“I got your message. Loud and clear. Tell Mrs. Wittmore that I’m dismissing her case.”
“And what of her brother-in-law?”
“I’ll open an investigation.”
“And the ADA?”
“Suspended immediately. He already knows. And yes, I’m opening an investigation. Unlike rumor would have it, I’m not my predecessor. I’m not dirty. It’s handled. And Ms. Cavanaugh, try talking to me rather than threatening me in the future. I’m a Texas boy. You get further with me with sugar or queso, not the shit they make here in New York City, than you do with threats.” He hangs up.
I have a silent scream because of Heather. “Oh my god. It’s done. Case dismissed.”
There is hugging and celebrating but I need this celebration to move. I turn to Grayson. “I need to see Delaney.”
“Let’s do it,” he says.
Half an hour later, I call Delaney from her lobby and when we reach her front door, she opens it in pajamas. Her bottom lip trembles. “What’s wrong?”
I tear up just telling her. “They dropped the charges.”
She blanches and I pull out the photo of her beaten face. “They dropped the charges because you are not a killer.”
She bursts into tears and I hug her. I know in that moment that I want to make a difference in other people’s lives, just like I have for Delaney. I want to be the person in Grayson’s life that helps him make a difference for other people.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Mia
Thanksgiving is chilly and rainy, but it’s also wonderful. Me, Grayson, my father, and Eric put up a stunning silver tree. My father brings all of our old decorations over. We decorate with memories from Grayson’s family and ours, and I’m sad when I learn that Eric has nothing of his mother left. As for his father, he wants nothing to do with him.
As for food, Grayson makes his dad’s famous turkey, my dad and I make my mom’s mac ‘n’ cheese, and Eric makes his mom’s stuffing and potatoes. I don’t get my peanut butter pie. I give Eric a hard time about it, too. I mean, I was really craving that pie. It’s a special day that Grayson and I end with a chilly walk to our lighthouse.
Back at the office, come December first, I launch our charity division with the five million dollars Grayson donates in Eric’s name before he adds another ten million himself. Delaney not only donates another ten million herself, she volunteers to help head up the program. By Christmas, we’re already on our way to helping those in need, and I’ve come to believe that she and I were meant to cross paths for a higher purpose.
In between it all, the wedding planner keeps me on my toes, but so much of what Grayson and I wanted the first go-around hasn’t changed. This is a small, intimate wedding, with only twenty guests invited. Memorable, not grandiose, is what we’re looking for and it feels perfect. It’s exactly what I want.
On Christmas Eve, I have a fitting for my dress. The stylist meets me at the apartment while Grayson runs last-minute holiday errands. I’m a bit shocked when my dress is snug, but the stylist assures me she can make adjustments, and promises the dress will arrive to the house the day after Christmas. I grab my phone and count the days since my last period and a smile touches my lips. I’m late. By the time we’re loaded up to head to the Hamptons, I’ve snuck out to buy a couple of tests, and picked up my gift to Grayson. We meet Eric and my father at the airport, and for the first time ever, the chopper ride makes me queasy. Somehow I hide it from Grayson. I have to hide it. I mean, what better Christmas gift than this? If it’s even true. It might be wishful thinking.
Once we’re at the house, I busy myself preparing for the holiday, but the minute the men are wrapped up in sports and drinking beer, I hide in the bedroom to wrap presents. I also can’t find the pregnancy tests. In a panic, I hunt for them, because I don’t want Grayson to find out from a box of untaken tests. That would ruin my surprise. They are nowhere to be found. I sneak to the store, buy a new one, along with cookies, I don’t need, just to have an excuse for going to the store. Grayson greets me at the door and we eat the cookies together.
The next morning, I wake to Grayson’s mouth all over my body, and he does that thing with his tongue that I love. That thing in the most intimate part of me. It feels different, better, if that’s even possible. I feel different. And when Grayson fixes me in those intense green eyes, he knows, too.
“What’s different about you?”
“I’m about to be a married woman.”
He settles the weight of his big perfect body over mine and presses inside me, burying himself deep before his lips brush mine, and he says, “Yes. You are.”
He makes love to me, tender, beautiful love, and when we start our Christmas morning, I do so happier than I have been on a holiday since my mother died. Once Grayson heads to the kitchen to make coffee, I sneak into the bathroom to take my new test. The old ones are still missing. I pee on that little strip and then wait. It’s one minute that feels like ten hours. And when it gives me a plus sign that means I’m pregnant, I cry happy tears.
I don’t want to deny Grayson the chance to see the real test, because I know him—he’ll want to see it. I wrap it all up in plastic and then place it in a box. I wrap it with silver paper and a huge bow. Once I’m dressed in my red Christmas sweater, I hunt down coffee. My father corners me in the kitchen. He looks younger today, happier. Even the wrinkles around his eyes seem to have lightened, despite the heavy salt and pepper in his hair and beard. He holds up a bag. The bag with my tests! I grab them. “Thank you. Did you tell anyone?”
“No, of course not. Are you?”
“Yes,” I whisper. “I’m going to tell him today.”
“Does he want a baby?”
“Oh yes. Yes, he does.”
He pulls me into a bear hug and when he pulls back, he’s tearing up. “I’m happy for you, for you both.”
“Should I tell him for a wedding present or a Christmas present?”
“If you can manage to keep the secret, it’s a part of starting your new life. Tell him on your wedding night.”
“Yes. Yes, that feels right.”
“Speaking of new lives,” he says. “I met someone. She’s away for the holiday. Her daughter is in Europe. I’d like you to meet her when she gets back.”
I touch his face. “You look happy, Dad. I’d love to meet her. New beginnings.”
“New beginnings.”
It’s Grayson, and I turn to find him standing in the kitchen, wearing a tan sweater with a high collar. “Hi.”
“Hi, baby,” he says, and when I walk to him he pulls me into his arms and kisses me. “How about a walk?”
“I’d love that.”
We spend the next two hours walking, talking, and lounging in our lighthouse. When we return home, we cook. We eat. We exchange gifts. Eric gives me a peanut butter pie, which has us all laughing. And a beautiful butterfly necklace. “You’re spreading your wings and flying, baby,” he says about his thoughtful gift.
He gives Grayson a rare AC/DC vinyl record. “I thought you might add to your father’s old collection.”
My father, gives us an album of photos he took the holiday before last of us. It’s perfect and Grayson and I will spend way too much time looking through it later, for sure. Finally, it’s our turn to give gifts.
For Eric, we gift him flight lessons. It seems that the one thing the inked SEAL, savant, attorney, and investor hasn’t done is fly a plane. But I also give him an infinite number symbol statue. It’s engraved with the words: Forever friends. Forever family. He doesn’t tear up. That’s not for savants and badass SEALs, but he hugs me so hard I almost choke. I’m not sure it’s good for the baby.
For my father, Grayson and I give him a new car that Grayson has delivered to the house with a huge red bow on it. A Porsche. My father does cry. Like a baby. I give Grayson a ring for his right hand engraved with the words: My best friend, my lover, my soulmate.
He doesn’t outwardly react, but he
kisses me hard and deep, right there in front of everyone and the look in his eyes is pure love.
Next, he hands me his gift. A pretty red box with a silver bow. I open it and smile when I find a stunning bracelet with hearts and diamonds chasing the chain. A small charm dangles from it that reads: No fear. Only love, All my love, Grayson.
Now I’m tearing up at the message that speaks to our journey together. And our forever. I wrap my arms around him and he holds me close, his lips finding my ear. “Forever, Mia.”
“Forever,” I whisper.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Mia
We sign all the legal paperwork, including our license, a few days before the wedding in the Hamptons. Afterward, bundled up in jeans and sweaters, with jackets over our clothes, we visit his parents’ graves. Together we lay down flowers on each. At his mother’s grave, Grayson kisses my hand and says, “She would have loved you and you her.”
“And my mother would have loved you.”
We leave the graveyard and stop at a Christmas shop where we choose an ornament for each of our parents and then go home and place them on the tree.
The eve of our wedding arrives and a crew with it to set-up for the wedding. Our living room furniture is moved and chairs are set-up in front of the tree. Little diamond ornaments are dangling from our ceiling to sparkle and shine like snowflakes twinkling in the moonlight.
It’s ten when Grayson caves to my demand that he stay in a hotel. “It’s bad luck to see the bride on the day of the wedding before the actual wedding.”
We make it to the front door to say our goodnights, and he carries me back to our bed, where we end up naked. Somehow by 11:59, I get him out of the door. He calls me the minute he’s in the hotel. “Tell me again why I’m not in bed with my future wife?”
“Bad luck.”
“Hmmmm. Tell me what you’re wearing.”
I laugh. “You’re bad.”
“Right. Should I come home?”
“No.”
“Mia—”
“No, Grayson.”
He gives a heavy sigh. “Okay. But this is the only night for the rest of our lives that I’m sleeping anywhere without you.”
“That’s a hard vow to keep.”
“Not hard at all. Goodnight, baby. I love you.”
“I love you, too.” We disconnect and I snuggle into his pillow and inhale that spicy, male scent of his, missing him. The way I missed him every day we were apart. The way I never want to miss him again.
***
I wake alone and feel the emptiness of the house. My close friend, Courtney, has been traveling for work, and apparently married an Italian man in Italy. My mom is gone. Then Grayson sends me a text: Almost mine.
A smile spreads on my face and I type: Already yours.
Prove it, he replies. Say I do. I love you, baby.
I love you, too.
We’ve finished our exchange, and I’ve dressed in leggings, and clipped my hair on top of my head, when new friends come through for me. Cat calls me mid-morning with a surprise. “My brother is babysitting. Surprise. I just landed at the airport. Reese is here, too. He’s going to see Grayson and the guys at the hotel.”
Instantly, I’m smiling all over again. A few minutes later, she pulls up in a rental car. She exits with coffees in her hands, jeans and a pink sweater as her gear, and smiling her way past the front door. And somehow, some incredible somehow, the minute she’s set her things down and really looked at me, she knows I’m pregnant. “Oh my God. Congratulations.” She hugs me.
“How did you know?”
“You glow, Mia. It’s such a beautiful glow. When are you telling him? Or does he know?”
“Tonight and if you know, maybe he knows.”
“Oh he probably knows, but he doesn’t know. Something just seems different to him. It did to Reese.”
From there it’s all girl talk and nerves for hours.
Late in the day, Cat helps me set-up a surprise for Grayson at the lighthouse. By the time we’re back, not one but three stylists are waiting on me. Grayson clearly went overboard. At some point after my shower, Cat forces me to eat, but I don’t even know what I eat. Banana bread, I think. Fruit, maybe. I’m just too nervous to know.
Someone, one of my stylists, tries to offer me champagne. Cat quickly takes the glass and downs it. “Thank you. That was delicious.”
I laugh and she laughs, and I’m thankful for this new friend. Just before I put on my dress, Cat changes into a pretty floral dress. I’m raving over it, when Grayson’s godmother, Leslie, rushes into the room. “Where is my new goddaughter?!”
I smile and hop to my feet, only to find myself in a big embrace. “I know you miss your mama just like Grayson does, but I’m right here, honey. I will be here as long as God lets me be here.”
Leslie, who was best friend’s with Grayson’s mother, is a petite woman with long dark hair who vowed years ago to look after Grayson and she does. The idea of calling her my godmother squeezes my heart. “I’d like that.”
Not long after Leslie arrives, Delaney joins us in the bedroom, and dressed in a pale pink dress, she looks lovely, but deep in her eyes shadows lurk and pain lingers.
“Hi,” she says, sitting down in a chair next to the vanity where one of the stylists has been working her magic.
“I’m glad you made it.”
She squeezes my hand. “I wanted to watch a real fairytale happen. So I know I can still find mine, too.”
And she will, I decide. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be here, looking beyond her own pain. She wouldn’t be at our offices daily helping others look beyond their pain with our new charity program.
When finally, it’s time to dress, my nerves go wild. I’m shaking, I think, as my hands won’t steady. “I’m a mess.”
“It’s normal,” Cat informs me. “I was a wreck when I married Reese.”
Once I finally step into my gown, I stand in front of the mirror, my hair long and silky brown over my shoulders. The elegant white silk and the delicate floral designs are perfect. And it’s not too tight anymore.
“Stunning,” Cat says, as do all the stylists, in murmurs of approval.
One of the girls glosses my lips and then has me bend just enough to place my long, sheer floral veil. There’s a knock on the door and my father pokes his head in. “It’s time. Oh my.” He steps through the door. “Stunning, baby girl. Just stunning. Wow. Your mother—oh god, your mother would be so proud.”
I start to tear up and Cat points at me. “Do not cry and mess up your make-up.”
I nod and eye my father’s tuxedo. “You look pretty snazzy yourself, Dad.”
He winks and the music, a violin right here in our house, begins to play, the beautiful sound lifting in the air. Nerves explode again and the room fades in and out. I barely know how I end up in the hallway, holding a bouquet of winter lilies, my mother’s favorite flower. I’m holding my father’s arm and when he urges me to walk, goosebumps rise on my skin.
This is it.
This is the moment Grayson and I have waited forever for, for years now. This is the moment we’ve been headed for since the very day I ran into him in the Bennett lobby. Somehow I’m walking, and as I bring a room full of close friends into view, I barely see them. I barely see the violinist playing near the tree. All I see is Grayson, standing by the tree with the preacher, the son of the man who’d married his parents. He looks stunning in his tuxedo. I hold tight to my father, my knees wobbling.
I clutch my flowers.
Grayson steps into my path, he waits for me, my knight in shining armor. Tall dark and so good looking. My best friend. My hero. The father of my child. His eyes meet mine, and the world shines brighter, and my heart swells. My love grows broader and deeper. When finally I’m in front of him, he takes my hands, and it’s like we’re floating on a sea of forever.
“You look like a Christmas angel, baby. Beautiful.”
“Grayson,” is all I manage for
the emotion in my throat, and it’s a whisper only he can hear.
“Mia,” he replies, and we step in front of the preacher.
Our vows are simple. We’d wanted simple. The preacher begins to speak and we repeat the words he tells us to speak. When it comes time for the ring, Eric steps forward and offers Grayson my ring. He slides it onto my finger. “With this ring, I thee wed.”
My father hands me Grayson’s ring and with a shaky hand, I slide it onto his finger. “With this ring, I thee wed.”
We’re just staring at each other, when the preacher says, “Do you, Mia, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?”
“I do,” I whisper, my voice cracking with emotion.
“Do you, Grayson, take Mia to be your lawfully wedded wife?”
“I do,” he says, and he folds me close, his voice low and rough. “Forever, Mia.”
“Forever,” I repeat.
The preacher clears his throat. “I now pronounce you man and wife.”
EPILOGUE
Mia
A long time later, with the new year fast approaching, I remove the long skirt to my dress to reveal a shorter one, pull on sneakers and a jacket, and Grayson and I leave our guests to ring in the new year at the house. We walk hand in hand to the lighthouse, the ocean crashing against the shore. I’m not nervous now about my surprise, the way I was about the wedding. I’m excited and every time Grayson and I peek at each other, I all but burst with my need to share our news.
Finally, we climb the steps to the lighthouse and I stop near the top. “You go first. I have a surprise for you.”
His eyes light. “A surprise? Here?”
“Yes.” I motion him forward. “I’m dying to share this surprise, so hurry up.”
“Now I’m really curious.” He walks ahead of me and I follow to the small outside space where he proposed that is now covered in pink and blue balloons.
Grayson glances over his shoulder at me with a curious look. “What is this?”
I step to his side and point to the lounge chairs we often sit in side by side. His holds his surprise. “Look in the box.”
Love Me Forever Page 16