by Debbie Mason
Griffin choked on his lasagna while reaching for her aunt’s phone. “Don’t send—” He groaned at the sound of a message being sent.
“What’s the matter with you?” Rosa crossed her arms. “You don’t want to marry our Ava?”
“Rosa, they’ve just gotten back together and, well, Griffin is expecting a baby with his other wife. It might be best if they waited…All right, don’t mind me,” Dorothy said when Rosa shot her a dirty look.
Ava understood Griffin’s reaction to the thought of marriage not more than thirty minutes after they declared their love for one another, but she had to admit to being a little hurt by it. She also didn’t appreciate being reminded of his other wife. Which might have been why she said, “Griffin and I have no plans to marry. Not now, not ever.”
He put down his fork and cocked his head. “Is that right? Maybe I’m missing something because I don’t remember having that conversation.”
“We didn’t need to. Your reaction said it all.”
“Ava, honey, you don’t understand what Rosa telling Grams—”
“Now look what you’ve done. You hurt her feelings, and she breaks off the engagement.”
“We’re not engaged,” Ava and Griffin said at almost the same time, although Ava’s denial was more vehement than his.
“Would anyone like a cup of…I guess not,” Dorothy said when they all shot her a look.
Rosa’s phone pinged with a message, and then Griffin’s phone rang. He looked at the screen and rejected the call.
“Who does she think she is telling me not to interfere?” Rosa gasped, staring at Griffin. “She says you’re marrying the mother of your child.”
“I’m not marrying anyone. Oh, for Chrissakes,” he said when his phone rang again. Griffin looked at the screen. “Sorry, I have to take this.” He pushed back from the table and got up, walking into the living room. “Hey, is everything…Calm down, Lex. I’m not getting…All right, that’s enough. Yeah, I am, and…”
Ava couldn’t make out any more of the conversation. Griffin had walked down the hall. She got the gist of it though, and it left her with a queasy feeling in her stomach.
“We should go. Griffin and Ava need some time alone, Rosa.”
Her aunt waved Dorothy off without lifting her head, her thumbs flying over the keys. Ava had lost count of the zings and pings going back and forth between Rosa and Kitty.
Ava got up and began clearing the table. She needed something to keep her mind off Griffin’s conversation with Lexi and her aunt’s war of words with Kitty. To think, only a month ago, she’d been upset about Kitty matchmaking, and now she was upset that she wasn’t. Well, she was, just not for her and Griffin. Ava didn’t want to think what life would be like at the manor now that Griffin’s ex was here to stay.
“Lovey, we’re leaving now,” Dorothy said, half lifting Rosa from the chair. She took the phone from Rosa’s hand. “Stop that. You’re going to make matters worse for Ava.”
Ava didn’t think they could get much worse. She didn’t say that to Rosa or Dorothy though. Despite the doubts roiling around inside her, she put on a brave face and said goodbye, assuring them she was fine. Obviously Rosa saw through her and pulled her in for a fierce hug. “You are a DiRossi. You don’t let them push you around, capisci?”
“Auntie Rosa, don’t renew your feud with Kitty over this. Just let it go.” Before Sophie had moved back home, the two older women had been in a bitter feud for years. They’d put their differences aside to save Greystone and bring Liam and Sophie together. Until now, they seemed to have renewed their childhood friendship. They’d once been best friends.
“No, you don’t mess with one of mine and get away with it. I’ll show her. I’ve called a secret meeting of the Widows Club to discuss revoking her membership.”
She tried to talk Rosa out of it, but it was no use. Ava needed to warn Sophie that the feud was back on. Closing the door, she pressed her forehead against it.
“Run away with me,” Griffin said from behind her, wrapping his arms around her.
She wished they could go away, even for a few days. She wanted time alone with him, just the two of them. No fighting families and no…“We can’t. You have responsibilities, a baby on the way.” She ignored the dull ache in her chest. She’d hadn’t been lying earlier; she truly was happy for him. But it hurt, just a little, that Lexi was the one giving him his heart’s desire and not her.
She felt his chest rise against her back, his warm breath ruffling her hair. Then he pulled out a chair from the table, sat down, and drew her onto his lap. He gathered her in his arms and rested his chin on the top of her head. “I’d be lying to you if I said this was going to be easy, babe.”
“Lexi decided she wants you to marry her, hasn’t she?” Ava was surprised she got the words past the lump in her throat. What if she got him back only to lose him again? She hadn’t been surprised when Griffin told her he’d offered to marry Lexi. She would have been more surprised if he hadn’t. He was an honorable man. Lexi refusing? That had been a shock. Ava didn’t understand how any woman who’d been loved by Griffin Gallagher wouldn’t have immediately jumped at the chance to get him back.
“No, once Lexi makes a decision, she doesn’t change her mind. About anything. And therein lies our problem. Because, honey, she doesn’t like you very much.”
It didn’t escape Ava’s notice that he didn’t say, even if Lexi had changed her mind, the offer of marriage was off the table. She refused to let the thought get a toehold in her mind. They had enough to deal with. “But she doesn’t know me.”
“I’m not saying this to hurt your feelings, but you need to know what we’re up against. My brothers and father weren’t exactly your biggest fans after we split up. Aidan, and especially Finn, blamed you, unfairly, for a lot of the crap I went through. They shared that with Lex.”
He might not have meant to hurt her feelings, but he did. “Your mom didn’t blame me. She still loved me,” she said defensively.
His arms tightened around her. “I know she did, honey. She used to bring you up every time I talked to her. She was worried about you.”
“I think she’d be happy we’re back together.”
He lifted her hand to his mouth, kissing her palm. “I know she would be. That’s something we’ll hold on to when everyone else is giving us grief. We’re in for a rough week or two, and it’s going to be toughest on you because you work at the manor.”
“Maybe if I talk to Lexi and try—”
“Sweet face, she’d eat you alive.”
Ava crossed her arms. “I’m not a wimp, you know. I can stand up for myself.” She supposed she could see why he might think she couldn’t though. She hadn’t done a very good job of standing up for herself the past few years.
He laughed. “You forgetting I was married to you? I know you’re strong when you need to be. But Lex, she’s a military cop and as tough as they come. The woman will never admit she’s wrong or back down from a fight. She’s a protector; you’re a caregiver. There’s a difference.”
“I can be tough when I want to be. I—”
He gently pressed a finger against her lips “What you are is the kindest, most caring woman I know. You have a way with people. You have a way with me. I’ve missed you, sweet face. I don’t want to waste any more time talking. I want you naked and in my arms.” He stood up, taking her with him. “Interested?”
She waited for her pulse to become erratic, for sweat to slick her hands and body, for the paralyzing fission of nerves to hit her limbs at the thought of Griffin touching her, making love to her. But there was nothing except a warm sensation low in her stomach, heavy and needy. She looped her arms around his neck and tipped her face up. “I might need a little persuading.”
If she didn’t know him as well as she did, she would have missed the small telltale sign that he was worried, the way he mentally took her pulse, searching her face without seeming to. She wasn’t the only one who r
emembered how their last weeks together had been. She needed him to know she was all right, for both their sakes.
She reached up, sealing her lips over his. She didn’t take it slow or give it to him sweet. The kiss was hot and wet and long and deep. With every nip, lick, and slide, she gave him a taste of the love she’d been stockpiling since the day she’d left him.
She slowly broke the connection. “Okay, I’m interested.”
They’d gotten no farther than the living room, and he leaned against the wall, his breathing labored. “I think…I think I forgot to mention you were also the most passionate woman I know, and one hell of a good time in bed.”
“We probably should see if I still am,” she said, laughing when he practically ran to her bedroom and tossed her on the mattress.
It was her old laugh. Big and joyful, and totally absent of worry and fear.
Chapter Seventeen
Everything was going to hell in a handbasket. Colleen didn’t know if she should be throwing her support behind Ava or Lexi. She’d always been a sucker for the underdog, and if anyone was an underdog in the game that was in play, it was Ava. But Lexi was carrying a Gallagher. In Colleen’s eyes, that meant she and Griffin should be tied together in holy matrimony. Granted, things had changed since her time. Kids nowadays seemed to put the cart before the horse. They had their babies and then got married. Or didn’t.
It had taken no arm twisting at all on Griffin’s part to get Ava to marry him when they’d discovered they had a baby on the way. And what a heartbreak that had turned out to be.
“Ava, my girl, you’ve withstood more heartache than most,” Colleen murmured, recalling the shattered expression on Ava’s face when Lexi, bold as brass, arrived at the manor. That decided it for Colleen. She was captain of Team Ava. She’d not allow the girl to be hurt any more than she already had been. With one quandary settled, she moved on to the next. And it was a doozy.
Twenty minutes earlier, Gaston St. John had summoned the family to the dining room and made his big announcement. He was now firmly established as King of the Kitchen with the news. Sophie’s appointment with the lawyer was off, and the food war between the manor and the Bridgeport Marquis was on.
Basil Brisiel had agreed to judge, along with two up-and-coming chefs from celebrated New England restaurants. Basil and his producer fiancée planned to air video clips of each competition—of which there were three—on their popular social media pages. Chronicling Greystone’s spectacular failure for all the world to see.
In Colleen’s mind, there was only one way to save the manor from a PR nightmare they’d unlikely recover from anytime soon. Unless she figured out a way to replace Gaston with Ava, all the business they’d drummed up at the bridal show would disappear.
As Colleen had discovered, the lad didn’t scare off easily. Though it probably had more to do with her inability to move things around and make her presence known. She had to get better at this ghost gig, and she had to do it fast. The first round of the competition was in two days’ time.
Jasper fussed with an elaborate floral arrangement on the round table in the entryway, eyeing it from several angles to make sure it was just so. No doubt about it, the lad loved his flowers.
Colleen grinned. “Jasper’s been messing with me; it seems only fair I mess with him. What do you think, Simon?”
Meow.
“All right, here it goes.” Focusing, visualizing the result she wanted, Colleen pinched a lily between her fingers. They didn’t go through the flower. “Half the battle’s won, Simon,” she crowed, and got a testy meow in response. “Quiet now. You have to celebrate the small victories.” Small might be the answer. Instead of the entire flower, she moved her fingers to the petal and tugged. The white petal fell from the stem to the table. “I did it!” she cried.
Jasper frowned, bending down to study the lily, then narrowed his eyes at where she was standing. “If that was your handiwork, Madame, I suggest you find something else to occupy your time.”
“Ha.” She focused her energy and latched onto a rose. “Give me back my book, and I’ll think about it.” A red petal fluttered to the table. She chuckled with delight and kept plucking.
“Stop that this instant, Madame.” Jasper picked up the vase and clutched it to his chest. The front door began to open, and he set the vase back down, casting a warning look in her direction. His mouth compressed in a thin line of disapproval when Griffin and Ava walked into the manor together. They had eyes for only each other, their pinkie fingers latched together. Griffin hadn’t looked this relaxed and happy in Colleen didn’t know how long. Wait, she did. It was when he was married to Ava. If Colleen hadn’t already made her decision to support Ava, the look on her great-grandson’s face would have decided it for her. On Ava’s too—the girl was beaming.
Of course Jasper would go and ruin it. “Master Griffin, the rest of your things arrived this morning. I’ve taken the liberty of opening the second bedroom in Madame’s suite for the nursery, and I’m having another bureau moved into the master bedroom for your use. I’m afraid I had to move your clothes to accommodate your wife’s. I hope that meets with your—”
Colleen pushed the vase in a fit of pique, shocked when it wobbled and water sloshed over the side. Jasper’s eyes went wide. He lifted his hand to hold it in place.
Griffin laced his fingers through Ava’s. “Don’t worry about unpacking for me, Jeeves. I’m moving out after work.”
“I see. Do you have a preference to which floor—”
“I’m moving out of the manor and into the lighthouse.”
Jasper lifted his chin. “Have you spoken to Miss Kitty and Sophie about your plans? They may have other parties interested in—”
“Good try. I’ve already cleared it with George. And, Jeeves, you might want to remember who you’re dealing with.” He turned to Ava, briefly touching his mouth to hers, and said, “I better get going or I’ll be late for work. Meet me at the lighthouse after your shift. We’ll—”
Jasper tapped his watch. “Miss DiRossi is already late. Sophie is waiting on you in the study.”
“I’ll see you later,” Ava said to Griffin, going up on her tiptoes as though to kiss his cheek. Jasper cleared his throat. Ava patted Griffin’s chest instead and then made her way toward the study.
Colleen gave the vase another frustrated push, blinking when once again water sloshed over the edges and onto the table. “Would you look at that, Simon? I think I’ve got it,” she said, somewhat shocked she’d managed it twice in a row.
“You’re walking a fine line, old man,” Griffin said to Jasper before calling after Ava, “If any of them give you trouble, sweet face, you know who to call.”
Jasper steadied the vase, muttering under his breath, “I know who I’d call. The ghostbusters.”
“Jeeves,” Griffin called over his shoulder as he walked away. “You might want to put a shim under the table.”
“You better be careful, Jasper, my boy. The better I get at this, the more trouble I’ll cause for you. Especially if you try stirring it up between Ava and Griffin. Though, from the looks of those two, it would take a better man than you to…” Then Colleen remembered. It wasn’t a man she had to worry about; it was a woman. She hurried down the hall toward the study, wondering if Sophie had broken the news to Ava.
Ava sat across from Sophie. “I understand the competition is a coup for Greystone and why you felt you had to keep Gaston on. What I don’t understand is why Lexi is providing security for him. What does that even mean?”
Colleen grimaced and took the seat beside Ava. Simon padded into the room to sit at her feet. “This isn’t going to go well, Tomcat.”
“Lexi gets bored easily, I guess. So she asked us to give her a job. She loves the manor.” Sophie smiled over her coffee cup at her cousin, then took a drink, looking like she’d rather be anywhere than here.
Ava snorted.
“No, she really does. She promised to do whatever it t
akes to get Griffin…” Sophie sighed and put the mug down. “I get why you don’t like her, but she’s actually very nice. If you gave her a chance you…Um, okay, maybe not. Anyway, she’s going to do her best to convince Griffin to vote to keep Greystone in the family. That’s what we all want, right? So it doesn’t really matter who convinces him—”
“I don’t understand what any of this has to do with her providing personal security for Gaston?”
“Well…um, Gaston is a good chef, but you, you’re amazing. Your hors d’oeuvres, they were to die for. Everyone said so.”
“Ava’s no fool, Sophie, my girl. You’re going about this all wrong. Look at her face. You can’t butter her up.”
“So I’m the better chef. What does that have to do with Lexi…” Ava’s eyes went wide. “Me, it’s me she’s protecting him from, isn’t it? And whose idea was that?”
“Here we go. You might want to cover your ears, Simon. I know they’re sensitive.”
Sophie shuffled the papers on her desk and mumbled, “Lexi may have suggested it.”
Ava made an aggravated sound in her throat, and Sophie hurriedly added, “But only after Gaston told her about you ruining his hors d’oeuvres and writing out the wrong recipes for Helga to follow.” Sophie put up her hands. “Don’t yell at me. I had your back. I told Lexi flat out there was no evidence to prove you had anything to do with it. But then Jasper and Kitty questioned your innocence…
“Crap, I didn’t mean to tell you that. Double crap! I didn’t mean to say that either. Oh God, I hate this.” Sophie did a face-plant on the stack of papers on her desk.
“It’s too bad I dropped dead before I had a chance to work with you, Sophie. You’re making a hash of this, you truly are. Keep it up, and Lexi and Ava will be at each other’s throats in no time at all.”
Sophie lifted her gaze. “Aren’t you going to say anything?”
Ava pressed her lips together and shook her head.
This was worse than Colleen expected, but she supposed she shouldn’t be surprised Ava was more hurt than angry. They were all turning against her in support of Lexi. “I’m here for you, my girl. I just wish I could give you a sign.” She might not be able to comfort Ava, but she knew someone who could. “Simon, do your chin-up trick.”