Wildflower (Chapter 38)

Chapter 38

 

            “I think I’m going to take out my belly ring like for good,” Wildflower said while standing in front of the mirror. She was in the process of getting dressed so she could go pick the kids up from Abby’s house. Having a huge three-way mirror in the room was very distracting and she couldn’t help but look at herself.

            “Why? It’s hot,” Nicolas said slipping his arms around her waist.

            “If we have a baby I can’t keep it in,” she said. That got her an odd look and he turned her to face him.

            “Do you know something that I don’t?” He asked staring at her.

            “No I’m not pregnant I was just saying,” she said. “It was just a thought and you are always doing everything you can to get me pregnant.” At that statement he smiled.

            “And yet after months of trying you are not pregnant, I need to try harder.”

            “Nick, you do know its not as simple as having sex everyday, right? Even if it’s like three times a day, you know being with you is better than a gym membership,” she laughed.  Maybe she shouldn’t have been surprised that she didn’t fit her dress.

            “Then maybe it should be five times a day,” he suggested.

            “Honey we would never leave the bed,” she said and he smiled.

            “We aren’t once we get to Rio,” he told her.

            “You my love are a freak of nature it shouldn’t be possible for us to have sex as much as we do,” she said thoughtfully.

            “Let’s see it had been months since I did anything when I met you and then we went three months without doing much of anything, I’m making up for lost time.”

            “Well don’t get any ideas I am not getting back in the bed,” she told him.

            “Does that mean you will go back in the shower?” He asked watching her.

            “No, I’m going to get the kids,” she said slipping away. If she didn’t hurry up and get dressed she knew he would somehow persuade her to get back in the bed.

            “Why did you let them stay over there anyway?”

            “I don’t know, they wanted to hang out with their friends after the dance, not a big deal. I know they were probably drinking but they were the house so they couldn’t have gotten in too much trouble,” she shrugged. Maybe it was a little irresponsible but at least they were honest with her and they weren’t sneaking around, she was the big sister and not the mother.

            “Just so you know I would never let our kids do that, but I won’t interfere in what you tell them. They are your responsibility,” he said.

            “What was I supposed to do? If I said no then what? They would have gone off to some party and drank and then have to drive home. All of them are honest with me and its not fair to not let them have a little fun.”

            “I’m not judging, I’m just saying that I wouldn’t let our kids do it.”

            “When you were a teenager you never went out or anything?”

            “Not really, look at what I have for siblings. Katrina was married and a mother when she was a teenager, Carmen had two abortions and Jose was the same as he is now and we don’t even have to discuss what Delanoz was doing. My grandmother didn’t want me to be like them, I was boring and kind of a quiet person back then. Most of my time was speak here with her, she told me I didn’t need to go partying to find the right girl for me,” he paused. “Guess she was wrong, I found you drunk in a bar.”

            “Shut up, I wasn’t that drunk and you were the one trying to kidnap me. Why were you there anyway? You’ve never really told me why, you in fact dodge the question,” she said watching him.

            “Just needed a change of scenery,” he shrugged. “All I use to do before you was work; I had no life at all. I wanted to just go somewhere nobody would know me or want anything from me. You have no idea how persistent and stalker-like the women Katrina set me up with were.”

            “Funny that I hadn’t been out in awhile either and we ended up together.”

            “Fate, I told you I knew as soon as I saw you that you would be mine. And in about 160 hours you will be,” he said.

            “I believe you were kind of nerdy when you were younger since you are still now. Only you would randomly know how many hours it will be until we get married.”

            “What? I like math,” he said and she smiled.

            “Ok so Grammy kept you home and Katrina controlled your love life; you are way too hot not to have had a million girlfriends.”

            “When would I have had time? Graduated early from high school, worked straight through the year in college, I never had a break. And again let me point of that my siblings are insane and they always want something.”

            “Fine, I believe you,” she said still amused. “Oh so I wanted to tell you that I figured out what I’m going to do with my life.”

            “Alright, tell me,” he said. He was laying across the bed in just a pair of shorts looking God-like, part of her wanted to get in bed with him. The more responsible part was pulling her hair into a ponytail and putting on shoes.

            “Tara works with this kid’s charity in her spare time and it’s like mostly orphans and whatnot. Anyway, I have a lot of spare time so Brooke and I are going to devote our time to helping out with the kids and stuff. And you know I love kids and we were basically orphans growing up so I figured it’s a good way to spend my time.”

            “Sounds good,” he nodded.

            “I mean I could get a real job I guess, but I thought it would be nice.”

            “Why would you need a paying job? You know I can take care of us and you would be doing something that makes you happy.”

            “Yeah, I just feel like I should contribute something.”

            “Wildflower, you are already taking care of your three brothers and my two nieces, you do a lot. Money isn’t important; you pay the world with your love.”

            “I know,” she said. She crawled on the bed to kiss him. “So let’s talk about tonight, I’m sure because Jose is a man w***e he will hire some strippers. Touch them and you die.”

            “Same goes for you,” he replied. “Carmen is planning to hook up with so stripper, right?”

            “Probably, she asked Ricky to have sex with her,” she said and he laughed.

            “Her boyfriend is flying in today to surprise her. His flight probably already landed,” he said looking amused.

            “She is going to flip out,” she shook her head.

            “Yeah I know, that’s why I bought that plane ticket.”

            “Nick, I would say that it was bad but she needs to just marry him.”

            “My point exactly,” he said. He pulled her to him and kissed her. “Go retrieve your children so that I can have you again before this stupid party.”

            “I’m gone,” she said kissing him again. She got up from the bed a little reluctantly and went off to get the kids.

 

            When Wildflower returned from picking up the kids she was surprised to find that a stripper pole had been installed in her bedroom. Carmen and Brooke said it was a gift to start off her marriage with. She wasn’t really amused by it and it wasn’t their fault. It just brought back memories of a life she tried to forget. Of course she knew they didn’t do it to hurt her, but still she doubted it would get much use. Instead of focusing on the unwanted gift she tried to figure out what she was going to wear tonight. She’d never been to a bachelorette party and knowing Carmen and Brooke it was probably going to be something wild and crazy. That was probably why Marli and Sonya were flying in for the party. At least she wasn’t going to be bored, tonight. Tomorrow as a gesture of goodwill Katrina was throwing her a bridal shower/ tea party. Tonight was about partying and tomorrow was about being the proper fiancé of a billionaire.

            “Oh my God,” Allie said when she came into the room.

            “You bought a stripper pole?” Sammie asked, they both stared at her shocked.

            “No that was Carmen and Brooke, they thought it was an appropriate gift,” Wildflower told them.

            “I knew you and Uncle Nick were total freaks but wow,” Allie said.

            “Are you really going to use it? Sammie asked.

            “Doubtful, it’s definitely not my thing,” she replied.

            “So are we seeing strippers tonight?” Allie asked, both girls went to sit on the bed. Here was where she needed to be responsible.

            “Probably, she says we are going to a club or something I don’t know. She insists that you girls should come so I know it won’t be too crazy she wouldn’t do that to Lexy.”

            Wildflower was pretty sure even though she never went to a bachelorette party that 14, 15 and 17 year olds were probably not usually in attendance. She sort of hoped they were joking about strippers, in her past life she knew male strippers. And she might have slept with one but that was the past and she didn’t need to see strippers. Brooke knew how she felt about that type of thing so maybe she was just joking. Obsessing over this was only going to drive her crazy and she wanted to have fun. So she went to lay on the bed with the girls.

            “So how was this dance?” She asked, Allie smiled and Sammie shrugged.

            “I told Tony I love him last night,” Allie said dreamily.

            “What?” At that Wildflower sat up and stared at her.

            “Yeah I know you think I’m crazy but I really mean it this time, and he said he loves me too,” she said. “It’s different with him; I just like to look at him.”

            “And thus is why we are in here because she was getting on my nerves,” Sammie shook her head.

            “It’s ok for you to love Evan but I can’t love Tony?”

            “I didn’t say that, I said you are annoying.”

            “When I was 15 and 17 I was not telling boys I loved them,” Wildflower said.

            “That’s because you have 9 brothers and they never let you be alone with any males,” Sammie pointed out.

            “True, so you know you love Tony because you like to look at him?”

            “More like all she does all day is find ways to stare at him.”

            “I just feel different this time, he makes me happy and its not about sex. Well when we do have sex it is so amazing but I just love being with him.”

            “Why do you think its ok to tell me about sex with my little brother? Just because you are nosey I sure the hell am not,” Wildflower said. If she pretended that they didn’t have sex then the living arrangements wouldn’t be that big of a problem. Maybe the doors really did need to come off so they couldn’t sneak around, but she was the one who wanted honesty.

            “She just can’t help herself, she talks about him all the time,” Sammie said.

            “Anyway I am in love with Tony and told me he loved me for a long time but didn’t want to tell me. I’m so stupid I never realized he liked me,” Allie said thoughtfully. “Hey do remember we use to visit you all the time and take over your room?”

            “Nothing has changed, except that this bed fits all of us,” Wildflower replied. “Being in love is a nice thing, I hope it all works out the way you want it to.” She loved spending time with these girls even if some times it wasn’t easy, she still loved them.

            “Dad’s weird girlfriend wants to hang out with me,” Sammie told them.

            “Invite her to the party,” Allie suggested.

            “Yeah, do it,” Wildflower agreed. Maybe she could talk some sense into this silly girl that was sleeping with a murderer who had a son older than her. The door opened and Carmen stalked in looking pissed and holding a garment bag.

            “Where is Nicolas?” She asked slamming the door behind her.

            “No idea, he was gone when I came back,” Wildflower answered. “I’m guessing the good doctor has arrived?”

            “You knew he was coming?”

            “Nick mentioned it before I left, but I didn’t even see you.”

            “Guess I can’t hook up with anybody tonight,” Carmen sighed dramatically. It was pretty obvious from her expression that she wasn’t really mad that her man loved her enough to come surprise her. But it was Carmen and she had to complain.

            “Uh that’s what the hot doctor is here for,” Allie pointed out. “You better hit that.” Both Wildflower and Sammie laughed, Carmen glared at all of them.

            “You are not grown Miss,” Carmen said. “Why can’t you be like Lexy? If I talk about sex she runs away.”

            “Um yeah me and Brooke watched her sex tape, Lexy is a good girl.”

            “Wait, sex tape? You have a sex tape?” Carmen asked staring in shock.

            “Do you really have to tell everybody about that?” Wildflower asked glaring at Allie, while Carmen looked back and forth between them. “It was just a stupid thing, there is only one copy of it and it’s in the safe.”

            “Damn, I think I did that with Alex, then I burned it with all of clothes and stuff,” Carmen said with a smile. “Don’t look at me like that he is lucky I didn’t set him on fire. Anyway I brought you ladies something to wear tonight and yes Samantha it is mandatory that you wear it.”

            “Why do you people always want me to wear dresses?” Sammie asked looking annoyed.

            “Because I say so and we are all going to match, trust me you won’t hate it. Oh and Carlynn is bringing her kids over so Leighton can baby sit Livi and Maria, that’s her name this week by the way, and Ariela. Oh and Ansley, the nanny is off or something.”

            “Who is all coming?” Wildflower asked, she smiled when she unzipped the bag to find what she had them wearing.

            “Carlynn, Persephone, Kati, Tara, Nadia, Sonya, Marli, Christina, Brooke, Lexy and you annoying people, oh and I think Cheyenne wants to come. She is a pain in the a*s,” Carmen shrugged.

            “Sammie is going to tell her dad’s new girlfriend to drop by,” Allie said.

            “Girlfriend?” Carmen asked looking Wildflower in the eyes to understand, and she got it pretty quickly.

            “The girls met Caroline at the mall the other day when she was shopping with Delanoz,” she filled her in. “She wants to get to know Sammie.”

            “Maybe she needs to get to know dad first because she thinks he wants to marry her. She was kind of ditsy,” Sammie said.

            “You have her number?” Carmen asked with a mischievous look on her face.

            “Yeah,” Sammie handed her aunt her cell phone.

            “Let me borrow this and I will make sure she comes,” Carmen said. “Be ready by six, that’s when the limo gets here.” With a wave she left the room.

            “I hate dresses,” Sammie said.

            “Live a little Sam,” Allie told her.

            “Look at what we are wearing,” Wildflower said pulling the dresses out. There were also colored boas in the bag. Tonight was going to be interesting.

 

 

            “So I got a call from D saying he’s going to hang with us tonight,” Jose told his brother. That just got him a nod, Mr. CEO was too busy on his laptop typing away. “Do you know there is a stripper pole in your bedroom?” He asked to see if that got a reaction.

            “Yeah Carmen and Brooke thought it was funny,” Nicolas replied. “D came by last night or well at almost four in the damn morning. Said he’s going to break it off with Caroline. It would be nice if he actually did and oh he knows about Penny. In fact you would be proud after big mouth Caroline told him all about her niece; he figured out that she’s his all on his own.”

            “What are you doing?” He asked, he had been planning this party for awhile and his brother was distracted.

            “Get rid of all our problems so that I can go away for a month,” Nicolas replied. “Alvin is back in Italy for now at least and if he wants to comeback his passport is flagged as a possible terrorist.”

            “That’s one way to deal with a problem,” he replied.

            Jose knew better than anybody else that his little brother needed more fun in his life. All week he himself had been having fun, but all that was going to change. He had a friend coming in to be his date for the wedding, he couldn’t go without a date or Cheyenne would annoy him. Any other time he would have sex with her, it wouldn’t be the first time he had sex at a wedding. Once he was with a bride before her wedding and he was one of the groomsmen. In retrospect it was wrong and he did a lot of bad things. There was only one woman that ever made him want to settle down, but of course he couldn’t have her. And he was surprised she agreed to come to this wedding with him. At least their relationship hadn’t ended in violence.

             “What are we doing tonight?” Nicolas asked actually looked up at him.

            “I told you I’m going to get you laid before you get hitched.”

            “And do you recall I told you no?”

            “Yeah, I was hoping you changed your mind,” he shook his head. Though he should have known better, Nicolas was definitely not the fun brother. “It’s not cheating if you aren’t married.”

            “Tell her that and see what happens, I guarantee that she won’t agree and that’s why your relationships end so badly.”

            “The difference is I didn’t want to marry any of them,” Jose said. Well one he wanted to marry but that was his own personal secret. Having her come to this wedding was just an excuse to see her and he knew that and she probably did too.

            Since he couldn’t convince his brother to fly to Las Vegas tonight, he made other arrangements. He rented out a club and was throwing a Vegas style party. So it would still be a night of gambling, drinking, half dressed women, Cuban cigars and uninhibited fun. Even though there were the boys there but it wasn’t like any of them never drank before and a beer here and a shot there wouldn’t kill anybody. Wasn’t it more responsible for them to drink with family anyway? At least that was what he told himself so that he could later justify it if he got yelled at.

            When they arrived at the club everybody else was already there and he confiscated his brother’s computer. Half dressed women excitedly welcomed in the groom-to-be and he thought he almost saw his brother smile. That was an improvement at least, after a few drinks maybe he would discreetly hook up with one of the women, there were a bunch of them. All nine of the brothers-in-law were there, Jason, Jordan, Richard, Brian, Marcus, Camden, cousins: Luis, Nicodemus, Hilario, Jerard, Beau, Enrick, and Lazaro (Persephone’s husband). What surprised him was that Delanoz was actually there and so was their father. If he was going to deal with all this tonight and live up to his duties as best man he was going to need to get a drink or two. After all he was the fun brother.

 

 

Carmen had them wearing plain white baby doll dresses and jeweled back flip-flops and they had pink glittery boas. Wildflower got to wear a Tiara since she was the bride. The fourteen of them piled into the stretch hummer limo and inside were plain canvas tote bags with everybody’s names on them. Inside each bad was to disposable camera, different colors of tubes of fabric paint, a towel, a flower topped ink pen, a  pack of post its and a black Sharpie marker. Neither Brooke nor Camera would explain why any of the things in the bags were there. Their first stop of the night was at a restaurant where they had a private party room.

            The night was starting out good; they ordered a bunch of food and passed it around. They all laughed and talked it was nice. Wildflower really hadn’t known what to expect, especially with Carmen and Brooke planning things. After dinner they were taken to a studio apartment. All that was there was a bar, complete with two bartenders. There was a big screen TV, three video cameras set up on tripods, five white couches were set up in front of the TV and a photo booth. There was an area with a bunch of paper taped to the floor and a table was there with paint brushes. Carmen had them gather around the bar where martini glasses were waiting with each of their names on it. She promised the teenage girls only got non-alcoholic beverages. They had a drink and were toasted to a night of fun.

            Eventually Brooke explained that they were going to paint their dresses. That of course turned into them having a massive paint fight and paint getting everywhere. Everybody was laughing and having fun and covered in paint. There were pictures taken and they all ran around all crazy. Everybody squeezed into the photo booth and took silly pictures and it was like everybody was silly teenagers. This was what family was supposed to be like, fun and good times. Once they were done painting and dried they all went over to the couch to watch their chaos. They had drinks and laughed and turned on music to dance to.

            Someone knocked on the door and Wildflower expected it to be a stripper or something crazy. But at the door was a woman, with pale blonde hair and brown eyes, she was pretty. She smiled nervously and looked around the room at them. Sammie was the one to introduce her as the infamous Caroline. They were all friendly and ushered her in and grabbed her a drink. The girl looked timid even though she smiled brightly and feigned excitement. Something in her eyes said something different was going on with her that she was trying to hide. At least she was here with the fun less judgmental more friendly and fun family members. This girl was young and it was pretty obvious that she was completely in love with Delanoz. Fate was cruel like that some times.

            The next knock on the door was the two male strippers that were dresses up as firemen. What woman didn’t have at least one fireman fantasy? Wildflower thought she would completely hate this but it was really funny. Until of course they handcuffed her to a chair, which she didn’t find all that amusing. But she still she laughed because it wasn’t that big of a deal. Of course they all took pictures and laughed at the lap dance she was receiving. It definitely wasn’t the night she was expecting but she liked the night she was having so far. And the night was not over yet.

 

 

            Nicolas had been to bachelor parties before, they mildly entertained him. It was obvious that Jose put effort into this and he appreciated it. However he was not going to have sex with any of these w****s here. Even if he wanted to all of Wildflower’s brother’s were there and he knew they were watching him, he would expect nothing less. Part of him was curious and he knew if he wanted to he could get away with it and nobody would know. But he was going to marry Wildflower and he was morally opposed to cheating. He never claimed to be a very moral person but that was one thing he never did. And there were enough reasons for Wildflower to leave him; he wasn’t going to make infidelity one of them. The question in his mind was if he could stay with one woman the rest of his life and he had always been certain that he could. It wasn’t boring with her or anything and she gave him what he wants, still he wasn’t as certain as he had been.

            It would be easy to get away with and maybe that was where cheating lost its appeal. He liked challenges and if he was honest keeping Wildflower was a challenge. She was too much of an independent person and she did what she wanted to. Those were things he loved and hated about her. It meant that one day she was probably going to try to leave him, but he would never let that happen. She was complex and challenging from the beginning and the thrill still hadn’t worn off. With her he was a better person, before he would have just taken pleasure in ridding the world of those annoying Mandrakes but now he was trying to be nice and do the right thing. He had stopped feeling guilty about things years ago, she changed him. Everything changed.

            Here he was at his own bachelor party with strippers trying to give him a lap dance every other minute. Jose made sure he had a drink in his hand every second and he didn’t mind a little gambling. Being social was always a challenge for him; he was just a solitary person by nature. Nicolas Capriani never backed down from a challenge so he did his best to be social. Usually he just analyzed things, for the most part he was still doing that but at least he was speaking to people.

            “I did it,” Delanoz told him. It was the first time they were alone that night; he just came over to sit beside him on a couch.

            “Feel better now?” Nicolas asked, his brother stared at him with this devastated look on his face.

            “No, she kept crying and begging me to tell her why. I didn’t really tell her much just that I was leaving and I did this morning,” he sighed. “Called her sisters and told her where she was too.”

            “You did the right thing,” Nicolas assured him.

            “Yeah,” he replied. “Maybe we can put all this behind us now.”

            “Let’s hope so,” Nicolas nodded.

            Unfortunately he was not as ignorant as his brother; the Mandrakes were not going away. They weren’t going to stop until they found Hannah or somebody was killed. This was not what he wanted to think about before his wedding but what choice did he get? If they did something to ruin this wedding for Wildflower he was definitely going to kill at least one of them to prove a point. Why couldn’t they take the chance he was offering them? No retaliation if they just went away peacefully. After all this years they really just needed to let it go, doing all these things wasn’t getting them what they wanted. It was only annoying him and he had a bad temper and once they crossed the line again and he knew they would, he was going to make an example out of one of them.

            To distract him completely from his revenge plotting and mapping out possible things that could happen that week, a stripper sat in his lap. Delanoz actually laughed. She was in a micro mini skirt so you could see her behind with her little bit of thong on and her jeweled bra matched the rest of her outfit. Her hair was blonde from a bottle and she was tan from a tanning bed not the sun. Just a typical stripper and unless he was mistaken she had body glitter on. It wasn’t that she was unattractive or anything, because she was and she threw her arms around his neck.

            “So I hear you are in need of a little fun before you get married,” she whispered in his ear.

            “Is that right?” He asked and she nodded.

            “Why don’t you let me take care of that for you? Doesn’t have to be right now, there’s always later.”

            “Maybe,” he replied. He never had sex with a stripper before.

 

            After drinking and laughing and playing game, the women returned to the mansion. It was after one in the morning, the men of course weren’t home yet. Instead of anybody actually going home they sat out back drinking coffee by the pool. That was when they decided to present Wildflower with a few gifts that would be inappropriate to give her at the tea party tomorrow. There was some lingerie, edible panties, massage oils, a whip and handcuffs and to her a surprise a pregnancy test. Brooke said it was to take with her to Brazil because there was a good chance she would be pregnant by the time she got back. Allie and Sammie decorated baby onesies as their gift to her. She could admit it would be nice to find out she was pregnant by the time she got back, Nicolas needed something to look forward to. So did she but she really wanted this more for him.

            Around two the other ladies started heading home; they were all required to be sober for the tea party. Wildflower had never actually been to a tea party and never played tea party as a child. Carmen just said it was going to be boring but they had to dress up like rich snobs and sip tea and eat tiny sandwiches and pastries. Since Katrina was trying to do something nice she was going to pretend to like it. In another week she would be her sister-in-law so it would be easier for them to get alone. Rosa would be there and Martha, so it would be interesting at least. Caroline was the last to go, she seemed to be hesitating leaving.

            “Is everything ok?” Wildflower asked her and she nodded meekly.

            “No, Delanoz broke up with me,” she said bursting into tears.

            “Let’s go talk in the kitchen,” Wildflower said taking her hand. Apparently she wasn’t going to get any sleep tonight, though she was the one to keep Carmen from saying something to Caroline. It was obvious how fragile the girl was.

            “I thought if I came here to meet your family I could find a way to get him back,” Caroline admitting. They sat down at the table and she kept crying.

            “Um Caroline, did he say why he wanted to break up with you?”

            “No, he just said it wasn’t going to work. It was such a huge change, before we were looking at rings,” she cried. A few seconds were needed for Wildflower to come out of shock.

            “I think it might be for the best, Delanoz has a lot of growing up to do. His relationships usually end badly and I um know your family wouldn’t accept him,” Wildflower said as gently as she could.

            “What do you know about my family? They have him all wrong, they are mistaken,” Caroline said through her tears.

            “No they aren’t,” Carmen said when she came in. “Stay the hell away from Delanoz before you end up like your sister. I knew Hannah and we had been friends until my pig of a brother went after her. Go back home to your sisters and your parents before they are filing a missing persons report on you.”

            “Carmen,” Wildflower said giving her a look.

            “No, I’m not going to keep being nice about this she is stupid. We all know that her sisters told her what he did and I’m sure the parents too. You keep trying to hang around Delanoz you will end up dead, you both need to grow up,” Carmen said.

            “He’s not like that he wouldn’t hurt anybody,” Caroline said pathetically.

            “Call up the mothers of his eleven children and ask if he hurt them. Hey and while you’re at it just go Google his name, you can find out about “accidents” that lead to deaths of women he was involved with. The one about Tracy, she was pregnant and “fell” down the stairs, that’s a good place to start,” Carmen said angrily.

            “Caroline, it is true,” Wildflower said. The poor girl looked back and forth between them devastated. “Do want me to call one of your sisters to come get you? They have been looking for you worried.”

            “No,” she shook her head. “It was nice of you to let me join in your celebration and I wish you the best Wildflower.”

            “How are you getting home?” Carmen asked looking as concerned as Wildflower felt, this girl did not need to be alone.

            “I could call a taxi,” she said staring at the table with tears still streaming down her face.

            “No, we can call your sisters and I’m sure they will come for you. What’s the number?” Wildflower asked.

            “Um I don’t know I can’t think right now,” she replied.

            “Go look on Nicky’s computer, he might have a file or something,” Carmen told her. “I’ll stay with her.”

            “Ok,” Wildflower nodded and got up from the table.

            Quickly she went up to the office and turned on the desktop, she was surprised that his lap top wasn’t on the desk. As luck would have it there was a file labeled “Mandrakes” so she clicked on it. There were phone numbers, current and last known addresses and alias and there were photos new and old. What distracted her was a file labeled “Penny”, she was nosey so she clicked on it. Inside were pictures of a young girl, a copy of her birth certificate and medical records and a side by side comparison picture of the girl and Delanoz. Which meant that this girl obviously was child number 12, that wasn’t really that shocking. What amazed her was that obviously Nicolas could get any and all information on any and everybody. No wonder he said he could make her stripper past go away, he could do anything. Later she could snoop through his computer at her leisure; she pulled up the list of numbers. There were three names Tina, Heather and Sadie. At random she chose Heather and dialed the number on her cell phone.

            “Hello?” A sleepy voice asked into the phone.

            “Um, hi I’m sorry to call you so late but your sister Caroline is at my house and she’s really upset,” Wildflower said. This was beyond awkward.

            “Oh God, is she ok?” Heather asked sounding suddenly awake and concerned.

            “She is fine, I promise but um she really needs you right now.”

            “Who are you? How did you even get this number?” Heather asked switching to suspicious, but it was understandable.

            “Um ok from what I hear you aren’t too friendly with my fiancé or his family but Caroline is here,” she said. There was a long pause on the other end of the phone.

            “You are Nicolas’ fiancé? Is this some type of trick?”

            “No, tonight we had a party and Caroline came because she was dating Delanoz or whatever and she met one of his daughters so she wanted to hang out with us. But she told me he broke up with her and she’s in my kitchen right now crying. And well Carmen and I thought it would be best for her to come back to you,” she sighed and paused. “Look I know you have been looking for her and I swear I never saw her until today. Maybe I could bring her to you or meet you somewhere, I just thought it would be best before Nick and Jose get home.”

            “By home do you mean that massive mansion?”

            “Yes,” she answered.

            “I’ll come there then, if she is really there,” Heather said hesitantly.

            “I promise I’m not trying to trick you or anything,” she paused again unsure. “My sister died and um I know you’ve lost you sister and I wouldn’t hurt Caroline. She seems like a nice person that just got a little confused.”

There was a very long pause and she almost thought Heather hung up, it probably wasn’t the right thing to say. But it was the truth and she understood them to a point, she would have never given up searching for Daisy or Iris or any of her brothers. And she couldn’t let Delanoz destroy this girl any more then he already did. She also knew that Nicolas must have talked his brother into breaking up with her, which was a good thing. It was better to be in tears with a broken heart than dead and buried.

“Thank you,” Heather whispered. “I’m on my way over.”

“Ok, see you soon,” she said and hung up.

This was a good thing she was doing, but part of her wished she could do more. Delanoz deserved to be punished for what he did but so did Emilio. She wanted to believe that Delanoz might have done the right thing back then if not for his father. It could have been that after he was allowed to get away with literally murder, that he couldn’t help himself. She was never going to understand how Emilio could let his son that admittedly liked to rape women out of the house unattended. What he should have done was lock him away when it started but in trying to avoid a scandal women lost their lives, were traumatized and physically, psychologically and emotionally scarred. And then there were those poor kids that had to call him their father. So much pain and suffering could have been avoided if only Emilio had been responsible for his son. It wasn’t all his fault but he could have prevented it, especially after Hannah was killed.

Sometimes she wished she didn’t know the things she did. And sometimes she wasn’t sure why she was marrying into this family. It was a really bad idea, no matter how much she loved Nicolas and the kids. His brother was dangerous, his parents hated her, his sister’s ex-husband was murderous and the list went on. People were afraid of Nicolas, his siblings, his parents and basically the whole family. Yes she knew he would do anything to protect his family and that included covering up crimes. Maybe she was thinking about this because she was marrying him in less than a week now. What was going to happen when they had children? His parents hated her and thought of her as nothing but a gold-digger. Then there was her mother that was very upset with her.

Instead of dwelling on everything that was wrong in this world she now lived in, she went back down to the kitchen. Caroline was still crying and cried harder when she told her that Heather was coming. It was really late and she was wondering if the guys were coming home at all. At least on the bright side she was going to be completely sober and not hung over at all for the tea party. However she could not say for sure that she wouldn’t over sleep or show up half dead. Tonight was just the night of unexpected things and she just wanted it over and to sleep.

 

Nicolas got home before the sun came up, just barely. He dragged himself up to bed, Wildflower was of course asleep. Obviously she had been exhausted when she got in bed too because her dress was lying on the floor beside the bed and she was laying there in her underwear. Why there was pain on the dress and in her hair he did not know and was too tired to care. So he undressed and got in bed, she rolled over so he could hold her. For once he actually was too tired to even want to have sex with her.

“I solved a problem for you,” she said without opening her eyes.

“What?” He asked half falling asleep.

“Caroline went back to her sisters,” she said. That woke him back up.

“How would you know that?”

“Carmen invited her to the party and she was her crying over Delanoz breaking up with her. And Carmen told her how stupid she was being and I called Heather to come get her. So she’s gone.”

“You let Heather in the house?”

“Just for a little while.”

“That was a bad idea.”

“Yeah well I did what you couldn’t.”

“We’ll talk about this later.”

“Uh huh and we can talk about why you’re home so late.”

He chose not to reply to that, he should have come home hours ago. This was one conversation he needed to avoid. But he was amazed that she did something he couldn’t. Thinking was too hard so he went to sleep, later he could figure out a good excuse.

 

Wildflower was up and dressed and ready to go at one in the afternoon. It had taken 20 minutes to get all the paint out of her hair and then she had to attempt to blow dry it, it was still a little wet so she pulled it up. She actually had to wear make-up to hide those dark circles under her eyes, usually she was too lazy. The dress she was wearing was thankfully already out and pressed and ready. It was just a simple white dress with a floral pattern and put on a cardigan with it and sunglasses. She resented the fact that she was up and dressed and Nicolas was still in bed asleep.

“I’m leaving,” she told him after she hit him with a pillow.

“Bye,” he grumbled hiding his head under a pillow.

“You better get a shower before I get back,” she told him. “You smell like strippers and change the sheets.”

“Stay here, I have a headache,” he replied.

“Hangover is more like it and I have to go,” she said pulling the pillow off his head. The room was really bright; it was a nice sunny day out.

“Sex is good for hangovers.”

“Only in your mind, I’m leaving so I’ll see you later,” she said. She bent down to kiss him and then she headed out.

It was a good thing there was a limo waiting to take them over to the hotel with the tea room that she couldn’t remember the name to. Carmen fell asleep on the way, none of them wanted to go to this party. Nobody really spoke; they were all wearing sunglasses too. And it was a rare thing for Brooke to actually be quiet but she was leaning her head on Christina’s shoulder. Even Sonya and Marli the college girls were worn out. But it had been an eventful night; at least they all got more sleep than Wildflower.

When they arrived Katrina stared at the group of them like they were crazy. Wildflower wasn’t sure why she hadn’t come to the party last night bit it was probably because she thought she was too good for their party. The thought of Katrina playing in paint was really funny, she was way too uptight. Proven by this tea party. The guests were aunts and cousins in the Capriani family, most of them she met only the one time. Carlynn, Persephone and Kati were the only ones she really knew, so this was going to be kind of weird. Being tired didn’t help much because it made it really hard to remember names. This was just a bad idea. Rosa was there glaring at her and looking disapproving like she expected. They sat down and Katrina got up and was saying something, this was going to be a long day.

 

Nicolas got out of bed after 3 in the afternoon and went to take a shower. After he took some Tylenol and wished it would make his head stop pounding. It was way too bright out today, like the sun was punishing him. There were reasons he didn’t really go out and he didn’t drink enough to get drunk. Last night he went somewhere pass drunk and he was paying for it now. The door to his bedroom opened to reveal Jose who looked amused, lie always.

“What are you doing?” Jose asked.

“What does it look like dumb a*s?”

“Why are you changing your own sheets, isn’t that what you have maids for?”

“Wildflower asked me to,” he replied. “Apparently last night her and Carmen convinced Caroline to go back to her sisters and Heather came here to get her.”

“What was she doing here?”

“She went to their little party and I don’t know all the details but she is gone.”

“Guess you picked the perfect partner in crime,” Jose shook his head. “Anyway I’m heading out; I have to get to the airport.”

“Why do you keep seeing her if she told you she doesn’t want to be with you?”

“Would you let Wildflower go?”

“No, but she wants to marry me. You’re acting like the doctor.”

“We all have our weaknesses,” Jose shrugged. “A week is better than no time at all, I’ll see you later.” With a wave he left.

Jose was a funny person, everybody always thought he was a flake and he liked people to think that. He also had all these girlfriends and made people think he was always in love. But since Nicolas knew him better than anyone else he knew the only reason his brother was with so many different women was because the one he wanted he couldn’t have. Nicolas would never have accepted that but Jose had his reasons. It was just sad to see how he was over this woman that just kept stringing him along. Women were nothing but trouble. He knew if he was in the same situation he would probably do anything to spend time with Wildflower.

            Parts of last night were actually fuzzy and that was bad, he never drank to the point of forgetting things. What he did remember he didn’t like. That stripper, Mindy or something like that, he remembered her. After this he never wanted to drink again, but he knew he would. Instead of going downstairs to get something to eat he decided to just go back to bed, today would just be a lost day.

 

 

            Jose was really stupid and he knew it. But here he was waiting at the airport for her. When she saw him she smiled, she was so beautiful. It wasn’t fair that she refused him all five times he asked her to marry him and the probably 50 times he asked her to at least live with him or in the same state as him. This had been going on for years, but I couldn’t give her up. Not completely anyway and she obviously felt the same. A week with her was way better than the months it had been since he last saw her.

            He pulled her into his arms and kissed her. For someone who didn’t want to be with him she sure didn’t act like it when they were together. The excuses were getting old and tired and he really needed a real reason she wouldn’t be with him. She still wore the engagement ring he bought her two years ago on a chain around her neck. Yet she wouldn’t marry him, live with him or even be in a relationship with him. But she called him in the middle of the night if she couldn’t sleep and just wanted to hear the sound of his voice. That was why he tried not to spend the night with the women he had sex with. And when he was in a relationship it didn’t really matter he would still talk to her.

            “I love you,” he told her. She was the only woman he ever said that to.

            “I love you too,” she said and kissed him. “You got my bag already? J you are amazing, let’s go so you can feed me and then I need a shower.”

            “Jas,” he started unsure of what to say to her anymore.

            “What? You think I need to shower first?” She asked staring up at him; she twirled the ring absently on the chain.

            “Uh it’s good to see you, I missed you a lot,” he said.

            “Oh baby I missed you too, but its ok we’ll be together for a whole week.”

            “Yeah,” he nodded.

            “So you have to tell me about the party last night,” she said. They were walking to the door he was pulling her suitcase behind him. “Was it really wild?”

            “Not too crazy,” he shrugged.

            “Something wrong?” She asked staring at him, searching his eyes.

            “No,” he lied and continued on.

            He knew everything about her and loved it all. She liked to drink milk before going to bed because when she was little her mom told her it kept the monsters away and it became a habit. And he knew that there were streaks of red in her wavy chocolate hair and he loved staring into her honey colored eyes. This woman was everything to him and even though he knew she loved him back, they were not together. Jasmine Black was going to be the death of him and if he could see her for just a second, he welcomed death.

 

 

            Wildflower was exhausted after that boring party. All she wanted to do was get in bed and thank God she would never have to do that again. Rosa was really annoying and she really had wanted to throw something at her. They gave her gifts and none of it was anything she was probably going to use. The lingerie she got last night she planned to use on her honeymoon. When she walked into her bedroom to find Nicolas still in bed she wanted to hit him. It wasn’t fair that he got to sleep while she sipped nasty tea and pretended to be interested in a harpist. Katrina was definitely trying to kill her with boredom and it almost worked. At least she didn’t fall asleep like Carmen did and snored. That had been the best part of the whole thing.

            “Have fun?” Nicolas asked opening his eyes.

            “Hell no, your sister is so boring and Carmen went to sleep,” she told him. She kissed him and then went into the closet to change.

            “Come get in bed,” he called to her.

            “I am, I just need to get this dress off,” she replied.

            She hung her dress up and put on sweat pants and a t-shirt, the rest of the day she was going to sleep. Nobody needed her for any reason anyway. There was food the kids could feed themselves, or at least everybody could accept Carmen’s little ones. But they were not her responsibility, which was the good thing about having teenagers. On her way out of the closet she picked up the clothes Nicolas wore last night and left in the middle of the floor. With so many brothers it was a habit to check pockets before putting things in the dirty clothes basket. He was good about not leaving things in his pockets but he did throw his clothes on the floor. Spoiled rich kid, she thought shaking her head.

            It was surprising when she did find something in the pocket. She sort of froze when she found the thong in his pocket. There was also a piece of paper with a number on it. Mindy it said and this was obviously Mindy’s thong. Nicolas was calling her and begging her to come get in bed. She went out and held the thong up for him to see, he looked guilty.

            “Anything you want to tell me about last night?” She asked, for once he didn’t have an answer and that was pretty clear.

 

Reviews

[deeps]

Jam packed with amazing action in this. I thought it was cute in places as well. Very well written.
Love all the imagery you used and teh details it pulls the reader inward to see more. This is
very well written.