Redemption (The Bet) (2 page)

When
she’d been born at six pounds five ounces, Isabella had been wide-eyed and aware of everything around her. She’d been a sweet child, rarely cried for anything. Dina had been present at the hospital and had been one of the first to hold the twins. The very moment she’d placed Bella in her mother’s arms, Ellie had silently wept.  Her gaze never leaving Bella's perfect little face, she'd pressed a kiss to her little head and christened her Isabella.

"No, sweetheart," she ran a hand beneath her eyes before turning a smile to her worried daughter and granddaug
hter. "I'm fine. More than fine. We are so pleased that you've invited us."

"Mom! Mom! Look
what Grandpa got me!" The birthday girl herself, barefooted and grinning from ear to ear hurried towards them, a ball of copper red fur in her arms. Liam and Eric, Gabe and Ronnie’s children trailed after her with Dylan at their side.

Liam
was older than his brother by a year. With a mop of chestnut brown hair and mischievous dark brown eyes, he was a livewire with the curious nature of a cat. That curiosity always landed him in trouble and poor Eric was always there to take the fall, although their parents knew who the mastermind was.

Seven year old Eric was the complete opposite of his brother. Where
Liam was loud and rambunctious, Eric was more subdued, calm, with a ready smile for everyone. His hair, a lighter shade than his brother's, was cropped short to his head. He had Ronnie's eyes, light brown, caramel in the right lighting.

"Mom
, look!' Sophie's exuberance drew Ellie from her reverie. She blinked a few times trying to see beyond the ball of fur Sophie had shoved in her face. Bella squealed and reached for it, but Sophie pulled it back.

"
It's a puppy!" she bounced on Ellie's lap, looked up at her mother's face and then back at Sophie and the puppy and squealed once more. "We have a puppy! We have a puppy!"

"Yes," she looked at Sophie's hopeful face and rolled her eyes. She was such a sucker. "We have a puppy."

And it was like Christmas again. Bella jumped from Ellie's lap and stood in front of her older sister. "Can I pet her, Sophie?"

"Okay Bell
e, but be careful." Sophie warned before falling to her knees, right at Bella's level so that she could touch the puppy. Liam, Eric, Dylan and the few other children who’d gathered around Sophie, profited from her generosity and petted the puppy.

"What are you going to name it, sweetheart?" Dina asked.

"Let's call her princess!"

Sophie grimaced, before glaring
down at her hopeful sister. "We are not calling him princess. I'm going to call him Grayson." She looked up then, straight at her mother and it was all Ellie could do in trying to get her heart to peel itself off her ribcage, where it had slammed itself seconds ago. Sophie continued to stare at her, her look telling.

"Grayson...Grayson. I like that name." Bella nodded her approval, and Sophie smiled down at her.

"I like it too." She said quietly.

There'd been
 meaning behind that gaze. What the hell was her daughter playing at? For God Sakes, that part of her life was ancient history. Sophie shouldn't have even remembered anything!

"Honey, are you feeling okay?"

She just was overreacting! Finding meaning where there was none. Ellie told herself. Sophie had only looked at her for approval that was all, nothing more.

"I’m...
I’m fine." Nothing more. "I'm fine, Mom." She said again much more convincingly this time.

There was a brief flash and then another. Ellie blinked a few times
to rid her vision of the orangey white globs before focusing on Gabe's grinning face. In his arms he held the cutest little munchkin of them all, sweet little Sabrina Akers.

Rina redefined the word adorable, with her tufts of ginger blond hair, mountainous apple red cheeks, little button nose, cheery red lips that greedily hugged a pacifier, and perfectly round body, decked out in white and pink floral number that looked way too cute for words.

Ronnie whacked her husband's arm, and then stooped down to plant a kiss on both Ellie and Dina's cheeks, respectively. "Hey Ellie...Dina." She greeted. "They weren't too much trouble for you?" No matter how many times Liam and Eric spent the night over Ellie's home Ronnie always asked the same question. Ellie resisted the urge to roll her eyes. As if she didn't have her own hell-raisers to keep them distracted.

"They were perfect little angels." She said, taking Rina from Gabe's arms.
"Hey there baby girl...aren't you just so cute in your little dress?" Ellie cooed.

"Yeah right and I'm Brad Pitt." Gabe said wryly, setting his camera down.

"Dream on lover, dream on." Ellie laughed as Gabe grabbed Ronnie around the waist and jostled her about, both their laughter ringing clear.

"
She’s right Gabe; you're more like a Johnny Depp type. Where's my dad?" Everyone seemed to have congregated to their little group, so Ellie figured her dad should've made an appearance right about now.

Knowing that this was the signal, Dina stood up. "I'll go get him." And the cake! Everyone nodded and watched her disappear. Ronnie claimed Dina's seat beside Ellie.

"Hey, squirt," Gabe said in greeting, tugging one of Sophie's pigtails. "I see your grandfather finally gave you the husky." He greeted Dylan and Bella with hugs and kisses.

Sophie grinned up at Gabe. "Yeah, isn't he cool?"

"His name's Grayson!" Bella added, mindless of the meaning behind that name.

And it shouldn't have h
ad so much meaning behind it but it did.

Gabe's eyebrows flew to his hairline, eyes
wide he chanced a look at his goddaughter, only Ellie refused to look at him. She didn't seem bothered but then again, appearances could be deceiving.

"Why Grayson, Soph?
Why not buddy? Or Captain beefheart?"

Sophie shrugged
. "Grayson sounded like a cool name for a dog."

"You sure you don't…
"

"It's a good name, Gabe," Ellie interceded, giving a Gabe a look that indicated he should
drop the subject. "Grayson's a good name for a dog."

Gabe
grinned; there was double entendre if he'd ever heard one.

"So Ellie, where's Dev?" Ronnie asked.

Devlin Westport was Ellie’s boyfriend of three years. They'd met at a parent-teacher meeting. The physical attraction had been astounding, but it'd taken Devlin some four months of wooing before Ellie conceded to a date.

Devlin had been the epitome
of a perfect gentleman and as guarded as Ellie had been during those first few months of dating him, Devlin eventually wore her down. She hadn't expected anything serious to come out of those dates, but to her surprise, they'd managed to make it last three years. Even after all this time, Devlin still made her stomach do flips.

Gabe, like herself, had been wary of Devlin at first, believing no one deserving of his goddaughter. But he'd eventually warmed up to him when he realized Devlin had been no kid with a dick that needed to be
satiated. At thirty three, Devlin pretty much had life figured out, with a good and focused head on his shoulder. All he'd wanted to do was make Ellie happy and after witnessing that for himself, Gabe gave his complete approval.

Ronnie for her part had been glad that Ellie finally found someone who could love her like she deserved and the fact that Devlin adored Ellie's kids and treated them like his own was an added bonus.

"He had some business he couldn't get out of. But he promised he'd be over later tonight with Roan."

Roan was older than Sophie by three
years; he was as tall and broad as his father and at times just as domineering. Sophie hadn't particular liked him during the first few months of Ellie's fledgling romance. Now they just ignored each other to make their parents happy.

"Happy birthday to you... happy birthday to you...happy birthday to you..."Everyone turned their heads towards the back entrance of the quaint two-family Victorian home and watched as Dina and Phillip walked out together carrying a large
two tiered ice cream cake between them, faces split in happy grins.

The cake was an extravagant beauty of Sophie's latest obsession. Guitars. Of course when Devlin had promised he'd take care of the cake details, Elli
e hadn't imagined he’d take it this far. It was monstrous! So lifelike! Even the candles had a certain flare to them---all twelve of them!

E
veryone gathered around Sophie chiming in their versions of the birthday song as she stared wide eyed at the cake.

"Blow out your candles,
Sophie!" Bella said anxiously, face so close to the candles that Ellie scooped her away.

"Don't forget to make a wish.
" One of Sophie's friends added.

Sophie closed his eyes tight, her face hidden in Grayson's copper coat.

She wanted the man in the pictures her mother kept hidden away to come back to them. She had liked that man. That man had made her mother happy.

The festivities continued late into the afternoon, with games and turns on the trampoline. With the dying sun Ellie sent off the last of her guests with a smile and a "thank you for coming." Closing the door, she leaned back with a drawn out sigh.

Today had been a good day, stressful yes, but good all the same. Her kids had been happy. Ellie smiled as she remembered Sophie's joyful face as she'd unwrapped present after present. There'd been a variety of clothes, a very expansive electric red Fender from Ronnie and Gabe and the puppy she'd received from her grandparents. The laptop Ellie had gifted her with was a perfect accompaniment to the iPod Devlin bought her. Spoiled did not began to describe Ms. Sophie Grace Holbrook.

Ellie was grateful to her parents for giving a helping hand in cleani
ng the backyard before leaving. Gabe and Ronnie had hung around for a bit, before they too took their leave, their brood in tow. It was now just Sophie, Dylan, Bella and herself. The family of four that they'd always been.

They were now all upstairs, taking turns in the shower. Ellie would go up in
a few minutes to tuck them in and kiss them goodnight. It was ritual that was never missed.

The sound of the doorbell had her jumping from the door, recovering quickly, she turned to open it. He was formidable, huge, could easily be mistaken for an athlete if it weren't for the clean cut way he wore those designer suits. He was cut like a Brahma bull, all hard lines, rippl
ing muscles and one hell of a…Ellie cleared her throat. Heat rising to her skin, she stepped aside and allowed Devlin entry.

"Hey, Dev." She greeted, closing the door behind them. "Where's, Roan?"

Devlin wrapped an arm around Ellie's waist, drawing her supple frame against his hard one and plundered lips that were made to be devoured. "I've missed you." Devlin rasped moments later, voice of pure sex had Ellie's knees buckling. Her hold on broad shoulders the only thing keeping her from crumbling.

"M
issed you too." Oh yeah, she missed him a lot. Mindful of the fact that her children could come down at any moment and catch them doing things that should otherwise be kept behind closed doors, Ellie reluctantly pulled away. "We can say how much we've missed each later. Where's your son?" She threaded their fingers together and walked with him to the kitchen.

"With his mother for the week. How was the party?"

"Great, but not the same without you.”

“I missed you.”

 "It's only been a week, Dev." She reasoned, despite the rush of heat prickling along her skin.

Devlin closed the distance between them, cornering Ellie against the kitchen
counter and his hulking frame. "A day is too much." He framed her face with his hands and leaned in for breath-stealing kiss. Ellie opened to him, her lips parting under the assault, giving of herself as she'd wanted to do in his week long absence. Soon they lost themselves in lips, hands and everything in between, coming apart only when Devlin scooped Ellie off her feet and settled her on the kitchen counter. He splayed her out then, like some decadent feast at Dionysus's table, ready to be devoured by the ravenous.

"Mom, can Grayson sleep with…" t
heir ardor instantly cooled with the arrival of Ellie's oldest child.

Ellie pushed away from Devlin, who immediately turned away, facing the kitchen sink, he ran the water and grabbed himself a cold glass of water. Straightening herse
lf Ellie jumped off the counter and peered at Sophie's unsmiling, disapproving face.  All at once, Ellie felt like she was the child as a blush crept to her face. She couldn't have felt worse if the situation called for it.

"Umm...can you give us a second, Soph? You can bring Grayson with
you; I'll be right up, okay?"

"Yeah." She murmured, spinning on her heel to take her leave, without so much as a "Hello." For Devlin.

"I'm sorry," Devlin began. "I should've had more control. Maybe I should leave…"

"No!" Grabbing his big hands, Ellie brought them to her lips. "Don't leave, just go to my room and make yourself comfortable. I'll be in as soon as I can." Devlin was a part of her life-a
 good part of her life that Ellie wanted to keep. She just had to make sure that her kids understood that before things went further.