Chapter 9
After sneaking away from Carolina and Seamus’s wedding, Grant and Stephanie went home to their cozy cottage on Shore Point Road and talked for hours about all the things that had been on Stephanie’s mind for months now.
With the floodgates open at last, the words poured out of her in a steady stream of worries and fears that she’d kept from him for so long that she was afraid he’d be hurt by her reluctance to share them with him.
“I can’t tell you how badly I wish you’d let me go through this with you, rather than feeling like you had to keep it from me,” he said when she finally ran out of things to say. They were curled up together on the sofa with lit candles on the coffee table casting a warm glow over the small room.
“You’ve had your own stuff to deal with, after the accident and everything. You were so undone by what happened that day, how you couldn’t save Dan and Steve, too, all while you were trying to finish the screenplay. I didn’t want to add to your burden.”
“You’re never a burden to me.”
“I was afraid it would change how you felt about me to hear I was having doubts about being a wife and mother.”
“Steph… God, how could you be afraid of that? Don’t you know how essential you are to me?
Everything that happens, from the minute I get up until the minute I go to bed with you, I want to share with you.
A thousand times a day I wonder what you’re doing, what you would say about whatever I’m doing, things I need to tell you…
Your voice is in my head—always. There’s nothing you could say or do or feel that would make me want anyone else’s voice in my head. When are you going to realize that?”
She blinked back the tears she’d worked so hard to keep at bay while she bared her soul to him.
But, as always, his words had incredible power over her.
The things he said to her… “Deep inside, I knew it was wrong of me not to share my worries with you. I also knew that you’d want to fix what was wrong, because that’s what you always do.
From the very beginning, you’ve wanted to fix what was wrong for me. ”
Because she couldn’t resist touching him when he was lying so close to her, she unbuttoned his shirt and laid her hand on his chest. The steady beat of his heart under her palm calmed her like nothing else could. “Charlie took Sarah home with him tonight.”
His hand covered hers. “Really? Good for them.”
“He has this amazing second chance because of you.”
“I just made a phone call. Dan gets the credit for freeing him.”
“You get half the credit, because without that phone call, there would’ve been no Dan Torrington to the rescue.”
“We’re both glad we were able to right a terrible wrong—for Charlie and for you.”
“I don’t want to be afraid anymore, Grant, but it’s almost like I don’t know how not to be. I’ve spent most of my life afraid of one thing or another. It’s a hard habit to break.”
“I have every confidence that you’re capable of anything you set your mind to doing. If you decide that fear isn’t going to run your life anymore, then I have no doubt you’ll make that happen. You’re the strongest person I’ve ever met.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Yes, you are. You have no idea how much everyone admires you for what you’ve been able to accomplish all on your own.”
“You admire me,” she said with a laugh. “Who’s the one with the Academy Award?”
“That’s nothing compared to the huge accomplishment of fighting to overturn a conviction that never should’ve happened in the first place.”
“At which I was hugely unsuccessful until you came along and made that phone call.”
“Steph… Come on. Why can everyone see this but you? You’re the hero of this story, not me.
Not Dan. You. If you hadn’t kept fighting, I would’ve never known about Charlie or his situation.
If you hadn’t cared about him more than you cared about yourself, he’d still be sitting in that prison.
You need to take most of the credit for freeing him, and you need to free yourself by letting go of the past and embracing the future. ”
“I’m trying. You have no idea how hard I’m trying.”
“I know you are. When you and I are together, there’s nothing we can’t handle.”
“I was on my way to believing that when the accident happened, and I had a whole day to contemplate how I’d ever manage to live without you.”
“Ah Christ,” he said with a sigh. “And then I came back a total wreck, and all the focus was on me when you were dying inside. I’m sorry, honey. I should’ve paid more attention to how traumatizing it was for you.”
“It was way worse for you.”
“That’s not necessarily true.” He pulled her in closer to him, his lips pressed to her forehead.
“God, I love you so much. I had no idea it was possible to love anyone as much as I love you. And the thought of you worried or afraid for all this time, and me not even knowing it… I feel like a selfish bastard.”
“You’re not. It’s not your fault. I went out of my way to hide my worries from everyone. No one knew until today.”
“Will you promise me you won’t suffer in silence anymore?”
She nodded.
“Say it. I want to hear the words.”
“I promise I won’t suffer in silence anymore.”
“And do you promise to remember every day that I love you more than I love myself and all that matters to me is that you’re safe and happy?”
“If you promise to remember I feel the same exact way about you.”
His smile filled her with giddy joy. It was okay. He knew all her darkest worries and loved her anyway. “Promise.”
“Me, too.” She drew him into a soft, sweet kiss. “Let’s go to bed.”
“Not before we set a wedding date.”
“Oh, I thought you’d forgotten about that,” she said with a coy smile to let him know she was kidding.
“I haven’t forgotten and neither have you.” As he spoke, he pulled her top up and over her head, released her bra and removed it. “What’s it going to be?”
“Whatever you want is fine with me.”
Nuzzling her breasts, he said, “How about next weekend, then?”
Her mouth fell open in shock, and she tugged at his hair to get his attention, which was fully on her breasts. “What? Next weekend?”
He looked at her briefly before stroking her nipple with his tongue. “Why not?”
Stephanie squirmed as desire shot through her, hot and insistent, until she throbbed from wanting him. “We can’t get married next weekend.”
“How come?” he asked as he sucked her nipple into his mouth.
She gasped and squiggled, forcing him to release her.
“First of all, that’s right before Laura and Owen’s wedding, and I don’t want to upstage them.
Second of all, it’s still high season at the restaurant, and it took a lot of juggling to get today off.
I don’t want to be worried about work when I should be focused on you.
Third of all… I can’t think of a third reason, but the first two are enough. ”
He cupped both her breasts and ran his thumbs over her nipples until they were hard and tingling.
“Okay, then Labor Day. We’ll get married on the last day of the official summer season when everyone will be headed home and we get the island back—for the most part.
” The season lingered these days until Columbus Day, but things definitely quieted down on Labor Day.
“Fine. We’ll get married on Labor Day.”
“Where?” he asked as he unbuttoned her shorts and slid his hand down the front of her until he was cupping her sex.
“On the beach.”
His fingers pressed and probed until they encountered the well of moisture that awaited him. “And then what?”
“We’ll have a party at the restaurant.”
“Good. It’s a plan.” He sat up suddenly, pulling her shorts and panties off her in almost frantic motions that indicated how badly he wanted her.
After removing his own clothes, she expected him to help her up and lead her to bed.
But he came down on top of her, apparently in too much of a rush to change locations.
“I love you, too, you know. Unreasonably.”
“There’s not one thing about it that’s unreasonable,” he said, kissing and touching and caressing her until she was on the verge of begging him to take her.
“You’re often extremely unreasonable, but I love you anyway.”
His huff of laughter preceded the press of his erection against her sensitive opening.
Stephanie raised her hips, needing to get closer, to take him in, to show him what he meant to her.
She wanted to give him everything, including the family he wanted so much.
If it meant making him happy, she would swallow all her remaining fears and have faith that the future he promised would be as bright and as glorious as he said it would be.
As long as she had him, she couldn’t imagine her life playing out any other way.
With a hard thrust, he entered her fully, and every thought that didn’t involve the exquisite pleasure they found together was pushed from her mind, swept away on a wave of desire that required her full attention.
“Nothing has ever been like this, Steph,” he whispered against her ear as he pushed deep into her before withdrawing and doing it again. “You’re the best thing to ever happen to me.”
Listening to him, feeling him, surrounded by him, Stephanie finally was able to let go of the past, of the fears that had ruled her, and embrace the future that would revolve around him and the love they’d found together.
“You can’t ever leave me,” he said. “You’d ruin me.”
“Where would I go when the only thing I need is right here?”
Her words seemed to light a fire in him that had him picking up the pace, until they both cried out from the power of what they’d created.
She clung to him, her anchor in the storm, and took everything he had to give until he was spent and lax in her arms, his heart beating fast and his breathing rapid.
“So Labor Day it is?” he asked after a long period of silence.
“Labor Day it is.”