Grayson: Twins (Members From Money Book 22)

by Katie Dowe

  “I'll see what I can do,” he said with a small smile as he looked at his mother-in-law. Avia was nothing like her at all. His wife was exuberant and outspoken and knew exactly what she wanted. He'd seen the woman’s husband sitting by himself as if he didn't belong. “Ian looks lost,” he pointed out.

  “He's not the party type,” she said with a wave of her hand.

  “Maybe you should ask him to dance.”

  Amanda looked at him for a moment and then nodded. “That I will.” She touched his hand briefly. “You got yourself a winner there,” she said as she looked over to where her daughter was seated with Morgan and a group of the wives.

  “I know,” he said softly as he looked at her. She looked up and saw him and waved. “I think it's time we go to our room.”

  *****

  “You overdid it,” Doctor Cole said grimly as he checked Grayson's blood pressure.

  “Give me a break, it’s my wedding day.”

  “Is he okay?” Avia asked anxiously as she sat cautiously at the side of the bed.

  “He's in pain. I know you're probably not going to listen to me but I would strongly suggest no sex tonight.”

  “What are you talking about?” Avia said impishly. “Do you think we're so insatiable that we can't wait until we're all better to make love? Besides there are other ways of doing it.”

  “No sex, period.” Dr. Cole told them firmly.

  “Okay.” Grayson said with a smile. “Please close the door on your way out.”

  The doctor shook his head and headed out, closing the door behind him.

  “You think he's going to double back and see if we're doing it?” she asked as she climbed onto the bed next to him.

  “You could always go and lock the door.” He told her, wincing a little as the pain surfaced.

  “No he's right. You need to rest.”

  “We never danced.”

  “We have a lifetime to do that. We could go to a club, one of yours of course, and dance up a storm. You can dance can’t you?” she asked as he looked down at her.

  “I can, a little bit.” He lifted his hand and caught the back of her head. “My wife.”

  “What did I say about titles darling?” she teased him as she bent her head to his.

  “I'm going to be saying that for a very long time. My wife.”

  “My husband,” she whispered as she brushed her lips against his. She broke off before the kiss got more heated and they couldn't stop. She'd seen the look of pain on his handsome face and knew he'd reached his limit. “Let’s get some sleep.”

  *****

  Morgan cut off a scream as the person came up behind her and pushed her against the door.

  “Shh. It’s me.” Kyle whispered as he reached beneath her to fondle her. She'd just come from the ceremony and was thinking of having an early night. She hadn't seen him for three days and had told herself that they weren't in a relationship so she wasn't going to obsess about his absence.

  “I'm tired,” she told him coolly as she moved away from him. She'd driven home feeling lost and alone. Avia had always been there for her and she'd noticed how Grayson looked at her. Avia had landed herself the cream of the crop and she hadn't even been looking. Not only that: she was expecting two babies. A complete family. She had told herself on the drive home that she was very happy for her friend but she couldn't help thinking how miserably lonely she was.

  “Hey what’s wrong baby?” he caught her in his arms and held her. Suddenly she burst into tears as she clung to him.

  Chapter 11

  It was their last day at the hospital. She waited until he was sleeping before she climbed off the bed and reaching for her robe she made her way out of the room. She turned at the door to look at him and smiled gently. Her husband! She'd gotten married in a hospital to a man she had come to realize had become a very big part of her life. Her mother had cornered her last night just before they left and spoken to her.

  “What changed your mind?”

  “About marriage?” Avia had looked over to where Grayson was deep in conversation with Bradley and Alessandro. She'd met their wives Leesa and Jayda and several others and realized that they were just normal women who did extraordinary things.

  “He did.”

  “How? You were so hell bent on doing everything all by yourself and saying that marriages don’t work so now you think otherwise?”

  “Mom are you trying to scare me on my wedding day?” she had asked in exasperation.

  “I'm just curious honey.”

  “Each moment I spend with Grayson is like the first time in an extraordinary life,” she had said softly. “He makes me see hope and a future, something I never had before.”

  “I'm happy for you.”

  Now Avia looked at the strong, handsome man in the bed and smiled as she realized that she had certainly hit the jackpot.

  She was greeted cheerfully as she made her way through the hall. She stopped to chat with some nurses and doctors. She'd given away the flowers and stuffed toys that had been sent to her courtesy of Club Angelique and members of Grayson’s staff that she hadn't even met yet. The wedding cake had been cut and small pieces given to all the patients in the hospital and their visitors. It had been like a holiday that people who were ill had welcomed gladly. She made her way to the maternity ward and smiled as the nurses walked around in the nursery checking the newborns. She was standing at the glass partition when she saw the couple standing over a cot, their hands gripping each other. They certainly didn't look happy as new parents were supposed to be.

  “Excuse me,” she said as a nurse made her way out. “Is it possible for me to go on in?”

  “Of course Mrs. Whitfield. One of the nurses will give you a robe and something to cover your head.”

  “Thank you.”

  She was so caught up in looking at the couple that she hardly noticed being called by her married name.

  “He's so tiny,” she came over to the cot to look down at the baby who was now sleeping.

  The couple looked up at her and recognized who she was. “You're Mrs. Whitfield. You got married yesterday.”

  “Please call me Avia. I'm still getting used to being a wife.” She said with a smile.

  “My name is Gloria Buchanan and this is my husband Larry. We were here yesterday and we got some of the food and the delicious cake. When are you due?”

  “Early October,” she placed her hand on her belly. “I'm afraid I can't wait.”

  “Joey was born a month ago.” The woman turned to look at her tiny son. “He was premature and his lungs aren't properly developed. He also has problems with his heart. The doctors aren't sure he's going to make it.” She stifled a sob and her husband pulled her closer to him, his expression grim. “We've been trying for so long to have children and when I finally got pregnant we were so excited. We did everything by the books and yet this happened.”

  “I'm so sorry,” Avia touched the woman’s hand gently. “There's nothing at all they can do?”

  “They can't operate because he is so tiny. They have to wait and see.” It was the husband who spoke. “I hope you have a safe delivery,” he said as he looked at her.

  “Thank you.” Avia felt helpless and felt a wave of hopelessness washed over her. There were no guarantees in life. She'd planned all this because she wanted to have children before it was too late. But what if something happened to one or both of them. Then what? She moved away after wishing the couple the best and made her way back, feeling as if the bottom had fallen out of her world.

  Grayson was getting dressed when she walked inside the room. “Hey. We've been discharged. Where were you?”

  “I was at the maternity ward.” She said slowly as she went to get her clothes. They were going back to his apartment and would be moving to the mansion sometime next week.

  “Getting a feel of what it's going to be like?” he teased her. His eyes narrowed as he looked at her. “What’s wrong?”

  �
��Nothing,” she shook her head and went into the bathroom.

  “Don’t do that,” his quiet voice sounded behind her.

  “Do what?” she asked lightly as she took off her robe and went into the shower.

  “Shut me out. We're married Avia and whatever it is I want to know.”

  She turned on the shower and adjusted the temperature, letting the water wash over her for a few seconds before turning it off.

  She turned to him. “I met a couple while I was there.” She told him what had happened. “What if something like that happens to us? What if we lose our babies or something bad happens?”

  “You're not that person Avia.” He was fully dressed but he stepped into the shower install where she was dripping wet and pulled her into his arms. “We are not going to start thinking that way. We're going to be positive and believe that our babies will be okay.”

  She wrapped her hands around his waist and buried her head in his chest. “I'm scared,” she whispered.

  “I'm here and I'm not going anywhere,” he murmured softly as he stroked her wet, tangled hair. “I've put off my travels until after our children are born. I'll run things from my office here and I promise that I will be with you all the way.”

  “I'd like that,” she mumbled into his shirt. She lifted her head and looked up at him. “You don’t think I'm being neurotic?”

  “Maybe,” he smiled down at her. “But I love you anyway.”

  “You never said that to me before.”

  “How remiss of me,” he said gently. “I thought it was implied.”

  “I think I love you too. Why else would I have agreed to marry you and answer when I'm being called Mrs. Whitfield?”

  “Is that so?” he laughed down at her as he tilted her chin up. “We're going to be fine darling,” he told her gently. “We are going to make sure of that.”

  *****

  “Are you sure?” he hesitated as he looked from her to Morgan. They had come home a few hours ago with his mother and hers and several others accompanying them up to the apartment. It was late afternoon and Claude had called him to come in to deal with a meeting.

  “I'm going to be fine. Morgan will be here with me. Please stop hovering darling.”

  “It’s my job.” He bent to kiss her on her lips, lingering and not caring that her friend was sitting right there on the patio with her. “I won’t be long. Thank you.” He said to Morgan before he headed out.

  “Look at you,” Morgan said in a forced casual tone the minute he'd gone and closed the doors of the patio behind him. “I hardly recognize you from the determined independent woman who was so against marriage. Now you're married and have a man fawning over you. You have certainly changed.”

  Avia looked at her curiously. She'd noticed that the girl appeared distanced ever since she'd come to the hospital earlier but she hadn't gotten the chance to ask her anything yet.

  “Things change.”

  “They certainly have.” She got up and wandered over to the railing to look at the streets below. “That’s the difference between us Avia,” Her back was still turned to her friend as she spoke. “You never wanted the whole family thing. You just wanted children but you got the whole package: A husband, twins on the way and riches beyond comparison.”

  “I don’t care about the money, you know that.” Avia said quietly.

  “And yet here you are,” she said cynically.

  Avia eased up out of the comfortable lounge chair and walked towards the railing to stand next to her friend. “I visited the maternity ward this morning just before we were discharged. I wanted to look at the cute babies and visualize what ours will look like. I saw a couple there standing over their own premature one. They told me that the baby’s lungs were underdeveloped and that he had heart problems. They don’t know if he's going to make it and yet they're there every single day, hoping. They'd been trying so hard and finally it happened and now they're facing the possibility of losing their only child. I walked away from there and for the first time since I started this I felt fear and depression. I walked back to our room and Grayson asked me what was wrong. I denied it at first but he insisted and I told him. Do you know what he said to me? He said that we are in this thing together and for the first time in my life I believed it. My life is not perfect by any means, nobody’s life is. I'm learning that. I just want to be a wife and a mother to these two children. I have no idea what will happen but I believe him when he says that he'll be there for me. I'm here for you and I believe that you will find your ‘someone’ as well. If things were reversed I would be ecstatic for you and I want you to be the same for me because that's what friends are supposed to do.”

  Morgan’s hands tightened around the rail and turned to look at her friend. “I am a bitch,” she whispered as tears fell.

  “Yes you are, but you're my bitch,” Avia told her gently as she reached for her.

  “I'm sorry Avia,” she said with a sob as she clung to her friend and rested her head on her shoulder. “I was at the wedding and I saw how he looks at you and I know that I never had anything like that.”

  “You will,” Avia hugged her. “Now, you're going to pull yourself together because you know how I hate tears and you're going to help me come up with color schemes for the nurseries. I don’t want any old color. I was thinking of mixing colors. What do you think?”

  Morgan lifted her head and looked at her friend gratefully. “I have some ideas.”

  “Good,” she linked her hand through her friend’s arm and they moved in the direction of the sitting room. “But first something to eat. I'm starving.”

  *****

  He found her sitting in the elegantly pristine kitchen when he came home later that night. He'd gotten hung up at the meeting and had called her and told her. He'd been frantic that something would happen to her while he wasn't there. He'd told her that he was going to ask his mother to come over but she had given him an emphatic no. “What are you doing?” he asked her softly as he came over to hold her from behind where she was seated at the counter and jotting down something in a notebook. “Hi,” she leaned back and lifted her head for his kiss. “I have something to tell you.”

  “Huh oh?” he kissed her forehead and came around to take a seat opposite her. “You're not leaving me are you?”

  “You are stuck with us I'm afraid,” she said with a whimsical smile. “I told you about the names for the babies didn’t I?”

  “Alexandra and Andrew?”

  “Okay. Your job is to pick out the middle names.”

  “I'll get right on it.”

  She made little markings on the page before looking up at him. “I never told you about the relationship I had before.”

  “I never told you about mine either.” He pointed out, his heart beating fast.

  “I read about yours on the internet,” she told him with a faint smile. “His name was Lucas Greene and he was older than I am and my voice coach. He was patient and took his time with me and I fell in love with him, or at least I thought it was love at the time. I had only been with one other guy before him and I thought he would be it for me. He was married and he told me that he was getting a divorce. He had children and I kept telling myself that I wasn't the one who had broken up the marriage and that I was the one who would make him happy. His wife confronted us one day and he denied that he was with me. I became cynical from then on and when I looked around I realized that marriage was a sham and it didn't work.” She looked down at the paper again.

  “And now?” he was hurting something fierce at the fact that she had given her heart to another man.

  She looked up at him. “Morgan basically told me that I was a hypocrite. I always told her that I would never get married and now here I am, married.”

  “What are you saying Avia?” he had gotten to his feet, his hands clenched at his sides. “Are you regretting marrying me?”

  “That’s not what I am saying.” She stayed where she was. “I am trying to tell
you that you came into my life and changed the way I think.”

  “Are you still in love with that bastard?” he asked her tightly.

  “No and I cannot believe you're asking me that.”

  “You loved him,” he said harshly, his face tortured.

  “I thought I did.” This time she got to her feet slowly. “You didn't hear that part?”

  “Do you think of him?”

  She got closer to him and touched his clenched jaw. “Are you seriously jealous of a man I think is the scum of the earth? Come on Grayson, you're disappointing me! You cannot possibly compare yourself to someone like that. I'm saying that I love you dammit, and I'm happy that I'm your wife. See? I'm not afraid to wear the title.”

  He stared down at her and then with a groan he pulled her up to him, resting his forehead on hers. “Damn you,” he growled. “You almost gave me a heart attack.”

  “I wanted to tell you about my past,” she wrapped her arms around his neck. “I don’t want to keep anything from you.”

  “There was someone.”

  “Amelia?” she asked him with her brows arched.

  “You knew about her?”

  “I told you I read up on you and I noticed that you stayed with her the longest.”

  “We were okay together and I thought at one time that I would settle with her but something never felt right.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “You're not jealous?”

  “You're with me Grayson and your past is the past. Why would I feel jealous about her when I know I'm the one?”

  “You're right.” He tipped her chin up. “I get anxious when I'm not with you. I'm overwhelmed by the fact that I'm a husband and I'm going to be a father soon.”