Wilde Bonus Scene

Amy

“How did you guys meet?”

I stare across the dinner table at my daughter, then glance at Leo. She has my eyes and his hair—well…the hair he had when we met. Nowadays, there’s a lot more salt thrown in with the pepper.

“I did your mom’s tattoo.” Leo tosses me a look that says, ‘That’s not all I did.’ A few years ago, Hailey would have missed it, but at seventeen, she’s catching more than I would like her to lately.

“Dad…” She rolls her eyes and looks to me, mortified.

Thankfully, her little brother Matthew is at soccer practice, because he catches these things even faster than she does, though I have no idea how.

“He did a great job with the tattoo.” I beam at my husband as I raise my wrist. “And it was love at first sight and they all lived happily-ever-after.”

Hailey grins while Leo guffaws. “Is that what you call it? Love at first sight?” He rakes a hand through his hair and leans his elbows on the table. “Because I’m pretty sure you hated me there for a while.”

“I mean, we had a rocky start, and if I remember, you weren’t always thrilled with me either, but we’ve made up for it over the years.” I pass the salad bowl to Leo, who helps himself to a serving, then passes it along to Hailey.

“You guys are like, the most in love people I’ve ever met,” she says as she scoops salad onto her plate. “I love how you’re always kissing in the kitchen when you think I can’t see. Bethany’s parents aren’t like that at all. I’m not even sure they like each other.”

“We know you can see. We just don’t care.” Leo leans over to thread his hands into my hair and kiss me. Even after all these years, the heat is still there. I close my eyes and breathe in the memories of our life together. Building the house and turning it into a home. Reconnecting with Leo’s family and letting them become mine. Raising Hailey and Matthew with the man of my dreams as he built his career into everything he ever dreamed it could be.

“All right, you guys. Enough.” Hailey groans and stabs a tomato out of her salad, popping it into her mouth. “I can just see it, though. Mom goes in for a tattoo. Dad loses his mind when he sees her and asks her on a date on the spot.” She sighs dreamily as she chews.

An image of Leo, leaning against the wall by the door of Inked, looking cool and confident and filled to the brim with his fuck-the-world attitude flashes through my mind. “I just knew there was something special about him.”

“Yeah.” He waggles his eyebrows and sits back, throwing his arm over the back of the chair. “I was hot, and you couldn’t wait to get some.”

Hailey’s jaw drops. “Dad!”

“Leo!” I widen my eyes as I put down my fork. “Don’t embarrass her.”

“Oh, come on. It’s my job to embarrass her. And I was hot.” He flashes me a grin and I can’t help but return it.

“You still are. I don’t know how you do it, but you get more distinguished every year.” I love the streaks of gray at his temples, the flecks of silver in his beard. They only make him more attractive.

Hailey rolls her eyes and reaches for the basket of homemade bread. It’s something I’ve really come to love, kneading and shaping the dough, knowing my family has something delicious to eat because of the effort I put in. “So he asked you out, then what?”

“Well…” I pause, wondering how much to tell her, then decide I have nothing to hide. Not from a seventeen-year-old and not when our life turned out to be so magical. “Then you happened.”

My daughter cocks her head and I watch as she understands my meaning. “Mom!” Her hand flies to cover her mouth. “On the first date?”

“I’d spent my whole life following the rules and wanted to spice things up. At the time, I pretty much panicked because I hadn’t intended life to get that spicy. But now? I wouldn’t change a thing.”

“You think that’s a shocker? I beat up a guy for your mom.” Leo takes a drink of water and waits for his bombshell to land. “Put him right in the hospital.” He puffs his chest and stretches his arms overhead like he still has a right to be proud of that behavior.

Hailey puts down her fork and sits back in her chair. “How did I not know any of this? I feel like I don’t even know you two!”

Over the last seventeen years, our life has settled into something wonderful. Leo turned Inked Logan into an institution. Celebrities fly from all over to get his art on their skin while Inked LA has become a force in its own right. Fatherhood agreed with him, and as he continued to heal the rift between him and his family, the wonderful man I saw hiding behind all that hurt emerged. The pain dissolved and sure, he’s still cocky and can be prickly when he’s tired, but mostly he’s just plain wonderful.

The studios did so well, I never felt the need to use my degree in graphic design. Instead, I focused on raising our kids, learning to cook, and helping out with the horses on the ranch. I drew in my free time, enjoying the freedom that comes from letting a passion stay a hobby.

All that purpose I was missing when I first met Leo has flooded into my life. It’s in my children. My husband. My father and my in-laws. It’s in making a wonderful life for the people who matter to me.

I look at my daughter. “That was one of the rocky parts. When Leo put that guy in the hospital, I thought we wouldn’t make it. He lived in LA after that for what?” I turn to my husband. “Two months?”

“It felt like a lifetime without you. That’s all I know.”

“See how smooth he is?” I ask Hailey. “I was doomed from the start.”

She shakes her head. “So, let me get this straight. My super strait-laced, Betty Crocker mom went in for a tattoo and slept with a guy she’d just met and got pregnant. And my dad, who is like, the most patient man I’ve ever met—”

Leo raises an eyebrow.

“I mean, sure, you lose your temper, but you always apologize and explain why you got mad afterwards. You treat me with respect. All my friends are jealous.”

“That’s because I’m so good looking.”

“Anyway…SuperMom was a floozy and SuperDad put a guy in the hospital. And Grandma Wilde was okay with all this? What about Grandpa Sinclair? I’m sure he lost his mind.”

“The first night they met, I was afraid they were gonna fight.”

“Dad and Grandpa?” Hailey’s jaw drops. “Fighting?”

Leo scoffs. “It wasn’t that bad.”

“Try being the one watching it. It was bad.” I shrug. “But I’m so disgustingly happy with the way things turned out.”

“Disgustingly happy is the way I’d describe it, too,” Hailey says. “I hope I end up just like you.” Her eyes glitter with humor, a Wilde trait if I ever saw one, though I have no idea what trap she thinks she’s laid.

“I hope you end up like me too.”

“I plan on it. I mean, I’ve been taking notes. Sleep with some rando with a tattoo gun. Stick around after he tries to fight with Dad…”

“Hailey Joan!” I laugh.

“What? That’s basically how you guys ended up so happy, right?” Her laugh tells me she’s messing with me just the way her dad’s always does.

“I’d say we ended up this happy despite our rocky start, not because of it.”

“Yep.” Leo strokes his chin as he bobs his head. “I think your safest bet is to stay celibate until you’re twenty-four. No. Twenty-five. No. Thirty-five? That sounds reasonable, doesn’t it?”

“Sure. Yeah. Totally reasonable.” She stands to clear her dish. “Oh, hey! Bethany wanted to hang out tonight. I told her I thought that’d be fine, we were gonna go to Plinky’s and grab a milkshake and then, I don’t know, maybe stop in and get a tattoo?”

“Yes on the milkshake. No on the tattoo. Tell Bethany we said hi.”

Hailey helps with the dishes then heads out for a night with friends, leaving Leo and me with some alone time before Matthew finishes soccer practice. He reaches for my hand, pulling me close and snaking an arm around my waist.

“Have I told you lately how perfectly happy you make me?”

“Not for the last hour or so.”

“Then I’m failing.” His fingers trail lightly across my cheek as his eyes caress mine. “You make me so fucking happy, Amy Wilde. I’m the luckiest man in the world.”

“I’m pretty damn lucky myself.”

Leo tugs me toward the bedroom, a sly smile tugging at his lips. “And you’re about to get even luckier. Come on, Skips. Let’s remember how this whole thing started…with crazy life-altering sex that had you begging for more.”

I pause in the doorway. “Let’s not alter life too much. I’m pretty content the way things are.”

“Of course you are. That’s what you get when you finally let loose and get Wilde.”

I want to laugh. To tell him he’s so corny, he’s ridiculous. But my husband pulls me in for a kiss so hot, so sensuous, I forget everything but him.

Just the way it’s always been.