look at it. There is a scratch along the side just like mine has. What are the odds?
I open it up, and sure enough, in the top corner in tiny print. D. Miller. Shock hits me that she has my footlocker. Does she know? My mind races. I know mine is in the storage in the basement back home, and I haven’t pulled it out in years. I smile. This is what I needed.
I’m so distracted I miss being able to get in the shower with Ivy, so I just get ready and wait for her in bed.
She walks out of the bathroom with wet hair, wearing the sexiest little sleep shorts and a tank top, and crawls into bed with me.
“Hey, beautiful.” I kiss her forehead. “Where did you get that footlocker in the corner?”
I watch the dreamy smile on her face. “It was my grandpa’s. I saw it in their house growing up. My grandma always stored blankets in it. They would tell me it was a special chest, and it would be mine one day. It’s like having a piece of them so close to me.”
I nod and hold her close as she drifts off to sleep, and my plans slowly fall into place.
Over the next week, I spend my days getting to be daddy, playing with the kids, and singing songs on demand. I love every minute of it. I spend my nights researching with Brian. There is so much we still have to plan, but we are making great progress.
Sunday comes, and I wake up to Ivy already in the kitchen and amazing smells filling the house.
“Why are you up so early, beautiful?”
“It’s football Sunday; we make a day out of it, watching as many games as we can while filling up on tailgate food. It’s so much fun.”
“I’m betting it’s a lot different now than the football I know.”
