Chapter Six #4
Grant spent the next several minutes asking about the boys. Once he started, he couldn’t stop. Their birthday. Their middle names. Which one had walked first? Which one talked first? Who broke bones? Who hated vegetables. Who liked school.
Amelie answered everything, sometimes laughing, sometimes tearing up, and each answer built a picture of the years he had missed.
Tyler had been born first by four minutes and apparently took that role far too seriously when it benefited him.
Trevor had been quieter as a baby but far more observant.
Tyler had broken his finger playing football.
Trevor had once talked a teacher into changing a homework deadline with such persuasive logic that Amelie had received an email half-praising him and half warning her that he might one day run a country.
They both loved football. They both hated peas. And they had grown up loved.
That last part mattered most.
Whatever Grant had lost, whatever grief sat inside him over the years he could never reclaim, he could see the truth in every word Amelie spoke. Their sons had been loved, fiercely and completely, by a woman who had built an empire with one hand while holding them with the other.
Amelie looked down at their joined hands before lifting her gaze to his. Vulnerability flickered across her face, raw and unguarded.
“What happens now, Grant?”
Grant reached up and gently brushed a strand of hair back from her face, letting his fingers linger against her cheek. Her eyes fluttered closed for the briefest second at the touch.
“We have a lot to discuss still. And a lot to work through. Twelve years doesn’t disappear overnight.”
Amelie gave a small nod.
“But I know one thing.” His thumb brushed lightly across her cheek. “I want to be part of their lives. I want to know them. I want to be there for them.” He paused for a second as he looked into her eyes. “And, I want to be part of your life too, Mel.”
Her breath caught.
“But I’m not going to push you.” He offered her a soft smile. “Today has been a lot for all of us. I’m not going to overwhelm you by pretending we can solve everything before morning. We can take it one step at a time. That’s all I’m asking for right now.”
Something in her expression softened, and she leaned slightly into his hand.
“One step at a time,” she repeated.
The patio door opened before either of them could say anything else.
Grant looked over as Tyler and Trevor stepped outside, both wearing expressions that were trying very hard to look casual and failing spectacularly.
Mac, Jessie, Nico, and Rafe hovered just behind them with the collective subtlety of a tactical unit pretending not to eavesdrop.
“Is everything okay?” Tyler asked, his gaze bouncing between Grant and Amelie.
Trevor looked slightly more nervous. “We waited inside like you told us to. But we were worried.”
Grant felt Amelie tense beside him, and instinctively, he looked over at her. Her eyes were red from crying, but she was smiling faintly now, the kind of smile that held a thousand emotions at once. He gave her a small, reassuring look before turning back to the boys.
“Everything’s okay,” he said. “Your mom and I talked, and we still have some things to work through, but everything is okay.”
Mac caught his eye over the boys’ heads, one brow lifting in silent question.
Grant gave him the smallest nod. Everything was good.
Mac’s expression softened, and for all the teasing, all the jokes, all the brotherly harassment Grant had endured over the years, the quiet smile Mac gave him in return said more than words could have.
Then Mac started backing toward the door.
“All right, I think this is where we stop pretending we’re not hovering and go inside before Amelie realizes how nosy we are. ”
Mac’s comment drew a smile from Amelie. “Thank you for keeping an eye on the boys.”
“Don’t mention it,” Mac said, ruffling the boys’ hair. “They’re good kids.”
Jessie smiled warmly at Amelie. “We’ll be inside if you need us.”
Mac then ushered the group back into the hotel, leaving Grant, Amelie, and the boys alone.
Grant looked at his sons. “Come over here, boys.”
Tyler moved first, then Trevor, and they sat between him and Amelie on the sofa as if they had done it a hundred times before.
Grant wrapped one arm around Tyler’s shoulders while Amelie immediately pulled Trevor closer against her side.
Grant looked down at the boys who had walked into his life only hours earlier and changed everything. His chest ached with grief for what he had missed, but beneath that grief was something stronger. Something bright and terrifying and unmistakable. Love.
When he lifted his gaze, Amelie was watching him over the boys’ heads. Her eyes were bright and glistening, but this time, there was something softer there. Something that looked a little like relief. Maybe even hope.
Grant smiled, and she smiled back.
As he sat there beneath the Christmas lights with his sons tucked between him and the woman he had never stopped loving, Grant realized that for the first time in twelve years, the future no longer felt like something he had lost. It felt like something waiting to be rebuilt.