Liesl had to fight a chuckle as Isaias kept her hand squeezed tight in his all the way to the car.When they reached the car,he fastened her seatbelt around her before putting a quick kiss to her lips and closing the door.
He rounded the car,and she wondered if there was somewhere urgent,they needed to be because he was jogging as he did so.When he gave a wave to security he hopped into the driver’s seat and put the car into gear.
“How are you feeling?”he asked as he plucked her hand from her lap and set it on his thigh,covering it with his.
“I’m okay.This afternoon with Sandy and Merlin stressed me out some but I’m good.”
“I knew it was going to stress you out.It’s why I came home.”
“Really?”
“Yes.I had a chat with my father on Friday after you and I spoke.Liesl,he told me there isn’t enough business in the world to make up for missing out on the moments when a strong woman needs her man by her side.Contracts will come and go but you are my forever.I left the meetings and flew straight home.”
She blinked back tears,“you did that for me?”
“Yes.And I will do it a hundred times if necessary.Your sister is not of sound mind.While I was in flight,I had Mallory and his team running every single angle they could find.I had him send me the video from Janka’s and it pissed me off.I knew she was playing a game.I found out the CEO where Roddy works was also banging her.”
“Why do all these men want to sleep with her?”she grimaced.
“I can’t even begin to fathom it.She must be really good at sucking cock.”
She snickered at his comment,“very funny.”
“I never want to find out for myself however when I let both Roddy and his CEO know the depths of the depravity she had gone to,they both agreed to back off.Roddy’s boss,I will say,once I presented the evidence of her harassing her own sister,got a bit upset and it turns out his wife has been getting anonymous death threats.He’s going to have a team investigate if perhaps Sandy isn’t involved.”
“What kind of toad cheats on his wife while she’s being threatened?”
“What kind of idiot doesn’t automatically consider it might be the crazy bitch he’s been sleeping with?”Isaias grunted back,“also,he admitted he has a pregnancy fetish.His wife had four kids and then refused more.He said Sandy said she was open to more kids with him.He was horrified to find out the type of person she really was.I guess she hid it well.He said he understood why a woman like Sandy couldn’t be satisfied with someone like Roddy.He really tore Roddy a new one.Said he was a spineless twit and he once fucked Sandy right on Roddy’s desk.Roddy cried and left.”
“You did all of this today?”
“Yup.Completed it an hour before I got to your grandmother’s home.”
She was silent and stared out the window as they drove through the city.When he squeezed her hand,she knew he was wanting to know what was on her mind.“Isaias,I know you need to step back and think on things but yesterday scared me.You left without talking to me.I immediately thought you were angry with me and leaving me.After I calmed down,I knew you were doing what you do and stepping away to gather thoughts,but it scared me.”
He nodded,“I know it did and I promise I’m going to make up for it.I am sorry I frightened you.”
“What happened?”
“I came in the house and peeked in on you in the sunroom and you were in the zone.Didn’t even see me.I went upstairs to take a quick shower so I could come back down and surprise you and saw the pregnancy test in the bathroom.I stood there for all of ten minutes smiling like an idiot before I got thinking of all the shit Sandy puts you through.I can’t have her doing this to you when you’re pregnant,when you’re nursing our child,when you’re going through terrible twos.Teenage years are going to be hell.We can’t have Sandy distracting us through this.I thought fuck that.I’m dealing with the bitch my way now and that was that.”
She sniffed a tear away,“I understand but you could have come to me and told me.”
“I was worried you’d try to stop me.I also had some other things I needed to do.”
“What is that?”
“Do you remember when you told me you had the file on my company and another from Texas?”
“Yes.Lubbock.”
“Right.The company in Lubbock has been my biggest competitor over the years.It’s been a friendly rivalry though.McGrath comes twelfth in the country,ten on a good year but this company in Lubbock and mine go one and two alternatively year to year.We actually,”he grinned at her,“have had ongoing bets year to year.I won his yacht one year and he won it back the next.”
She giggled,“really?”
“Yes.So out of professional courtesy I wanted to give Jamison first kick at the can.”
“For what,”she noted a sign indicating they were leaving the city.“Wait,where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise,”he lifted her hand and kissed her knuckles.“Do you want to know why I called Jamison or not?”
“I do,”she turned her attention back to him.
“Well,see,I was already hating being away from you in another country.Then the shit with Sandy come up and I was too far away but damned if I’m going to be called out of the country multiple times a month when I have a son or daughter at home.”
“Oh.”
“I offered Jamison first bid on my company.He made me a fair offer.By this time next week,he will own my companies.I will take a year off work to spend time fixing our home and getting it ready for our child.”
“Our home?”
“Yes.I bought a new house today.It’s one I’ve had my eye on for a very long time.I look it at frequently because the older couple who owned it are in a nursing home.They were one of my first clients twenty years ago and I redid their kitchen and living area.It’s an old homestead with thirty acres of land.I thought,”he took a breath,“we could make it our home base and when the baby comes,we can explore the world like you want.We can travel the globe and always come back to the home we make together.There’s an outbuilding we can turn into a studio for you.There’s a stream for the kids to explore in as they grow up.There’s also a building on site we can use for the security team who are going to keep the Sandys and Merlins of the world off our land.”
She felt the quiver in her voice as she spoke,“you quit your job and bought a new house?”
“I thought maybe we could both start living our dreams.”He whispered back.“Maybe this pregnancy is the universe telling us it’s time for us both to stop worrying about what makes sense and start living the way we want.”
He turned the signal light to go up a long driveway,“it’s also close to the city so you can still see Fred and your mom and my folks.We will make sure Janka and Elsie have their own rooms for when they come over and get into our wine cellar and can’t drive home.”
She was crying in earnest now.
“Please tell me those are happy tears,”he said as the house came into view through the windshield.He smiled wide when she nodded.
She looked at the big old farmhouse sitting proudly in the middle of an expansive field,and she noted all the wildflowers.
“It’s a bit overgrown but the fields make me think of my painting in my office.”
“I love it,”she whispered as she quickly undid her seatbelt as the car came to a stop.She flung herself across the middle console,squeezing herself between the steering wheel and his solid chest and sobbed pitifully against his shoulder.“I love you.”
