She sniffled and then Liam was there shoving a wad of aboutfifty tissues (the same amount he’d stuffed into my purse before we went toCarmine’s) in her face.She took them and about ten of them drifted to her lapbecause she couldn’t handle them all, but she pulled away from Darius and blewher nose with some, dabbed her face and under her eyes with others.
She glanced at Darius.
He nodded.
She looked to me.
“I’d murder a martini.”
I smiled at her then turned to Darius because I hadn’t yetdiscovered the full lay of the land at his house.
“Vodka, freezer.Vermouth and olives, Liam’s gonna have toget those from the cellar,” he answered my unspoken question.
Liam took off.
So did I.
“Grab the shaker too, boy!”Darius called.
“Got it!”he shouted back.
I wasn’t real big on them shouting at each other all thetime.
But whatever.
We’d just surmounted another obstacle, and we were stillstanding, and together, and we understood each other better, which meant we’dcome out of it stronger.
So I could deal with a little shouting.
ChapterNineteen
Big Events
I was in a conference room at work, surrounded byboxes and stacks of files, working with two other paralegals and highlightingand taking notes like a highlighting-and-taking-notes fool.
We’d just received the discovery on a huge case that thejudge for some reason refused to give us a continuance on, so we had tons toget through and about two months less time than we needed to get through it.
It was exactly three weeks since Darius and I brought ourfamily together.
And it had been three weeks heavy with big events.
First, within days of our drama at Miss Dorothea’s, I camehome to two fully-kitted-out guest bedrooms upstairs, seeing as Darius called“his guy” who went and packed up all my bedroom furniture, and all Liam’s, andmoved mine into the guest suite, Liam’s into the Jack side of the Jack andJill.
Liam and I had already done a cursory packing of all ourmost personal items the Sunday before we went to dinner with Darius’s family,but we headed back the next Saturday after Liam was done watching films withthe team.We carted over boxes of books, picture frames and other essentialitems, including packing up all the food in the kitchen.
The next day, Darius and I went back and got all the sheetsand towels and bathroom accessories to stock up the guest spaces.
By this time, I’d done a full perusal of what Darius had andfound there was nothing of mine I needed to fill the gaps.There was alsonothing I needed to make the space mine.
Liam was thriving in Darius’s lair.It suited him, like itsuited his dad.
And after not having Darius for so long, being surrounded byhim at every turn, well, that totally worked for me.
Darius was surprised I didn’t want to make my mark on ourplace, but when I explained why, we had to take a break from putting awaytowels so we could fuck on my old bed in the guest room.
Thankfully, Liam was out with some friends seeing a movie.
At that juncture, Darius called “his guy” again, and he wentand packed everything else up—dishes and pots and pans and knickknacks—andstacked those boxes in Darius’s storage room downstairs.
