ONE YEAR LATER
TRISTAN
“Babe, don’t you think this is a little too much?”
I turn around to face Nikkie, just in time to catch her pretty eyes bulging around the room before she straightens her features.
“You don’t like it?” Like a cocky son of a bitch, I spread my arms, walking backwards through the penthouse. The place is bigger than my condo in Monaco and the finish on this place is insane. The kitchen is grand with a marble island in the middle, next to the massive living room that can easily house a big U-couch without clogging the room. The view leads right into the Leidsestraat and I can see myself peering out of the window drinking a cup of coffee in the morning’s we spend in Amsterdam. It’s in the perfect location, only a hundred yards away from the square we had our first date.
“The living room is as big as my old apartment.”
Her hands are planted in her side as she stands firmly on the fishbone floor. She volleys me a look that’s filled with sass, but I see the sparkle dancing around her irises.
She loves this place.
“I know,” I grin, cheeky as fuck. “And it has three bedrooms.”
“We don’t need three bedrooms, Tristan. We’re not going to be here much anyway since we’re moving from country to country nine months of the year.”
I take a few steps to close the distance between us, then grip her hips with my palms as I pull her close to me. “You’re right. We need more.”
“What the hell do we need more for?” She sputters, stifling a laugh.
“For the bunch of kids that we’ll be running around here in a few years?”
Her lashes fly up. “A bunch of kids?”
“Four.”
“Tristan.” She scowls, though a smile creeps around her cheeks. “If this is your way to take away my fear of having kids, you’re failing.”
Ï take her face in my hands, brushing my lips against hers as I breathe her in. The citrusy scent still makes my heart stutter every single time.
“No, this is my way of asking you if you can stop doing something.”
“Yeah?” she muses. “What’s that?”
“Stop taking your birth control.”
A gasp gets sucked into the room before she presses her lips together. I search her features for any fear, but the smile she’s trying to hold back says it all.
“You want to have a baby?”
“I don’t want to have a baby. I want your baby.”
Her shoulder slug, her expression softening with a look that’s one step away from crying. Happy tears I hope.
“Don’t cry, baby.”
She swallows her emotion away. “I think that’s the sweetest thing someone has ever said to me.”
“Sweeter than me proposing to you?”
“No doubt.”
“Sweeter than that excessive speech on our wedding day?”
“You mean the one where you dramatically stood on top of the table with a bottle of Firemen in your hands?” I snort, holding back my grin. “Yes, sweeter than that.”
“So? What do you think? Are you ready to make a mini version of you and me?”
“Yes,” she says, but I can see there’s more on her lips. “But not right now.”
I groan, letting my head roll on my neck before I shove my disappointment aside and throw her a comforting look. “What’s holding you back?”
“We’re having fun right now. You’re doing good with Arzano. You ended the season fourth in the championship and you could possibly win next season. I’m getting more and more clients on the grid. We got momentum.” I want to cut her off to tell her I don’t give a fuck about momentum, but she catches me and lifts her finger to my lips to shut me up. “And before you blurt out ‘I don’t care’, I do. I want to have your baby. More than anything. But I don’t want it right now.” She shakes her head. “I don’t want our kids to be dragged around the world so mommy and daddy can work. When we decide to have kids, I want us to buy a house in the countryside and have them play in the dirt all summer. I want to drive them to school.”
“In a minivan?” I smirk, resulting in a side eye look shot my way.
“There’s no way in hell I’m driving a fucking mini van.”
“How are you gonna house four kids in anything else?”
Her head cocks with tiny glare as she lifts her finger to wave it in my face. “First of all, we’re still discussing this whole ridiculous four kids idea of yours. And secondly, I’m pretty sure there are awesome 7-seaters that you can buy for me. Like a Jeep.” She beams and I can’t resist lowering my lips to hers. The warmth that hits me, swells my heart and I tuck her deeper against my chest.
“I’ll buy you anything you want.”
Her gaze drops to my chest as her hands move up and down my arms before her eyes lift up. “Well, as much as I appreciate it. This apartment isn’t what I want for our kids.”
“What do you want for our kids?”
Our eyes linger and my curiosity is raised the longer she takes to answer. My eyes narrow when a smile breaks through with as much mischief as a kid caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
“What?” I question with a frown.
“I want to raise our kids in Australia.”
I blink. “Are you serious?” I did not see this coming. She’s European. Her basis is down to her and with me living in Monaco for the last ten years, I figured that’s where she wanted to settle down eventually. Somewhere in Western Europe.
She hums, biting her lip. “I want our kids to have the upbringing you had. The one I never got. Can we do that?”
Just when I thought she can’t surprise me any more, she says something like that. She speaks my dream out loud like it’s hers.
“I didn’t think you’d want to move to the otherside of the world.”
“I want to be wherever you are, Ace. If that’s what you want too.”
“Are you kidding me? I’d love to raise our kids in Australia. Bloody hell, if I knew sooner I’d be having this conversation in some kind of fixer upper farmhouse right now.”
Her laugh expands my smile. “I’ll tell you what? You finish the rest of your contract for the next two years and after that….we can go and find ourselves a Reinhart Farmhouse.”
My lips land against hers with an excitement that almost feels like a seal. A kiss that seals the dream come true as official. We sealed the dream.
“Deal.”
*****
Thank you again for reading Oversteer!
I hope you loved it as much as I loved writing it.
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