by Regina Frame
I startled when someone walked up behind me. It was Grayson’s father. I wrapped my arms around my waist and waited for what he was going to hurl my way.
“Aubree, I would like to apologize to you for the way my wife has treated you tonight,” he said. “She’s been like this for years, and, sadly, I don’t see it changing anytime soon.” The next words out of his mouth were not what I expected at all. “Our marriage was arranged when we were just children. Our parents and the ones before them felt that wealth married wealth.” He had such a sad look on his face. “Grayson is right; she was never a mother to him and never a wife to me. I’ve done what I’ve done, and that’s on me.
“Once Grayson grew up and made his own way in this world, she knew he was slipping away. He never came around. When he did, it always ended like this.” He motioned toward the large dining room where Grayson was still arguing with his mother. “I guess what I’m trying to say is: don’t let her be the reason you leave Grayson. He loves you.”
I opened my mouth to speak. I felt like I needed to come clean with him and tell him why I was there. It was all about money and an agreement, but he interrupted me.
“I saw the way he was looking at you in there. That man loves you, and he doesn’t give love easily.”
I could feel the tears welling in my eyes again as Grayson’s father patted me on the back and walked down the hall and out of sight. Grayson suddenly appeared in front of me.
“Let’s go,” he insisted.
I sat in the passenger seat with my fingers knotted together. We were almost back at his apartment, before he broke the silence.
“I’m sorry. I should’ve never gotten you involved in all of this.”
What was he saying? Was he sorry that he met me? Was he going to ask me to leave once we arrived back at his place?
“It’s okay,” I replied, staring out the window at the night sky.
When we arrived back at his place, he went straight to his room and I went to mine. I could hear him talking to someone on his cell, but it was a low murmur and I couldn’t make out what they were saying. After showering and slipping into a tee shirt and panties, I slid beneath the soft down comforter.
The longer I lie there, the more I thought about the night and everything that had gone on. And the fact that Grayson went to his room and shut me out spoke volumes. I needed to get out of there, and I needed to do it now even though it was well after midnight. I packed my things and stopped in the kitchen to leave him a note. That was when I noticed the ring on my hand and my heart splintered.
Grayson,
Thank you for a wonderful three weeks that I will never forget. I’ve called and left a message for Tabatha in Human Resources to let her know that I won’t be returning. She should have a replacement for you after the New Year. I’m returning the ring. I truly hope that you find someone who’s worthy of your love. Tonight just proved that I don’t belong in your world.
Aubree Layne
I laid the ring on top of the note, and left as quietly as I could. Luckily, my old Honda started right up so I pulled out of the parking space and headed to the only place that I had left to go. I was crazy to think that I could make it on my own, and this just proved how much of a failure I was when I parked my car behind my dad’s old truck.
GRAYSON
It had been a miserable two weeks without her. She wasn’t taking any of my calls, so I did the only thing I knew to do. I went to the country club and found her father. I expected him to punch me in the nose or kick me in the nuts for making his daughter cry, but he didn’t. He was very kind and understanding. He told me about arguments between him and Aubree’s mom, and how some days we face challenges that we think we can’t concur, but love always wins in the end. When I left there, I was feeling a little bit better about life, so I made a few phone calls, put a plan in place, and just hoped that I could pull it off.
***
AUBREE
I pulled my coat tight around me as I walked down the sidewalk to meet Missy. She called me yesterday and asked me to come to dinner to celebrate her birthday, which I found a little odd, because I thought her birthday was in June and it was January, but her parents had given her a gift certificate with enough cash on it for two people and she thought of me. It was good to be out of the house for the evening, because it had been so depressing without Grayson. He’d called every day, and every day, I rejected his calls. I’d deleted his messages without listening to them, because I didn’t think I could take hearing his voice right now.
When I stepped through the door at Burke’s, it brought back memories of a night that Grayson and I had spent sitting at his reserved table and out of sight. That was the night that I caught a real glimpse of Grayson Decker. I gave the hostess my name, and followed her aimlessly to a secluded table in the corner, hidden away from prying eyes.
“Aubree.”
I loved the sound of my name as it rolled off his tongue. It did things to me. It tugged at my heart and made it ache. I turned to tell the hostess that she’d taken me to the wrong table, but she was already gone.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, still standing.
“I came to talk to you.” He walked around the table and stopped in front of me. That was when I got a good look at him. He’d not only lost weight, but he had dark circles under his eyes.
“Grayson, I saw the pictures of you in the paper with Bridget Prescott. The morning you left early, you met with her, didn’t you?” I accused.
“I did, but it’s not what you think. She was threatening to blackmail me if I didn’t break it off with you,” he explained, but I just glared at him, making him squirm. “I’ve turned it over to the police. I’ve filed a restraining order against her.” I stayed silent, not really knowing what to make of all of this.
“Please talk to me, Aubree,” he pleaded.
“There’s nothing to say. You asked me to spend three weeks with you and pose as your fiancée at your Christmas dinner, which I did. Our arrangement ended after that dinner. You made that very clear when you went to your room and shut me out. I was a business transaction for the great Grayson Decker, New York’s man of the year. I hope you got your money’s worth, or are you here to ask for a refund?”
He winced at my words, but he didn’t let them stop him. He closed the distance between us, cupping my face in his big, strong hands. Bringing back all those wonderful feelings that I’d come to love.
“Aubree, you were never a business transaction. I knew from the first time I saw you at the coffee shop that you were meant to be mine. In case you haven’t noticed, I don’t drink coffee. I just used that as an excuse to come in and hopefully catch a glimpse of the beautiful woman who was always in the background, stocking shelves.” The soft pad of his thumb skimmed my bottom lip, and just like that, I remembered all the times he touched me. Just that little touch set my body on fire.
“I got lucky the day I walked in and you were at the register. My beautiful Aubree Layne had the cutest little button nose with a sprinkling of freckles across her cheeks.”
My breath caught in my throat as he recalled that evening. I swallowed hard, and my eyes brimmed with unshed tears, but when he dropped to one knee and presented me with a beautiful emerald cut diamond, I began to cry. I couldn’t control it.
“Aubree Layne, you changed my world the day you wrote Scrooge on my coffee cup.” I couldn’t help but laugh in between the tears. “You showed me what it was like to love someone; to have a heart bursting with happiness every time you walked into the room. I can’t promise you that there won’t be some rocky roads at times, but there’s nothing we can’t get through together, and I can promise you that I will always love you with all my heart.” He took my left hand and held the ring out in front of me. “I’m a better man because of you. Will you marry me, Aubree? Please say you’ll share your life with me.”
“Yes! Yes! Yes!” I accepted as he placed the ring on my finger. “I love you, Grayson.” He wrapp
ed his arms around me, pulling me tight against his hard muscle. “Let’s take this celebration home,” he said, kissing me even though I was a crying, snotty mess. But when he lifted his pant leg and revealed the red and white stripe socks, I burst into a fit of giggles.
“God. I love you!” I threw my arms around him, my mouth taking his in a hungry kiss. His hands fisted in my hair as he groaned against my lips. He looked down at me with lust filled eyes.
“Let’s go home so I can show you how much I love you.”
AUBREE
“Grayson, the star is straight.”
My 6’2” husband was standing on an extremely tall ladder, trying to straighten the star on top of our 15’ft Christmas tree that was already straight. To say he had been a little over the top with this Christmas season would be putting it mildly.
“Aubree, it’s not straight.” He looked down at me with a frown. “I’m taller than you. It looks straight from down there, but, trust me, it’s not.” He grunted as he shifts the big lighted star.
“What? Are you calling me short, Gray?” I asked, digging my fists into my hips.
“Well, you kind of are, sweetie.” He winked and climbed down from the ladder, placed his hand on my growing belly, and kissed me. That melted me every time.
“I don’t hear you complaining when I climb you like a tree,” I teased.
I couldn’t hold back the smile as I thought about all the times I’d jumped him when he walked through the door at the end of the day. Although it had gotten harder to do lately as our little girl grew bigger, but the pregnancy hormones had made me horny as hell, and he was always more than happy to take care of my needs.
Shaking my head, I looked at the mountain of presents underneath the tree and couldn’t believe that my Scrooge had changed so much from the first day he stiffed me on a tip. He had really gone overboard for our first Christmas as a married couple. Who would have thought that the man that once broke out in hives at the mention of the holidays would do a complete 180.
“You will hear no complaints from me, babe.” He shot me a sultry grin.
“Do you think you bought her enough stuffed animals?” I eyed the six foot pink unicorn with the silver horn on top of its head, in addition to the mountain of white and pink fluff scattered beneath the tree.
“Babe, I can’t help myself. I live to spoil my girls,” he admitted as he wrapped his arms around my shoulders and placed a kiss on top of my head.
“Daddy just wants to give his girls the moon.” He smiled and kissed my stomach.
“See? She just kicked. That means she agrees with her daddy already.” I rolled my eyes playfully. A year and a half ago, I never would have guessed that Grayson ‘Scrooge’ Decker would have a 15-foot Christmas tree in his living room with at least a hundred gifts scattered around it.
“I’m officially removing the title of Scrooge from your name.” I quirked a grin.
“Oh yeah?” he asked, his brow lifting. “Am I now your sexy beast?” he guessed.
“You are now Santa McGlitter Pants.” His brows pulled down in a frown. He was totally confused by the new title. “Honey, you have glitter all over you from the ornaments, and for some odd reason, your crotch is covered in it.” He looked down at his jeans and back up at me, clearly amused by this.
“You love my glitter package. Don’t even try and deny it,” he teased, wrapping his arms around my shoulders and rubbing his hard dick against my ass.
“Grayson, my parents will be here any moment. My dad might stroke out if he walked in and saw his daughter bent over the arm of the sofa, naked from the waist down.” He growled with disapproval, giving me one last thrust of his hips, causing me to giggle. “Come on. Help me get the turkey out of the oven.”
***
“We’re here!” my mom yelled from the other room. She walked into the kitchen with my father close on her heels with his walker. When he finally saw a doctor, he was diagnosed with several ruptured discs in his back that required surgery and physical therapy, but he was recovering right on schedule, thanks to my mom’s hovering ways. He sold his landscaping business to Grayson, which took a lot of convincing, but he was now managing his growing business from behind a desk where he could set his own hours.
“It smells like heaven in here,” my mom said, eyeing the large turkey that Grayson was carving. “Who would have thought my little girl would have done all of this,” she said, waving her hand around the kitchen where an assortment of different holiday dishes sat on the counter. “I always wanted to teach you how to cook, but you never took interest in it.”
“That’s because you were the best, Mom,” I praised, earning a big smile from her.
“Aubree? Did you know you have glitter on your butt?” she asked.
My eyes flew to Grayson’s to see him grinning with his back turned to them. How was I going to explain that? Luckily, I didn’t have to because my father spoke up.
“She burned my damn biscuits this morning,” my dad grumbled, from where he’d taken a seat at the table.
“Well, whose fault was that?” she asked, but grinned at my dad, who looked away.
I was not sure what the deal was, and I didn’t think I wanted to know. I refused to put the image of my mom and dad getting frisky, as he likes to call it, into my brain.
***
“Look at all this paper,” I uttered, looking at all the wrapping paper scattered around our living room. “That’s a lot of trees.”
“More trees I get to plant, Aubree,” my father admitted with a smile, and for the first time in a long time, I think it was genuine. It was not forced.
It did my heart good to know that my parents were happy and had the things that they needed. We surprised them with a house for their anniversary this year, and even though it was a three bedroom ranch style, my father said it was too big. When it came time to pick out the appliances and furniture, they picked the bare minimum. Grayson wanted to argue that they should choose the best and most expensive, because he wanted to spoil them, but I was able to convince him to let it go, because it had always been the simple things in life that made them happy.
“I guess so, Daddy,” I agreed.
I learned a long time ago not to argue with my father, because he was stubborn and would always have the last word.
After several hours of visiting with my parents, Grayson helped them out to their car with all their Christmas gifts. I slipped my shoes off and plopped down on the sofa when Grayson walked back in.
“You know they love you.” I smiled as he sank down on to the leather beside me. “Do you regret cutting ties with your parents?”
After the fiasco, as I like to call it, last Christmas, Grayson cut all ties with his parents. If they wanted to know anything about their son’s success or our lives, they had to find out by reading the news articles or searching online. They tried to crash our wedding, only to be turned away by the security team at the venue. I think that was when it truly hit them that their son was finished.
“No. It’s hard to regret cutting them out of my life, when they did that to me the day I was born. I have more respect for our chef, Marjorie, and the few nannies that I had growing up. I was a status symbol for them, and that’s all,” he replied, wrapping his arm around my shoulders and pulling me against his warm body, his spicy scent wrapping around me. “Movie?” he asked, lifting a brow.
I snuggled in close, laying my head against his shoulder, and when the movie Scrooge appeared on the screen, I elbowed him in the ribs, making him howl with laughter.
“Aw, come on! You’ve got to give me something.” He snickered.
“Kiss me,” I whispered with a loving smile. “You’ll always be my secret Scrooge.”
He placed a single finger beneath my chin, lifting my face to his and placing a loving kiss on my lips.
“Thank you, Aubree.”
“For what?” I asked in confusion.
“For showing me there was a whole other life outside of who
I was over a year ago, and for giving me the best gift a man can ever receive,” he said, lightly running his hand over my baby belly with so much love and tenderness I melted right there, into a pile of mushy goo.
This man, who once hated Christmas because of the path his parents chose, now had love and happiness in his heart, and he shared it with me every day. Don’t get me wrong. He was still the bigger than life, take charge man when he walked into the boardroom, and got the respect he commanded and deserved.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
My name is Regina Frame, and I live in Alabama with my husband and 2 dogs. I worked for twenty years in the medical field as an office manager. I fell in love with reading after picking up, Fifty Shades of Grey, and I haven't stopped reading since. I started out as a beta reader for other authors, and then decided to try it myself. I couldn't stop now, even if I wanted to. I love to write! I love the challenge of bringing characters to life, and love it even more when I hear how they have touched my fans.
When I'm not at the computer, you'll find me reading with a dog in my lap. I donate a portion of every book sale to local animal shelters or the ASPCA.
You can follow me on the sites listed below.
http://ReginaFrameAuthor.com
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