by Lexy Timms
Then, she cleared her throat.
“Think long and hard about it, because that’s what you’ll relegate yourself to. Three jobs, no future and a child who resents you for never being around.”
“I don’t resent—”
“Or, you can take that man up on his offer, even if it is temporary, and try to get a better life for your child. Even if he doesn’t want you, it sounds like he wants that child. So you have a choice to make.”
“I’m not giving my child over to someone,” I said. “I’m raising my child.”
“Then use the options available to you,” she said. “Give that baby the best start it can get. And if he doesn’t want you? But he does want that kid? Think long and fucking hard before you bring it back here and force him or her to live the life you did. Because I’m telling you, your child won’t survive here. You won’t survive here. You and Nick couldn’t wait to get out of this place—it sucks people bone dry.”
Tears rose to my eyes as she moved past me down the hallway.
“Your child won’t be any different,” she said.
Chapter 17
Grayson
I looked Michelle’s brother up and down as a frown etched itself into my features. Big was right. The man had the look of an ex-military hulk. One that was only a few grunts away from beating me into submission right there on his damn front porch. He and Michelle didn’t look much alike, though. The bridge of their nose was the same and they each carried the same head shape, but that was about it. His hair was a cropped blonde and Michelle’s was flowing and fiery red. Her brother had dark blue eyes that looked as if they were two seconds away from starting a damn forest fire, and Michelle’s were a dazzling green that locked onto me and never let go. It made me wonder if the two of them even had the same father.
“You know, my sister’s favorite pastime was feeding the stray cats at the old abandoned warehouse up the street.”
Nick’s stare was fixed on me and his fists kept balling tighter and tighter.
“She’d take her babysitting money and spend it all on cans of cat food, then she’d haul it down the road for two miles in order to feed them. She’s set down can after can, always worried that the cats were hungry. That no one loved them. That no one cared for them. So she took it upon herself to love and care for those strays. You’ve got the wrong idea about my sister, and I won’t have you dragging her through the mud because you’re a shit-bag.”
I grinned and shook my head before stepping up to bat.
“Look, your sister isn’t the first woman claiming to be pregnant with my child. Money has a very interesting effect on women. And there were rumors running rampant in Stillsville about your sister screwing around with her ex while she and I were doing... whatever it was we were doing.”
Nick took a step towards me as a growl fell from his lips.
“Tone it down there, Iron Man,” I said. “I’m not here to try and ruin anyone’s reputation. But her ex was my best friend in high school. This story is a lot more convoluted than you think.”
“Not for me,” he said, as he shook his head. “I don’t give a shit how it looks. I know my sister. I’ve known her my entire life. You think you know her because you got her pregnant and played with her heart for a few weeks, but I’ve known her all my fucking life. And if you ever take the chance to get to know Michelle, you’ll see she’s not some gold digger, liar or cheat.”
“Well, if she won’t come to Napa with me, then I won’t get the chance to know her. So, I suppose we’re at an impasse.”
“Why is it so important to you that she come with you? You have money. And apparently, you have the ability to work away from home. Why are you uprooting her? Why don’t you uproot yourself? You know, be a man? Take one for the team?” he asked.
I started growing uncomfortable with the topic of conversation. But if I had any shot at getting Michelle on that plane and coming back with me, I had to come clean to someone.
“Look, I didn’t have the best childhood, okay? My father was a shithead, and I suffered for it. I grew up having next to nothing. Filled my damn stomach with roadkill because my mother was too busy recuperating from the beatings my drunk-ass father gave her. And I don’t want that for my child. I don’t want my child born into a place like this, or Stillsville, or anywhere else.”
“If it’s your child, right?” Nick asked.
“Fucking hell, would you just listen? Your sister will be taken care of. Whatever she needs, I’ll give her. And once the child comes, it will want for nothing. Boy or girl, no matter what. They will have everything they need with me.”
“I can respect your desire to do better for your child than you had, and I won’t stand in the way if Michelle makes the decision to go with you willingly. But you will not force her hand and you will not keep her under your thumb. And, I reserve the right to check in on her. At any point in time, whether I show up unannounced or call on the phone.”
“Trust me, I wouldn’t expect anything less from someone that bucks the way you do,” I said.
The front door opened and I whipped my head around. Michelle stood there behind the screen door, her face a sheet of white. I furrowed my brow and took a step towards her before her brother shot his arm out and stopped me.
I had half a mind to shove him out of my way before I remembered his fun little threat from earlier. And I knew when I was physically had by a man.
Nick would take me down with his damn pinky finger.
“Could we talk?” I asked.
I watched her step out onto the porch before she eyed her brother hard. Nick gave me one last look before heading back inside, then the door closed and it was simply the two of us.
“Follow me,” Michelle said.
She walked off the porch and started down her driveway and I drew in a deep breath. We walked down a small path and into the woods. Soon the path dumped us into a corn field. Michelle kept walking as I stood at the edge, watching as the knee-high corn stalks brushed against her body. The sun beat down upon her back, shimmering her hair and adding a fire to her body that made me long for her. I thought back to our time in the fields of Stillsville. How wonderful her sounds echoed off the rafters of the forest as she called out my name against the grass. I pushed the thoughts aside and followed the path she carved out until she stopped in the middle of it.
The wind kicked up and fluttered her clothes, making her seem almost angelic.
What I wouldn’t give to sink her to the ground and make love to her one more time in the fields.
“I’m willing to come with you to Napa,” Michelle said.
Her voice was shaky, but her words were exactly what I wanted to hear.
“But you have to make me a promise.”
She turned around and hooked those beautiful eyes with mine, but there was a sadness there. A depression, almost.
What the hell had happened while Nick and I were on the porch?
“Anything,” I said.
“You have to promise that I’ll have an equal voice in what happens with this child. The doctors, the hospitals, the way I give birth—everything. Especially with regard to what we’ll do once the child is here.”
“I promise,” I said. “Full and equal voice. As far as once the baby gets here, we’ll take it day by day. Get you recuperated from labor and make sure the child is healthy, then I’ll figure it out from there.”
“We will figure it out from there,” she said.
“Correct.”
I watched her nod her head, but there was something in the way she stood. It was almost as if she stood in a posture of defeat. Like all of the fight I’d come to admire about her had been sucked from the marrow of her bones.
“So, when do we leave?”
Relief washed over my body. So much so that it made me weak in the knees. I had no fucking clue what was going to happen once this child was born, but I tried not to think about it. I wanted to put the past behind us, however. I wanted to try and start
fresh. We didn’t have to be friends, but we could be polite to one another. Treat one another with respect. That was what adults did, and we were both grown-ass adults.
“Whenever you’re comfortable leaving,” I said.
She turned her eyes back to me and I could’ve sworn I saw a grin trying to make its way across her cheeks.
“What?” I asked.
“That’s the most polite thing you’ve said to me in days,” she said.
“I can be polite. When I want to be.”
She threw her head back in laughter before she shook it in disbelief.
“I’ll believe that when it happens more than once a month,” she said.
“Then sit back and enjoy the ride,” I said. “Because super polite Gray is coming for you.”
And for a split second, I thought I saw that spark of fire in her eyes again.
It was going to be a very long pregnancy.
Chapter 18
Michelle
I stood on Gray’s private terrace, looking over the acres and acres of grapevines. I couldn’t get over the beauty of it. Over the incredible view he had to wake up to every single morning. The vineyard seemed to stretch on for days. Over the lush green hills of Napa Valley and tumbling off into the distance as far as my eye could see. The sun was beginning to rise on my fourth day at his home, and everywhere I looked, decadence shone. From the plush carpet under my toes to the jetted tub in my bathroom, everywhere I looked boasted of Gray’s wealth somehow.
But the landscape.
I’d never seen anything so beautiful before.
It was so idyllic that it robbed me of my breath. The private jet had been amazing, with buttery leather seats and five-star food served from the hands of a very cheerful steward. His house was grand, with corridors that spilled into bedrooms with vaulted ceilings and silken curtains that shimmered as the sun streamed through the windows. Gray had even walked me through the place where all his wine was made, and that had been amazing as well.
There was no other word to describe his life other than completely and utterly amazing.
Gray had been quiet on the trip back and I wondered just what he and my brother had talked about. While my mother had been yammering at me to stop being an idiot and go with the billionaire, my brother had probably been reaming Gray with death threats. But as I stood there and watched the sunrise cascade incredible colors across a sky that blanketed over the vineyards of Gray’s home, I still wasn’t sure I’d made the right choice.
But at least Gray had kept his promise of being polite.
He’d been a gentleman since we’d gotten in from North Dakota. Opening doors for me and giving me space. Allowing me free reign of the house while promising to never enter the corner of the world he designated for me. Gray was at work all day and I’d been walking around the house in nothing but knee-high socks and a long t-shirt. He told me he wouldn’t be back until late, but that his private chef would be around to cook me up whatever I wanted.
Of course the man had a private chef.
I sat on his terrace and zoned out at the beauty of the sunrise. And I didn’t come to until I heard the door open. I stood up and whipped around, watching as Gray and another woman walked in through the corridor to his extensive room. He had a phone shouldered to his ear and the woman was older. With dark features and a set of eyes that reminded me of how a mother might look at someone.
I felt very out of place as Gray lifted his eyes and took me in.
“Gotta go,” Gray said. “Talk soon.”
I felt a tint of embarrassment flood my cheeks.
“Sorry. I didn’t know what you meant by late, and this is the only room with a view of the sunrise,” I said.
“You’re not a bother,” Gray said. “Michelle, this is Maria.”
I felt my heart plummet to my toes as Gray’s phone rang. That Maria? The woman from the letter, Maria?
“Hold on just a sec,” he said, as he held up his finger. “Yeah? Uh huh. I’ve got a few minutes. Hold on. I’ll be right back, Maria.”
“We’ll be fine until you get back,” she said.
Gray stepped out of the room and the silence hung heavy between the two of us. Her gaze was kind, but I felt even more out of place standing there without Gray to buffer us. She walked towards me, acting as if I wasn’t half naked on Gray’s porch, then she stood beside me while the two of us turned back out towards the sunrise.
“I’ve been wondering about you for a long time,” Maria said.
“You have?” I asked.
“I knew Gray wasn’t sticking around that hometown of his just to sell an old house.”
“Well, that’s mostly why he was there.”
“Not from what I can see,” she said, as she looked over at me. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Gray’s been a different man since the two of you returned a few days ago. More polite with the people around him. Energized for his business again. He’s been in a slump for a very long time. I credit you bring that better side out in him.”
I felt my cheeks flush a deeper shade of crimson.
“I don’t think I do anything of the sort,” I said.
“Trust me, I’ve known Gray for many years now. I know how he works. It’s you that’s done this to him, and I’m glad you decided to come back with him.”
“So you knew what he was doing?” I asked.
“Not really. I had an idea of what might have been going on, but that’s about it. When the two of you stepped into the house and I saw that familiar light in his eyes, it confirmed what I figured.”
“And what did you figure?”
But before Maria could answer me, Gray walked back into the room.
“Maria,” he said, as he approached us, “reschedule my meetings. I want to take the rest of the day and show Michelle around the property in case she wanders away from the main house. I don’t want her getting lost in all the acreage.”
“You mean there’s more?” I asked.
A chuckle fell from Gray’s lips as Maria began jotting down some notes. But the look she gave Gray made me feel like she didn’t quite believe what he had to say.
So, was he not showing me around the property?
“Consider them rescheduled,” she said. “The two of you have fun.”
Then she looked back at me with a knowing grin before she left us to ourselves.
Gray held his arm out for me and I walked over to him to take it. He led me back down to my room so I could slip into something else to wear, and I decided on a loose summer dress and some flip flops. He offered me his arm and the two of us started out on our journey, walking through his home and venturing out the back door. I’d been so wrapped up in taking in the views from the sides of his property that I hadn’t thought to simply look out back.
And what I saw was stunning.
“The building over there to the far left is a library I keep on the grounds. I spend a lot of my time on the weekends in there, so if you can’t find me in the house on a Saturday or Sunday, that’s probably where I am. The building right next to it is a guesthouse, though it hasn’t been used in quite some time. Should you feel uncomfortable in the house, I’m more than willing to set you up out there.”
We walked down a cobblestone walkway and slowly grew closer to the buildings.
“The building over to your far right is actually an indoor pool and hot tub.”
“You don’t keep them outside?” I asked.
“I don’t want any of the chlorinated steam to waft over to the grapevines. Keeping it contained like that allows me the opportunity to swim and relax while looking out over the vines and knowing they won’t be cross-contaminated with chemicals they don’t need.
“That is actually really smart,” I said.
“And to think I actually have brains,” he said, with a sigh.
I giggled and shook my head as he led me through the property. I listened with great intent as he laid o
ut his property for me. Every building, every acre, and every trail. I saw the pride in his eyes. The genuine excitement he took from having all of this at his disposal. The pride in his voice was evident, and it forced a smile upon my cheeks. Even though our situation was far from ideal, I knew Gray was a good man. A proud man. A man that had clamored from the throes of abuse to step into the sun that shone on his vineyard every single day.
Following him as he led us down a row of vines, he plucked a grape off one of them and held it up to my lips.
“Try it,” he said.
“Are you sure? Shouldn’t you be saving them or something?” I asked.
“It’s already plucked. Nothing I can do about it now.”
Leaning forward, I took the grape between my lips. The second I bit into it, the sweetness made my mouth water. I hummed and moaned, chewing it slowly so I could savor it.
“Good?” he asked.
“Very,” I said, as a droplet of juice fell from my lips.
Before he caught himself, Gray reached out and brushed it away from my skin, his hand dangerously close to my lips as my gaze fluttered up to his. The sky began to darken over our heads and a clap of thunder sounded in the distance.
I jumped at the sound as Gray threw his gaze upwards.
“Come on,” he said, as he grabbed my hand, “this storm is coming on quick.”
“Where are we going?” I asked.
Without an answer, he just pulled me and the two of us began to run.
Lightning crackled in the sky and thunder shook the ground beneath our feet. We raced to the end of the row of grapes towards a small outbuilding sitting at the corner of one of his acres. He threw open the door just as the sky opened up, sending sheets of rain battering against the small building. My back fell against the wall as I began to laugh, feeling more carefree than I had in years. My shoulders shook and my lips parted into a smile, and soon Gray’s laughter filled the small building along with mine.