Family Affair by Elle M Thomas

Chapter 26

 

Declan

 

Today has to be the weirdest Monday ever. Not the hardest or worst, but the weirdest.

I am checking out possible places for a new bar with Liv and she is in a very strange mood. I can’t put my finger on it, but she is sombre, a little too quiet and every time I look at her, I find her watching me with an expression akin to sympathy. Initially I wondered if she and Mase had had some kind of argument, but he called her earlier in the day and they were clearly on good terms, very good terms.

We are just leaving a warehouse on the docks that would be an amazing location and the possibilities for making it a unique venue are limitless when I start questioning if there is something going on in the Carrington family because Anita was in a strange mood from the second we left the baby shower. In fact, even leaving there was an odd experience. Anita and Liv returned from the kitchen, but now that I think about it, Liv seemed to be in pursuit of Anita as they reappeared in the lounge where the rest of us were. Liv was empty handed, despite going into the kitchen to collect cake. Anita had a tray piled high with cake and once it was distributed, she had suggested we leave. We did and before we had reached the end of the drive, she was all over me, not that I objected to that in any way. I lived for that, but now, with hindsight paired with Liv’s weird mood, there is something fishy going on, of that, I am sure.

Maybe I would have smelled a rat sooner had Anita not been naked for the remainder of the weekend. By the time we’d gotten back to mine, she had already given me the best blow job of my life and before the front door closed, I was rock hard at the sight of her shedding her clothes. That is how the rest of the weekend had gone. Again, I had no objection to my lady being horny and seeking out pleasure from and with me, but now, her dedication to shagging me into oblivion seems like it may have been some kind of distraction and fuck me if it didn’t work.

“You and Mase enjoy the baby shower?”

“What?” Liv spins to face me and looks alarmed by my very innocent question.

My suspicion is rising.

She seems to take stock. “Sorry, miles away. We didn’t want one in the first place, but yes, it was nice to see everyone.”

“Even Christian?” My question is light-hearted, and I expect Liv to laugh at the idea that she would ever be pleased to see him.

Her reaction, like her face is one of horror and I would almost go as far as to suggest fear. She stops dead and stares up at me looking nervous. Shit! Did he do something or say something to really upset her?

“Liv, are you okay? Did something happen?” I am as nervous as her now because if it did, I will tell Mase, and he will lose his shit big style.

“What? No!” She almost shrieks the last word, and the addition of a very strange and high-pitched laugh confirms she is lying about something.

“Liv…”

Her phone rings, interrupting us. I stand by, leaning against my car as she agrees to find somewhere for lunch and to sit down and relax for at least an hour before looking at any more locations with me. She giggles and laughs with Mase and looks like she usually does, so whatever is making her act strange, along with her sister is nothing to do with her and my brother, leading me to the conclusion that her mood and behaviour is down to one thing. One person.

 

Sitting in a nearby pub, Liv and I eat lunch. She has her computer out and is already putting together a list of pros and cons for the three places we’ve already seen. I watch on as she grabs a notepad and pencil and begins to quickly sketch ideas for each of the possible locations keeping the general theme from Dazzler.

She is incredibly focused, so much so that she doesn’t seem to notice me studying her, engrossed as she is in her drawing. She is no longer preoccupied or nervous in any way. It’s like this, work, and when she’s with Mase are her natural environments. I can’t help but smile, my smile only broadening when she subconsciously reaches down to gently stroke her belly.

“How is the next Harding generation?”

She looks up and grins across at me and for the first time I can see that the pregnancy glow is a very real thing. I am beginning to wonder what Anita would look like, her belly swollen with my baby and her whole being aglow.

“Sitting on my bladder if you really want to know.”

I laugh, back in the moment with my sister-in-law rather than with her non pregnant sister as she staggers to her feet, clutching her side and wincing.

“You okay there, tubs?”

She scowls at me but doesn’t really rise to my sizeist comment. “Aside from the fact that if I don’t leave right now for the bathroom, I’m going to leave a puddle and your shoes are in the splash zone.”

“Wow! Mase is beyond blessed to have you with lines like that…I have no more words.”

She giggles and makes her way to the bathroom, looking very much like a cross between a duck and a penguin.

I pick up my phone and roll it in my hand before dropping Anita a quick text, all earlier suspicions and thoughts of her weird mood gone.

 

<Hey, Cupcake, how’s my beautiful lady doing today? In case I didn’t mention it, I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend with you x>

 

<You and me both, Stud. In fact, I missed you so much today, I think this could be a 3 day weekend! X>

 

Anita

 

 

I am still managing to avoid Liv, despite her calling and texting every day in the week or so since she walked in on me and Christian. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to do as she and Dec speak most days about the extension of the Dazzler chain.

Tonight is date night, so I know I can evade her for at least one more day, but beyond that I am on borrowed time because Dec has already asked me if I’ve had a fight with her and that she keeps asking him if I am okay.

“Hey, where’s my sexy lady?” Dec’s voice is getting louder meaning he is moving closer to the bedroom.

I am slipping on heeled shoes as the finishing touch to the red stretchy dress I’m not convinced isn’t too short as I tug on the hem that sits on my thighs, just.

“Going out on date night is optional, right?”

I laugh as Dec appears behind me and I watch our reflections in the mirror as an arm snakes around my middle.

“I think the use of the word out might mean it’s not optional.”

“Shame,” he whispers against my ear, the feel of his breath causing goosebumps to rise across my skin.

“Yeah, but the plus side of date night out is the unwritten but clearly obvious rule that when we get home, you get lucky.”

I laugh as I watch Dec’s face morph into a happy, expectant and slightly horny expression.

“Well, in that case, let’s get this date on the road.”

With a single spank to my behind, Dec is already taking my hand in his and pulling me to the door.

 

As far as I knew, tonight was a regular date night; dinner and a few glasses of wine, then back home where sex would be on the agenda. Arriving at the restaurant blows that thought out of the water.

The restaurant is high end. Somewhere I have been once before when Liv first came into our family. Mase took us all out, brought us here for dinner. The food is to die for but is so expensive they don’t put prices on the menu. Dec really is pulling out all the stops tonight, but why?

We’re shown through to the back of the restaurant and that’s when I see them, already sitting at the table with two empty seats. My family including Liv, Mase and Scott, plus Dec’s parents and his stepdad.

We take our seats and to say I am confused is an understatement.

“Am I missing something?” I ask Dec in a hushed tone, leaning closer to him.

“All will be revealed, Cupcake.”

Everyone looks as confused as me, well, almost everyone, Mase seems to know exactly what’s going on here. The penny drops. This is clearly an announcement about the expansion of the business. I wonder why Liv looks perplexed, but reason that she was helping to scope out locations and that is where her role ended, so maybe she doesn’t know what’s happening with the new place going forward.

Talk begins and my thoughts on the night disappear, I should just enjoy the company, the food and amazing cocktail menu I’d like to work my way through.

The main courses are just being finished off when my dad begins to look between me and Liv. “You’re both quiet tonight.”

I was hoping the remaining tension between us had gone unnoticed. No such luck. I try to nip this line of conversation in the bud and avoid offering anything inflammatory. “You should be thankful for that rather than complaining…you usually tell us we talk too much.” I laugh and hope everyone joins in with me, most do. Not Liv.

My father’s attention falls to her. “Livy?”

Mase bristles next to his wife at Dad calling her Livy.

“What?” she asks. “It just seems that we have little to say to each other tonight.”

I feel as though I stop breathing for a second as I expect everyone to jump on her suggestion that we have nothing to say to each other.

The waiter returns and clears the table, interrupting things. I turn to say something to my mum but before I say more than a couple of words, I notice her startled expression as she looks just beyond me.

I turn back and nothing could have prepared me for the sight that greets me. Initially, I wonder why I can’t see Dec, and then I realise he is no longer in his seat but kneeling on the floor. What the hell! Has he fallen or dropped something? He makes no attempt to move and for a few, very long seconds, I have no idea what to make of it.

“Anita.” Dec says my name and my eyes fix on his.

He looks at me with a happy and excited expression, but his eyes look a little nervous. Suddenly it’s like nobody else is here, it’s just the two of us, and then I realise what is going on; why we’re at this restaurant, why our families are present and why he is on his knees, specifically down on one knee. Fuck! This is huge and I have no idea how to process it or how to respond.

“Anita,” he repeats. “I never thought this would happen to me…but it has.” He takes a deep, and I suspect, calming breath. “From the second I laid eyes on you, my world was shook, rocked to the core and although it was a shock and I fought it…”

I hear light laughter around us, but I don’t respond in any way. My focus is on Dec and only Dec.

“…it is the best thing to ever happen. You are the best thing to ever happen to me and now I’ve had a taste of life with you, I am unprepared to live it without you. Anita, will you marry me?”

I knew it was coming, or at least suspected that’s where this was going and somehow, it was still a shock when those final four words registered in my mind.

He is still on one knee, his expression becoming more concerned as the seconds of silence stretch out before us when I notice the most beautiful ring in his hand. A cluster of diamonds around the most perfect ruby.

I have no clue how long the silence has lasted, but I know I need to say something. What do I say? What do I want to say?