The Beginning of Us (276 page)

The three of us are now in Vivian’s huge bathroom,
the size of my entire house!
, doing our makeup before we get dressed.

“Here, girls,” Vivian says as she walks in the bathroom with three empty wine glasses in one hand, and a bottle of wine in the other.

I laugh. “Slade will get mad if I’m drunk before we even leave to go out.”

“That’s one of the things I love about you, darling,” she says as she fills a wine glass extra full and hands it to me.

“What’s that?”

“That you do whatever
you
want, and not what my son wants.” I feel a big smile creep across my face.

“Well, I’ve never been one to do what others want me to do.”

All three of us laugh, and Vivian raises her glass. “To Samantha on her birthday. I had a great day with you two girls. We should make it a tradition and do it once a month.” I know what she’s doing, she’s wants me to feel wanted, a part of this family, and I find myself still smiling. The thought of having a girl’s day once a month makes me happy. “Happy birthday, Samantha.”

We clink our glasses and take a long drink of our wine.

“Thanks, girls. Today has been….” I pause to take a deep breath. It’s hard to comprehend how these people could love me so much after not knowing me for very long. “Wonderful. I had a great day with you girls today, and I would love to have a girl’s day once a month.”

They both give me a hug.

“Enough of this mushy stuff. Let’s get drunk while we get ready,” Holly says, making me laugh.

“I agree with that.”

We lift up our glasses and take another drink.

We get to work on doing our makeup. I look over at the two women who have become very important in my life and I vow that I will still see them and treat them as my family when Slade decides to walk away from me.

Vivian walks up behind me while I look in the mirror. “That dress is gorgeous.”

“Thank you. It took us three hours to find one I liked.” The top part is V-shaped in thin, baby pink material, along with the bottom half. The skirt is very short, but it flows out and curls a tiny bit at the ends. The top and bottom are separated by a thick silver sequence band of material that wraps all the way around to the back where it ties into a bow. The back also has the silver material that crisscrosses over my shoulder blades. I have a silver matching purse, along with a pair of six inch silver glittery pair of open toe high heels on.

“Slade is going to have a heart attack. I wouldn’t be surprised if he decides not to take you out. He won’t want anyone seeing you but himself,” Holly laughs. She is already pretty tipsy. Actually, we all are. Even Vivian.

“Yes, I agree with that,” Vivian says to Holly as we all take a drink.

“Hello.” There’s a knock at the door as Mark comes through. “Wow. You girls look beautiful.” I watch him as his eyes gaze at his wife up and down. You can see how much he loves her.

He reminds me of Slade. They have the same blue eyes and dark spiky hair, and they both have that panty dropping smile. I bet the girls went crazy over him. Vivian is giving him a very hot ‘come and get me look’. She does look breathtaking in her low cut, floor length black dress that ties around her neck.

I look over to Holly who is wearing a gray dress that is just as short as mine. It is form fitting with a heart shape top and a white jewel that hangs between her breasts.

Micah is going to have a cow.

Mark clears his throat. “Anyway, I just wanted to let you know the guys are here. We’ll be downstairs waiting on you beautiful ladies.”

He closes the door and we all start laughing.

“Damn, that man still gets me hot and bothered,” Vivian says as she downs the rest of her wine.

Holly and I laugh. “Well I think it’s safe to say you do the same to him,” I say as I take a drink of my wine.

“You have no idea.” She winks at us.

It’s time to get out of this room and down to the guys before we start having a conversation I really don’t want to have.

“Is everyone ready?” I ask as I pick up my purse off the dresser.

“Yep.” Holly giggles.

“Yes.”

I take a deep breath and open the door. “You two go ahead. I’m going to use the restroom real quick. I’ll be right behind you.”
I need a few moments alone.

I walk out of the bedroom and stop at the end of the hall. I peek around the corner to get a glimpse of Slade.

I shake my head smiling. He is unbelievably sexy. He has on a dark pair of jeans with a dark gray button up shirt, and the sleeves are rolled up, showing me his forearms. I look away, leaning back against the wall in the hallway, taking in a deep breath.

I can do this.

These people have become my family, and they want to show me what a birthday is supposed to be like.

I close my eyes and start to count to ten.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Slade

The three of us are standing around, talking to my dad in the living room, when Micah speaks.

“Wow. You look beautiful, babe.” We all turn to watch Holly and my mom walk into the living room.

“Where’s Angel?”

“She will be right out,” my mom says, then laughs.

Is my mom drunk? Fantastic. Which means Angel is probably drunk.
We will have to cut the night short. It is her birthday though, so whatever she wants to do is fine….

“Hey, baby.”

I was so busy thinking about tonight that I didn’t even hear her walk up behind me. I turn around to face her, and I think my heart stops. She is breathtakingly gorgeous.

“Angel,” I breathe, “you look…stunning.” Even that word doesn’t come close to explaining how magnificent she looks.

She spins around once to show me all of her dress. “You like it?” She nibbles on her perfectly pink lip glossed lip.

“I love it.”

I go to put my hand in her hair so I can bring her to kiss me, but stop myself. For the first time since I’ve seen her, I don’t want to run my hands through her hair. It looks perfect, she looks perfect, and I don’t want to mess anything up.

She wraps her arms around my stomach and steps up to me. She brings her lips to mine, but I pull my head back.

“You don’t want to kiss me?” she says, the shock evident in her voice.

“I don’t want to mess up your hair or lipstick, Angel. You look too gorgeous to even touch,” I whisper.

“Baby,” she giggles, “It’s just makeup. I can fix it. Plus, you’ve already seen me, and you’re the only one I want to look good for. I don’t care what I look like for anyone else. Now, kiss me.”

I slip my hand in her soft curls, and hold it gently as I tilt her head back. I bring my lips to hers, giving her a sweet tender kiss with just our lips. I feel her tongue run the length of my upper lip, and I moan as I open up my mouth for her. She takes my upper lip into her mouth and nibbles on it.

I wrap my other hand around her back, pulling her body as close to mine as I can. I hold her head steady with the hand in her hair as my tongue explores her mouth. She tastes so good. Her lip gloss tastes like bubblegum and sweet wine lingers on her tongue. Our tongues continue to do a soft and sensual dance as I hold her to me.

She slows the kiss down, and I pull away. “See. That wasn’t so bad, was it?” She lifts an eyebrow.

“Angel,” I sigh as I place my forehead on hers. She has no idea what she does to me. I love this woman with everything I am. She is going to drive me mad.

“Are you guys going to join us?”

I pull away from Angel to look back over my shoulder. Josh is standing there with his arms crossed over his chest, and a huge smile plastered on his face.

“Of course,” Angel answers cheerfully and walks away from me, heading to the dining room.

“Thanks,” I nod my head to Josh. I was about to tell her I loved her.
And it would have ruined her birthday...probably.

“No problem. Come on, let’s go drink to your girl on her birthday.” He slaps me on the back as we follow Angel.

I smile as I walk into the dining room and see Angel smiling and visiting with everyone. We laugh and tell stories of our childhood while we eat dinner. And of course, the girls turn the conversation into another wedding planning event. Poor Micah. Every time Mom or Angel mentions something, I watch his eyes get bigger and bigger.

Once we finish eating, my mom brings out a red velvet cake.

“Happy birthday!”

My mom starts singing as we all follow along. Angel has the biggest smile on her face. She has had several glasses of wine since we sat down to eat dinner. I have no idea how many she had before that. Every two minutes, my mom is asking to refill her glass. She doesn’t like drinking alone, and usually Angel downs her wine, but tonight she’s sipping it.

My mom places the cake in front of her as we all sing happy birthday to her. Angel closes her eyes for a few seconds, then opens them and blows out the candles. Everyone claps and hollers. I pull her face to mine and give her a little kiss.

“Happy birthday, Angel.” I look into her green eyes, and I can tell they are starting to get heavy. I laugh.

She pulls away from me, laughing as well. “I just want to say thanks to everyone for making this day the best birthday I have ever had. You all mean so much to me and I consider you all family.” She starts to get a bit choked up. “I don’t know what I would do without all of you.” She reaches for her wine glass and downs what little bit was left in it.

“Present time!” My mom claps her hands together happily, trying to change the mood.

Angel shakes her head. “You guys didn’t have to get me anything.”

“Of course we did, silly,” Holly laughs.

“Me first!” Josh says, sounding like a kid. We all laugh at him. “I saw this and thought of you.” He nods his head as he gets up and places a box in her hands.

“Pink?” She sounds surprised. “You bought pink wrapping paper?”

Josh shrugs. “Hey, I have come to realize you love pink.”

She unwraps the paper and pulls a bright ass pink shirt out that has a number eight on the back. She squeals. “Thank you! Thank you, Josh. I will wear it next week for sure.” She turns it to me, and I see it’s a St. Louis Rams shirt. I nod my head.
Good gift.

“Us next.” Holly hands her a tiny square box that looks to be a gift card of some sort. She unwraps it and starts thanking them immediately. She shows it to me, and I see it is a gift card to Amazon for fifty dollars. “Shit! That will buy a bunch of books!” I nod my head to Angel as she says thank you to Holly and Micah.

“Angel,” I whisper in her ear. She turns her beautiful face to me with a smile on it. “Will you come with me?” I reach my hand out for her to take it. She nods her head as she places her hand in mine. “We’ll be right back.” I stand, pulling her to stand with me. I place my hand on her back over the silver bow and guide her to the back door of the house.

We step outside and she gasps as she sees the huge pond my parents have in the back yard. It has a white bridge over it so that you can walk from one side to the other.

“Have you never been out here?” I ask as I walk us towards the bridge.

“No,” she shakes her head as she looks around in awe.

“I used to come out here a lot. I would sit on the bridge and do my homework or just do some thinking.” I walk us to the top of the bridge then turn to look at her. “You are gorgeous, Angel. I could never tell you that enough.”

She looks down as she blushes.

I run a hand through my hair. “I wanted to give you your other present out here with just the two of us, under the moonlight next to the pond.”
Fuck, when did I get so fucking mushy?
I close my eyes, take a deep breath, and square my shoulders. I sound pathetic, like one of those love-struck, pussy whipped boys.