Foundation (A Golden Beach Novella)

by Loraine, Kim

  Guilt for her bad attitude about him washed over her, and she had to force herself to focus on the moments ahead.

  The restaurant was quaint, and to her delight, Alice in Wonderland themed. A chorus of cheers erupted when she walked into the dining area. She laughed when she saw Breanna, Annette Tilly, Drew’s dad, and a few of the friends she’d made over the past year. The room was filled with pink and blue balloons, flowers, and gifts for the babies. As soon as she found her place at the reserved table, a hostess presented her with a sparkly tiara. She looked around, searching for Drew, and came up short.

  “Is he coming?” she whispered to Sam.

  “He said he’d try.”

  Disappointment gnawed at her. The baby shower wasn’t supposed to be just for her.

  “There he is. Drew, good to see you, lad,” David called from across the table. “Finally, a little dose of testosterone to help me out in here. I’m drowning in women and not in a good way.”

  Drew’s hand rested on the nape of her neck as he leaned down to press a soft kiss to her cheek. She felt that familiar tingle run through her every time he touched her and fought the urge to sigh.

  “Hello, love.”

  “Hi.”

  Sam gave up her seat to Drew and moved to the other side of the table.

  “All right, bring on the fairy cakes,” Sam crowed.

  They drank tea, snacked on tiny sandwiches and fruits, and enjoyed lighthearted conversation for the better part of an hour. All the while, Drew continually fielded calls and emails.

  “Son, set your blasted phone down and enjoy some time with your family.”

  Drew sighed. “Dad, I’m doing my best. This is a crucial time, we’ve only a few more months until the new locations open.”

  Grace stiffened, sensing an argument brewing. “Okay, enough about work. Somebody needs to get the pregnant lady a cupcake before I lose it.”

  “Fairy cake, love. Here in Britain we call things by their proper names,” Drew teased, sending her a grateful glance as he reached for a cupcake and handed it to her.

  “So, Grace, what names have you chosen?” Breanna asked.

  “Um, we . . .” she looked at Drew nervously. “. . . We haven’t really talked about it.”

  “What? Really? You’re such a planner. I figured you’d already have them enrolled in nursery school.”

  Drew took her hand and squeezed. “We’ve got some names we like, but it’s a hard decision.”

  “Do you know the sexes?” Annette asked.

  Grace shook her head. “We want it to be a surprise.”

  “It’ll definitely be that,” David offered as he peeled the paper off of his second cupcake.

  Drew’s phone rang and with an apologetic glance toward her, he left the room.

  “You’re not kidding. He must be in over his head. I’ve never seen him this distracted,” Sam whispered in Grace’s ear.

  She frowned as she watched him pace the sidewalk from the window. “It’s been hard.”

  Drew came back only to make his excuses and leave, giving Grace a chaste kiss on the forehead as he rushed off.

  Sam pouted as Drew took his leave of them. “He didn’t stay for the presents. Damn. I got him a funny daddy gift.”

  Grace laughed at her friend, thankful for the levity she brought to the situation.

  “I’ll give it to him.”

  “All right, princess. Time for some embarrassing party games. Get me the nappies, David.” Sam’s eyes twinkled with glee.

  Grace couldn’t contain her laughter as David handed Sam a bag and she pulled out what looked like poo-filled diapers.

  David gripped her hand from across the table.

  “I’m sorry for my boy. I don’t know what’s got into him, but it’ll be put right.”

  Her heart broke at the look on his face and she offered a sad smile. “It’s fine. We’re fine.”

  “I hope so.”

  She felt the same way.

  The spare room was filled with baby things. The gifts from family and friends had been incredibly generous and Grace sighed happily as she looked at the chaotic hodgepodge of items. Just knowing that the babies would have bassinets and clothes when they came home made her feel better.

  “Bloody hell, that’s a lot of stuff,” Drew muttered as he took up the other side of the doorframe.

  “Babies need stuff.”

  “I know. It just seems like a lot for such little people.”

  “Well, I told you we needed a bigger house.” She didn’t know why she was so annoyed, but his tone made it seem like the twins were going to be unwelcome intruders.

  “Right, that you did.”

  “Maybe if you were here every once in a while, the room wouldn’t be such a disaster.”

  The look on his face, anger mixed with hurt, made her wish she could take the words back. He tensed and dropped his gaze to the floor before pushing past her.

  “I’m doing the best I can. We just ... we don’t have the money for a new house.”

  His announcement confused her. Money hadn’t ever been an issue for them. Her job paid well and Ten’s was thriving. Besides that, Drew had a solid trust and had assured her they didn’t need to worry.

  “What do you mean?”

  Raking his hand through his hair, he turned to face her but wouldn’t meet her eyes. “We’ve run into some problems with the expansion.”

  “What kind of problems?”

  “Cash flow issues. I’ve gotten it all sorted, but I had to use the majority of my trust.”

  Eyes wide, she walked away from him, needing to sit before her knees buckled. “Drew, that’s a lot of money.”

  He followed, standing over her with an earnest expression on his face. “We’ll get it all back and then some. I promise.”

  “And if we don’t?”

  His mouth turned down in a frown. “You’ve got a lot of faith in me, don’t you?” The sarcasm dripped from his voice.

  “Don’t you think you should have talked to me about this?”

  “I didn’t have time. The decision had to be made to keep things moving. And you’re not bringing in as much now that you can’t work. I had to pick up the slack.”

  Fury burned in her. “Oh, I’m sorry that carrying your babies has gotten in the way of my job. Would you like me to go back to work full time so you don’t have to pick up any more of my slack?”

  He sucked in a sharp breath, tensing as she reached beyond him for her paperback novel. “That’s not what I meant.”

  Guilt washed over her. Now she knew he wasn’t just hard at work securing a steady financial future and legacy for their kids. With their money being tied up in this venture and her not able to take on a full workload, this had to succeed. She needed to stop being so hard on him.

  “You heading out for a run?” she asked, trying to change the subject and ease the tension between them.

  “Yeah. Do you have a problem with that as well?”

  Her throat tightened at the anger in his voice. They were taking turns wounding each other.

  “No. Have fun.” She pressed a kiss to his lips and he all but flinched at her touch.

  As she sat on the couch she’d come to call home, she thought about how they’d gone from completely in love to distant and spiteful in such a short time.

  Snagging her laptop from the coffee table, she opened her internet browser to her social media account. She liked to lurk and check on her friends and family back home. Valerie was a mess. Angela, Valerie’s little sister, was preparing to go on tour with her band, and Grace’s mom was always updating the site with pictures of her latest wax warmer purchases.

  A message popped up and her heart lurched as she saw it was from Sa
rah.

  How was the baby shower? Was Grace any less of a cow?

  She had no idea what to say to this inappropriate message and couldn’t figure out why Sarah was able to message her. They weren’t friends. In fact, she’d blocked the bitch last year when she kept tagging Drew in her posts.

  Then it hit her. She was logged in to Drew’s account. He must have used her laptop to check on something and forgotten to log out.

  Against her better judgment, she began scrolling back through the messages. There were a lot. A sick feeling took hold as she read them.

  We’re more like annoying flatmates . . .

  She’s making me miserable . . .

  I’d rather not be home at all . . .

  So many confessions from him, things that broke her heart beyond measure. Things she didn’t even know she’d been doing were on the thread of messages.

  By the time she finished reading, tears had spilled down her cheeks and a heavy numbness settled over her.

  Her marriage was over and she couldn’t do anything about it. Not until the babies were safely in this world and she could leave.

  Chapter 12

  Grace sighed as she checked the time. She had needed to leave ten minutes ago in order to be on time for her appointment. Drew wasn’t answering his phone. Henry didn’t know where he was, and she was balanced on the edge of worry and blood boiling anger. He knew she needed the car. He’d promised to be there.

  As busy as he’d been, as tense as their relationship was, this wasn’t characteristic behavior for him. He always made time to take her to her appointments, whether they were speaking to each other or not. But then, recent revelations proved she didn’t know him as well as she’d thought . . .

  Pulling out her phone, she called a taxi. As she waited for the cab to arrive, she held onto the hope that Drew would show up with some kind of reasonable explanation for his absence. Five minutes passed, and still no Drew. The taxi waited at the curb for her to waddle down the walkway. She wanted to cry.

  Her appointment went smoothly. Her blood pressure was still high, even with medication, and the doctor was confident they’d be able to keep the babies in until thirty-six weeks if she was able to maintain her routine and keep her life relatively stress-free. She had to laugh at that plan. Her husband was currently the source of her stress, not the town she needed to be restoring, or the fact that she was gestating two babies at once.

  Her heart clenched as she remembered the messages she’d stumbled upon. She’s making me miserable. How could he tell her that? She couldn’t bring herself to confront him about it. Her heart couldn’t take it if he admitted the truth.

  As she sat in the waiting room, hoping to see Drew burst through the door to at least pick her up and take her home, she took her phone from her purse and called him. It went straight to voicemail. Again.

  “Drew, I don’t know where you are. I hope you’re okay. Please call me.”

  She called another taxi and made her way to the parking lot, angry tears in her eyes.

  As she climbed into the back of the cab, she had to fight off a wave of dizziness.

  “You all right back there?” the driver asked.

  “Yeah, just a little dizzy.”

  “Where to, then?”

  She rattled off her address and sat back, closing her eyes and breathing deeply. When she opened her eyes they were right around the corner from Ten’s.

  “Wait, you can let me off here.” She was gripped with a desperate need to make sure Drew was all right.

  The driver pulled up to the curb and offered her a kind smile as she stepped out of the car.

  Her vertigo had passed, but her breaths were heavy and she had to work to calm herself. The idea of something happening to Drew spun her up, setting her nerves on edge.

  Henry looked up from his register where he was ringing up groceries for Annette Tilly, the local librarian. “Hiya, Grace. Drew just got back. You want me to call up to the office and let him know you’re here?”

  She shook her head and made her way back to the stairs that lead to his office. He could damn well be surprised. As she approached the short staircase the office door opened and disgust filled her stomach like a stone.

  Sarah. She was facing away from Grace, her hair disheveled and skirt slightly crooked. The woman was laughing. The sound of Drew’s low chuckle pierced Grace’s heart like a red-hot poker and confirmed her suspicions. He’d been lying. Working and doing God-knows what else, with her.

  “Oh, well, aren’t you looking . . . round.” It took Grace a moment to realize Sarah was talking to her.

  “Grace?” Drew’s voice held a note of panic and his familiar messy brown hair came into view.

  She was going to be sick. He’d missed the appointment, ignored her calls, all so he could be with Sarah.

  “You missed the appointment. I had to take a fucking taxi.” Her chin trembled and made her voice wobble. “Your babies are fine, by the way. I hope whatever it was you were doing was worth it.” The venom-laced words felt so foreign on her tongue. She’d never spoken to him this way until recently.

  “Did I cause you to miss something important, Drews?” Sarah’s sultry voice sent waves of rage through Grace.

  “Grace. Wait,” Drew called, but she was already heading outside, into the clean air and away from the disaster she’d just witnessed.

  Ignoring her shortness of breath and the sharp pain in her side, she walked as fast as her legs would take her. She needed to get home, get calm, and think about what she was going to do next. She’d been warned before she married Drew. Sarah was quicksand. She had her hooks in him and could turn him whichever way she wanted.

  She heard his footfalls behind her, his long legs making quick work of the distance between them. Panic seized her as a deep ache gripped her belly and squeezed.

  As she waited to cross the street, another pain radiated through her and she had to hold onto the light post to ride out the cramp.

  “Grace!” Drew shouted as he came nearer.

  She looked at him, his hair wild and his eyes wide. He was scared. Good. She wanted him scared. He should be.

  A black taxi pulled up as the light changed, and as another pain took her, she made a split second decision. She yanked the door open and slid inside.

  “I’m off duty, miss.”

  “Not anymore. Please, I need to get to the hospital as quick as you can.”

  Drew reached the door just as the driver accelerated and left him standing on the sidewalk.

  She had a moment to feel guilty for leaving him, until nothing else mattered save the rhythmic pains that were squeezing her belly.

  Drew’s whole body went numb as he watched the taxi speed away with Grace inside. Her words had been a direct hit and one he couldn’t have deserved more. He pulled his phone out of his pocket so he could call her, see if she’d give him a chance to talk it through. Lord knows what she must think of him. His heart sank as he saw his phone had been powered down. He scrolled through the missed calls, texts, and voicemails from her over the course of the last few hours.

  “Bloody fucking hell!”

  He sprinted down the few blocks that would take him home, hoping to find her there waiting. The house was dark, too quiet, and an ominous feeling covered him. Where was she? Where would she go?

  His phone buzzed and he jumped to answer, expecting it to be Grace.

  “Grace, where are you, love?”

  The voice that filled his ears wasn’t the soft, and slightly husky one he’d been expecting. Instead, he was greeted with his father’s gravelly timbre. “She’s in the hospital, you bloody git. What the hell did you do to make her so upset?”

  “Dad?”

  “I expect it’s something to do with Sarah. Why else would
your own wife call me instead of the father of her children?”

  His dad’s previous statement began to resonate as he listened to the tirade. One word spun around in his mind over and over—hospital.

  “Dad, yes, I’m a stupid git. We’ve established that. Why is she in hospital?”

  “She’s gone into labor.”

  Fear gripped his chest so tightly he could barely breathe. Phone still at his ear, he grabbed his keys, bolted from the house, and raced back toward Ten’s.

  “No. It’s too soon yet. She can’t have them now.”

  “Where are you and why are you not with her?”

  “I’m at home. I’m on my way to her. Where are you?”

  His dad sighed. “I’m still in Surrey. I’ll be there sometime later today I expect.”

  Drew hung up without another word. He needed to be with Grace. Horrifying thoughts flashed in his mind. Only one sat front and center. If they lost the babies, he didn’t know what they’d do.

  He parked the car illegally. They could tow it for all he cared. He was sure he looked like a mad man as he powered through the sliding doors and to the nurse’s station.

  “Sir, may I help you?”

  Drew looked the male nurse over, assessing his potential hostility level. He knew he needed to be calm and steady or they wouldn’t let him get anywhere.

  “Yes. My wife . . . she’s pregnant with twins. She’s gone into early labor. I need to see her.” His breaths came in harsh gasps and he consciously tried to quiet himself.

  “All right, may I have her name?”

  “Grace Tensley, she’s only twenty-six weeks along. It’s too early.”

  “Your name, sir?”

  “Drew Tensley.”

  The nurse checked his computer and consulted with his colleague, who shook her head and offered a sad smile.