“Tyler, I didn’t do anything—”
“I am.” He took three quick strides and was on her. She threw a hand up reflexively and smacked her palm against his chest. Keeping him at arm’s length was the only thing that might save her from throwing herself at him and looking like a complete fool. Tyler’s hands dangled at his sides, but he leaned against her palm, telling her with the weight of his body that he wanted to be closer than this.
She felt the planes of his chest muscles under her fingers. Saw her hand stretch wide open as if to touch even more of him, and knew she couldn’t control that movement. Then she realized that Tyler was still speaking.
“I am responsible for it. It was my dream, my vision. I planned it. I built it. And then I hired you. And I was smart enough to take advantage of what you could do for me.”
His hands came up and circled her wrists loosely. Her arm was no longer so firmly straight.
“That was pretty smart of you.” Somehow she managed to form the words, despite the fact that nearly all her attention was focused on the exquisite sensation of his thumbs moving in small circles on the undersides of her wrists.
“I’m a pretty smart guy.” His eyes shone with the light of a thousand stars in a night sky. She felt his steady heartbeat beneath her palm. “Every once in a while, though, it takes me a little longer to catch on.” His hands tightened on her wrists. “I love you, Grace, and I want you with me, always. I’ll try to adjust to your life, if you’ll make yourself a part of mine.”
His face blurred in front of her and she tasted salt in his kiss as she collapsed the space between them in an instant. She clung tightly to him for a moment but then pushed him away, laughing through her tears.
“You idiot!”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him again, unable to stay away for more than a second. Taking advantage of her living room furniture, she gave him a little push and Tyler toppled willingly to the couch, twisting so that he landed on top of her.
“I thought we’d decided that I was pretty smart.” He grinned down at her.
“You’re ruining my whole plan.” She pretended to throttle him and then pressed her lips to his neck in apology.
“You had a plan.”
“Yeah,” she said, looking up at this face she would wake up to every day for the rest of her life, “and it was a pretty good one.” Then she knew what she had to do. She moved until Tyler sank beneath her and she lay on his chest. For a moment she considered just staying right here for the rest of the night, but she knew he deserved more than that from her.
She stood next to the couch and beckoned to him.
“Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
“Everyone! People! Your attention please!”
Someone cut the music off abruptly.
Like a bug pinned to a mat, was all she could think, as hundreds of eyes focused on her. She was heads and shoulders above the crowd, knees wobbling as she stood on a bar stool in the packed room of Tyler’s pub, one hand braced on the shoulder of a stranger at her side.
But only one pair of eyes mattered. She could read the love in them from where she stood. Tyler didn’t move, knowing that she needed to do this one last thing to make everything right. Not only between the two of them, but for everyone else she’d met and fallen in love with through him.
Silence fell over the packed room.
“Hi.” She didn’t know how to begin.
“Hiya, Gracie!”
The familiar face saved her.
“Hi, Benny,” she called shakily. At the far end of the bar, Maxie was waving crazily at her, standing next to a smiling Susannah and Addy. Behind the bar, Spencer shut off the Guinness tap that was spilling stout over the top of the pint below it. Sarah had snuck through the crowd and now put an arm around Grace’s waist. And with that, the words came. All she had to do was tell the truth.
“Hi, everybody. My name is Grace. Grace Haley. And I’d like to tell you a story.” Never taking her eyes off Tyler, she began in the age-old fashion.
“Once upon a time, there was a girl who was in trouble. It was a lot of trouble, but instead of staying to fight her own battles, she ran away. Lucky for her, she ran into a man who liked to take care of strays.” That man was looking at her now, and she held on to his gaze like a lifeline with her heart and soul. “A brilliant, wonderful, funny, incredible man, with a terrific family. They took her off the street and made a place for her in their homes. In their hearts. And it wasn’t long before she fell in love with them. All of them. But the biggest part of her heart was filled with love for the man.”
She could hear the whispers building around her. She ignored them, as she ignored the tear she felt trickling down her face.
“This girl was foolish and not very brave, so she did some stupid things. She lied about who she was and where she was from, because she hoped she could hide from all of her problems. She hadn’t figured out yet that you can’t hide from the really big ones. That you shouldn’t.
“Now, the man was pretty smart, as I said, and he knew she wasn’t telling him everything. But he took her in anyways, gave her a job and let her stay, as long as she would promise him one thing. She could keep her secrets, she could be safe with him, he told her. Then he said, ‘but on December thirty-first, New Year’s Eve, you sign on one hundred percent and there’ll be no more hiding for you.’”
She stopped. Tyler was walking toward her, pushing easily through a crowd that parted for him like mist, never breaking away from her eyes.
She wasn’t finished.
“I’ve made a lot of mistakes since the day you said that, Tyler. But it’s December thirty-first, New Year’s Eve, and if you still want me, I’m done hiding. I love you, and I couldn’t hide that if I tried.”
He was at her feet and she was trying to get off the damn stool, but she couldn’t see the floor and then she couldn’t see anything because she was crying as he kissed her and she was telling him she loved him, over and over again, fiercely, her hands fisted in his shirt as her mouth found his mouth, and his face, and any part of him she could reach. Touching him was coming home and loving him was what she’d been heading toward all her life.
Her face was framed in his hands and she saw her soul in his eyes as he held her. She didn’t even need the words when he said them.
“I love you, Grace Haley.”
The crowd exploded around them. Richard was ringing the bell as if the gates of heaven had just opened and Spencer was pouring champagne as if the world was ending tonight.
She found herself on the ground at last, surrounded by shouting friends who counted down the last seconds to midnight.
The space between them was a separate world. She threaded her hands through his damp hair and smiled up at him.
“I was coming to find you when you showed up at my door.”
“And I always knew I’d find you on the thirty-first, no matter where you’d gone.” His smile was soft and his hands moved on her as if he couldn’t get enough of touching her.
“Then we were both looking for each other.” Which felt right.
“You got it,” he answered, and kissed her while confetti rained down on them like drifting snow. When he lifted his head, his smile teased her. “So I’ve got my waitress back?”
“No way.” At his raised eyebrow, she grinned and stood on tiptoe to wrap her arms around his neck. “I’ve got a much bigger job in mind this time around.” She saw him anticipate her words and loved that he knew her so perfectly. “How do you feel about taking on a wife?”
The next moment she found out that he’d beaten her to the idea a long time ago. Reaching into his pants’ pocket, he pulled out a small velvet box and held it in front of her.
“I bought this the morning you left.”
She curled her fingers over his and leaned in to press her mouth softly to his.
“I’ll never leave again.”
The clock struck midnight. Horns blared and balloons
fell around them. She whispered to her love the words that end all fairy tales.
“And they lived happily ever after.”
Tyler spun her around and laughed out loud.
“You bet your ass they did.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-8298-2
AT YOUR SERVICE
Copyright © 2004 by Amy Jo Albinak
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 233 Broadway, New York, NY 10279 U.S.A.
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