“Me? What about me?”
“Our friends-with-benefits relationship,” I say.
“I wouldn’t call our relationship that. You don’t let me booty call you. I mean, I have to take you out to dinner or a movie,” he jokes while I move from the wardrobe to my en-suite and then step in front of the sink to brush my hair. “Why are you mad at me?” He leans against the door frame, looking at me.
“I’m not,” I lie, though my stomach is rumbling with unbridled fury.
“Of course, you are.” His voice is soft, intimate. I try hard to ignore the pull of it. “I shouldn’t have asked for my keys back… that was a dick move.”
“Henry…”
“I love you, I’ve always loved you,” he says as the brush falls from my hand. “I’m not good at relationships. We know that, but I do love you, Graciela.”
I pick up the brush from the carpet, then stand up and force myself to look in his eyes before setting the brush down. “You don’t want to commit to one person,” I say, feeling extremely conscious of the way this conversation makes me ache for him and his body. It makes me want all of him. I don't want to keep on being a friend he shags.
“How long have we’ve been shagging?”
“Do you want an actual number per shag?” I force an amused smile, which vanishes the moment he takes my hand in his.
“I always come back to you, always,” he tells me, closing the space between us. “When you said you were going to meet Jared, I was jealous,” he admits, linking our fingers together; my throat feels parched. “When you said you slept with Tom…”
“So, from being jealous you figured we should be better together?” I ask, trying to understand what he’s saying.
“Is that daft?”
“Henry.” I watch him as he brings my hand to rest against his cheek.
“I want only you, and I want to make this work for you and me.” he says softly. “Graciela…”
Stunned, I try to sort through my feelings. “We should really think about this. What if we break up and then hate each other? I’ll lose you.”
He lets go of my hand and nods. “I don’t need to think about this, Graciela. I want you, but I’m willing to give you space to think it over.” He turns on his heels and walks out of the room, closing the door behind him.
“Shit. Shit. Shit!” I rush out of the bathroom after him. “Henry!” I call, but he doesn’t stop at all. Soon, I’m standing alone in the middle of the tiny hallway outside my flat door as he rushes down the stairs without looking back. I walk back in and slam the door.
“What happened?’ Diana asks and I jump out of my skin, having forgotten the girls were there.
“I-I don’t know.” I shake my head in disbelief.
“Well, whatever it is, I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Diana says as she lifts the copy of the tabloid newspaper she’s reading. “Did you see? That Tom gets around. His last agent was shagging him and she’s now written a tell-all book about him.” I lift my eyes to her and glance at the photos splashed all over the front page.
“Are you okay?” Bernie asks when I don’t reply.
“I don’t know.” I run a hand through my hair and close my eyes. “He said…. Henry said he loves me…”
“What?” Diana asks loudly as she drops the newspaper and jumps to her feet.
“And what the hell are you doing here? Go after him.” Bernie’s exasperated tone makes me turn to look at her.
“Go after him!” Diana echoes and I nod, rushing back to my bedroom to seize my boots.
After putting them on and grabbing my red parka, I rush down the stairs to the ground floor and out the door. My heart hammers against my chest. I look around, but the street is deserted. I run toward Sumatra Road before looking both ways, and then carry on toward West End Lane. If he’s taking the Tube home, I might catch him at the station. When I reach the top of the road, I stop and look around again.
The traffic light takes forever to change, and I sway from left to right, being the first one to cross the road when the light changes to red. Once on the other side of the road, I hear a familiar voice calling my name.
Chapter Forty-Four
I stop on the other side of the road and turn slowly toward it. Henry’s standing outside of Oddbins, a bag of wine in his hand. His forehead creases with a frown. I start walking back to where he’s standing, but the damn traffic light is at it again.
“Where are you going?” he asks from the other side of the road.
“I was going to go get you!” I shout, looking at the cars zipping by, wishing the damn traffic light changed.
“Why?” he asks befuddled, and I wonder if I can leg it between cars. “Stay there!” he shouts when he notices that I’m getting closer to the road.
“Bloody traffic lights!”
And just like that, the traffic light changes and I start walking toward him as fast as I can.
“Did you mean it?” I ask, standing right in front of him.
“What?”
“That you love me…”
“Graciela,” he says my name as if he was praying and then leans closer, looking right in my eyes. “I am in love with you.”
“Good.”
“Good?” he repeats, arching an eyebrow.
“What’s the wine for?”
“It’s actually champagne,” he says, pulling the bottle out of the bag.
“What for?”
“I sold the book to a publisher in New York, actually the book and the follow up one that I’m writing.” He smirks as I gasp before punching him lightly. “Ow, that’s not going to fly if you admit that you love me, too…” he tells me, his eyes piercing through my soul.
I bite my bottom lip, watching him as his tongue licks his bottom lip and can’t help but smile. “I do love you, Henry.”
“Good,” he whispers before pulling me closer and letting his lips capture mine. I press my body against Henry’s, his arms wrapping tightly around mine before I need to pull away and breathe. “Maybe while the girls go with Marc and Franky to pick your parents from the airport, we can shag.”
“Of course not,” I take a step away when he reluctantly lets go of me. “I should be going to pick my parents with them.”
“Fine… I’ll wait,” he grins as we begin to walk. “I actually have news about the abnormally large party,” he says, draping his arm around my shoulders as we start walking back toward my road. “I made them move the party to Patty’s 1940s… and they agreed a swing party would be much better than the boring dinner they were planning.” He winks my way as my jaw opens, but nothing comes out of my mouth.
“What?” I ask after a pause.
“And you thought they would hate me…”
“It’s the accent,” I tell him, nodding. “The accent does it every time.”
“Perhaps,” he whispers in my ear before I pull away to get the door, but remember I didn’t bring my keys. “I’ll get that,” he says, but instead of opening the door, he pushes me against it and looks right in my eyes. “We don’t really need to wait and see how this is going to work out, right?”
“What?” I ask, confused, my eyes gluing to his lips.
“We’ve been doing this for a long time, Graciela.”
“Okay…” I say, unsure as he moves his lips to brush against my neck before biting it playfully.
“Marry me.”
The shock is probably clear in my eyes because Henry pulls away enough so he can give me space. I watch him closely, wondering what the hell is going on. For a moment, the words ‘are you dying?’ want to escape my lips.
“Marry you?”
“Yes.” He places the bottle of champagne and the bag on the grass, then goes down on one knee.
“Henry…” I say, breathless, as my eyes prickle.
“I don’t know what to do when you’re not with me. I don’t know who I am when I’m not with you,” he begins, and I move closer, letting my fingers run through his ginger curls. “I’
ve been a massive wanker. But I’ve always known that I couldn’t lose you.”
“Took you long enough.”
“Well, my parents always did say I was a bit slow.” He sticks his tongue out before reaching for my hand and kissing it. “I want to spend my life with you. Graciela Isabel Marquez, will you marry me?”
“Henry…”
“Oh, come on, say yes!” Franky’s voice says as I look from Henry to the left side of the street and see him and Marc waiting by their car.
“What’s going on?” I whisper, so only Henry can hear me.
“Don’t get distracted now!” Diana chimes in, stepping out of the front door as Henry lets his head fall forward and sighs.
“They’re going to ruin this, aren’t they? I told you to be ready for a pre-birthday dinner…” He chuckles, looking at me. “Yes, or no, Graciela… and no pressure. I mean, it’s only our friends watching us,” he glances at the girls as they walk toward Marc’s car.
I kneel down in front of him and then smile as he starts to protest. “This way they won’t see us,” I whisper, pressing my forehead to his as he grabs a box from his jacket and opens it.
A soft gasp leaves my lips the moment my eyes fall on the ring. It’s a ring I know well because we’d seen it a few times before in Spain. We’d been holidaying in Mallorca the first time I saw it, and twice after. I’d made Henry go with me to stare at the ring all three times and had been most disappointed when the ring was gone the following year.
The ring is a 1940s vintage Cartier ring. It has a single diamond in the center and tiny diamonds around it, making it look like a flower. It’s not a flashy ring, but it’s the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen.
“I bought it the last time we were there… you seemed to like it a lot.” His eyes hold my gaze.
“That was six years ago,” I say, and he nods.
“It’s yours, if you’ll have me. That’s kind of the deal.”
“Well, it’s a great ring,” I say with a mischievous smile.
“Are you trying to check my heart, make sure it’s healthy?” he asks.
“I want to be your wife.”
“Can you say that slightly louder? My heart’s beating so hard I don’t think I heard you well.” He smirks.
“Yes!”
The moment the word leaves my lips, I can hear the clapping and the crescendo of voices as they come closer to us, but all I can think of is Henry.
He slides the ring in my finger and then pulls me closer, kissing me fiercely and protectively, his arms wound tightly around my body. And I know this time, I’m finally where I should be. From now on it’ll only be Henry and Gracie.
The end
Acknowledgements
Thank you to my wonderful husband and our children for putting up with take-aways whilst I was writing/editing/re-editng/reading Henry and Gracie.
Thank you to our family for being cheerleaders and being so invested in my journey as a story teller.
Special thanks to G-d for listening to me, even when I’m being a pain in the butt, crying over editing or scenes that don’t work.
Thank you to my alpha and beta readers: Michelle Cornwell-Jordan, Lisa Jesset, Jessica Lind-Wentz, Lindsay Morris, Raine Thomas, Amanda Todd, and Dr. Yenira Tossas.
Thank you to my editors, Jamie White and CP Bialois, you rock!
And thank you, readers, for your amazing support. I hope that you’ve enjoyed this book as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it. Thank you for spending your time with Henry and Gracie.
Author Biography
Marilyn Jeulin is the author of Henry and Gracie. Born in the Wild West and raised in a tropical paradise, Marilyn has always had a thirst for a good story and adventure. She’s a huge fan of Anne Rice, Stephen King, GRR Martin, and JK Rowling.
Mom of two boys, and wife to the Frenchman, Marilyn is also an avid gamer, who spends way too much time on Facebook and Instagram.
Her next title, Closer to the Edge, is a New Adult thriller involving a rock god, a transatlantic vacation, and a terrorist attack. Closer to the Edge will be the first book in the Estevez siblings’ series, and will be available: 2018.
Connect with Marilyn:
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authormarilynalmodovar/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marilyn_almodovar/
Twitter: @LynAlmodovar
Website: www.marilynalmodovar.com
Henry and Gracie Page 18