At First Hate, page 27
Cole held up his hands. “Hey, I was told to help Marley. I didn’t know it was a girls’ night.”
“It’s fine,” I said. “Really. All of this is fine.”
“Fine,” Josie drawled. Her Southern accent coming back for a split second. “Delilah, darling, get the booze.”
Lila laughed. “Sidecars?”
“Just like Gran liked them,” Josie insisted.
“I really don’t want to drink,” I said as my two best friends promptly ignored me and rummaged through my apartment. Of course, I had everything for sidecars. I always did.
“Cole, honey, sugar these rims like you know what you’re doing.” Josie winked at him.
“I’ll pretend that’s not a sexual innuendo,” he said, shaking his head.
“It is,” Lila and I said at the same time.
We all burst into laughter, and for a second, as we worked together to make the drinks, I forgot the horror of the last twenty-four hours. Josie might have been ridiculous flying out here for me, but she wasn’t wrong. I needed it. I needed to forget. I didn’t want to face it tonight.
When the drinks were poured, Josie held hers aloft. “What should we toast to?”
I gulped and pushed mine up. “Gran.”
Lila and Josie both shot me looks of understanding.
“To Gran,” Lila said.
Then, Josie and Cole and I echoed it. We all took a sip of Gran’s drink, remembering her in the sweet taste of alcohol.
Josie squeezed onto the couch, complaining about the calories in the ice cream for a whole minute before digging into the pint. It was her job to stay the same shape, but it was nice to see her say fuck it for a night. We all did. It was better having everyone there together. Josie took up all the space in a room, which was good for me. I barely had to think at all.
“I should move here,” Josie said a few hours later as she lay sprawled across the recliner, tipsy from sidecars.
Lila and I laughed.
“Yeah right,” Lila said.
“I know. I know. Hollywood beckons,” Josie said dramatically. “But I miss y’all.”
“You know she’s drunk,” I said. “She’s resorted to y’all again.”
Cole grinned. “Welcome back, Josie.”
She waved her hand at us. “Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up. But I like being here. Everyone in LA is so fake. They all want a piece of me, and I want to keep a few pieces to myself.”
“This doesn’t have anything to do with your divorce, does it?” Lila asked.
Josie sighed. “Guys suck.”
I nodded. “Seconded.”
Cole shrugged. “You’re not wrong.”
We all wanted Josie to move back. As much as I wanted it to happen, it never would. Just like me and Derek.
It had been nearly all evening before I let myself think of him again.
I stepped out of the living room with a murmured, “Bathroom,” and stared at myself in the mirror.
I hated this. I’d made my choice, and I fucking hated it. I wanted him back. I wanted this to be the right time and place. I didn’t want it to be like every other time. But I didn’t know how to change it. Or if it was even possible.
A knock at the door kept me from wallowing.
“Mars, want me to get it?” Lila called.
I stepped out of the bathroom in confusion. “Nah, it’s okay.”
Who the hell would be here this late at night? Probably some stranger who was on their way to someone else’s house. I couldn’t imagine any other scenario.
I yanked the door open and gasped. “Derek?”
39
Atlanta
Present
“Hey, Mars.”
Derek Ballentine stood outside of my door in Atlanta. And he looked… good. He looked fucking great. He had on chinos and a white button-up with the top button undone and his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. None of the fatigue I saw on my own face from our breakup was visible on him. His pouty lips were upturned and his hazel eyes so bright and endearing. He looked more like a Greek statue in that moment than a man at all.
“What are you doing here?” I blurted out.
My friends rustled around behind me. I had no clue what they were doing, but clearly, they were trying to be stealthy and failing.
Derek shot them an amused look. “Mind if I come in?”
“I…” I blinked at him in confusion. “Sure.”
I pulled the door open wider and let him in. That was when I found Cole helping Josie to her feet—maybe she’d had more than I thought—and Lila trying to herd them away.
“We were just going,” Lila said in a perky tone.
“You don’t have to go,” I said.
She waved me away and helped Cole maneuver Josie. “Call me if you need me.”
She winked at me and then hustled out of my apartment with her boyfriend. Why did this feel so familiar? Hadn’t Josie and I plotted something similar only a few months ago for her? Had they contacted Derek?
“That was… subtle,” I said after she closed the door.
“Indeed. I don’t think any of them are much known for their subtlety.”
“Did they call you?”
Derek furrowed his brow. “No. Should they have?”
“It’s their style.”
“No, I’m not here at their behest, but my own.”
“And why is it that you’re here?”
“For you, of course.”
“Right,” I said softly. My head was fuzzy, and I didn’t think it was the alcohol. Derek was here. He was here. And I’d ended it. So, it wasn’t adding up. “But…”
“You thought I was going to let you go that easily?”
“Derek, it’s not that I wanted this to happen. But with everything between us…”
“I screwed up in the past,” he said, taking my hand in his. “I didn’t see what was in front of me. But Marley, I’ve been searching for you my whole life. I’d be an idiot to not fight for you. I choose you. I want you.”
My mouth went dry as I heard him utter the words I’d always wanted to hear. “But the case…”
“Funny story: I dropped the case.”
My jaw fell open. “You did what?”
“I told my dad that I wouldn’t do it.”
“But… but partner?”
He shrugged. “My dad was pissed, but once he got over me dropping the case, he was actually impressed. Nothing he’d said made me bend or break to him, and I think he could respect that.”
“I don’t know what to say,” I whispered. It was all so much. Everything I wanted and couldn’t believe he was saying. Was it possible that he’d actually given this up for me? “I don’t want you to resent me for this.”
“How could I? You never asked me for it. I did it because you were right. It wasn’t fair to have that case between us. Not when I was pursuing you. And I didn’t want to stop that, Mars. I want to be with you. I want you to be mine. All mine.” He brought my hands up to his lips and placed a kiss on them. “I know we have a long way to go, but when I’m with you, everything disappears. I just exist here with you.”
Tears came to my eyes. Just when I’d thought I had none left. “I want that too, Derek. But what about Atlanta? I can’t leave my job.”
“And I’d never ask you to. What you’re doing is important, and you’re fucking brilliant at it. We might have to be long distance for a while, but we can make it work while I figure out my situation.”
“Figure out what?”
“Dad has always wanted to expand,” he said with a shrug. “I floated the idea for me to open Ballentine Law in Atlanta.”
I blinked. I couldn’t process those words. “You’d move to Atlanta? But your life is in Savannah…”
“You’re here,” he said, drawing me closer. “You’re my life.”
“Oh my God, Derek.”
“Would you want that?”
“Yes,” I gasped. “Of course I want that!”
He grinned. “Good.”
“This is real?”
He laughed softly. “It’s real, Mars. A hundred percent real. Any other objections to us being together? Please allow me to disabuse you of any other notions.”
I bit my lip, shook my head, and then threw my arms around him. “No objections.”
“Then, you’re mine?”
“Yes, Derek. God, I’ve always been yours.”
He spun me in a circle before slowly dropping me back to my feet. His hands cupped my jaw, and his mouth dipped down to mine. Our lips slanted together, tasting each other, as if all of this were completely new and wonderful. My heart was full to bursting. I could hardly breathe, knowing what he’d done to be with me. That he’d actually chosen me above all else. I’d thought that this was our last and final good-bye, but in reality, it was our next beginning.
“Minivan?” he teased against my lips.
“Yes?”
“I love you.”
I shivered all over. “I love you too.”
Our eyes locked as those words sealed our future forever. No more barriers between us. Nothing left to pull us apart. This was real. It was real.
“I love you to Mars and back.”
I kissed him again, breathlessly. We were still tangled together when the door cracked back open again.
“Did it work out?” Josie asked with a giggle.
I broke away from Derek, laughing as Lila and Cole tumbled into the apartment after her. “Were you all listening?”
Derek just shook his head at my friends as they all spoke at once, trying to explain the situation.
“Can you blame us?” Lila asked. “We want you to be happy.”
“I guess not,” I said.
“You’re maybe ruining the moment,” Derek said with a laugh.
“Ruining the moment is kind of their specialty,” Cole said. He offered his hand to Derek, who looked at it for a moment and then shook. “Congrats, man.”
“Thanks. You too.”
Lila and Josie wrapped me in a hug, jumping up and down with excitement. They insisted on going out with us tomorrow, and then Derek was carefully herding them out of the apartment.
“Okay, I admit it.”
“What?” I asked, taking his hand and drawing him toward my bedroom.
“Lila isn’t that bad.”
I cackled. “I accept this.”
“But we have one problem.”
I arched an eyebrow as I toed the door to my room open. “I don’t see a problem. I see a king-size bed.”
“That is definitely not the problem.”
“Oh?” My hands were already fiddling with his belt buckle. Eager for us to make up properly.
“We’re going to have to elope.”
I stalled at those words and looked up at him in confusion. “What?”
“I had one more thing to do before I left Savannah.”
Then, he dropped to a knee before me. My mind went completely and totally blank as he produced a small blue box.
“Derek,” I whispered in shock.
“I don’t want to wait another day for you to be my wife. I don’t want to live in a world where you aren’t my everything. I want to be tied to you in every way possible.” He cracked the box open to reveal a simple cushion cut ring with a tiny band of diamonds around it. It was elegant and gorgeous. Maybe the most beautiful ring I had ever seen in my entire life. “Marry me.”
“Oh my God,” I gasped.
“Is that a yes?” he asked with a laugh.
“Yes!” I said, my entire body shaking with disbelief.
He plucked the ring out of the box and slid it onto my finger. It fit like it had always been meant to be there. As if it had been made for my finger, just as Derek Ballentine had been made for me.
I kissed him, and we spilled onto the bed with delirious energy. We made love late into the evening, reuniting over and over again and forgetting everything in the world around us. Then, as the sun rose over our new joining, we made plans that I’d never thought we’d get to make together. And I’d never been happier making them with him.
Just him. Always him.
40
Savannah
Six Weeks Later
A diamond was wrapped around my left ring finger.
A matching wedding ring sat on the inside of the engagement ring.
Derek had slid the wedding ring on my finger on a sailboat a few weeks earlier. We said I do with only family present. Maddox on one side and Amelia on the other. The ceremony was at sunset. Simple, glowing, and perfect. I wore a dress Amelia had designed for me. The only other person present, other than our officiant, was our photographer. We threw parties afterward so that everyone was happy and accounted for. But I hadn’t wanted anything big like Lila’s wedding, and it was Derek’s second marriage. We’d done what we wanted and ignored everyone else’s wishes.
Now, we were just waiting for the judge to make a decision.
Derek rubbed the knot at my back. “It’s going to work out.”
“I hope so.” I bit my lip, thankful for non-smudge lipstick. “It felt pretty convincing to me.”
He snorted. “Your attorney did what she was supposed to.”
“And their lawyer?”
“I would have been better.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Oh, really?”
“Sure. I don’t lose.”
“You’re insufferable sometimes. You know that, right?”
He laughed softly. “Yeah, well, you married me.”
“Remind me why?”
“I’ll show you later.” His eyes filled with lust, and I remembered all the post-wedding sex we’d been having.
We weren’t going on our honeymoon until the case was closed and done with. He’d booked us three weeks in an overwater bungalow in Bali without blinking. How could I even object?
The only people who’d had any objection were Kasey and my mother. We’d had interactions with both of them since the wedding. Kasey had been a shrieking mess when she found out, but hopefully, it was the last we saw of her. Moving to Atlanta would sure help that. And my mom…
Well, that would end today.
I chanced a glance to her on the other side of the room with Aunt Ruth. They both looked smug, as if they knew it was all going to work out in their favor. I tried to find the sliver of fear that I was feeling, but it wasn’t there. My mom really believed in her case. She couldn’t think of anything else. This was how she lived her entire life.
Finally, the judge returned to his seat to make his pronouncement. Maddox squeezed one hand. Our eyes met, and he nodded once. I nodded back. Then, we waited for the end of this long debacle.
The judge cleared his throat. “After carefully looking at the provided evidence, I move to dismiss the will contest and grant full grounds to Marley and Maddox Nelson.”
“Oh my God,” I gasped. All the air rushed out of Maddox’s lungs. I turned and flung my arms around him. “We did it.”
“We did it.”
I turned to Derek, and he was smiling brightly. “Well done.”
He pulled me tight to him, and I breathed him in.
“Thank you.”
I had no doubt that Derek would have been better at his job than whoever had filled in for him. But either way, justice had been served. My Gran’s final wishes had been honored. Maddox and I had the house now, and we wouldn’t see it sold off for pieces. Gran could rest well, knowing we would take care of her things.
My mom looked ready to spit something vile at me as we all exited the courtroom. But Derek put himself between me and my mother and looked down his nose at her.
“Hannah,” he said coldly.
She stumbled on her words, and then we were through and outside. The December air was cold and breezy, but the sun was shining bright. Tomorrow was Derek’s birthday, and we could actually celebrate now that everything was finally, finally over. We’d won, and life could go on.
I hugged Maddox one more time before he headed off to his Wrangler. I followed Derek to his BMW, and he popped open the passenger door.
“One more thing.”
“What’s that?” he asked.
“Let’s go see her.”
He kissed me softly. “Anytime you want.”
We drove out of town, and he pulled into the cemetery. We parked up front and walked the paved pathways. I stopped when I found Gramps and brushed away some stray leaves.
Then, I looked to Gran, buried next to her husband of fifty years. Her headstone read:
Meredith May Christianson
Daughter. Mother. Wife.
Derek wrapped an arm around my shoulders as I straightened.
I leaned my head against his chest. “I miss her.”
“I know you do,” he said. “She was an incredible woman. Just like someone else I know.”
“I hope that, one day, I can look back and say that I lived a life worthy of Meredith Christianson.”
He pressed a kiss into my hair. “You already have, and she’d be the first to say it.”
I smiled around my tears, twirling the wedding ring around my finger. He was right. Gran had always been so proud of me. We’d lost her too soon. Much too soon. But she’d known me for who I was. She’d raised me into the person I was.
“Thank you.”
We stayed in front of Gran’s and Gramps’ headstones as I regaled them with the story of what had happened in court. Then, I followed Derek back to the car. He kissed me in the parking lot.
“Well, Mrs. Ballentine, where to?”
I laughed and ducked my chin. “I’m never going to get used to that.”
He grinned. “Oh, I think I’m going to say it over and over and over again until you do.”
“I love you.”
He threaded our fingers together. “I love you too. What’s the plan now that you’re free?”
“The world, husband,” I joked.
“You’re thinking too small, wife,” he said with a wink. “To Mars.”
“And back.”
