Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
Marcus
I ’d been shocked when Hallie had dragged me from the dance floor back to the bridal room, too desperate for her attention to have thought about refusing her, to have stopped her and talked to her before she had started touching me. I knew that she was tactile, that she loved to be touched, and I’d hoped it’d been a positive sign.
A sign of her trying to show me…something.
But then I’d gotten caught up, my mouth had opened, and out had spilled a truth I’m worried she wasn’t ready for. Except when she’d had the chance to run, to leave me and our conversation behind, she’d stayed. She’d pushed through the awkward chitchat with Erica and Katie until we’d headed back out to the reception together. We hadn’t been able to talk any further, and she hadn’t acknowledged my admission, but she hadn’t run for the hills either.
“Are you all right?” Erica asks me now, moving to sit next to me back at the bridal table. I can’t work out if she’s eager to hear what I have to say or if her dress is keeping her in beyond perfect posture.
“Depends. Do I still look all right?” I ask, pulling on the cuffs of my shirt.
Erica rolls her eyes, and the response is so very Hallie it’s easy to tell that their friendship had been forged at an impressionable time. “While I normally appreciate your vague, asshole-esque nature, dear brother-in-law, I’d have guessed after what I just witnessed, you might have a little more to say.”
Oh, how I’m going to enjoy having Erica as a permanent part of this family. Thinking about the absolute honesty she’s asking for, I have to resist the temptation to squirm in my seat. I steel my voice so as not to sound like a complete gossip, regardless of her opinion potentially being useful.
“When we were dancing, I told Hallie I wouldn’t begrudge her if she decided to leave—that she should go. And then she dragged me into the bridal room, and, well, I’m guessing you can paint that picture yourself. I told her I loved her—enough to let her go then and enough to do the same now.”
Erica absorbs this with a straight face before a smile cracks along her face. “Julian owes me fifty bucks.”
“Excuse me?” I assert, trying my hardest to keep my voice from rising in an unreasonable manner.
Her whole body relaxes back into her seat. “Julian owes me fifty bucks.”
“Erica,” I grit out.
“Sorry, sorry. There’s just nothing like hearing your husband of only hours already owes you money.”
I shoot a brow up in annoyance. “Still not helping.”
“Jules and I had a tiny little wager. After speaking to Hallie after Vegas, he thought she’d be the one to say it first. I, however, had utter faith in you, Marcus, to be the giant softie I know you are deep under your ridiculously sarcastic exterior.”
“Why would you even think that?”
She laughs now. “I’m not sure which of my comments you’re referring to, but you’re a giant-ass softie who created a whole damn charity to help young people. And as for you and Hallie—did you think you two were subtle? That the way you look at each other leaves anything to the imagination? Hello, I am no idiot. Marcus, Hallie knows I want her to stay, but if I thought you were going to be a negative in her life, I would’ve pushed her to go. Hell, she’d already have a flight booked.”
“I’m sorry I’ve made it easy for her to leave. She told me she’d thought about selling the house and staying—before I messed things up anyway.”
Erica kicks her feet up, resting pale-blue heels on the chair beside her. It doesn’t look remotely comfortable, but then again, considering the height of her heels, it’s probably the most relief her feet have felt all day.
“Well, I think you have a better chance than you think of her staying.”
It’s with that little bit of encouragement that I stand, an idea forming. I’m beyond ready to head out, ready to chase Hallie down to show her I’m in this for real if she’s willing to give us a chance.
All the while, Erica continues to recline, clearly unbothered.
“Marcus?” she calls as I turn, reaching for my jacket. “Try not to push her too much tonight. Let her digest what you said. You guys are worth a real chance, and she knows it.”
It’s just after midnight, and I’m pacing back and forth through my home office as my printer takes its sweet-ass time to do the job it’s built for.
Once I’d made the decision, I’d had to act quickly, leaving the reception as soon as the bride and groom had departed while everyone else had continued to dance.
Before I head out, I print the final document sent between me and my lawyer and place it on my desk. That one would have to wait until morning.
The night is completely still as I walk across the small path toward the pool house. Key in hand, I turn the lock, a distinct feeling of guilt rising within me. This might be my property, but it’s currently Hallie’s space, and there’s no way she’d see this as anything other than me intruding.
I take a fortifying breath and continue with my plan. It’s a last-ditch effort to bring her home, to keep her here.
Where she can’t miss them, across the coffee table and spread over the couch, I lay out the multitude of blueprints and design plans I’ve brought with me. The plans I’ve been working on painstakingly over the last few months, over the last few years. Plans I’ve been putting together in my mind for longer than I care to admit. Plans that include the kitchen being extended so a large island can float in the middle, the living room with a fireplace, and a dog-washing station built into the laundry for the girl who’d always wanted a pet and had never been allowed to have one.
But more specifically, I include the specs for the attic conversion, the one she and her gran had always dreamed of with large skylights in the vaulted ceiling placed over both the bed and the en suite bathroom, where a claw-foot tub would reside directly underneath. The person beneath them would be able to view the sky and the stars to their heart’s content.
It’s a home I’d wanted to renovate, to fix and restore, to build for Hallie to show I understood what she’d wanted and that I could give it to her. That I could be enough for her.
I wake to the slamming of a door and heavy footsteps approaching my bedroom. I can’t find it within myself to be too bothered about it. My security alarm isn’t going off, so it can only be one of a very select few who’ve made their way inside. But then I remember last night, the plans I’d left for Hallie, and my brain pings awake.
Forcing open my blurry eyes, I spy Julian at the foot of my bed. It’s the day after his wedding. I don’t know what the hell he’s doing here. He’s definitely not who I want here.
“Don’t you have a wife whose brains you should be screwing out?” I ask inappropriately, if not unkindly.
Julian’s smile is feral. “I should be. But Erica just got a frantic call from Hallie. I don’t know what you left for her last night, but she’s gone.”
I fly out of bed, devastation rocking through me and settling like ice in my veins.
“What?” I shout.
I grab a pair of jeans and a T-shirt from my dresser. I pull my clothes on, barely able to get the buttons of my jeans done up in my hurry.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I rub my hands over my face, pulling at my hair.
I’d left the plans to show her I care, that there was nothing and no one else for me. Of course, it hadn’t been enough. I shouldn’t have let her out of my sight. Not for a second.
Julian looks me over. “I thought I told you to fix this. I didn’t have Hallie staying here just so you could make a further mess of her life.”
The dread I feel at being told Hallie’s gone only expands at the look of dislike on Jules’s face.
“I’ve already been to the pool house. This was all I found.” In his hands, he holds the bloodred velvet box containing Hallie’s grandmother’s engagement ring.
My breath whooshes from my chest.
I can’t believe she’d left without it.
That my words and actions had sent her running in such a way.
I think about last night, about how she’d instigated the kiss between us, the fire of desire in her eyes. I couldn’t have been imagining it. But it didn’t mean she loved me, that she’d wanted to hear how I loved her. There’s a terrific chance she’d just been caught up in the moment. Hell, there’s no denying there’s enough physical attraction between us to cause an inferno.
But it doesn’t mean there’d ever be more.
That she would want more with me.
I give myself a mental shake. No. I wouldn’t let her go again without first asking her to stay.
“Where is she?” I ask, flustered, looking for my keys. “How long ago did she leave?”
“Maybe you shouldn’t go after her. You could just let her go. Obviously, you’re not good for one another.”
“Excuse me?” I explode, fury running through me, burning through the ice I’d felt previously. My skin steams. I get in my brother’s face for the first time in my life, feeling as if I could do another person physical harm. “You do not get to dictate how hard I try to show her that this is real, that she’s what I want, what I’ve always wanted. You do not get to begrudge me a shot at what you have.”
In an instant, Julian’s demeanor changes completely. He steps away from where we’ve ended up, right in each other’s faces. A small smirk lifts his lips, and I want to smack it from his face. Brothers.
“Well, thank the Lord. I just needed to make sure you understood that this is the real deal. You’ve always been meant for each other; you just haven’t always been able to see it clearly enough.” He throws me my keys, which he’d apparently been holding hostage. “She’s at the house. By the way, Erica and I are away for the next two nights. I’d like to be able to ‘screw her brains out,’ as you put it ever so delicately. Without any drama, if you can manage it.”
Jules gives me a little fuck-you wave, and I give him my middle finger.
I fucking hate having a brother.
I pull up along the curb of the house I’ve spent so much time coveting, and I’m beyond grateful to see the small black rental car Hallie’s been driving parked in the well-maintained driveway. The knot that’s been in my chest since last night tightens as I make my way across the small lawn and toward the porch, which wraps around the front of the house.
There are no longer any flowering planter pots or outdoor furniture. Everything that’d been placed here for the open-house viewings has since been removed. It’s only the garden itself that remains intact; everything else is simply bare.
Steeling myself, I try the front door. It opens with only a slight creak of tired hinges, easily fixed or replaced, depending on the owner’s preference. The pages I’d grabbed from my desk before running out the door feel a little heavier where I have folded and shoved them into my back pocket.
I only have to hit the entryway before I see her. A large exhale of relief leaves my lungs in a whoosh . Hallie stands in the kitchen behind the wraparound countertop that’s desperately in need of a replacement. Spread out in front of her are the blueprints and plans I’d left for her in the pool house last night. Two takeout coffees hold down the edges of the largest spec sheet. There’s no doubt in my mind that she knows I’m here, that this is what she’d planned all along, but she doesn’t look up, not yet.
I take the chance to drink her in, her dark overalls and the oversized T-shirt she’s wearing beneath them. The oversized top that, on a second perusal, I recognize to be mine.
Knowing she chose to keep something of mine, that she’s worn it today, knowing I’d see her in it, gives way to a little bubble of hope in my chest. It’s small. But it exists.
I like seeing her in my clothes. In this home I’d hoped to be ours. I like it, and I want her to know it.
Finally, she looks at me, and I can tell she hasn’t showered, most likely hasn’t slept since last night. It’s in the tiredness of her eyes, the way her perfectly curled hair has been stacked in a messy bun on her head. She’s unkempt and heartbreakingly beautiful.
Hallie pushes one of the coffee cups toward me, the print it was holding down instantly curling back up in one corner—the floor plan for the attic with its skylights, a place for her to watch the stars from bed. I wonder if she caught a look at the brochure for the heated flooring I’d planned.
“Do you like my plans?” I ask, lifting up the still-warm coffee.
I wonder if Erica had gotten one of her staff to drop them off.
Running her fingers over the counters and across the various images, she replies, “They’re perfect.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell her that she’s perfect, but it’s just a little too lame. “I’m glad you approve.”
She looks a little apprehensive as she asks, “How long have you been putting this together?”
I decide to put all my cards on the table, alongside my plans. “I’d always had ideas about what I would’ve done if it were mine. I’d always understood what the potential for the bones of the house was. Driving past it every now and again, I’d see it and would tuck another idea away.”
Hallie nods, understanding.
“And what now?”
The house is legally mine, my money hers.
“Now I make amends,” I say, pulling the folded papers from my back pocket. I put them on the table facing her. “I spoke to my lawyers as soon as you accepted the offer. This paperwork states that as soon as the house is approved in my name, the process will begin to transfer ownership back to you. Technically, I’ll be gifting you the property, and I’ll be changing the name on the deed from mine to yours. There’s a few tax implications, and I’m sure my lawyer thinks I’ve lost my mind, but I want you to have it all.”
Hallie’s face pales, her eyes flying down to the paperwork. She picks up the sheet outlining the process and the time frame for the request I’ve made. The page flutters back down to the counter.
“You’re…you can’t do that.”
“I can. It’s a gift.”
And it is, plain and simple.
“I know what it cost. What you paid. It’s too much,” she persists, as if I don’t already know all I’ve put on the line. As if she isn’t worth it all.
I shrug. “It’s money. I’ll make more.”
“No.” She sucks in a harsh breath, head shaking, tears welling.
I hadn’t meant to make her cry.
“Hallie. I’m sorry I hurt you all those years ago. I’m sorry I said exactly what you needed to hear to make you leave. I thought I was doing the right thing then, but I want you to have every choice now.”
Hallie’s hands shake as she picks up the papers. She stacks them one on top of the other, and my chest explodes with possibility as she rips them in half and then quarters.
“No,” she explains, “I don’t want it to be like that between us.” Hallie reaches for my hands. “I’m sorry I didn’t try and fight for us, that I believed the worst of you so quickly back then. That I did it again after Vegas. I should’ve trusted my feelings for you, should’ve trusted the person I know you to be now. And what you said last night? It caught me by surprise, that’s all. It’s not that I didn’t want to hear it. I think I wanted it so much I scared myself.”
For once, Hallie seems steady before me, ready to choose fight instead of flight.
“When you told me on the plane that the way I felt about you would fit into three words, but they weren’t ‘I hate you,’ I knew you were right. You’re still right, but I’m not ready to say them yet. I am, however, ready to give us a chance. I want that with you. Those three words, this home. All of it.” She pauses, taking me in. “I hope that’s okay?”
The bubble of hope in my chest fills so fast and wide it pops. My girl’s still so brave.
“Of course it’s okay.” I pull one hand away to remove the red velvet box from my front pocket, adding it to the stack of plans before us. “Julian had me thinking you’d left without this.”
Hallie squeezes her hand onmine before reaching for the ring. “I would’ve come back for it.”
With a quick grin, I snatch the box away from her sticky fingers. “Technically, it’s still legally mine. I’ve decided we come as a package deal. I know it was always meant to be yours, but you were always meant to be mine.”
Hallie looks at me, slightly aghast. “You better not be proposing.”
My chest is lighter than it’s been in days—weeks even—and I laugh, moving around the counter and pulling her into my arms. “I’m proposing that we make this work, that you’ll let us work toward the real deal. Think of it as the promise before the proposal.”
She tilts her chin up to look at me.
“How about you keep the ring,” I say. “Hide it somewhere in our house, and when you’re ready, you put it back on my bedside table. I’ll take it from there.”
She looks excited by the prospect, and I hope it won’t take long before the small velvet box ends up back in my room. I’ll do my best to make it so.
Her lips quirk. “Why would I be hiding it in our house?”
I run my hands up along her spine and into the back of her tied-up hair, wishing it were down and around her shoulders. Now that I have her, I can’t get enough of touching her.
“Well, I figure we’re still going to have to sell one of them, and it won’t be this one. Why? Did you plan on living in my pool house indefinitely?”
She scoffs a small laugh, and then her eyes pop open wide. “Wait. Is this you asking me to move in with you?”
“Well, considering we’ll already be working on refurbishing our future home together, it’s not crazy to think we’d live there together.”
“It doesn’t mean it’s not presumptuous.”
I nod my head in somber agreement. “Oh, it definitely is.” I shoot her a wicked grin, lifting her from where she stands. Her butt comes to rest on the kitchen counter, putting us at eye level. Much better. “But I also presume that you’ll want to look at me all the time, that I’ll want my hands on you all the time. I presume that us being apart, any more than absolutely necessary, won’t work.”
A pink flush stains her cheeks. How this is embarrassing her after all we’ve done together stuns me.
“Hallie, you’re blushing! You didn’t even blush this much when I had you coming around my fingers at your dress fitting.”
She smacks her palms against my chest. “Stop it!” Her cheeks are now a deep rose. “I’ve told you before, I’m allergic to you.”
“Full immersion therapy it is, then,” I say, noting how her hands still haven’t left my chest, how I don’t ever want them to. “I want you to stay with me, Hallie. If you want to, that is,” I say, waiting with bated breath.
“It’s all I’ve ever wanted,” she replies as she pulls me in, bringing our lips together.
It’s all I’ve ever wanted too.
The End.