The Private Serials Box Set(112)
“I’d like to say that we invited you to dinner because we wanted to spend time with you, but actually, we invited you so we could kidnap your children for the night. You’ve got the night off from parenting.” Preston’s mother was making shooing gestures at us and pointing toward the front door.
“Here,” Piper said, holding keys out to us with her free hand. “Take the keys to my car. You’ve got reservations at Bartini at six, and a room reserved for you at the downtown Hilton. Happy anniversary.”
“Wait,” I said, still trying to catch up. “You’re watching the kids for us? We’re going on a date?” Devlin was only five months old, and we’d never left him overnight before, but my gut was telling me to take their offer and run off with my husband for a night of uninterrupted adult time.
“Piper is going to stay here with me to help take care of the kiddos; we’ll keep your car with the car seats in case we need to go anywhere, and you two go and have a good time. If you come back before ten a.m. tomorrow morning I’ll be very upset with both of you.”
“Are you sure?” Preston asked.
“We’re sure. You know Mom’s got that nursery just waiting for some baby time,” Piper said, gently rocking back and forth as all women tended to do unconsciously when holding a baby.
He looked at me and I looked at him, and I knew we were in agreement. We both walked toward our children and took turns kissing them both goodbye, and I shouted last-minute instructions to my mother-in-law before closing the door and walking to Piper’s car.
Once we were both in the car and pulling away from their house I turned to Preston. “I feel like we just got ambushed, but in reverse.”
“Yeah,” he said, reaching over and taking my hand in his as we drove. “But it’s a pretty sweet anniversary gift.”
“Yeah. Hey, can I ask you a favor?”
“Anything,” he said as he brought my hand to his mouth and kissed it.
“Can we go home first and get the Lotus?” Butterflies took flight in my belly at the thought of being alone with him in that car again. I very rarely ever got to ride in it, and he usually drove a more practical car to work.
“Just so long as you understand if I see you sitting in my Lotus, I won’t be able to keep my hands to myself.”
“I would never expect anything less.”
“You know I’m gonna take what’s mine.”
“And I’ll happily give you everything.”
The End
Acknowledgments
The first thank you definitely goes out to every blogger who took a chance on this serial. I asked you all to trust me and read something blind, support something without knowing much about it, and you gave your support in spades. From the beginning, creating this story has been a roller coaster ride for me and I appreciate everyone who read it, blogged about it, posted about it, shared a teaser or a cover…I appreciate it all. THANK YOU!
The second thank you goes to my street team. You guys go above and beyond for me. I am so glad I have a group of ladies that I can go to for advice and to be completely neurotic around. Also, thank you all who beta read for me on this project.
Becca, Kelly, and Andrea for always giving me such honest and invaluable feedback. I trust you all implicitly with my words and thank you for your help.
To the READERS! Thank you for loving Preston and Lena. Thank you for every time you told me you were excited to read the next installment; your words of encouragement kept me writing and motivated me to give you the best possible product. I started this serial because the story was there and I loved the characters, but I finished the project because of the love and enthusiasm you shared with me for Preston and Lena (along with Sam, Piper, and Parker).
Special thanks to Sprinkles On Top Studios for creating such a lovely cover for this beast of a book!