Lawfully Courageous

Chapter 3

They ended up skipping their ice cream date and driving straight to Sergio's condominium in his patrol car.

"I'll make it up to you, kid," Sergio promised his son.

"There's no need to start writing out IOU's," Sal assured hastily. "We have ice cream in the freezer. I made sure of it when I went grocery shopping yesterday."

They stepped inside the house, and she paused to kiss her finger and press it to the tip of Davy's nose while Sergio bolted the front door. "I bought extra toppings, too."

"Gummy worms?" he asked hopefully.

"You betcha." She smiled widely while catching Sergio's eye over his son's head. "Guess I'm not wow-ing you out with my parenting skills. Filling your kiddo full of sugar instead of dinner."

"Our kiddo," Sergio corrected, swooping in to steal a kiss from his new bride. "Plus, it's Christmas Eve. I've always been told calories don't count during the holidays."

"Mm-hm. That sounds like sound medical science." Sal kissed him back, making it impossible for him to think for several seconds.

"Gross!" Davy exclaimed. "Are you guys going to kiss a lot now that you're married?"

Heck, yeah! Sergio grinned down at his son. You'll understand someday, kid.

Sal pressed her hands to Sergio's cheeks to give him one last kiss. "Don't worry, Davy. We're mostly going to eat ice cream and play board games. Oh, and maybe watch a Christmas movie this evening."

* * *

Davy only lasted a couple of hours. Then he dozed off on the couch in the middle of their movie.

"Why don't you leave him?" Sal urged at a whisper. She reached for the blanket on the back of the couch, unfolded it, and tucked it around the small boy's shoulders. Then she bent to kiss his forehead. "He told me he doesn't like being alone in his room anymore."

Sergio nodded. Davy still acted like a cheerful six-year-old during the daytime. Ever since his abduction, however, he'd been struggling with all sorts of fears and phobias at night. At Sal's suggestion, they'd hired a therapist who was working diligently with Davy to help him cope with everything he'd had to endure. "I'll leave the Christmas tree lights on for him." It would be pretty exciting for the boy to wake up on Christmas morning with his gifts no more than ten feet away from where he'd slept.

Sal walked ahead of Sergio to his bedroom which they would now be sharing. She'd changed out of her wedding gown earlier and donned a pair of red jeans. She'd paired it with a cheeky pullover green sweater that had gossamer snowflakes embroidered all over it it.

Sergio quietly shut the bedroom door behind them and leaned against it. "You're so beautiful."

Sal shot him a wry smile over her shoulder. "You don't have to drown me in compliments, Sergio. I think I'm pretty well aware of the kinds of women you find attractive."

His jaw dropped at the sarcasm in her voice. "Is that so, chica?" He pushed away from the door and advanced on her.

"Si. You married a redhead; and, most recently, you dated a blonde," she said in a wistful tone. The blonde she was referring to, of course, was Sergio's brief crush on her friend, Coco Winslet, the town veterinarian.

"That wasn't most recently," he corrected. "Most recently, I married a dark-haired Señorita, who also happens to be the only woman I've ever loved." There was no point in hiding that fact now that they were married. It was a relief getting the secret off his chest at long last.

She caught her breath. "Sergio, you don't have to—"

"Apparently, I do, because you seem to require a little convincing," he chuckled as he reached her, stooping to sweep her up in his arms and twirl her around a few times.

She squealed in surprise and clung to his neck.

"Look at me, chica," he demanded in a low, husky voice. "I have loved you since the day we met. I just couldn't do anything about it, because you belonged to someone else."

She touched her forehead to his. "There were times I suspected you cared, because there was always something special between us. But when you didn't make any moves the entire year after I became widowed, I thought maybe I had imagined something that wasn't there."

"It wasn't your imagination." He nuzzled the corner of her mouth. "Like you said, there was always something between us, but even after you become available, I feared you would never see me as anything more than a brother-in-law. I didn't want to just keep being friends. I wanted this." He sealed his mouth over hers.

She kissed him back, warm lips moving beneath his, giving and taking, cherishing, worshipping...

"It would have been easier to send you away," he explained between kisses, "than having to see you every day and not be able to hold you, kiss you, and love you."

"I think a part of me has always been yours, Sergio," she whispered. "Now, all of me is yours."