Ian's Heart - 25. Chapter 25 - Ian

Moving day was manic and felt like it had taken all day, in reality, it was only about six hours. The movers came to the apartment first thing this morning, loaded up the truck then went directly to our new house. They brought in all the boxes first, placing them in the rooms marked on each box. As they brought the heavy stuff in, we unpacked the boxes. It feels like the entire extended family showed up to give us a hand. We managed to knock most of it over in no time at all.

“Yes!” Ollie yelled, rubbing his hands together, “Television’s working, surround sound is hooked up, so is the stereo, internet, and cable, all ready to entertain you.”

“Thanks, Oliver,” I high fived him, as Katherine came into the room empty-handed.

“Where’s Noah?” He asked his girlfriend.

Katherine laughed with a snort, “Where do you think?”

“Liam,” They both said at the same time, rolling their eyes.

“Coming through!” Adam bellowed as he and John wheeled through a new washing machine and dryer set to the laundry room. The set I had in the apartment came with it when I purchased the place, they were old and starting to break down, so we decided to leave them and get new ones.

“They’re at it again Uncle Ian, I turned my back for one second, I’m sorry,” Lee said pointing up the stairs where he’d come from. Lee is John and Bills recently adopted son.

“PATRICK WRIGHT!” I yelled while smirking to Lee, who giggled. Paddy and Sasha come bounding down the stairs, “What are you doing up there?”

“Unpacking,” he said sheepishly.

“Really, is that why you have shiny lip gloss all over your neck,” his hand shot to his collarbone, I raised my eyebrow, “Stay down here and help me unpack ‘your’ kitchen. I don’t know how you want it set up.”

“Fine,” he moaned heading in my direction, then stepped back to kiss Sasha.

“Uh-uh, don’t even,” I laughed.

“Okay, okay,” Paddy said putting his hand up in defense, while young Sasha’s hands were clasped together in front of her as she swished one way to the other looking at Pat dreamily. Ahh! Young love. Ollie staring daggers at his sister while Katherine tried to distract him.

The house is filled with noise, laughter, and grumbling. This is what a home is supposed to be like, filled with family, happiness, and a lot of love. Even though today has been stressful and a lot of hard work, it has also been a happy one. The extended family is all here along with relatives, everybody getting together, pitching in, generally making it light and easier for everyone involved. It was the same way when Will and Liam moved into their new place. We all pitched in to fix the place up, to have it ready for them to move in and get settled.

Will came rushing in with an armful of pizzas, flanked by Bill, who was carrying garlic bread and a bag of cold drinks for everyone. They put them on the kitchen bench, “Here you go, Uncle Ian,” Will smiled, “I’ll round up the natives.”

“Thanks, Will,” then Bill, he came back with a welcome. I pulled out a bag I had stashed in the pantry for just this situation with paper plates, napkins, and plastic cups. I laid everything out on the bench to make it easier for others to grab whatever they wanted. Eventually, the room was taken up with bodies sitting at the table or couch eating pizza, chatting.

“Will,” I called out to him, “did you get something for you and Paddy? Or are you having pizza?”

He held up a piece of pizza so I could see, “I got a veggie pizza for Pat and me, no sauce, light cheese on a thin base.”

Nodding, I pointed it out to Pat who had been hovering around trying to decide which would be the healthiest, his shoulders relaxed as he pulled two pieces onto a plate. He then joined Sasha in the recliner, she stood as he approached, Pat sat down then his girlfriend sat on his lap while they ate. Adam and John re-joined the crowd grabbing a plate and loading up, while they giggled like schoolgirls, teasing each other about whatever they had been up to in the laundry room. Adam glanced at me smiling the one he reserves for me.

“Is there much left to do, Babe?” Adam asked as he sidled up next to me.

Shaking my head, I bit into my pizza, “Mainly just our bedrooms, and the bathrooms. Your Mom and I already made the beds up.” He kissed my cheek and hoed into his plate.

“Either I’m starving, or this is the best pizza I’ve ever had,” Adam smiled, “Mom up with Riley?”

“Yeah, she’s giving her a bottle before she goes down,” I answered.

“Good, I want to see her before I leave for work,” Adam finished the last of his slice, “Sorry, to leave, but I really do have to get to work. By the way, I’ve got some ATF guys asking me about the case back in Florida. I don’t think it’s anything to worry about, more checking file notes.”

“Oh okay, good,” I said warily.

Adam put his arm around me pulling me to him, kissing my temple, “It’s nothing bad I promise.”

“If you say so,” I tried to give him a reassuring smile. Adam left for upstairs to get ready for work.

To keep my mind busy, I started cleaning the empty food containers. Once that was done I started on the boxes left in the kitchen. The new kitchen has a lot more space than the old one, whoever owned it previously had put a new one in. Pat fell in love with it when we showed him.

“Okay Babe, I’m off,” Adam kissed me, “I’ve left the shelves in Pat’s room to be put up.”

“Thanks, be safe,” I commented, Adam smiled quickly kissing me again, yelling out his goodbye and a blanket thank you to everyone before disappearing. Mom came down the stairs with Riley, Liam immediately stole her away as Katherine had confiscated her son back. She laughed all the way to my side.

“He does love babies doesn’t he?”

“Mhmm, that he does, he’s good with babies too,” I smiled.

“You might want to put Paddy’s shelves up while Riley’s downstairs and awake, she’s fussy at the moment and won’t go down. Too much excitement around her I suppose.” Mom suggested while sliding the box I was unpacking in front of her.

“Not a bad idea actually, thanks, Mom,” I squeezed Mrs. Price’s forearm, leaving to get the task done.

Pat swanned into his room after I had finished putting shelves up in his bedroom, he’d wanted them above his computer desk, next to his walk-in wardrobe.

“Awesome, thanks, Dad!” Pat stood back admiring the shelves, “You know I could have done the shelves?”

“I know, but I wanted to,” I told him with a satisfied grin, standing next to him, “pretty good job if I do say so myself.” The shelves were perfectly level and measured precisely even from the wall to the shelf as from the wardrobe.

“Oh… there’s someone at the door with a delivery,” Pat said nonchalantly waving his thumb over his shoulder, kneeling next to his bed.

“Why didn’t you or one of the others just accept it?” I asked him as I picked up the level and drill.

“Haven’t you ever heard of stranger danger,” Pat chuckled, “You have to sign for it,” Pat said more seriously, pulling a box out from under his bed. The box was full of books, photos, and CDs.

Leaving Pat to finish putting his things up to make the room his, I walked swiftly to the front door. There I found a man standing with a colorful bouquet of flowers. My heart skipped a beat, I felt a smile creep across my face.

“Ian Wright?” the man asked as I approached the screen door.

One thing I love about this place, we can open the doors and windows letting the fresh air in. The first thing we did this morning was put a lockable screen door at the front and back door of the house. As much as it didn’t bother me at the apartment, looking back now, I do prefer the fresh air to the constant flow of stale circulated air from central systems.

“That’s me,” I answered putting the tools down next to the front door. I can move those in a minute.

“These are for you,” the man stated abruptly, he must be busy, “sign this,” an electronic signing device was thrust at me when I unlocked and opened the screen door. After signing, barely catching the bouquet as the guy left, I put the flowers in a pitcher in the middle of dining room table. I have no idea where to find a vase right now. There was a card perched in a plastic holder to one side of the bouquet, I pulled it out excitedly;

I Love You!

That is all the card said, “My man the wordsmith,” I mumbled chuckling, “Love you too!” I said aloud to the card as I put it back in the envelope. Everyone in the room was oohing and ahhing.

“Nice,” Will said from beside me, I couldn’t help but smile.

Paddy bounded down the stairs.

“They had better be from Dad,” Pat eyed me warily, as he passed by, knocking me out of my head.

I scoffed, “Of course they’re from your Dad,” I hope!

Knock! Knock!

Who could possibly be at the door now? We have only lived here for a few hours. Warily, I approached the door again, to find two men dressed in suits, flanked by two uniformed officers.

“Mr. Wright?” said a big burly man, who I assume is a detective or agent of some sort. “I’m Agent Johnson, ATF, this is Agent Lovitt,” they flashed their badges at me.

“Is there something wrong?” I asked.

“We’d like you to come downtown to answer some questions,”

“Uh… Sorry, I’m not sure what you mean,” I said looking over his shoulder to see the uniform officers, one of them being Officer Wade Potts. He had a reassuring smile on his face.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, turning to find Adam’s Mom, “What’s going on, is everything okay?”

“We have a few questions for your son Ma’am,” Agent Johnson said, and then his eyes focused on me, “Sir, can you come with us please.”

“Are you able to watch the kids Mom?” I asked.

“Ian love, go with these gentlemen, I’m sure if it were bad they would have said so,” Mrs. Price assured me.

“Okay…” I said trepidatiously, stepping outside, following the Agents to their car.

Agent Lovitt opens the back door, “If you could please,” motioning for me to climb in the back of their vehicle. I slid over to the other side as the Agent got in next to me. I looked through the back window to see Wade and his partner getting into the squad car.

The agents strike up a conversation of general chit-chat about all the extra cases coming through and how overworked they’ve become. Nothing of real interest, I looked out the window and couldn’t work out where we were. Lots non-descript buildings, I can’t even work out where we are. ‘This is a bit unexpected,’ I thought. We drove up a narrow alleyway to a loading dock at the back of a building. Agent Johnson and Lovitt got out of the car and signaled for me to exit with them. We crossed the small distance to a set of stairs leading to a doorway, where Officer Potts joined us. He opened the door for the Agents and I, entering, then holding the door for us to follow.

They led me down a corridor, Officer Potts opened the door at the end, “Just in here Mr. Wright,” he said. My stomach did a wobble, and my heart fluttered. Adam’s here. Stepping through the doorway, into what seemed to be a very large room. I saw a table with a white cloth, two lit candles and place settings. What? I looked over my shoulder back at Wade, who was smiling as he closed the door. My focus went back to the…

My hand went to my sternum as my breath hitched catching in my chest. The man standing in my sights… Wow! Beautiful; more than should be legally allowed. He’s dressed in a suit, dress shoes, even a silk tie; I slowly blew out the air caught in my lungs as my eyes drank him in from his footwear all the way to his freshly cut, styled hair, and cleanly shaven face. A smile lit up his face as he watched me. My heart almost leaped out of my chest as he took my hand, the lights from the candles flickering made the room feel magical. In the grey light, I started to make out some of the shapes surrounding us as we walked across the room. Damn, he smells good. The two of us stopped just short of the table when Dean Martin’s ‘The Door Is Still Open To My Heart,’ softly filled the room. A sea of lights outside came on slowly like stars twinkling in the night. Adam pulled me into a slow dance next to the table. My head spinning from all the uncertainty of the car trip to seeing this beautiful man in front of me, in one of my most favorite places, I love this museum, “he really knows me,” I thought as I rested my head on his shoulder. We slow danced until the song finished, as the next song started, Adam got down on bent knee, still holding my hand.

“Ian,” Adam blew out a breath. “Ian, the first day I met you was the best day of my life. I want to grow old with you, spend every waking moment with you, raise our children together, I can’t imagine a day without you in my life. Will you marry me?” in his free hand, an opened felt box appeared, containing the most beautiful, simple platinum band I’ve ever seen.

I was already nodding by the time he looked up at me, “Yes!”

Adam stood up closing the distance between us, I reached out wrapping my hand around the side of his neck, thumbing his smooth jawline, gently pulling him in for a proper answer. We backed away from the kiss, resting our foreheads together, “I love you, Adam, yes, most definitely yes.”

My head was spinning, Adam had a goofy look on his face, we sat down at the table. Music of Italian crooners wafting through the place made it all the more romantic. I do love me some Dean Martin.

A server came to the table bringing an opened bottle of champagne, poured it into our flutes, then resting the bottle in a ready ice bucket, placing the cork in front of me. Adam smirked as I sat nervously across from him, it feels like our first date all over again; except for this time, it is going smoothly. Every nerve ending in my body is dancing, just from his beautiful face on display. Reaching out I held one of his hands in mine, with my free hand I slid it over the smooth curves of his chin.

“You have been hiding all of this behind facial hair,” I mused, “I can’t stop looking, you look so different. You went from hot gruff detective to an even hotter, baby-faced surfer – in one shave.”

Adam chuckled, rolling his eyes, as he blushed from my compliment, “Why do you think I had facial hair, nobody takes me seriously at work when I look like this.”

I nodded, “Just for a week, then you can grow it back. I want to see your face, even if only for a few of days.”

Adam smiled, squeezing my hand, the server comes back gently laying a bread basket between us. The server nodded leaving us alone, Adam gazed back into my eyes, “You happy Babe?”

“More than I ever have been, if you’d told me a year ago this is where we’d end up…” I shook my head grinning.

“Me too,” Adam interlocked our fingers. We sat silently as the server returned with a Sea Bass dish, along with pasta and scallops with white sauce.

“This looks delicious,” I said taking a mouthful, I groaned closing my eyes, “You have to taste this,” I put some on my fork and fed Adam across the table. The expression on Adam’s face when I looked up is priceless, his eyes were blown, and his tongue poked out licking his bottom lip. He leaned in closing his lips around my fork pulling the food off slowly.

“Tease,” I chortled softly.

“You’re one to talk,” Adam fed me some of his pasta, groaning again from the flavor’s, it was just as excellent as the sea bass. He captured my foot between his, “Stop that.”

We ate in comfortable silence, occasionally smiling at the other. The young server came by and checked on our meals, topped up our glasses then moved on. He is damn good at his job, the young man is friendly but doesn’t intrude. Once we’d finished the young man returned clearing the plates, while Adam text messaged someone. A few minutes later an impeccably dressed lady walked up to our table.

Adam smiled, “You’re really going to love this. Ms. Turnball is the curator here at the museum. Let me introduce Ian Wright, my fiance, and a science teacher over at the high school.

“Detective, this way,” she said holding the doors open.

“Call me Adam, please,” He said shaking her hand. Adam then put his hand on the small of my back leading me out of the room. I’ll never stop loving that feeling I get when he does that.

Ms. Turnball winked at me, “He’s even more handsome than you let on,” she chuckled, “Come through, take your time and enjoy the exhibits. Play around with some of the experiments.”

“Thank you, for everything,” Adam said graciously.

“I’ll be in my office catching up on some dreaded paperwork if you need anything,” she slipped away.

“What’s going on?” I asked confused.

Adam linked my arm with his steering me toward the exhibits, “We have our very own private time in the museum. Just us,” he leaned in and kissed me, “let’s not waste it, I want you to show me around and only speak science geek to me for the next hour or so.”

As we walked around, we played some of the educational games that were for the young kids. Adam asked questions as we blew our way through a few of the exhibits that were set up for the more serious science enthusiasts. He was patient, letting me experience and discover everything the place had to offer. At times he stood back, giving me the opportunity to be excited or interested in something, other moments he would get involved and listen as I spoke. His eyes never glazed over only twinkled with amusement. Once we hit the biology display, I went total geek at Adam, turning around to see him while I explained some DNA testing results. Adam was leaning with his shoulder against the wall, one ankle crossed over the other, a goofy smile on his face as I went on and on.

“What?” I smiled shyly.

“I love it when you geek at me,” Adam chuckled.

“Sorry,” now I felt a little embarrassed, I tend to get overexcited when it comes to science, it is a subject that I have always loved as well as history. Wow! I really am a geek.

“Don’t be embarrassed Babe, I love to see you this passionate,” Adam said as he reached gathering me in his arms, kissing me.

PING!

Adam pulled his phone out of his pocket to check it, we looked at the message.

Mom: Did he say “Yes?”

PING!

Paddy: Well…?

“I got this,” I said taking Adam’s phone replying to both.

I held the phone up taking a selfie of us to send with the message.

Adam: How many people knew about this? I bet you were all in on it. Of course, I said “Yes!” – Ian

PING!

Paddy: Thank god, it took you long enough, I thought you were going to die when the ATF agents dragged your ass out.

Adam put the phone back in his pocket, as it constantly pinged.

Thanks for reading.. I hope you enjoyed moving day, along with the proposal - finally.
 
I'd like to say a huge thanks to Rick for always challenging me, Glenn for your honest opinion and to Cam and Rob who sat for hours with me helping me write this chapter while they poked fun at me as I ripped my hair out. I wouldn't have it any other way.