He pulled away from my lips, breathless, his rigid cock ready for more. "Now about that lesson?"
I couldn't help but laugh. "I think we should stay right here," I whispered, meeting his lips. “You can give me a different type of lesson,” I suggested with a knowing look.
"I couldn't agree more. I’m one lucky man," he whispered.
Epilogue
TESS
Looking back, if someone had told me last Christmas that just by taking a simple trip at the lowest time in my life that everything would change, I wouldn't have believed them. When I boarded that plane, I never thought it was going to be possible for me to ever trust or love again. I felt absolutely dead inside. Yet something magical happened on that trip. A man I loved as a friend and confident taught me that, no matter how much hurt a person endures, it is possible for time to heal everything. He had overcome a substantial loss himself, and time had allowed him to heal; the same had been true for me.
I don’t even think I need to tell you that Derrick had never been the one for me. He hadn't been the one for Lucy either, Francine, or Nicky. The last we'd heard; his business was failing so he'd packed up his life here and left the city.
I’d finally told Maddox about him coming to me the night before he showed up at my door and all he had said. He listened to every word I had said and then told me about the display in the diner. Tom and Pace both agreed that after that event, his reputation had gone right downhill. The women who used to give him the time of day no longer looked at him, and others no longer wanted to do business after they learned what had really happened between him and me. They said they didn’t want to work with a womanizer.
Maddox and I spent our first Christmas together surrounded by friends and family. Three years later, we welcomed a new addition to our family. Noelle Rose was born December 19th during a wicked snowstorm. She was perfect and looked exactly like her father.
I stood just outside the nursery on Christmas Eve, the house quiet, watching as Maddox held this tiny little human in his arms, rocking her gently in the wee hours of the morning, even though he had worked all day just so I could get my sleep.
Our life, for now, was complete, and as I watched him and listened to her gentle coo as he spoke to her in a soft voice, a peacefulness came over me. Fate had blessed me, all because I allowed time to heal my broken heart and I learned to trust again. It was the greatest gift I’d ever given to myself.