Grace's Redemption, page 18
Even Olivia got in on the action, skipping over to say something and give him a hug, then snuggle into Grace, who put her arm around her like it was second nature while they both talked to the little boy.
Something in my heart melted at the sight.
My girls.
It was so obvious to me now that Grace belonged in my heart. In my life. That she’d always been meant to be there. That I must have known that, somewhere deep down, when I first laid eyes on her in Vegas, and I’d just been fighting it. Well, no more.
“Hey there.”
I glanced over and down as someone grabbed my arm. “Hello, Kat.” I readjusted and pulled my arm away.
She ignored that and moved in closer, running a finger down my collar. “Long time, no see.”
“I guess . . .” I glanced at Grace, as she stood and looked our way. A glint on her left ring finger caught my gaze. A familiar silver band. That was definitely a new development.
Holy shit.
My world tilted on its axis as her eyes locked on mine and she strolled my way, Olivia chattering to another little girl.
I wasn’t sure what Kat was rattling on about, her over-perfumed presence invading my personal space like a fungus. I was way too focused on my wife as she sauntered over, looking like a sexy fucking librarian in her demure skirt and glasses, fooling everyone in the world but me.
She walked right up to me, totally ignoring Kat as she threaded that left hand right through the hair at the nape of my neck. “Hello, handsome.”
I smiled down at her. “Hello, beautiful.”
Her return smile was part prim and proper, part sex kitten, as she rose up on her toes and planted a kiss on my lips. It was quick, nothing too sexy in front of a bunch of kids and parents, but enough to shut Kat the hell up.
She drew back and I realized I had my hand dangerously close to her ass, so I slid it up to her back.
“I missed you,” she said.
“Missed you, too.”
Kat stalked away, grabbing her daughter in a huff.
I raised a brow at that as we pulled apart. “I’m guessing you did that on purpose.”
She rolled her eyes. “She needs to go find her own husband and leave mine alone.”
My heart did funny things when she said that so I brushed her ring finger with my thumb as we both looked over at Olivia. “And this, Mrs. B.?” I whispered.
Twinkling eyes met mine. “I love you.”
“So . . .?”
I’d been antsy to make it official. To at least make a plan to move in together and let the world know she was mine and I was hers. We ate together most evenings, and talked on the phone every night before we went to sleep, but she wanted a little time to just settle in to being us. Had she woken up this morning and decided today was the day to make a statement?
Before she could answer, she had to rush to keep a kid from running out into the road, then get a few stragglers off to their parents. When she came back to me, her expression was uncertain.
“So . . . I need to go see Faith. The rehab place wants to meet with us about sending my dad home next week and we need to make plans for his care.” Her eyes took on the weary look they always did on this topic. “I promised her I’d come.”
Olivia came up and hugged my leg and I placed a hand on her head. “Want me to come along?”
She shook her head. “No. It’s fine. I’ll be okay.”
“You sure?”
“Yes. But thank you.”
I frowned, feeling like she was intentionally leaving me out of something that was upsetting her, but I didn’t want to push. “Okay. Let me know if you change your mind. I’m sure Louise wouldn’t mind watching Olivia for a little bit.”
She nodded and glanced away, giving me the distinct impression something else was on her mind, but she didn’t speak up.
Eventually, she was ready to go, so I walked her to her car and kissed her goodbye. “Call me later?”
“Of course.”
I tucked a hair behind her ear. “Okay. I love you.”
Her smile was soft. Distracted. “Love you.”
I watched her drive away, feeling decidedly unsettled.
I had work and Olivia to keep me busy the rest of the evening. Craig helped me look into Tobias Bishop’s claim that he knew nothing about being on that deed, though that seemed a bit of a stretch to me.
After I got Olivia fed, bathed, and tucked into bed, I took a shower, then lay in bed with my laptop and started making notes. First up, I would investigate forgery experts. Far-fetched, yes, but good police work left no stone unturned. Second, what did Bollinger have to gain by adding his nephew to the deed without his knowledge? Third, the exhumation of Chief Darden. It was time to proceed. I made a note to call his family.
I was buried deep in my thoughts when my phone rang with a FaceTime call from Grace.
I frowned when I realized how late it was. I accepted the call, and her pale, tired face came into view.
“Hey. What’s wrong?”
“What makes you think something’s wrong?”
I took in her wan expression and the fact she was clearly sitting on the floor in front of her bathtub. “Uh, because you should be in bed, and instead, you’re calling me at eleven thirty at night from your bathroom floor. What’s up, baby? You sick? Having another anxiety attack?”
Her expression softened as tears filled her big brown eyes. “God, you’re sweet. What did I do to deserve you?”
“Nothing much,” I quipped with a smile. “Though I do seem to recall something about a sexy dress and high heels at a bar and some amazing sex.”
She huffed out a shaky laugh. “Right.”
“Seriously, Grace. What’s going on? Did something happen at the meeting about your dad?” The idea that she needed me and was no closer than a screen gnawed at my gut.
Emotional eyes met mine. “Oh. That went okay, all things considered. He’s going home next week. Faith is moving in to help him for the time being and they’re arranging home health nurses and physical therapy. I’ll do what I can—”
“Grace. Stop,” I interrupted, making her bite her lip and stare at me. “Tell me what’s going on with you before I wake up Olivia and come over there,” I warned.
Silence fell between us as we studied each other for a long moment. The need to hold her and tell her I loved her filled my chest like a helium balloon about to pop.
I shoved the sheet from my legs and started to rise, ready to make good on my threat, but her soft voice stopped me in my tracks.
“Do you remember our last FaceTime call just like this?” My gaze sliced back to hers. “You in bed? Me in a bathroom?” She clarified on a chuckle. “Me, scared to death?”
I sat back and studied every nuance of her face. “Grace?”
“Mateo.”
My heart couldn’t take it anymore. I swung my legs over the edge of the bed until my bare feet hit the floor. “I’m coming over.”
“No. Wait.”
“Baby . . .” My voice was weak and pleading, but she was killing me here. “Are you . . . Did you take a pregnancy test?”
She nodded and glanced down, unable to hold my gaze. “Stupid, right? I mean, how could I let this happen, not once, but twice?”
“Not you. Us. And there’s nothing stupid about it.” When she looked back up, I touched her face on the screen with my finger. “Anything that happens is an us and a we now, baby. You aren’t in this alone. You’re my beautiful, amazing wife that I love so fucking much. Please let me come over there.”
“Mateo,” she whispered, shaking her head as the tears began to fall. “I have a confession.”
“What’s that?”
“The first time . . .” she whispered. “When I barely knew you, it broke my heart when it turned out I wasn’t pregnant. I know that doesn’t make any sense, but it’s true.” She sniffled and wiped her face, but more tears just fell in their place, breaking my heart too because I’d felt the same damn way. “And now? I still didn’t plan this, but I—I want it so bad—” Her eyes met mine, so full of love it gutted me. “I want a piece of you, Mateo. A piece of us. I want it too much. If this test is negative . . . I’ll be devastated.”
I dropped my head and pinched the bridge of my nose against the burn before looking up again. “Grace, baby, give me thirty minutes. I’m—”
“No. I don’t want you to wake up Olivia.”
“Then you pack up that fucking stick without looking at it and get your ass over here.” I stood to pace, shooting a look back at my computer. “You should’ve been here with me anyway.”
“Mateo—”
“Those are your choices,” I bit out. “Come here or we’re going there. Choose. Either way, you’re not getting this news alone. Not this time.”
She wavered and swiped at her cheeks again. Finally, she nodded. “Fine. I’ll come over. Should be fun with a peed-on stick,” she grumbled.
“Great,” I said. “Just don’t look.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
“Perfect.”
We disconnected the call and I paced like a caged lion the entire twenty-three minutes it took her to get there. As soon as I saw her headlights illuminate my front window, I rushed over and unlocked the door to hold it open.
She walked up my front walkway with her hands outstretched and offered me a paper bag like it was a live bomb. “Here. Take it.”
I lifted a brow, but she just shoved it at me and strolled inside and straight to my bedroom, where she collapsed onto my bed and rolled to her side.
I sat next to her and placed the bag between us.
She eyed it like it was both her savior and her every waking nightmare.
“Grace,” I said, drawing her attention back up to me. “You realize that I love you no matter what this test says, right?”
She reached over and took my hand with a nod, tracing my silver band that I had also put on the second I’d gotten home.
“And you also realize that I intend to be your husband for the rest of my life?”
Her eyes welled up again. “Yes?”
“Is that a question?”
Her smile was soft and tremulous. “Not a question. Yes.”
“Good.” I stretched over to my nightstand and found the small box I’d picked up the week before, just biding my time. I laid it next to the bag. “And I want you to be my wife for the rest of yours.”
She glanced down with a confused frown, then looked back up at me. “But . . . I’m already your wife.”
I shrugged. “Doesn’t hurt to ask again. When we can both remember.” I flipped open the box to show her the white gold and diamond eternity band. “Grace McMasters-Beckett, will you stay my wife?”
“Mateo,” she breathed. “It’s beautiful.”
“Is that a yes?”
She scrambled to sit up, framing my face with both hands. “It’s been a yes,” she whispered. “It was a yes the moment I met you, and it will be a yes until the moment I stop breathing.”
I dropped a kiss to her lips. “Same.”
She held out her left hand and I slid off the cheap Vegas band and replaced it with her new ring, kissing the back of her knuckles.
She took the old ring and put it on her right ring finger with a smile. “We’ll get you a new ring too one of these days.”
I shrugged. “I kinda like this one.”
She rolled her eyes at me, her gaze dropping to the paper bag on the bed.
I saw the dread and hope in equal measure roll across her face. I knew the suspense was killing her, and in all honesty the idea had grown on me too. I’d be disappointed if it was negative, but she’d be crushed, so I had to be prepared either way to support her.
It was time to rip off the Band-Aid.
Pressing one more quick kiss to her lips, I snatched up the bag and leapt from the bed.
“Hey!” she squawked, but she didn’t try to follow me.
I ignored her as I opened the bag and pulled out the toilet-paper-wrapped test stick. Gently, I unwrapped the mummy-style wrapping until I held only a thin white plastic stick in my hand.
We’d gone over the directions and how to interpret it last time. I knew how to read it. I took a deep breath and winked at her, then stared down at the little result window for several seconds.
“What?” she finally demanded, her voice soft and emotional. “What does it say?”
I glanced back up at her, my words lost to me in that moment as I took her in.
In an automatic response, she held her left hand to her stomach, her new ring sparkling in the light. “Mateo. Just tell me.”
Slowly, I set the test down on my dresser and crawled on my hands and knees on the bed, pressing her back until I hovered over her, our faces so close I could taste her sweet breath.
I dropped my forehead to hers. “I love you.”
She gripped my waist. “I love you, too.” Her voice shook.
I brushed my lips against hers. “Mama.”
She gasped and squeezed her eyes closed as tears began to streak down her temples. “We’re having a baby?” she whispered.
“We are.” I smiled and kissed the edge of her lips. “So . . . now that we have that out of the way . . .” I kissed a slow path down her throat, making her giggle.
“Yes?”
“I’m going to make love to my pregnant wife . . .”
“Oh, do tell.”
I lifted her shirt and kissed her belly, pausing in awe. In seconds—microseconds, really—I’d fallen madly in love with someone I hadn’t even known existed that morning. I’d been down this road before, and I remembered the joys, but I suddenly couldn’t wait to go through it all again the first time with my Grace.
I kissed my way down, pulling her shorts with me as she gave a husky little sound of appreciation. “Then we’re going to figure out how we tell the rest of the town about us,” I said against her skin.
She hummed and stretched like a cat, giving a little moan under my mouth. “Let’s give ’em something to talk about, Chief Beckett.”
EPILOGUE
Grace
On the plane back from our second wedding in Vegas—this one done completely sober due to my knocked-up status plus our wishes to actually remember the vows—I laid my head on my husband’s shoulder. I found myself sleepy a lot lately, which I was told was normal for the first trimester.
“You okay?” he asked, his lips against my hair.
“Mm-hmm.”
“Honeymoon do you in?” he whispered wickedly.
We took off a couple of days for a long weekend back in the place where all our sins brought us together . . . We thought it kind of fitting to bring it full circle. I would have loved to have our families there this time around, especially my new stepdaughter that would never be a step-anything to me, but Vegas isn’t the place for a preschooler, and she wasn’t likely to understand much of it. Faith had Dad to deal with, and it was too short of notice for Hope to get away. So—Louise and her hubby kept Olivia, and she and Faith promised to keep it all on the down-low. The townspeople of Redemption only needed to know about this wedding. An elopement was scandalous enough. The gossips and holier-than-thous certainly didn’t need to know about the previous drunk-wedding-hookup-slash-pregnancy-scare-slash-real-bun-in-the-oven prior to the official I dos.
Not in Redemption.
“Well, you did up your game quite a bit there, hubby,” I murmured.
“Oh, Mrs. B.,” he scoffed. “I haven’t yet begun to reach the heights of my game.”
I giggled, and a flight attendant smiled at us on her way past. Clearly, we had that look of people in love, or at least seriously hot for each other. Man, I hoped we always would. I was about to reach a stage in the next several months where “hot” probably wasn’t going to be in my description or vocabulary, but I’d get it back. Being married to the sexiest man in the state had its perks.
For now, I closed my eyes and soaked up the peace of feeling totally safe and loved with the rest of the world below us.
A few hours later, when we touched down and turned our phones back on, the world caught up. Mateo’s phone lit up with text after text from Craig, asking him to call the office, and mine had three texts and two voicemails from Faith.
I swallowed hard, gripping his hand tightly as we walked to baggage claim, and I listened to her frantic, sobbing voice. “Grace, call me!”
My blood ran cold. I clicked on the second one.
“Grace, he’s—shit, I just realized you’re in the air—” Her voice broke, and I could hear the tears choking her words. “When you get this, please call me. He had another stroke, and—he stopped breathing, Grace.” She stopped, her words shaky and high. “They—they came and got him breathing again, but—” Another sob overtook her. “Just call me, okay? I’m following them to the hospital now. I’m sorry.”
The line went dead, and I just stood there, breathing.
“Baby, what’s wrong?” Mateo asked, moving into my line of vision.
My gaze drifted up to his. I hadn’t even realized that I’d stopped walking and that people were going around us like we were furniture that suddenly sprouted up.
“Grace?”
“My dad had another stroke,” I said, hearing the strange wooden tone coming out of my mouth. “Faith is, um—” I licked my dry lips. “It’s bad, evidently. She’s following the ambulance to the hospital.” I looked down at the time stamp. “That was thirty minutes ago. I need to call her back.”
Mateo had my hand, and we were walking again. “Let’s get the bags,” he said, steering me. “We’ll go straight there.”
Faith didn’t answer any of my four call attempts on the way to the hospital, and I took that as increasingly bad signs the closer we got. Either he’d died, was dying, or she was really ticked off at me for not being there.
