Watch the Stars with Me

Chapter 30

Dietfried, Irma and Aster were playing tea party in the little girl's room, discussing the politics of their respective kingdoms now that prince Zuchinni would be taking a queen, and also what kind of dress she wants to wear at the wedding.

Leon had to leave and prepare for his presentation. "So, I'll see you both tonight?"

Her mouth was in a small smile as she nodded. "Yes. And dinner at LaRiveria after."

He smiled. "Yes."

When he returned to his hotel room he had several messages from the people he had stood up that afternoon. He called his manager, "A family thing came up," was his reasoning, and with that his manager, who thought Leon had no family left, said that he would handle calling the people he had bailed on today while Leon rested and prepared himself for the presentation in a few hours and the dinner with the publishers after. "Can we reschedule that meeting?" Leon asked.

His manager conceals his frustration; Leon has never been this difficult before, so his he was giving him the benefit of the doubt. "I'll see what I can do. Maybe if I move some things around tomorrow... yeah. I'll call the restaurant and have them move the reservation to tomorrow."

"I'd like to keep the reservation tonight." Leon says as he grabs the letter from Gilbert up from the desk.

He sat on the edge of his bed, holding the letter from Gilbert. "I do still love her... I think... I know I love her more now than I did before and I love your daughter too. There is no way you could have known— before my mother died she told me that if she had a daughter she would have named her after her favorite flower, which just happened to be my favorite flower, the aster. What are the odds that you would name your little one that? What are the odds of any of this?"

Meanwhile back at the house, Aster was napping while Violet, Dietfried, and Irma sat in the living room. Violet found herself distracted from the conversation, staring out the window where she could see dark storm clouds starting to roll in. Upon hearing the approaching thunder she smiled, remembering that day out at the house by the lake, all those years ago, when she spun in the ran at Leon's suggestion.

"Violet." Irma's voice cut through her day dreamings of Leon's face.

"Hm? Yes. Sorry. What were we talking about?" Violet says still a little distractedly. Irma chuckled beside an amused Dietfried.

Dietfried leaned forward as he started. "I recognize that look."

Violet scowled at her brother in law. "And what look is it that you think you recognize?"

He smirks before leaning back, wrapping an arm around Irma, and looking into his soon to be wife's amber eyes. "This look." He says before kissing Irma's blushing cheek and Violet looks away.

When the couple looked back to Violet they found her biting her the inside of her bottom lip with knit brows. Irma speaks softely. "He seems very kind, and Aster obviously likes him, yet you look... unsure. What is it?"

Violet takes a breath before speaking. "I feel... undeserving." She glances at Dietfried who looks concerned for her. The first time she saw him look at her like that was after the miscarriage and it still, after almost seven years, it still takes her a moment to accept his concern for her and this time it made it even more difficult to hold in her tears. "It was hard enough to believe I deserved to be loved by Gilbert... and then to have Aster, and the family I have now... after everything I did in the past..." Her tears had started to fall just moments before the the rain hit the windows. "Is it not too much to believe I could love again?"

He waited patiently for his sister in law to dry her tears with the handkerchief he handed her. It felt like two lifetimes had passed since he found her, since he only saw her as a weapon that could help keep his brother safe. The day his younger brother threw hi to the marble floor and was stopped from striking him by her, that was the first time he saw her as family, the first time he saw her as a Bougainvillea. When he told his brother he would try harder he meant it and he did. The gift of a niece, one with the Bougainvillea hair and eyes, is the greatest gift anyone has ever given him, and he committed himself the day Aster was born to making sure to always be there for her and her mother. "I think it is absolutely believable."

Later that evening Violet and Aster arrived two minutes before his presentation was supposed to start, and when they entered the crowded room, Violet was tempted to leave, tempted enough to start backing out of the room into the hallways to ask Aster if she still wanted to stay if they couldn't get closer seats. When they did get back into the hallway she was surprised to find Leon, looking around like he was waiting for someone. "Leon?"

When he turned his whole face lit up. "Violet. Aster. I was waiting for you."

Violet's eyebrows raise for a brief moment before speaking. "Shouldn't you be getting ready to be on the stage?"

He laughed a little nervously. "My manager starts the thing off with an intro, then I make my entrance. It's really packed in there, I think the announcement that the event would be more accessible for more people with handicaps caused a surge in interest... I have two seats reserved fro you at the front— I think I hear my introduction about to come to an end." He smiles before focusing on Aster and signing. "Will you come with me?" And reaching out his hand.

Aster very happily took that hand and went with him to wait at the entrance to be announced. Violet stood close behind them and could just barely hear a man's voice on the other side of the door just before Leon pushes the door open. "Please help me give a warm welcome to Leon Stephanotis!"