Page 96 of Graciously His

Grace, though, is all smiles this morning, clearly excited to be getting out of the house. After putting on fresh sheets and tossing the soiled ones into the washer, I find her and Shep in the kitchen, sharing some whipped cream from last night’s dessert.

“Just look at my spoiled two,” I say, enjoying my wife’s tiny jump of surprise.

“Poor baby,” she turns the dog’s great head to face me, “he’s all worried. He knows we’re leaving.”

“Worried you won’t give him the last of that cream.” I pat Shep, then give Grace a kiss on the cheek. I search for any lingering damage from yesterday, for shadows in her eyes, but all I see is eagerness. “Ready to go, little heart?”

“I guess. He’ll be okay while we’re gone?”

“More than okay. He’ll catch up on sleep in between getting spoiled by Mihi. Did she confirm she’ll come by?”

Grace nods then gives the beast a kiss.

“Enough of that.” I snap my fingers for Shep to head out of the doggy door. Grace doesn’t call me on my obvious jealousy, but her carefree smile falls as he leaves. I catch her eye. “We could just stay home, love. No need to head in if you’ve changed your mind. Last night was… a lot. We should probably discuss it in more detail.”

Her smile snaps back into place. My stomach clenches, and I have the urge to cancel everything, head back to bed, and sort this out properly.

Grace leads the way, chattering through that smile about how good it’ll be to see the city, to get a look at where I work, and so on. I stow my suspicion; if she trusts me enough to let me fuck her all night, then I need to trust her to come to Auckland today. I resolve to keep an extra tight hold on her regardless—as any good husband would.

The long drive is quiet. I’m about to ask if, like me, she’s thinking about the first time we made this trip together, but a look at the passenger seat reveals that she’s asleep. Between glances at the road, I look at the shadow of her lashes on her cheeks, the little frown lines between her eyes as she dreams. I decide that today will be about smiles rather than tears, and that we’ll enjoy Auckland as a proper married couple, open to the world at last.

***

It’s beyond easy to introduce Grace to the office. Dare meets us at the door with a huge smile and a bouquet of lilies, which he offers with a sheepish smile. I’m a bit floored to see the guy has any game, given his tendency towards hyperfixation and awkwardness, and I cover my moment of jealousy by asserting on my wife’s behalf that lilies are a no-no. Grace is sweet about the mix-up, and offers Dare a quick hug in both thanks and apology.

She spends a few minutes getting to know Sasha, the office manager. I’m happy to fade into the background for a muttered conversation with Dare about the current take (excellent), the glitches in the app (persistent), and how his cousin is doing as our newest hire (abysmally). I want to keep my little heart in sight throughout the visit, but Dare’s concerns warrant detailed discussion in private. I squeeze Grace’s hand, see that she’s settled with Sasha in the little kitchen, and give my second-in-command most of my attention.

In my corner office with Dare, I face the realities of an office that’s still feeling Nick’s absence. We’re working towards some new products that should drop within six weeks, though progress is slow. Dare’s cousin has had only lukewarm success with client outreach, and there’s a gap in our system being filled by other crypto apps—we’ve clearly fallen behind the coding curve, and it’s time to catch up. Dare and I put together a game plan for the upcoming releases, reviewing what our dev guys have been up to before discussing even more ambitious products to close out the remainder of the year.

“The main thing,” I say, checking my watch, “is to stay ahead of that curve, Dare. Our clients are aware of how the market jumps, especially once new products take off, and we need to keep giving them reasons to stick with us. Predictive models might be key, and I think we should outsource our research to smaller firms.”

His eyes spark with defiance, though he keeps his gaze on his laptop. “Only bitches like predictive models, boss.”

“Then let’s give the bitches what they want. Speaking of which,” I allow myself a smile, “you had any luck lately?”

Dare finally looks at me, his fingers still flying over the keyboard. “The fuck you talking about?”

I stand up, grinning down at my best friend. “I’m talking about changing things up for you. The office doesn’t need you here all day every day, Dare. In fact, it’s only you and Sasha here most of the time. We should think about having you work from home. You’ll burn out, if we’re not careful, and I can’t have that.”

“You could at least pretend to be a fucking boss, man.” He gives a sigh almost like a growl. “I’m a workhorse. Anyone else would ride me harder for even more. Here you are, hinting at closing the office I treat as my secondary—and, sometimes, motherfucking primary—residence and you’re telling me to cool it. Fucking asshole, get out of here.”

“You need riding all right,” I say, “but not by me.”

I reach out and snap the laptop closed. He sighs and, for the first time in a while, I examine him properly. Though he’s younger than me by several years, Dare is much taller and long-limbed in the way of hyperactive runners. As I observe him, he does the same, staring me down. Dare might be young, but he’s scary smart. And when he turns his full attention on you, you fucking feel it. He probably has no idea how that kind of focus can attract a woman.

“Happiness makes you creepy, boss.”

I let out a bark of laughter. “What are you on about?”

“You’re trying to get me to loosen up or some shit. You’re happy, so you’re trying to make me happy."

“Happiness has nothing to do with it.”

“That woman out there,” he jerks his head at the closed door, “is the centre of everything for you, man. Even when Nick was in the picture. Don’t pretend it’s not true now that he’s gone.”

Instead of reaching across the table to smack him upside the back of the head—fucking tempting—I grin. Dare’s brows go up, but he waits me out. Finally I sigh, then let the grin turn into something like a genuine smile.

“Grace is everything,” I say. Simple as that. “But don’t say a fucking word, Dare.”