“We can offer better quality than anyone else in town.”
“She’s telling you the truth, John,” Grant said as he came up behind me and slipped a fresh drink into my hand.
“How can I not believe a face like that?” John asked. “But I have to say, this building is very impressive. Your company really built this?”
“Seven years ago,” Grant said. “I was on the drywall crew at the time.”
“Drywall? I would have put you down as the guy with the saw.”
Grant laughed even as I leaned back into him and took a sip of the apple juice he’d brought for me. My stomach was unsteady, as it had been in the evening for the last few weeks. The doctor promised it would pass, but it was taking its sweet time. I wasn’t sure I was in a hurry to move on to the next stage of this production, anyway. Swelling and weight gain and heartburn. Everything I’d read about pregnancy threatened to scare me to death. Grant was taking it well, but he wasn’t the one who would have to carry the kid to term.
“We’ll provide you the best you can get anywhere in the country, John,” Grant said, sliding his arm around my waist. “Now, if you’ll excuse us for a moment, I have a few other guests I’d like to introduce my beautiful business partner to.”
We moved into the living room, the blue walls made subtle by the artwork I’d brought with me from my apartment. Grant held me close as we moved from group to group, welcoming guests and offering any answers to any questions they might have. When Angela and Kevin walked in, Grant immediately called out to them, pulling me across the room to greet them properly.
“Take her upstairs,” Grant said to Angela in a low tone. “She’s exhausted.”
“I’m fine. And I can speak for myself.”
“Like when you told me this would be okay?” Grant looked at me, concern written all over his face. “You’re pale and the circles under your eyes are so dark, you look like you have black eyes.”
“They are not,” I said, glancing at Angela, who discreetly shook her head.
“Go upstairs for a little while. Indulge me.”
“Tell him women have had babies for centuries, Kevin,” I said.
Kevin held up his hands. “Don’t get me in the middle of this.”
“Come on,” Angela said. “You can show me the new dresser.”
Grant kissed my temple, whispering “love you” against my skin as I moved away. I glanced back at him, a smile I couldn’t hide on my lips.
“If our rivals could see him like that, they might not be so intimidated by him,” Angela said as we pushed through the door of the master suite.
I collapsed onto the loveseat and sighed. “He’s right about the exhaustion. I feel like I haven’t slept in months, even though he let me sleep until nearly noon this morning.”
“I’ve heard that passes after the first trimester. But then it comes back in the third.”
I groaned. “Gee, just what I wanted to know.”
Angela sat beside me. “How’s your dad?”
I shrugged, leaning back and closing my eyes. “The same. Agnes says he’s had more good days than bad ones lately.”
“That’s good.”
I peeked at her. “I suppose so. I’m just glad that she’s been able to be there for him.”
“It’s nice of her, what she’s doing.”
“They worked together for nearly thirty years. He’s known her longer than he knew my mom.”
“Strange how things like that happen.”
I shrugged.
“Is everything ready for tomorrow?”
I nodded. “You’ll be here at nine, right?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I’m going to need lots of help getting ready. I thought doing it this way would be quick and easy, but I keep thinking about everything we have to do—”
“That’s what I’m here for.”
I held out my hand to her and she took it as she settled down on the loveseat beside me. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“We’ve sure been busy lately. I don’t know how Grant could think we need more clients. We have more projects going on right now than we’ve ever had.”
I laid my head down on the back of the loveseat again, watching her through half-closed eyes.
“Grant thinks we can handle twice as many projects. He says the new digital system he put in place makes it easier to keep track of everything. And he’s hired some good foremen.”
“I heard he promoted Billy.”
I smiled. “You’d think he was threatening the guy with prison the way he took it. Billy really doesn’t want to be a foreman.”
“I guess when you get accustomed to something…”
“Daddy’s really impressed with what we’ve done. He told me he knew he was doing the right thing bringing Grant in, but he didn’t expect the turnaround to be this quick.”
I closed my eyes for a minute, the desire to sleep so strong that I almost let myself drift. But then I forced my eyes open and focused on Angela.
“How are things progressing with you and Kevin?”
A blush darkened her complexion. “We’re talking about moving in together. He hates that his schedule makes it so hard for us to find time to be together. He thinks if we live together, we’ll have more time together.”
“He might have a point.”
“But we’ve only been together six months. I’m a little worried that it won’t last once we move in.”
“He spends most nights at your place already, doesn’t he?”
She nodded, a smile that told a story slipping over her lips. “He does.”
“Then you’re practically living together already. He just wants to make it official.”
“I suppose.” She wiped her hands on the front of her dress as though they were sweating or something. “I just don’t want to do anything to mess this up. I really like him.”
“Everyone can see that every time you’re together.”
She glanced at me, that smile growing. “Yeah?”
I touched her arm lightly. “If you’re happy, be happy. Don’t worry about what might happen sometime in the future because you never really know what might be around the next corner.”
Her smile died a quick death. She took my hand. “I’m sorry. I know with your dad and everything…”
“But I’ve also got a business that’s doing really well, a man who loves me, and a baby on the way. So I can be still be happy for you.”
“Thank you.”
The door burst open then and Kevin stuck his head inside.
“So it’s really boring down there. Can I come hide out with the two of you?”
I laughed. “Don’t let Grant hear you say that. He worked hard on putting this thing together with Rebecca. Very impressive, really.”
“Oh, I’m sure it is. For a business party. But this isn’t my kind of business.”
I held out my hand to him. “Come join us. We’ll have our own little party.”
He climbed onto the narrow loveseat behind Angela, and that’s how Grant found us over an hour later. Laughing and sharing a bottle of apple juice—the only fluid that didn’t make me want to throw up in the evenings—and stories about Grant when he was a child.
“Hey, we’ve got a houseful of potential clients downstairs,” he said in a loud whisper.
I laughed and his expression softened. I got up and moved up against him, wrapping his tie around my hand. “There’s more to life than business.”
“Yes, well, business pays for the rest of it.”
“Did I ever tell you that I have a trust fund?”
He pulled me closer and kissed me gently. “You have an answer for everything.”
“I try.”
“Come join us,” Kevin called. “If you’re going to cheat me out of a bachelor party, at least you can come hang out for a few minutes.”
“But the party—”
“Rebecca can handle it.”
I took his hand and
led the way to the loveseat, curling up in his lap when he’d taken a seat. Kevin immediately began teasing Grant for doing business up until the last minute.
“Couldn’t be a normal guy. Had to have a business party the night before your wedding.”
“We’re going to be out of the office for a week.”
“Yeah, it’s only a week. Everything isn’t going to disappear in a week.”
“That’s what I said,” I told him, snuggling closer to his chest.
Grant groaned even as his arms came tighter around me.
I watched them tease each other a while longer, realizing that I finally had what I’d always wanted. Siblings. Kevin would officially be my brother tomorrow. And it was only a matter of time before Kevin and Angela followed us down the aisle.
I was losing my father, but I was gaining the siblings my parents could never give me. It was a compromise I wish I didn’t need to make, but one I could accept with a full heart.
Chapter 24
“Just the veil now,” Angela said as I stood in front of the mirror and looked at myself in the full-length mirror. The dress I’d chosen was a little less glamorous than I’d imagined as a child, but it seemed fitting for this small ceremony. It was a mermaid style that hugged my hips and then fell into a gentle bell of lace. It was a little tight around my middle. Maybe it was my imagination, but I was pretty sure I was beginning to show already, even though I was only eleven weeks along.
Angela lifted the veil and set it on the top of my head, careful not to disturb the French knot the stylist had put it in just an hour ago. It was my mother’s veil that Agnes had dug out of a bin in the attic of my dad’s house. It was all I had of my mother on this day, and the sight of it flowing from my head over my shoulders made tears well up in my eyes.
“You look so much like her.”
I turned and smiled at my dad as Agnes rolled him into the room in his wheelchair. He’d deteriorated quickly over the last few months, so weak that he used the wheelchair to get around. But there was still a lot of life in his eyes.
“Thank you, Daddy.”
I went to him and kissed his cheek, happy to feel the warmth in his thin body. He took my hands and held them tightly for a moment.
“She would be so proud of you.”
And that broke the control. I started to cry, the tears as big and heavy as my heart as they rolled down my cheeks. I knelt in front of him and lay my head on his knee, struggling to keep from falling completely apart.
We’d planned this wedding in a hurry, unsure how much longer my father had. But it was very important to me that he be at my wedding, and when he told me that he’d promised my mom, I couldn’t let him go without giving him the opportunity to fulfill that promise. For days after I learned about my dad’s health issues, I thought about it, thought about everything that had happened in the weeks prior, everything that happened seven years ago. And I decided that it was my turn to make a decision and make things happen.
I proposed to Grant.
He was in his office—almost a month after he bought out the company, turned my life upside down, and I learned the truth about my dad—sitting behind his desk, reading e-mails.
“This is going to sound insane,” I said as I slipped through his door and closed it quietly behind me to keep Rebecca on the other side.
He looked up, one of those smiles on his face that said he was hoping I was talking about some sexual thing.
“We’re at the office, darling,” he said with a little bit of the Texas drawl he rarely revealed.
“Yes, well, if I don’t say it now, I might not say it at all. So, here goes…”
I walked around his desk—a new, elegant cherry-wood desk that replaced the one my father worked at for thirty years—and perched on the front edge. My hands in my lap, I twisted my fingers together and stared at them like they were the most interesting thing in the world. Grant waited a few moments, then lay his hand on top of mine.
“What’s going on, Addison?”
“I love you,” I said in a low but strong voice, saying it aloud for the first time since he’d come back into my life. “You love me. We’re living together now and we’re happy.”
“We are,” he said, rolling his chair so that he was sitting almost in front of me, his hands sliding over my knees. “Let’s not do anything to ruin it.”
“I’m hoping that I’m not doing that. It’s just…I don’t want you to agree to this if it’s too fast or if you think I’m doing it for the wrong reasons, because I’m afraid I might be doing it for the wrong reasons, even though I know I love you and we almost did this once before and I don’t think it would ruin things—”
“You’re rambling, Addison.” He stood up, towering over me, a concerned look on his face. “Tell me what’s going on.”
I took his hands and pulled them to my chest. And then I took a deep breath and looked up at him, tears already forming in my eyes so that I was looking at him from underwater.
“Will you marry me?”
He stared at me for a long minute, his eyes wide with emotions that I couldn’t quite catch. I thought I saw surprise and joy and affection. But I also thought I saw fear, and that frightened me.
“Grant…”
He pulled away, tugging at my hand to make me let go, and yanked open a drawer on the other side of his desk. When he came back, he knelt in front of me and held open a small jeweler’s box.
“Marry me,” he said.
I gasped, my hands shaking so hard I couldn’t have picked up the beautiful, diamond solitaire in that little box. He stood and pulled it out himself, sliding it onto my finger.
“I’ve had that ring for a long time.”
I half nodded as he grasped my chin and lifted it. He kissed me gently, then a little harder.
“We’ll tell people I proposed, okay?”
We found out about the baby two weeks later.
My dad ran his hand down my bare back, his touch light and affectionate.
“You’re a beautiful bride, Addison, just like your mother was.”
I sat back on my heels and looked at him. “Was she beautiful? I can hardly remember what she looked like anymore.”
“She was beautiful. Auburn hair, just like yours. Green eyes like yours. The only difference is you got my nose, my love.”
I smiled, the tears still rolling slowly down my cheeks and over the end of my jaw. “You loved her.”
“Very much.” His eyes filled with sadness, but there was a bright smile on his lips. “She was my whole world before you were born. Did I ever tell you that her father threatened to disown her if she married me?”
“No, you didn’t.”
“He did. Told her I was street trash who would pull her down into the gutter with me.” He touched my cheek lightly, wiping away a tear. “But he was wrong, just like I was wrong about Grant.”
I pressed my hand against his, pushing it tighter against my face. “He’s a good man, Daddy.”
“I’m counting on that. I need to believe you’re well taken care of.”
“I am.” I pulled myself to my feet again and bent low to kiss his cheek. “There’s something else you should probably know,” I said against his ear. “You’re going to be a grandpa.”
I stood up and watched the joy bloom on his face. He held out his hands and pulled me back down to him, at a loss for words. And that spoke volumes.
Agnes tapped on the door and stuck her head in—I hadn’t even realized that she and Angela had left us alone—to let us know it was time.
“Perfect timing,” my dad announced. “I couldn’t think of a better note to end this on.”
I kissed him again. “I love you, Daddy.”
“Love you, too.”
Agnes pushed him back out into the lobby of the Catholic church where Grant was waiting for us at the end of the aisle. I followed and Angela came over, a makeup wipe in her hand to clean the mess I’d made of my makeup. And then she just smiled.
I nodded.
We heard the music begin to play. The ushers opened the double doors that separated the lobby from the nave of the church. Angela started down the aisle, a big smile on her face when she spotted Kevin waiting for her halfway down. Agnes came around me and straightened the narrow train of my dress. Then she squeezed my arms.
“Congratulations,” she whispered before she moved around me and took her seat inside.
“I guess it’s our turn now,” my dad said.
“It is.”
I hadn’t been one hundred percent sure how we were going to handle this. But I should have known my dad would have it all worked out. One of the ushers moved behind him and began pushing him as he grabbed my hand. It wasn’t traditional. But it was the proudest, happiest moment of my life.
Grant moved into place as we began walking toward him. Our eyes met across the nearly empty nave, and I knew this was the right thing to do. This was where we’d always been heading. We’d been derailed seven years ago, but we were back on track now.
We stopped at the head of the aisle and the priest came down to greet us.
“Who gives this woman to this man?” he asked.
“I do,” my father said in a clear, honored voice.
Tears were flowing again as I bent low and kissed him again.
“Thank you,” he whispered, choking up himself. And then he reached for Grant’s hand, placing it on mine. “Take care of her.”
“I will,” Grant said in the most solemn tone I’d ever heard come from his lips.
I cried during the entire service. It was a traditional wedding, complete with a double rosary as my parents had had at their wedding twenty-seven years ago. Grant was so kind, so patient, as I cried my way through my vows and slid his ring on his finger with shaking hands. And then? And then he was mine for better or for worse.
What more could I ask?
Chapter 25
We walked into the luxurious room, an old-fashioned bellboy leading the way. It was a lovely resort in the Bahamas, but all I could think about was how far we were from my dad. Grant offered the bellboy a tip and watched him leave the room.
DOTTY (The Naughty Ones Book 3) Page 98