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“Most definitely,” she said.
“Good. Cause we have a lot of catching up to do.”
I didn’t catch Janet’s face because Grace squirmed in my arms. “Luke, put me down.”
I bent to set her on her feet and she straightened her black tight-fitting top and smoothed down her hair. Her eyes shot me a glare, but she sucked in both lips to hide her smile.
God, how I missed her.
I grabbed my phone and sent a text. Then, holding onto Grace’s hand, I pulled her toward the door. “Where are we going? I just got here,” she protested.
“We need to talk, and I need to kiss you. I can’t do either of those things here, so we’re leaving.”
Just as we exited the restaurant and climbed up the steps to street level, a black limo pulled up. I opened the back door and waved Grace inside. She hesitated at first, looking behind us to see if the car was meant for someone else perhaps, but then she recognized the driver. “Oh, hi, Eric,” she said and slid across the black leather seats.
I caught Eric’s gaze in the rearview mirror, and he nodded. Seconds later, the tinted window behind him came up and I was alone in the back seat with Grace.
“I’m sorry that you lost your promotion,” I said, turning to her.
She shook her head and swept the fallen strands behind her ear. “It’s okay, Luke,” she started, but I needed to say the rest.
“I respect who you are and that you take your work seriously. You’ve built a career for yourself and you’ve done it while supporting your sick mother.”
“Luke, stop,” she said, covering my mouth with her hands. “I’m not mad anymore. I was upset in the moment and I said things I didn’t mean and regretted them the next day. But I was stubborn and confused. I’m not used to anyone taking care of me. I thought it made me weak instead of stronger.”
“You’re the strongest person I know, Grace. I thought I was giving you space, but I was just scared.”
She placed her hand gently on my cheek. “I know.”
I looked up and saw in her eyes that she knew. She had figured out my survival tactic. I’d done it to her before.
“You can’t walk away whenever you’re angry or disappointed in me,” she said. “I know there’ll be many times in the future. And there will be times when I’m so angry with you I just want to scream and rail, but I won’t. If we’re going to make this work, we have to acknowledge what we do to ruin relationships and work on those habits. If we don’t…” She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know if this will work.”
No! I will not lose her. It’s time I’m honest with her and myself. Say out loud what I’ve known for so long in my heart.
Holding her shoulders, I held her gaze. “I realized looking back on so many pivotal points in my life that I had walked away from commitment and responsibility because I didn’t want to form an attachment to people only for them to abandon me. I wanted to walk away before they could hurt me. I get that, and I know I won’t change overnight, but I’m willing to try.”
My heart ached at the look in her eyes. She believed me, but the words weren’t enough.
My thumb caressed the familiar roundness of her cheek, the smooth curve of her lips, and I knew I wanted to wake up to her face for the rest of my life. “I love you, Grace. I always have. I was just too afraid to admit it—afraid you’d leave me.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” she said, grasping my forearms. “I’m sorry I didn’t realize the reasons why you had walked away. I promise to give you space if you need it. But I want you to come back to me and hold me and tell me everything will be okay. I will never abandon you, Luke. I’ve loved you since I was a girl. I loved you through the worst times in my life. But you’ve seen me at my worst and you’re still here. I want to know your worst, Luke. Tell me what happened in your past. I promise you I’ll still be here. I’ll always be here.”
I felt something inside my chest crumble. A wall, an invisible fortress that I had built to protect me from getting hurt, fell to the pit of my stomach and I could finally breathe. I never realized how much of myself I held back—how much I allowed fear to stop me from loving. With her words, she climbed my walls and crushed them. She forced herself inside my heart and detonated an explosion of emotion that ran through every vein in my body. I was throbbing and breathless for her.
I kissed her mouth and whispered between breaths. “I will tell you everything about my past, I promise. But not tonight. Tonight is about the future, and I want to spend every moment of it with you.”
28
Grace
Luke ran his fingers along the top of my leg and I squeezed my thighs together when he slid his fingers inside my panties. “What about Eric?” I asked.
“I didn’t think you were into threesomes, but I could ask.”
I smacked his shoulder. “You know what I mean.”
“He won’t hear a thing.” His stealthy fingers pushed past my thighs and when he brushed my clit, I knew I’d lost the battle. I moaned in his arms and fell back along the long stretch of seating in the back of the limo.
