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“Good morning.”
Liam greeted the receptionist of Fashion View, whoshe was making eyes at him.
“Shall Can I take a picture with you?” Aasked the girl nervously and then felt ashamed of her behavior. “I’m sorry. Good morning.”
She kept smiling.
“Shall we take it?” asked Liam amused.
“Yes,” the girl bounced up and down with excitedment. They took almost a dozen of photos, and when Liam saw that she was about to start with the second dozen, he stopped her.
“I was hoping to see Mrs. Collins.”
“I’ll tell her secretary right away.
Liam was a bundle of nerves.
He was trying to think when was the last time he had met the family of a girlwoman he was dating, but his mind kept going blank.
There wasn’t a last time, because there had never been a first one. His romancestic partners, if they could be called like that, used to leave as fast as they arrived.
Sometimes, they even left faster than they had arrived.
But that wasn’t the case with Eve, and although he had met her mother at a business meeting, Liam he had no idea of what to expect with Agnes Collins as the mother of the woman who was expecting his child and to whom he was going to propose that very night.
He trembled.
But wWell, it couldn’t be that bad, what was the worst thing that could happen?
They could kill me, he thought.
But no, that was impossible. That good family would not leave an unborn child without a father.
No.
If Eve erawas adorable and Cameron was charming, their parents had to be good people, right?
Liam remembered his own mother, who was nothing like him.
Please may his parents be charming.
He remindedembered the phrase that Sean had told him before making things up with the most important women in his life: Love changes people.
ItSean was right. It had changed him deeplycompletely!
The boysguys in the band were always sending kisses to Eve. They were grateful as they were to to her for changing Liamthe vocalist in such a radical way. They used to joke saying that if they had known that everything between them would end like that, they would have looked for her a couple of years before when Liam started giving to the press much more scandalous material than usual.
Even Cole was happy for him, despite the fact that Liam had thought he would reproach him for having reformed and becoming a faithful man. On the contrary, Cole had been the one who celebrated it the most, with more alcohol, more blondes, and more sex than all the others.
Liam smiled remembering that.
In another moment of his life, he Liam would have thought that Cole was a lost cause, but after all that he’d been through, he Liam was convinced that the right womanone for him would appear at anysome time duringof his life.
“Good morning, Mr. Woods, what can I do for you?”
Agnes Collins’s secretary took pulled him out of his thoughts.
He extended his hand to greet her properly.
“Good morning, Carol. I’m here to see Mrs. Collins.”
“Oh! I’llYou’ll have to apologize her since right now she is on a conference call with the magazine extensions in Europea and Latin America. I can make you an appointment,” the girl finished with a diplomatic smile.
“I have the whole day to wait for her. I need to talk about something important with her.”
“I can leave her a message.”
Liam smiled.
“Carol, I understand that you want to do your job in the best way possible, but I won’t move until I can talk to Mrs. Collins in person,” Liam thought of a good move, “It’s about Eve.”
“Oh! Has anything happened to her? I’ll shallcall Agnes immediately....”
“Calm down.” the vocalist stopped her before she interrupted heris future mother-in-law. “I can wait. Just tell me when the conference call ends.”
She nodded and glanced at her watch.
“Just five more minutes.”
“Damn it!” Liam thought he would have a little more time.
He could feel his heart pounding.
“Are you alright? You seemed to have become pale.”
The receptionistShe was very observant.
“Everything’s okay.”
Liam tried to smile and clear his voice, but he failed in everything. His smile showed the same nervousness asthan the sound of his voice.
Carol askedsummoned him to follow her.
“Hey!” The receptionist called him in a whisper while Carol walked away. “Don’t call her Mrs. Collins, she hates that.”
Liam approached the womanthe receptionist and gave her a kiss. It left her astounded which left her hypnotized and caressing her cheek.
“Thanks,!” Liam winked at her and ran to run toCarol who was waiting for him.
“You can go in.”
The girl Carol opened the door which gave way to the office of the powerful Agnes Collins.
Liam had just entered when he understood why Eve enjoyed having good views in her house. Thate office had an amazing panoramic viewa which would have served as a great inspiration for creating new melodiessongs.
“Good morning, Mrs.” Liam cleared his throat at the look of weariness he received from the woman as soon as he called her Mrs. “Agnes, Good morning, Agnes.”
“Mr. Woods. How can I help you?” Agnes’s expression changed woman changed her expression to a kind smile while she stretched his handthey shook hands.
“Ahhh you’ll see, I....” Liam took a deep breath. “It’s just...”
She looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
And started showing him a sarcastic smile.
Was she making fun of him?
“You need to calm down a little, Mr. Woods,” Agnes called her secretary. “Carol, please, bring us a good coffee, a big one, because it seems that this is going to take a while.”
“Make it three,” Liam added looking at Agnes. “Mr. Collins should be present in this conversation.”
The smile erased from Agnes’ face and she called her husband, who arrived in no time and duly introduced himself to Liam.
Bob greeted his wife with a sweet kiss that made Liam feel like he was floating.
Corny as that may sound.
Seeing a couple who still kept the flame of love alive despite all the years spent together, that’s what he wanted with Eve.
Carol entered with the coffees.
“What’s the meeting about?” asked Bob Collins when the girlCarol left them alone.
“Mr. Woods was about to explain that to us.”
Liam felt like he was about to faint.
Come on Liam, act like a man.
He cleared his throat.
“You see, some a few months ago, Eve and I started with this community service thing and,” he took a deep breath, “one thing led to another... and to another... and it turns out that,” Liam felt as if his heart were going to escape through his mouth, “Eve and I are going to be parents.”
Bob Collins spat out his coffee over the spotless table at which they were sitting, and Agnes Collins seemed to be in shock.
Mrs. Collins started chuckling nervously.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t want to say it that way. I am...” Liam didn’t understand clearly what was going on, but the Collins stood up and hugged him as if they had been a couple of teenagers excited because they have just been given their first car, and then, they made him stand up too tto hug him. Mrs. Collins kissed him nonstop.
“It’s just that I can’t cope with all this happiness!”
“I’m very confused, Agnes. I’m really am.”
Agnes laughed again at Liam’s comment.
“I thought that...”
“What did you think, Liam?” Agnes asked holding the man’s face in her hands. “I was suspicious that there was something going on between you. I know my daughters a lotwell. Sometimes even more than themselves.”
“I’m going to have a new baby at home.” Bob Collins almost took leaps of happiness.
“My husband has Peter Pan syndrome. I’m sorry for his behavior.” the woman looked at him in that dreamy way in which sometimes Eve looked at him. She took a lot took after her mother.
The mother of the woman he loved looked at him in the eye.
“I see that you’ve changed.”
“She has changed me, Agnes, and I feel lucky for that.”
“Do you love her?”
Liam felt a lump in his throat.
He nodded.
“Just as much as I love the child we are going to have.”
Agnes hugged him very strongly.tightly.
And Bob did the same.
“Welcome to the family, boy!” the man Bob told him while he patted hisLiam’s back.
“Does she know that you are here?”
“No, and I need your help.” Liam looked at her with his eyes wide open, both his mother-in-law and himself knew that Eve cwould get annoyed if she found out about that move of her her future husband actions.
Yes, for that reason he had taken a riskthat risk. It was all part of a master plan to propose to the woman of his life.
***
“How do I look?”
Eve got out walked out ofof the room dressed in a plain black skirt suit.
“You seem to be dressed for a funeral.”
Eve looked at Liamhim, confused. Men didn’t understand anything of fashion, even a rock star as he was.
“I’m have aing dinner at my mother’s house.”
“And do you always dress like that for goingwhen you go to dinner at your mother’s? Should I wear a smoking jacket?”
Eve smiled nervously.
“No and no.”
“Come here.” Liam stretched out his arm for her to approach. “Can you calm down? You’re making me more nervous.”
Eve nodded. Liam had no idea of the nerves that had taken over her stomach that day.
He kissed her forehead.
“Dress up as you would for an occasion like this.”
EveThe girl turned around and started getting undressed in the living room.
“Go to the bedroom, or you are not leaving this place.”
“Okay.”
Eve ran to the bedroom and Liam could hear the wardrobecloset door opening and closing several times.
“Now?”
“There you go.” Eve was wearing dark jeans, a casual cotton shirt t-shirt, and a light jacket. Perfect.
“Are you going to tell me what’s in the bag?”
Eve was referringreferred to the black bag he had placed on the kitchen counter.
“No.”
She had almostbarely looked inside discovered it. Fortunately, they had first talked about the houses and then they had had some fun with their bodies, so so Eve the girl could forgot about the black bag which contained the biggest surprise for her.
While traveling oin the cab, they stayed silent.
They had taken carried the blood test and the first sonogram with them. The doctor didn’t recommend doing it because the fetus was still very small, but Liam didn’t want to miss anything of his son’s development sincefrom the very moment ithe was conceived. Liam couldn’t contradict the doctor because he still couldn’t understand where the hell was his son in that black hole on the sonogram.
But he knew ithis son was there.
Liam would play the guitar for him or her every day. Julesie would be delighted to take outmake her most melodic tunes to spoil the new member of the Woods - Collins family.
Liam took a deep breath when the driver stopped in front of their destination
“Honey, but whyWhy are do we stopping here?”
He took her by the hand.
“It’s a surprise.”
Liam paid to the driver, got out of the car, and ruan to the side where Eve was getting out in order to help her.
She looked at him with a grim face.
“I’m sorry. From now on, I’m going to be a gentleman, and you will have to deal with that.”
She rolled her eyes, amused.
“Come on.” Liam took her hand, and they gotwalked straight into the elevator of the fancy building.
“Liam! Sstop! Really, my mother is going to kill us for arriving late and not for the pregnancy.”
The man smiled Liam smiled at her happily.
“Relax; we are going to pass all the tests successfully.”
Eve shook her head.
She didn’t understand what they were doing there.
She saw the little black bag that Liam was holding and thought that he was very smart, he had brought jewelrya tofor her mother, and he was going to give it to her that night.
Mmm, he was no fool. Women loved jewelry.
It seemed as if the elevator were never going to reach its destination.
When the doors finally opened, they were confronted with a reinforced security door that had a note stuck on it.
It was Liam’s handwriting.
“‘This is the best for everyone and perfect for Eve.”
EveThe girl felt her heart pounding very fast.
“What is this, Liam?”
He looked at her with raised eyebrows and that smile that she liked so much.
He showed her the bag. Eve took it with trembling hands and, at the same time, Liam took a bunch of keys and opened the door.
Complete darkness.
“Now!” Liam announced, and the lights wentturned on, letting Eve see a something spacethat made her knees tremble.
It wasn’t due to the space itself, because Sshe still didn’t understand what the hell they were doing therewas happening, but because of how surprised Eve was surprised to see all her family there, shouting in unison:
“SURPRISE!”
A couple of emotional tears escaped her eyes, and she started trembling even more when she saqw a poster of the sonogram that said:: Mommy, do you like your new house?
“Is it my birthday?” She saidEve asked nervously. “I don’t understand anything, and how do you know that...”
Liam hugged her and kissed her.
“I went to talk to your parents today.”
Eve couldn’t stop laughing. She felt likeseemed a dumb teenager.
TheyShe was hugged and kissed. Her father danced happily with Cameron, who was She was the only one who would let him do those weird kinds of movementsat in any placewhile dancing.
“How could you buy this house? What if I don’tdidn’t like it?”
“You will love it!” her mother said.
It was incredible how Liam had conqueredwon her mother over in like... twelve hours?
He was a special man.
“Come, there is more.” Liam led her through the house, and each corner of it induced her to stay there forever. “It doesn’t have the views of your current apartment, but it has this small garden for the baby to play in it without having to get outleave of the house. We are near Central Park, so you can continue with your yoga routines and your office is only two blocks away, which would It will allow you to come home whenever you have spare time. I’m going to take care of the baby while you’re working, and if I have to go on tour, well, we have plenty of aunts and grandparents to take care of him.”
Liam poured out tThe information poured out of Liam all in one go, he was nervous. So was Eve, and a little overwhelmed by the huge surprise, but she felt like she was flying withfor the happiness and love that filled her.
Everything was so perfect that it seemed like a dream.
Her sisters looked at her thrilled.
“There is more!” said Cameron jumping with joy
“More?”
Liam nodded with a wide and naughty smile while he dragged Eve to one of the bedrooms.
Her family followed their stepsthem.
The mentioned bedroom was the closest to the main room, and it was completely dark.
“You have to open your present.”
Right, the present.
Eve opened it. Inside the paper bag, she found a black velvet one, tied gracefully with a turquoise ribbon.
Eve untied the ribbon and reached inside.introduced her hand.
She tookremoved a bunch of keys that hung from a keychain in the shape of a small black cube decorated with a delicate line of diamonds.
The cube had a gap in the middle.
“These are the keys of your new house, if you accept, of course.” Liam smiled nervously and turned on the lights. “And the box, yYou can open the boxit if you accept that,” he pointed behind him.
It was another poster, bigger than the one which hung from the living room wall, and this one said:
‘Mommy, dad wants to marry you. Do you accept?’
Eve couldn’t hold her emotions back any longer, and she burst into tears.
She sprang at Liam. She was trembling and kissed him as if they had been alone.
Keith cleared his throat as a joke.
“We are sorry.” Tthey drew apart ashamed but still holding hands.
The family congratulated them again and celebrated raising their glasses for the couple’s future and for the baby they were expecting.
Eve couldn’t feel more blessed.
She had run into a man who didn’t mind putting on an apron and taking care of their child as long as she felt happy and fulfilled as a woman. Men like him didn’t grow on trees, and as for being so lucky, she promised to the universe to take care of him as the most precious treasure.
Liam was hers. He had always been hersso since the moment he washad turned into her platonic crush love.
Eve smiled and looked at him sweetly.
Now, Liam would be hers forever because she was willing to stop Eve Collins to become Mrs. Eve Woods, the wife of the most special man in the world.