His Baby Dilemma

by Catherine Lanigan

  He had to admit that Grace was very good about sending him pictures of Jules. Several of the photos, he’d printed and framed. He bought a new wallet for his favorites.

  Mica had sent Grace plane tickets for her and Jules to visit him for Easter, but though the days moved closer to their visit, it seemed a lifetime away.

  He thought Jules would like a sunny day like this under the palm trees, listening to the ocean waves crash on the beach. He wondered if Grace would ever want to come visit him in this pretty seaside town.

  Then he stopped dead still.

  Of course she wouldn’t. You rejected her. She put her heart on the line and you crushed it.

  He looked up at the cloudless blue sky. Talk about botching up a life. He’d really done it. He hadn’t pushed Grace away, he’d thrown her across the ocean without so much as a thank-you.

  Mica walked through the little park and across the wide concrete sidewalk that was filled with people on Rollerblades, skateboards and bicycles. When he got to the beach, he took off his dress shoes and socks. Feeling the warm sand slip between his toes, he realized how little of life he’d experienced.

  He’d like to blame his accident for that fact, but the truth was, his accident had brought him to life. He’d shoved his dreams and possibilities for himself into a drawer along with his college diploma. It was his fault he hadn’t had the courage to live. It was his sense of duty to his father, then to his mother, that had kept him tethered to a world that didn’t serve him anymore.

  Grace’s return to Indian Lake with Jules had opened his heart and shown him that he was much more than the Mica Barzonni he thought he was.

  Chip and Vincent saw something in him that he’d been afraid to face. Potential. Talent. He had these things.

  Grace had seen them.

  Mica had to admit he’d seen them, too. But time after time, he’d blocked them out.

  Mica looked out across the Atlantic.

  “She’s an ocean away. She might as well be on the moon.”

  He would take Vincent and Chip’s offer. He would make something of himself so he could become the kind of man worthy of a woman like Grace. Worthy of her love.

  He had vowed to himself that he wouldn’t see her until he’d made that happen. He knew that if he didn’t try his wings, just like she had, he would sabotage their relationship in the future because he’d always feel inadequate. That much he knew about himself.

  That’s why it had taken her leaving for him to realize how deeply he loved her.

  Grace deserved all the love this world had to give. And Mica knew he would love her forever.

  He hoped she would want that from him, but after he’d pushed her away, he had serious doubts.

  It was going to take time to make his mark.

  He stared at the blue water and the enormous waves. Grace...

  He took out his cell phone. He could text her. See if she was all right. Ask about Jules.

  But if she didn’t reply, his heart would break again.

  He didn’t know which was worse. The constant missing her or his fear that this time, she’d throw him across the ocean and he’d never see her again.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  GRACE WAS EXHAUSTED after interviews with Eloise’s team, Fashion Week, then men’s Fashion Week and finally a meeting with Eloise in person. She’d expected to be tongue-tied but she wasn’t. Her days as a preteen on an Illinois runway had apparently prepared her to act professional and poised.

  Now the pressure was on and no one felt it more than Grace, despite Etienne’s eye-rolling and Jasminda’s fluttering hands.

  The atelier buzzed with activity and creative energy as Grace inspected a bolt of hand-painted chartreuse silk that she planned to lay over a slip of crepe de chine.

  “That’s gorgeous,” Rene said, breezing through the room with a full-skirted, strapless dress in graduated aqua, lake-green and turquoise batiste.

  “Put a coral belt on that dress,” Grace said. “Leather with a shell buckle. Mother-of-pearl. Something shimmery.”

  “Will do,” Rene replied. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him stop dead in front of Jules’s high chair. “When did he learn to do that?”

  Grace glanced up. Jules was using his body front to back to make the chair move across the wood floor. “Yesterday.”

  “Is that safe?”

  “It’s a stable chair and he doesn’t go far. And since I’m afraid to let him walk, which his father adores...”

  “Oh, him again...” Jasminda groaned as she expertly cut a piece of silk.

  Since she’d returned from Indian Lake, Jasminda had let everyone in the atelier know that she didn’t approve of Mica’s rejection of Grace. Every time Grace sent Mica a photo of Jules, Jasminda frowned. Though Grace appreciated the young woman’s loyalty, she also wanted her team to understand that Mica would always be a part of Jules’s life.

  “Aunt Louise will be back from the boulanger in a few minutes with lunch. When she gets back, I’ll take Jules for a walk and get some fresh air.”

  “Oh? Where are you going?” Etienne asked.

  “I should go by my apartment and get some diapers and something for his supper, since it looks like we’ll be working late again tonight.” She sighed.

  “Ah, yes.” Rene chuckled. “Darn the bad luck, huh? We simply have to work longer hours now that we’re under contract for Eloise!” He fist-bumped Jules. Rene glanced at Grace. “At least his daddy taught him some fun things.”

  “Da!” Jules said and clapped his hands.

  Grace’s face fell. Trying not to think about Mica was like pretending the sun didn’t come up or go down. Useless. She’d finally come to the decision that she had to work through her broken heart. As they worked out their co-parenting schedules, she’d see Mica. Be with him. And her heart would break again.

  Grace went over to Jules and lifted him out of the high chair. She picked up a yellow shirt she’d made and tried it on him. He scrunched his nose and blew her a raspberry. “It’s not right, is it, Jules? I think I should go with the yellow-and-white-striped collar and cuffs on the sleeves. What do you think, Jasminda?”

  “Oui. I made a yellow-and-white-striped tam with a green ball at the top. It’s over here,” she said, retrieving the hat.

  Etienne walked up and looked at Jules, who was chewing on his hands. “Why do I get the feeling you’re going after a baby Eloise line?”

  Grace raised her eyebrows. “Because it would make money? Duh.”

  Everyone burst into laughter just as Louise walked through the door. “Am I missing something?”

  Rene walked over and kissed both her cheeks. “Your niece is going to work us to an early death.”

  Louise laughed. “Ah, but now that I’ve been here for three weeks, I know that none of you would have it any other way. Am I right?”

  “Oui,” they said in unison.

  “Aunt Louise, you’re so sweet to get lunch for everyone. Listen, I’m going to take Jules out for a break, get some fresh air. I’ll stop at the apartment and change him. We’re going to have to work late tonight. I know you have a ticket to see the opera.”

  “I could go to the apartment for you, Grace,” Louise offered. “Although, it’s a lovely day out there and a little break from the workroom might be good for you both.”

  Grace hugged her aunt and went to the hall where she kept Jules’s stroller. She came back and took Jules from Jasminda, who had slipped a pair of dark emerald green pants on him. She stood back and wrinkled her nose.

  “Non. Non. The pants aren’t right, Grace.”

  “They should be navy blue.” She took the tam off Jules’s head. “And change the pom-pom to navy as well.”

  “Ah!” Jasminda’s eyes rounded. “Of course.”
>
  Grace left the atelier with Jules and stepped into the sunshine.

  She lifted her face to the warming rays and inhaled. There was something about these last days of January that she loved. The trees were still bare, allowing every facet of the stunning Parisian architecture to be on display. The hotels decked their window boxes and planters with flowers, but the parks were still devoid of foliage.

  Grace loved it all. This was her town, her home. And now that she was back she couldn’t imagine living anywhere in the world but Paris.

  Not even Indian Lake.

  She trundled Jules’s stroller over the cobbled streets of Montmartre, and he giggled and clapped with each bump as if he was in an amusement park. Close to the famous Lapin Agile was a café she loved, La Maison Rose. The pink stucco walls and kelly green shutters always beckoned to her. She should take a seat at one of the little tables on the sidewalk, she thought. She should order a café au lait and stop for a moment to drink in this gorgeous day.

  “Madame?”

  Grace hadn’t realized she’d been standing still, staring at the empty table.

  “Une table, s’il vous plait.”

  The waiter nodded and gestured to the table.

  Grace rolled Jules up to the little table and sat in the chair facing down the street. A Fiat rounded the corner, honked the horn and stopped. A young girl jumped up from the table next to Grace and rushed over to the car. She opened the door and threw herself into the driver’s arms. She raced around to the passenger side and they drove off.

  From across the street she heard someone playing “April in Paris.” A couple a few tables away from her kissed each other, then held up their glasses of Pernod and clinked the rims.

  “Grace?”

  Her shoulders stiffened.

  “Grace?”

  It was the voice she’d heard in a thousand dreams on a thousand nights. It was the voice that invaded her daytime concentration. It was the voice she’d thought she’d go the rest of her life without hearing again.

  His shadow loomed over her as he walked up from behind. Her heart stopped beating. Her breath stuck in her lungs. She didn’t dare speak or this magic would end.

  “I found you,” Mica said as he walked around Jules’s stroller and sat in the chair close to the pink stucco wall. He reached out to touch Jules’s outstretched hand, then leaned over and kissed Jules on the forehead. He looked back to her.

  “How?” She swallowed and tried to think. “How did you find me?”

  His smile was nearly imperceptible, but his tanned face seemed to glow. Grace wondered if the day would ever come when she wasn’t completely shattered by him. All of him. His blue eyes looked twice as intense as she remembered them. His raven hair was longer, as if he hadn’t had time to cut it.

  “Da! Da! Dada!” Jules squealed and kept stretching his hand to Mica and banging his legs against the stroller.

  “I think he’s happy to see me. Are you?”

  Grace glanced at Jules, then back at Mica. She was in shock. Mica. Here. In Paris. “You didn’t answer me.”

  “I had help.”

  “My aunt?” Grace couldn’t believe Louise would betray her like this. What if Mica was here to take Jules away?

  “Uh, no. But she was an unwitting participant. She wrote to Mrs. Beabots.”

  “And Mrs. Beabots told you where I was?”

  “Yes.” He reached toward Grace’s hand. “Don’t be mad at her. I had to find you, Grace.”

  Hot, liquid fire slid down Grace’s throat as she stared at him. Was he kidding? He was back to make her feel like a fool again? What could he want? The only reason he would be here wasn’t good. She felt like she was readying for battle. No one, not even Mica, could separate her from Jules. For a long moment, her mind went black. She couldn’t think. His face swam in front of her. She forced herself to breathe.

  You can do this, Grace. Be strong. He’s only a Barzonni. He can’t hurt you any more than he already has.

  “Why is it so important you see me?” She braced for the truth.

  “Because I found out some things after you left, Grace,” he said huskily, without a trace of reproach or arrogance.

  His eyes softened. She remembered that look. She’d only seen it briefly, once, when he’d looked at her in the moonlight. She’d had her eyes closed and she’d opened them suddenly, and she’d caught him. She realized now that it had been that look that she’d pinned hopes on all these months. That look had spurred her to book a ticket to America and take Jules to meet him. It was that look that she’d desperately wanted to see—even if it was only one more time.

  “Such...as?”

  “I learned I can’t live without you. I don’t want to live without you or Jules. I was stupid and blind. I was afraid that if I couldn’t give you the world, you wouldn’t want me, Grace.”

  Stunned, Grace was terrified to believe him. Her mouth had gone dry and her heart hammered in her chest. “Mica, what—what are you saying?”

  “I love you, Grace.” He rose from the chair and came over to her. “I love you with all my heart and soul. I should have told you before, but I was too bitter, too arrogant and afraid.”

  “You love me?”

  He pulled her up from the chair. He stood so close she could feel his breath on her face.

  “I do. I do. I know I deserve to be turned away. But please don’t. Please give me a chance to make it all up to you. All the things I didn’t say when I should have said them. Give me a chance.”

  Tears filled Grace’s eyes. She felt weak and strong at the same time. “Mica, you can’t just fly across an ocean and surprise me like this and expect me to drop everything and come back to Indian Lake with you.”

  He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her cheeks, her nose, her lips, and started laughing. “Oh, Grace, how I love you! I never said anything about taking you and Jules out of Paris.”

  “But you said...”

  “Grace, you are Paris to me. You are its light and beauty and love. It’s in your blood as surely as if you’d been born here. I’ve been walking this area for hours. I found your apartment but you weren’t there. I wandered around and I fell in love with every lamppost and café. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I feel as if I’ve come home, too, Grace.”

  “But...you were going to Florida and—”

  “I went to Florida. It’s gorgeous there. Palm trees and the beach. But when I looked out on that ocean and knew you were on the other side of the Atlantic, I couldn’t take it. It took me a few weeks to get things squared away legally—”

  “What do you mean, ‘legally’?” she interrupted. His words were coming at her like a tsunami. A wonderful, powerful, emotion-packed wave.

  “My work contracts. It’s all done. I’m a partner in Peerless. The company I told you about.”

  “Partner?”

  “Uh-huh.” He pushed back a lock of hair from her face. “We worked it out. I’ll email my designs and a few times a year I’ll fly to Miami and conference with Vince and Chip, my colleagues. I’ll take you and Jules with me. He’s gonna love the beach and the park—”

  “So, you have it all worked out.”

  “Just about. Except for one thing.” He reached into his pocket and withdrew a sparkling diamond ring in a platinum setting. “All my brothers told me the reason you refused me was because I didn’t have a ring. This time I took their advice.”

  “Mica, it was never the ring,” she said softly as he moved even closer to her. He put his arm around her and pulled her to his chest.

  “I know that.”

  “I wanted you to love me,” she said through her tears.

  “And I do. More than you can possibly know. I intend to spend the rest of my life showing you how much.”

 
“Show me now,” she said, putting her arms around his neck and leaning into his kiss.

  His lips were filled with the promise of love that Grace had dreamed about for years. The sun beat down on them and though Grace knew it was her imagination, oddly, she thought she smelled suntan lotion and chlorine on him.

  Maybe it was the wish she’d made all those years ago in the swimming pool coming true.

  Mica loved her. He wanted to be hers. It was the only wish that mattered.

  EPILOGUE

  MICA HUNG UP the phone and turned to Grace. “They’re all mad,” he said handing the phone to Grace and taking Jules in his arm.

  “How can they be mad that we’re engaged? Wait a minute. Your mother said that?”

  “No, Gabe.” Mica walked up to the street light across from the Eiffel Tower.

  Frowning, Grace said, “Your brother is mad because you asked me to marry you or because I said ‘yes’?”

  Mica burst into laughter and as he did, Jules put his hand over Mica’s mouth and laughed along with him.

  Mica shrugged. “Actually, Nate was on the phone with him. He and Maddie were out at Gabe and Liz’s for dinner. Then I called Mom and conferenced her and Sam in as well.”

  “That’s practically the whole family,” Grace replied as the light turned.

  “Da!” Jules pointed to the green light.

  “Hey!” Mica kissed Jules’s cheek. “I thought I was ‘Da.’”

  Grace put her arm around Mica’s waist, liking the feeling of the three of them blending together. It hit her that she was living her dreams. Mica was here, in Paris, and he wasn’t leaving. He wanted to make a life with her. No wonder people thought Paris was paradise. “Oh, Mica, he’s been calling everything ‘Da’ since we returned.”

  “And I thought I was special.”

  “You are special,” Grace said earnestly. “To both of us.”

  “Keep telling me that,” he said as they walked past a street vendor selling flowers.

  “Back to your brothers...”