Chapter 21: Demon
Zara had been back at the compound for a couple of days. She was on lockdown and trying to make the best of it. I knew she hated it, but she also knew it was for the best. Anderson, or Tommy, as Zara called him, had gone back to Virginia. He promised to keep us in the loop on how it was going. He had his people working on finding and eliminating this jefe character.
When I wasn’t working at one of the businesses, we spent our time making love. I’d even gotten her to show me her plans for houses she liked, and I showed her mine. We’d debated until we found the perfect plan for us. We’d combined two floor plans into one house. Tank assured me he’d get one of his crews working on it as soon as possible.
Today, I wanted to take her on a picnic. We couldn’t leave the compound, but the lake we had was a beautiful spot. I got the old ladies to help me with putting it together, then I surprised Zara by coming home around lunchtime. I led her out to my bike.
“Where are we going, Luca?”
“I want to show you something. No need for your helmet, we’re not leaving the compound.” She gave me a curious look, but she didn’t argue. She got on my bike. I drove us back to where the lake was. When we got to the spot I wanted, we stopped. She looked around in surprise. Under the trees was a blanket spread out with a picnic basket. I’d gotten Tate to bring it out here a little earlier. I helped her off the bike.
“Honey, what? When did you do this?”
“I had some help. I wanted to have some private time just for us, and since we can’t leave, this was the next best option. Come here.” I led her over to the blanket. She sank down and looked at the water.
“Thank you. This is amazing. I didn’t realize this was back here. Do you guys spend a lot of time here in the summer?”
“Not a lot. We do come and swim. I think Bull is going to end up building a swimming pool like they have in Dublin Falls.”
“Really? That would be awesome. I love to swim. This is so peaceful though. Why did you want alone time? Is there something the matter?”
“No, nothing is the matter. I did want to talk to you about something, but first, why don’t we eat?” I could tell she wanted to talk first, but she curbed her impatience. I laid out the cold lunch of ham sandwiches, potato salad, a bowl of fresh berries with whipped cream, and several pastries from the bakery that the ladies had made. We enjoyed them mostly in silence.
When we had enough to eat, I moved the leftovers out of the way and lay down with her in my arms. “Zara, I wanted to talk to you about something. It’s something I wanted to do before you left, only I hadn’t gotten everything yet. Now that you’re back, I don’t want to wait to do it.”
“Do what? You’re killing me here, Luca,” she wailed. I laughed.
“Okay, no dying. You know I love you. You love me. We’re having the house started. Everything is falling into place.” She nodded in agreement. “Except there’s one thing missing.”
“What?”
“You and me together all the way.” She frowned at me in confusion. “Zara, would you please do me the honor of becoming my wife?” She gasped and sat up, her mouth hanging open. I’d really shocked her. I pulled the ring box out of my jeans pocket and opened it.
I’d gotten the ring while she was in Mexico. I was determined even then to get her back and make her my wife. It was a marquise-cut emerald surrounded by small white diamonds and emeralds. She’d mentioned one time her favorite color was emerald green. When I saw the ring, I knew it was perfect for her. I slid it onto her finger.
I breathed a sigh of relief. It fits. I’d been nervous and had asked Jessica if she knew what size Zara wore. She’d been the one to tell me a seven. “It’s beautiful! Oh, Luca, I love it. And yes, yes I’ll marry you.” She half sobbed as she kissed me. Like usual for us, it took nothing to ignite the flames between us.
We hungrily removed each other’s clothes, and I made love to her beside the lake. It was the perfect engagement in my opinion. When we were done, we laid there for a while just dozing until the sky got a little dark. It looked like it was going to rain. We hurried to get dressed and back to the clubhouse before the sky opened up.
We were laughing as we ran inside. The sky had just opened up as we came through the door. Talk about perfect timing. It was after five, so most everyone was home from work. They smiled at us when we came through the door. I looked around for Bull. He knew what I had planned. He was the only one I’d told it was happening today. He caught my eye. I smiled and nodded. He grinned then whistled to get everyone’s attention.
They looked at him and waited. “I think Demon might have something he needs to tell us. Don’t you, Demon?”
“Uh well, I don’t know if I do or not. What are you referring to, Bull?” He looked at me. “Oh, yeah, right. So, not sure if you all care or not, but Zara and I are going to get married. She was crazy enough to say yes. Now there’s no way she’s getting away from me,” I crowed. They started to applaud and came over to congratulate us. Hugs and kisses were exchanged and of course, even the guys wanted to see the ring. I stood there feeling so damn proud.
After all the excitement began to die down, we sat and had a drink. I’d gotten Bull to put champagne on ice to celebrate. All of us made a toast. As we sipped it, I held her hand and ran my thumb back and forth across her ring. It seemed unreal that I’d gotten the love of my life to agree to marry me. I cleared my throat.
“Babe, I don’t know what you want when it comes to a wedding, but whatever it is, I want you to have it. The only thing I want is for it to not take forever for us to get married. How soon do you think you ladies can get one together?”
She gave me a stunned look. I had made her speechless. I needed to write this day down. It might not happen again. “Well, I-uh, I don’t know. I mean, how big do you want it? Is there anything special you’d like to be sure is included? A lot depends on the venue we want. Some of them can be booked a year or more out, Demon. It’s not just as simple as saying, let’s get it done.”
“I want you to have your uncle walk you down the aisle. I’d love to have all our friends and family there, including the various clubs. I don’t have a preference for attire. Casual, semi-formal or formal, doesn’t matter to me. I would like for you to have a beautiful wedding gown. As for a venue, I have no clue. The ladies would be more of a help than me on that. I want to do the typical guy thing. You tell me what to do and when to be there, and I show up,” I teased her. She threw a balled-up napkin across the table at me. I laughed.
“Typical guy is right. Okay, let me get with the ladies and we’ll see what we can come up with. It’s almost the end of May now. If we can make it happen, what do you think of an end of summer or early fall wedding?”
“I prefer end of summer. Can you get it all done that fast?”
She looked at the other old ladies. They smiled and nodded. She looked back at me. “It looks like we might. How about we aim for August thirty-first? It’s barely over three months away.”