Spencer held his breath. He didn’t want to rush her, but he felt like he’d waited half of his life for this moment. In the movies, women broke into tears and threw their arms around a man who proposed, then the credits began to roll. Reality was much more gut-wrenching. Hailey went pale and hugged her stomach while leaning forward as if she were about to retch. I’m a selfish bastard. She’s been through hell and back, and all I can think about is making her mine before I lose her again. This isn’t business, where closing the deal is all that matters.
This is the woman I love, and she’s scared.
He put an arm around her. “Talk to me. Say yes. Say no. It’s okay. It won’t change how I feel about you or how willing I am to help you. You are not alone. If you won’t marry me, then I’ll still be the best damn friend you’ve ever had—always.”
She shook beneath his arm, and he hated that he hadn’t done every step of this better. “Oh, Spencer. I want to marry you, but I can’t move fast anymore. If we do this, we need to take it slow. I have to make sure Skye’s okay—with all of this. She’s been through so much.”
Spencer closed the ring box, pocketed it, then gently turned her face toward him. “So have you. Let me carry some of the weight you think belongs solely on your shoulders. You don’t have to do this alone.”
He kissed her then. He intended to brush his lips across hers, but that light touch opened the floodgates for both of them. They kissed deeply, feverishly, like lovers who had gone too long without each other. He told himself to pull back, but the feel of her undoing the buttons of his shirt sent him over the edge.
He lifted her into his arms and carried her into the guesthouse, almost tripping over the puppy that darted between his legs when he opened the door. They continued to kiss as he carried her down a short hallway to where he guessed her bedroom would be. The puppy raced around them, yipping with excitement. Spencer raised his head and peered down at the creature. “What’s his name?”
“Her name is Hope,” Hailey said breathlessly, her face beautifully flushed with desire.
“As in ‘I hope you have a crate for her’?” he asked.
She chuckled, then sobered. “More like I hope you forgive me when I say we can’t do this. Skye could be back any moment.”
Just outside the master bedroom door, Spencer slowly lowered Hailey to her feet and rested his forehead on hers. “I’m the one who should be apologizing. I don’t know what happens to my brain around you.”
She smiled. “I do because it happens to me, too.”
“We’re quite a pair.”
“Yes, we are.” She framed his face with her hands and tilted her head back so she could better meet his eyes. “There are women with so much less baggage than I have. Why choose me?”
It was a question he hadn’t expected. “You might as well ask me why I choose to breathe. It has always been you, Hailey. Always. We can take it as slow or as fast as you want.” He leaned down and picked up the puppy and held it up to his face. “Hope, huh? Good name. I tried life without you, and it sucked. Walking away was easier, avoiding my family was a hell of lot less messy, but I don’t want that life. I didn’t grow up that way, and I sure as hell don’t want to die that way. So, Hope, how about you convince your mommy to marry me, and we’ll give this whole messy family thing a shot?”
Hope gave Spencer a wet kiss on his cheek that he took as a yes.
“You’re crazy—do you know that?”
He shot her a smile. “Crazy in a lovable, ‘you can imagine spending the rest of your life with me’ kind of way? Or ‘put down my dog because I’m about to call the police’?”
Hailey burst out laughing. “Definitely the former.”
“Good,” Spencer said as he tucked Hope beneath his arm. Hailey hadn’t accepted his proposal, but he now believed she would—in time. And that was okay because now there was hope. “Come on, my entire family is likely lingering in the driveway, waiting to see if you toss me out on my rear or forgive me.”
He held out his hand to her. She hesitated.
“It’s not about forgiving—not even with Delinda. Regardless of what her intentions were, Skye is happy again. Delinda did that.” She searched his face. “I’m not angry with you. I’m—maybe I’m—”
“Scared,” he supplied. I know, Sunshine. “We’ve been here before, haven’t we? But we’re not kids anymore. Sure there will be challenges, but they can only beat us if we let them.”
She placed her hand in his. “Did you say your entire family?”
He smiled and led the way down the hall and out of the guesthouse. “Jordan called them. When I heard that Delinda had blocked you from getting that job—he was probably right to sound the alarm. I was furious.”
There was no one in the driveway, but all the cars were still there. Michael opened the door as Spencer and Hailey approached the house. “Everyone is on the back porch. Should I escort you?”
“You should,” Hailey said. “Spencer, you must know Michael.”
“Of course,” Spencer said. “He’s worked here for as long as I can remember.”
Michael tipped his head in agreement.
Hailey touched Michael’s forearm briefly. “Thank you, Michael, for everything.”
Spencer and Michael shared a brief look. Whatever Delinda’s butler had done for Hailey, Spencer was grateful. He shook Michael’s hand firmly, letting that gesture express how he felt.
Michael turned and led the way to the porch that overlooked both the gardens and the ocean behind it. Stephanie, Dereck, and Delinda were seated. Brett, Alisha, Nicolette, and Rachelle were gathered in a loose circle. Everyone stopped and turned as Spencer and Hailey stepped onto the porch.
Delinda pushed out of her chair and walked toward them. “Hailey, a moment alone, please? This won’t take long.”
Spencer handed Hope to Michael, then while still holding Hailey’s hand, said, “New family rule—no secrets. Our track record with them is horrible.”
Delinda blinked several times quickly, then nodded. “Hailey, I shouldn’t have brought you here without telling you the truth about why. I was desperate, and I saw you as a way to fix something I had broken. I never meant to hurt you. You and Skye have breathed life into this empty house and me as well. Can you forgive an old woman for loving her grandchildren so much she’d be willing to do anything to have them in her life?”
“She sure knows how to lay it on thick,” Nicolette said in a stage whisper.
“Don’t, Nicolette,” Rachelle and Stephanie said in unison.
Nicolette raised both of her hands in mock surrender. “Am I the only one who thinks she’s being too nice? It’s actually making me nervous.”
Spencer changed the subject by introducing Hailey to the group in general and then to each of them individually. For a group of people who were barely holding back their curiosity, they covered it pretty well. A few of them glanced at Hailey’s left ring finger, then at Spencer, but they didn’t say anything.
“Miss Skye has returned,” Michael announced from the doorway of the main house.
Skye burst past him, then slowed as she appeared to realize that most of the people on the porch were strangers to her. She looked from one person to the next, but once she saw that Hailey and Spencer were holding hands, her eyes riveted to him. Slowly, she approached him. “I know you,” Skye said, then turned to Delinda. “I know him.”
Delinda nodded.
Skye’s eyes flew to Hailey’s. “I’ve seen pictures of him. Is your boyfriend Delinda’s grandson?”
Hailey’s hand held on to Spencer’s tightly. She didn’t seem to know how she should answer that.
Spencer looked from his mother’s concerned expression to Dereck’s somber one. Dereck could have announced to everyone that Spencer wasn’t his. He hadn’t. Delinda could have done the same. They had chosen to be his family—chosen, just as he was being given a chance to choose at that moment. He could easily deny Dereck and Delinda. Could anyone blame hi
m if he did?
Family is what we make it. Spencer crouched down so he was eye level with Skye, then held out his hand. “That’s me, Spencer Westerly. Arguably the best looking and most successful of all of her grandchildren.”
His joke drew groans from his siblings, but flew right over Skye’s head. She focused on the only part of what he’d said that mattered to her.
“Auntie Hailey, I love you.” She hugged Hailey tightly. “You do want me to be happy. You really do.”
Hailey kissed her niece on the top of her head. “Of course I do.”
Skye bolted from Hailey to Delinda. She grabbed her hand with a confidence that surprised Spencer. Delinda had never been fond of physical displays of affection, but she welcomed Skye’s touch. “Do you know what this means, Delinda? Do you? When they get married, I’ll be your real granddaughter. Your real one. It’ll be like I came out of your vagina.”
The look on Delinda’s face was priceless as a round of laughter erupted. Spencer knew right then that Skye would keep him laughing. He looked down at Hailey, who was holding back a laugh—barely. “Seems like you might want to go over that birds-and-bees talk again. She almost has it.”
Skye’s nose wrinkled in an expression Hailey sometimes made. “I’m right. Babies come out of vaginas. If you came out of her daughter’s vagina and her daughter came out of her vagina, then you came out of her vagina because you were inside her daughter. Wait, Delinda, do you have a daughter?”
Above more shared laughter, Nicolette said, “Oh my God, I love her.”
Skye looked around and frowned. “Auntie Hailey said vagina is not a bad word. It’s part of a woman’s body.”
“I did say that,” Hailey said, with tears of laughter in her eyes. “But you shouldn’t say the word in public.”
Skye waved her free hand at Hailey. “Why would you teach me words I can’t use?”
Hailey shrugged helplessly and laughed. “I’m learning as I go.”
Spencer walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. “If you need any help . . .”
She laced her fingers through his and gave him a smile over her shoulder that knocked the breath out of him. “I do, and I have my answer to the question you asked me earlier.”
He tensed.
She relaxed back against him. “Yes. Yes. Yes a hundred times. Yes a thousand times. We can do this. I believe that now.”
“Wait,” Skye said. “If you get married, do we have to move?”
Hailey opened her mouth, then closed it without saying anything. “I—we—”
“We are going to take it slow, so this time we get it right,” Spencer said.
Chapter Seventeen
Later that night, after Hailey tucked Skye into bed, she joined Spencer on the couch in the living room of the guesthouse. He opened his arms. She snuggled against his side and laid her head on his shoulder. “You know you’re her hero now.”
He kissed Hailey’s temple. “Because I’m Delinda’s grandson?”
Hailey rested her hand over his heart. “No, because you asked Delinda if she had the rest of the Billy and the Lion series and she did. Don’t be surprised if Skye asks you to read a story to her soon. She’s a wonderful reader, but Ryan had a way of making stories come to life for her.”
“It’s a good series. I can’t believe I forgot it was Delinda who used to read it to me. I didn’t think I had any good memories of her.”
“She’s a tough cookie, but she has her reasons.”
“Yes, she does. My family is lucky Skye brings out the best in her. That’s no easy feat. She’s a remarkable child.”
“She is.”
“It’s not shocking, though, because you’re pretty damn amazing yourself.”
“So are you.” A lick of desire spread through Hailey, and Spencer tensed beside her.
He whistled softly. “I can see why some people call kids birth control. I’m enjoying a rather filthy fantasy of what I’d like to do with you, but it’s not going to happen with your niece across the hall.”
“Nope.” Hailey smiled. “But she goes back to school soon. There’s always long lunches.”
He nodded slowly. “I like the way you think.” He dug in the pocket of his trousers and produced the ring box again.
Hailey let out a shaky breath. Her life had been a series of highs and lows filled with both love and loss. She couldn’t open herself to one without inviting the possibility of the other. What’s the alternative? To close myself off? To let my fears win? Like Spencer, I don’t want to live or die that way. So here we go.
Spencer moved to stand.
Hailey protested. “You don’t have to—”
“I do. I want to do it right.” He dropped to one knee and held out the ring.
With happy tears welling in her eyes, Hailey sat forward, eye to eye with the man she loved. “I love you.”
With a huge smile, he wagged a finger at her. “Don’t steal my lines. This isn’t something a man has a chance to practice.”
“Oh, sorry,” Hailey said and tried to contain her amusement.
He cleared his throat, then winked. It was endearing and sexy and better than any version of that moment she’d ever allowed herself to imagine. The man kneeling before her was not just a lover, he was also a friend, and that added a whole new layer to what they had. We’re on the same team.
“Hailey Tiverton, any worthwhile advancement in technology includes a period of trial and error. Things that should work—don’t. Whole networks can crash from one faulty upgrade.”
“Okay.” Hailey tipped her head to one side. A joke was on the tip of her tongue, but she didn’t voice it because he was being sincere.
“I don’t measure the success of a project by how few mistakes I made along the way. I measure it by the end result. We didn’t get here by the shortest route we could have taken, but we’re here. We made it. Just as I can’t imagine the world without the Internet, I can’t imagine my life without you in it. Marry me, Hailey. I love you. You’re my pie, my cake, the only damn pastry I need.”
The man who was on one knee before her was a combination of the boy she’d once loved and the man he’d become. Although he had morphed from football player to successful businessman, his core was still all geek, and she loved him more because of it. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him soundly. When she raised her head, she said, “How could I refuse a man who can integrate coding issues and sugary analogies into a proposal? I’m sold. Where do I sign?”
He placed the ring on her finger before rising to his feet and pulling her up and into his arms. “I can think of a better way to seal the deal.”
The bulge of his excitement pulsed against her. “Really? I never would have guessed.”
He laughed, kissed her gently, then sat back onto the couch and patted the place beside her. “You’re heartless.”
“And yet you want to marry me,” she said. Their relationship was the best of what they’d once had and so much more.
He growled playfully and swung her up and across his lap. “That’s because I’m a dick.”
She burst out laughing.
He joined in.
It was a moment that should have ended in a kiss, and would have had they been alone in the house. Instead, she forced her attention away from him and to the rock on her hand. “How do I wear this without being a nervous wreck that I’ll lose it?”
“You don’t like it?”
It was stunning. Flawless. Probably worth more than the total income she’d made since she started working at sixteen. She twirled it on her finger. “It’s too much—too big. I’m not sure I could ever feel like it was mine.”
He ran his hand through her hair in an intimate, possessive caress. “Delinda knew you’d feel that way. Before you give it back, I think you should hear the story of the ring. It just might change your mind.”
A month ago, hell, as recently as that morning, had someone told Spencer that he would be holding Hailey in his
arms and quoting Delinda, he would have laughed it off as impossible. One day, one conversation, had changed his perspective of many things.
He took Hailey’s hand in his and turned it so the large diamond shimmered in the light of the lamp beside them. “This ring has been in the Westerly family for at least four generations. Delinda said she told you about her husband and her family.”
“Yes. It’s a sad story.”
“Not all of it. Delinda’s husband, Oliver, didn’t come to her with money, but he did have one possession that was said to be worth enough that he could have started his own business had he sold it.”
“The ring?” Hailey’s eyes rounded as she looked down at it.
“Yes. Oliver had promised his mother, though, that he would never sell it. Generations of Westerlys have treasured that ring. Delinda said that instead of it being given to the oldest son, it was given to the one who could be most trusted to uphold the tradition of passing it on. Tradition, she said, is a bridge to the past that has only lost favor in this generation. The ring doesn’t represent wealth, but in fact, the opposite. Restraint, loyalty, family—above the luxuries that selling it could provide. In the end, everything else is temporary and insignificant, but family endures.”
Hailey’s eyes flew to his. “I completely agree.”
Emotion tightened Spencer’s throat. “Dereck gave it to my mother, but she returned it to Delinda after they divorced. According to Delinda, Dereck felt that he had failed both the generation before and after him.”
“That’s heartbreaking.”
“If you weigh the sum of something by the number of mistakes taken to create it, yes. When Delinda gave me the ring, she said I am 100 percent Westerly. In her heart I have always been and will always be her grandchild, regardless of the blood that runs through my veins. Hearing that meant more to me than any inheritance ever could. I guess that’s the point of the ring.”
“Your batshit-crazy family can be pretty wonderful sometimes.”
“Who knew?” he joked as he nuzzled Hailey’s neck. “And I’m glad you feel that way because they’ll be your family soon.”
Up for Heir (Westerly Billionaire Series Book 2) Page 22