Girl Code (35 page)

When Leo finally stood up, his mouth glistened with my wetness. He leaned down and kissed me passionately, and I groaned into his mouth at the eroticism of tasting myself on his tongue. He tossed Leslie’s letter onto the bedside table and then looked at me like a predator. I shivered. As if I weighed nothing, Leo made me shriek with alarm as he lifted me and tossed me onto the bed.

“Shit,” I panted as he crawled up my body, kissing me along the way.

His grin was devilish and made me feel hot all over. He kissed my mouth again as he positioned himself at the entrance of my core.

“Wait,” I said, putting a hand on his abdomen. “You have to wear a condom,” I reminded him.

In the process of moving to Miami, I had missed my last birth control shot. I had an appointment with a new doctor, but in the meantime, my body was an open baby factory.

Leo looked to the table where the condoms were stored in a drawer. I expected him to reach over and retrieve one, but he turned back to me and his brow set into a firm line.

“No,” he said resolutely.

My eyes widened slightly. “No?” I parroted.

“We’re doing this now,” he said, pushing into me an inch.

“Doing what now?” I asked, my voice high and my eyes saucers.

“Getting married. Starting a family. We’ve wasted enough time. We’re doing this now.”

He pushed into me a little more and we both moaned.

Fighting the urge to thrust into me to the hilt, Leo’s jaw was tight as he spoke. “I can’t wait another day to make you my wife. I can’t wait another day to try to create a life with you, our own beautiful baby, dolcezza,” he whispered and kissed me softly as he pushed in a little more. He groaned and said, “Let me give you my love, Tabitha.”

I cried out as Leo buried his cock in me in one hard thrust. He groaned against the corner of my mouth as he pushed my arms back until my hands were on the bed above my head. He laced his fingers with mine, and while gazing into my eyes, he pulled out slowly and then thrust into me again.

“Leo,” I whimpered.

He held my hands down as he began to move in a smooth rhythm. My breasts bounced against his chest and my sex clenched with every thrust. I moaned and thrashed beneath him as he kissed me deeply.

“You’re marrying me tomorrow,” Leo growled against my mouth. I nipped at his lips and his tongue in response and soothed the bites with soft licks. His tongue tangled with mine, obscene and pornographic.

His thrusts became harder, wilder, pinning me to the bed with his hips. I lost any control, begging and screaming for him to do it harder and deeper. I was climbing fast toward my climax. Leo dipped his head and took a nipple into his mouth. He held it between his teeth as he bucked against me.

“Oh, god!” I cried out. “Please, please, please!” I begged for my release.

Leo’s thrusts became furious. “Yes, baby, take it. Take it,” he growled before giving my nipple one last tug. “Ready for me, baby? Are you ready to come with me, dolcezza?”

I screamed something wordless as his thrusts became jerky.

“Come with me, amore mio,” Leo groaned.

When I felt the first stream of semen inside of me, my body tensed up tightly, and suddenly released an explosive energy. My fingers tightened around his and my hips bucked against him.

“Take every drop.” He moaned against my lips before whispering, “Give me a baby, amore mio, sei la mia vita.”

I fell back against the mattress, my legs shaking and trying to close around his body. My whole body trembled and my cheeks were moist with tears. Leo’s movements slowed and gentled as he kissed me softly.

“Tomorrow,” he said a moment later. “You will be my wife.”

“Tomorrow,” I whispered back.

His eyes glistened as he smiled down at me. “Per sempre.”

I placed a gentle kiss on his lips and nodded. “Forever.”

Epilogue

Five years later…

“Bon jour, brother!” I waved to Tack. There was only about a two-second delay before he heard and saw me and waved back. “How’s it going?”

He smiled warmly, looking more like the man I always thought he’d be at that age, and not the washed out man he had been more than five years earlier.

“Good. Did you see the video I sent? My phone died so I don’t know if you got back to me.”

“I did—we all did. She’s beautiful, Tack!” I almost started crying again. After receiving the forty-second video clip of Tack holding his newborn baby girl for the first time, I had cried for ten minutes. His first child, Theodore Tackard III, was born in France five years before. He and his girlfriend Nora married when Theo was a little more than a year old. My brother was determined to be a good dad and husband. He slipped once since going to rehab, but only once. Since then, he had been clean for over four years.

We are all so deeply indebted to Emmy for her kindness, I’m not sure if we’ll ever be able to repay her. You can’t put a monetary value on the quality of life that she helped Tack achieve, even if it was half a world away in another country.

I learned a lot about my cousin in the days following that meeting in her hotel room, like how she had slept with Leo when we were younger! It left a bitter taste in my mouth, but that bitter taste was replaced by horror and sadness for my cousin as she recounted a tale that had left her a broken woman. Her experiences put things in perspective for me. Nothing I had faced, not my parents’ lack of affection, not my brother’s drug use, and not my Leslie-Leo debacle could compare to what Emmy endured and what would haunt her for the rest of her life. Furthermore, it made me realize what was truly important in life. I learned that night that I had to let go and always move forward. Learn from my mistakes and keep it moving. Any residual feelings I felt after the showdown in Miami with Leslie instantly dispersed. I held tight to my guy, and we moved on.

“Mom and Dad are going to come out and see you guys next month,” I said to Tack. “I wish I could come out.”

“At the rate you and Pesciano are going, you’ll never not be knocked up and you’ll never get out here,” he snickered.

“Not funny, Tack,” I said seriously, running a hand over my swollen belly. “This is the last one.”

He chuckled as if he didn’t believe me. “Kiss my niece and nephew for me and tell the folks I’ll chat with them later. I want to get back to the hospital.”

“Congratulations,” I said, blinking back my tears. “I’m really proud of you, you know that?”

“Don’t start bawling again,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Yes, I know. I’m proud of you, too. I love you, little sister.”

“I love you, too.” I blew teary kisses at him until he cut the video transmission.

San blew into the house just then. “Are you crying
again
?”

“I just talked to Tack,” I explained as I followed Sandy into the kitchen.

“Aww, how is the baby and Nora?” She went into the fridge and pulled out mustard and ketchup.

“They’re fine,” I said, grabbing the bags of hotdog and hamburger buns off of the counter.

“Think they’ll come to the states again soon?” she asked as I followed her back outside.

“I don’t know. I hope so.”

“It’s about time!” Leo said from his place in front of the large grill. “I sent you in to get that stuff
hours
ago.”

“It was not hours, stop it,” I admonished, dropping the buns on a table.

Leo dropped a kiss on my lips as he rubbed my belly before pushing his sunglasses down his nose. “Were you crying again?”

“She’s a regular spout that one,” Sandy said before shouting at her son Robbie. “Hey, do you want to lose that finger, kid?”

He pulled his finger away from the cake he had just had it in. I narrowed my eyes at Lenny, who was also standing too close to the cake.

“Don’t even think about it, little Pesciano.”

“Grandma said I can have cake,” he argued.

“I said
after
dinner,” my mother admonished, with her hand on her hip. She shooed the kids away from the table of treats, shaking her head.

She had really come into the whole grandmother thing easier than I would have ever expected. I thought it would take her a long time to warm up to Theo and then Lenny a few months later, but I guess she took it as a second chance to get it right, to make up for the mother she wasn’t by being the best grandmother she could be. With Tack residing in France, there was no reason for my parents to stay in New Jersey. They moved to Miami four years ago and lived a few miles away. My mom took back her life. She made friends and joined a dance class. She spent a lot of time with Leonardo Jr.—Lenny—and our two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Adriana. She spoiled them senseless, and gave them affection that I never knew she had inside of her. My dad started working for Leo, overseeing the operation of Leo’s and Leo’s On the Bay
.
He worked a much lighter schedule than he used to. He became a different person. He and Leo got along great and were always fishing, going to sporting events, and smoking cigars on the patio that cost way more than I wanted to know. Dad also liked to come hang out with me and the kids a lot, and initiated a father-daughter lunch once a week. He was definitely more affectionate, especially with my mother. Once, I caught him kissing her neck with his hands on her ass. I had a weird mixture of disgust because it was my parents, and tenderness because I had never seen them look so…content. Our relationship wasn’t perfect, but it was
good
, and I couldn’t ask for more than that.

Sandy and Rob married weeks after Leo and me, the copycats. They just had to go to Vegas as we did and get hitched and get pregnant right away. Their son Robbie was only a month younger than Lenny, but their daughter Sylvie must have been conceived the moment the doctor cleared them to have sex, because she was born less than a year later. Sandy swore that at least one of our kids would marry each other. She and her family were visiting for a few days before heading to Disney World to finish out their family vacation. She was my best friend and had become like a sister to me over the years. I never worried about our friendship, though, I had no reason to. There were no secrets separating us, no crazy codes, and no unspoken words. It was how a friendship should be.

“Are you finished cooking yet, Leo? I’m starving!” Christina said as she and her husband came off of the beach with Adriana between them, holding each of their hands. They didn’t have any children of their own, and they were content with that. They loved to travel, often at the last minute, and she had secured a cushy job with a largely circulated newspaper as a fashion consultant.

“This bitch,” Sandy muttered within hearing range of Chris and gestured to her with her thumb. “She’ll eat four burgers and not gain an ounce.”

“And a hot dog,” Christina said smugly. “And some chips and dip and a half a gallon of ice cream.”

The two adult women in their thirties stuck their tongues out at each other. Very mature.

“There’s my piccola principessa,” Leo said when he saw our daughter.

Adriana ran into his arms, giggling and holding on to him as if it hadn’t only been twenty minutes since she last saw him. She was such a daddy’s girl. While Lenny looked very much like me with brown hair but hazel eyes, Adri looked just like Leo. She had a headful of thick dark hair that curled at the ends and his incredible sea-colored eyes. I watched as he kissed and hugged her adoringly and told her how beautiful she was. She placed her pudgy little hands on his face and gave him a sloppy toddler kiss that left him grinning from ear to ear. He was so smitten, not just with her, but with Lenny, too. Leo was the most attentive, involved, and loving father I had ever seen. It didn’t matter what else was going on in our lives or what kind of conflicts arose, he stole every moment he could for our children. He showed them every day how much they are adored and loved. Already, he was teaching Lenny how to be a good man and showing Adriana that she deserved nothing but the best out of a husband.

While holding Adri in one arm, Leo rubbed my belly again and leaned in for another kiss.

“Go sit down, dolcezza,” he gently commanded.

As I waddled away to go sit, he smacked my ass.

“You’re teaching your daughter it’s okay for a man to smack her ass,” I said over my shoulder.

“Only if that man is her outstanding, incredibly handsome husband,” Leo argued.

My friends, my family, and I ate dinner outside under the stars with the sea at our backs. Ten years earlier, I would have never pictured myself there, married to Leo Pesciano with two beautiful children and one more on the way. I would have never imagined having the relationship I had with my parents, loving and kind and peaceful. I definitely never thought that my brother would have beaten his addiction and found happiness with his own family. I also never thought that I would have a life without Leslie…

We talked and laughed until the children began to grow weary. San and Rob took their kids back to their hotel. Christina and her husband went home. My parents helped me get the kids into bed while Leo cleaned up outside. After he had kissed the kids goodnight, he had to run to the restaurant for a little bit. I wandered into our new en-suite bathroom for a shower.

When we found out I was pregnant a third time, Leo and I knew we would need a bigger space, but I loved the house and the location. I didn’t want to move, and Leo was happy about that, because as I had once suspected, he bought that house with me in mind, years before we reunited. He never knew for sure whether or not he would even see me again, let alone win me over and marry me, but he bought the house because he thought it was something I would have liked. So, we didn’t move, obviously, but we did add on two more bedrooms, one and a half more baths, and an office for me with the beautiful views of the ocean that I loved.

Another thing I later discovered was when Leo planned the party that brought us together again, he did that all with the hopes that I would come. The whole thing was devised to get me to Miami!

“What would you have done if I didn’t come?” I had asked him.

“I would have done what I always do,” he had said and kissed my nose. “I would have turned the world upside down to come find you.”

When I came out of the shower, Leo was home and lying in bed in just his boxer briefs. I took a quick look at his body. His muscles were a little thicker than they were five years earlier. He looked more like a Roman god then more than ever, and sometimes, I just couldn’t get over the fact that this breathtaking man loved
me
, but he never gave me the opportunity to feel insecure about my changing body. He kissed each extra baby pound when we made love, and he touched me and looked at me with reverence.

“There’s my beautiful wife,” Leo said with a tired smile.

I smiled at him before disappearing into our closet. I pulled on a T-shirt that said “I’m A Total Nerd, But My Jock Husband Thinks I’m Hot.” Leo had that shirt custom made for me, another T-shirt to add to my nerdy T-shirt collection.

I pulled on a pair of panties but didn’t bother with any shorts or other bottoms. Trying to sleep while eight months pregnant was uncomfortable enough without adding in constricting clothes. If it wasn’t for the fact that we had small children, I would have probably slept in the nude—in which case I’d never sleep, because my husband would be all over me all of the time.

“How are you feeling?” Leo asked me when I came out.

“Sleepy and a little achy,” I said as I climbed into the massive bed.

Leo immediately sat up and scooted over close to me. “Tell me where you hurt,” he demanded.

There would be no shooing him away. He couldn’t stand to see me in any kind of pain.

“My lower back, as usual,” I answered.

I groaned softly when his hand made contact with my back, rubbing it in firm circular motions.

“Did you do it?” I asked him quietly after a few minutes.

“Yes,” he said. “I sent it out this morning, but I didn’t get a chance to tell you.”

“Do you think she’ll use it?”

Leo sighed. “I hope so. I don’t know how she’s going to take it, though.”

I looked over my shoulder at him. “Did we do the right thing? It’s been years since we’ve talked to her. Maybe we overstepped?”

“No, we didn’t overstep, Tabitha,” Leo said soothingly. “We did the right thing. We have no control over her reaction, we only have control over what
we
can do.”

We fell into silence.

Two years into our marriage, we found out through the grapevine that Leslie got pregnant again, but that time, she carried her baby to term and had a little boy. She married the father and had another little boy last year. We didn’t contact her; we left her alone. She seemed to be happy, and we were happy, so why shake things up, but two weeks earlier we found out that Leslie’s husband was killed by a hit and run driver on his way home from work one evening a couple of months before. Apparently, they had just moved to Cincinnati not long before the accident. So, Leslie was left on her own in a city where she hardly knew anyone, with two small children, a house with a mortgage, a car payment, and all of the other basics that came with having a family. Since her husband had just started his new job, there was no health insurance, no entitlements to any kind of assistance, or money from that employer. From what Sandy said, the employer did donate money to help pay for funeral expenses, but Leslie, who had become a stay at home mom, was scrambling to keep everything together.