Chapter 42
My phone alarmwent off a few hours later. It was early Sunday morning around 8 AM. Bones reached for the nightstand, and then blessed quietness enveloped the room.
I hadn’t fallen asleep fully the entire night. My nerves were frayed and I’d bounced in and out of consciousness for hours until the alarm went off.
“You ready to get up and face the day?” Bones rumbled next to me.
I rolled over and curled into him. “No.”
“That terrified of marrying me?”
“That terrified that my stepfather really is behind all this and that everything I thought I knew is a lie.” With a sigh, I forced myself to sit up. “I don’t know how I’m going to make it through the day without caffeine. And we’re going to have to figure out how to bail on dinner tonight. There’s no way we can go after what happened.”
“We’ll come up with something. For now, have a cup of coffee.”
“Hm. No. It’ll give me a headache. And will probably make me nauseated.”
“Not worth it then.” He threw off the covers and sat up. Bones scratched his bare chest and reached for his phone. “I’m gonna call Vance now. Let him know about the situation. He’s going to want to meet with us and go over a few things.”
“Like the prenup?”
He handed me my phone. “Among other things.”
“What other things?”
“Things,” Bones said evasively. He leaned over and kissed me. “I need coffee before I call Vance. Meet me downstairs when you’re done.”
He quickly pulled on a pair of jeans, a long-sleeved shirt, and his boots before leaving the bedroom.
I sat for a moment and then I opened my phone and found Oliver’s number. He answered on the first ring. “You’re calling me this time.”
“I am,” I said.
“You never call me.”
“I didn’t see you last night at my mother’s charity event,” I said.
“You know I never attend those things. How was it?”
“Beautiful. Am I disturbing you?”
“No, I just sat down at my desk and I’m finishing my cup of coffee. What can I do for you, Hayden?”
“I need to talk to you about something, but I need your promise of discretion.”
“You have it.”
I took a deep breath. “I need the name of an attorney you trust. Someone not tied to Dad’s company. Someone who specializes in family law.”
“Family law,” he repeated slowly.
“I need a prenuptial agreement,” I stated honestly. “And while I’m at it, a will and testament drawn up. And after I’m married, I’m going to need to alter the trust for Spencer Pharmaceuticals, and it’s going to take some time.”
He paused for a moment and then he said, “I can get you a name of someone I trust with my life.”
“Thanks, Oliver.”
“You’ll tell me the good news? When you’re ready?”
I smiled even though the older man couldn’t see me. “I’ll do you one better. You’ll get to meet him soon. How about that?”
“I’d like that. Your father…he asked me to look out for you. I wish you would’ve let me.”
“I’m letting you now.”
I hung up with Oliver and then I went downstairs to see my fiancé.
My heart melted when I thought of the man I was marrying. The man who wanted to do the exact same thing for me.
“This is the least romantic engagement in the history of the world,” I muttered Monday morning. “I can’t tell people this story.”
Bones wrapped his arm around my shoulder as we stepped out of the courthouse with our marriage license. We had to wait three days before we could officially tie the knot. “I guess this is a bad time to talk about your ring.”
“I already have a ring,” I said.
He looked at me as we headed toward the car. “I’m supposed to get you the ring. You get that, right?”
I threw him a look. “There’s a tradition in my family. The engagement ring is always an heirloom, but the wedding band is new.”
“So…”
“So, I’ve had my engagement ring picked out since I was sixteen years old. It’s in a safety deposit box.”
“You want to talk about unromantic?” he asked. “So let me get this straight. I’m off the hook from buying you an engagement ring and I’m permanently moving into your house. Is there anything I get to provide as the man?”
I looked up at him and flashed him a devilish grin.
He unclipped the sunglasses from the collar of his shirt and slid them on. “I know what’s on your mind, clearly.”
“Does it bother you? Really?” I asked, my smile slipping.
“That you come from money? No, Duchess. It doesn’t bother me. If your money dried up tomorrow, I’d still be able to take care of you. Not at the level that you’ve clearly grown accustomed to, but you’d be fine.” He smirked.
My phone rang and I dug it out of my purse. “Hold on a sec.” I pressed a button and put it to my ear. “Hi, Helen.”
“There are two men in your house!” my housekeeper screeched.
“Two men?” I asked, shooting a look at Bones.
“They say they’re friends of your boyfriend. By the way, when did you get a boyfriend?”
“Hang on a second.” I pulled the phone away from my ear and put it on mute. “There are two men in my house?”
“Prospects,” Bones clarified.
“Why are there prospects in my house?”
“They’re standing guard.”
“But why?” I asked.
“In case there’s trouble. I doubt anyone is dumb enough to try and break in twice, but better safe than sorry.”
“Oh.” I paused. “It would’ve been nice if you’d told me.”
“Didn’t think it mattered.” He shrugged. “I didn’t know Helen was going to be at your house. By the way, who the fuck is Helen?”
“My housekeeper,” I stated.
“You mean our housekeeper.”
I rolled my eyes and unmuted the phone. “Helen?”
“Yes, I’m here. I don’t trust these guys,” she whispered. “They’re looking at me.”
“Looking at you, how?”
“I don’t know, they’re just looking at me.”
“You can trust them.”
“They have tattoos,” she stage-whispered.
“I know,” I whispered back. “I guess now is the time to tell you that you’ll see a second toothbrush in the bathroom, along with some shaving stuff because my boyfriend is moving in.”
“Fiancé,” Bones said as soon as he overheard. “Call me your fiancé.”
I rolled my eyes at him.
“Wait, your boyfriend, who you’ve never even mentioned is moving in?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said. “It happened really fast. I get that, but I’ll bring you up to speed. I promise.”
“Hmm. I don’t like this, Hayden.”
“I love that you’re protective, but he’s a good man and you’ll like him.”
“Does he have tattoos?”
“Yes.”
“We’ll see.”
I hung up with her and couldn’t stop a laugh from escaping me despite the exhaustion and terror of the unknown.
“She doesn’t like men with tattoos?” Bones asked as he opened the passenger door for me.
“She’s old school, sorry about that.” I shook my head.
“Just as long as you like my tattoos, we’re good.”
“I like your tattoos just fine,” I assured him.
He shut the door and then climbed into the driver’s side. “Why do I have this vision in my head of a stuffy British housekeeper just on the younger side of sixty?”
“She’s fifty, and not British. But I adore her, so you’ll just have to win her over somehow.”
“I can be pretty charming, Duchess. Won you over, didn’t I?”
I nodded. “On that thought, we might need to get her tipsy.”
“Brat.” His phone beeped and he pulled it out of his pocket. “Vance just got your attorney’s paperwork.”
“Excellent.”
“And he wants to see us in his office in an hour.”
“Good.” I looked at him. “You seem really composed for a man who’s about to sign a prenup.”
“You seem really composed for a woman who’s about to marry a biker.”
I grinned. “That sounds so weird.”
“What? That you’re marrying a biker?”
“No. That I’m getting married.” I shook my head and looked out the window.
He reached over and placed his hand on my thigh, drawing my attention back to him. When I was looking at him, he said, “I’m sorry we couldn’t do this the way we were supposed to do it.”
“How were we supposed to do it?” I asked softly.
“We were supposed to go to Florida,” he replied, looking away from me to stare out the front windshield. “I was gonna ask you to take a trip on the back of my bike. Just you and me and we’d go to this place that I used to visit when I was a kid. There’s this beach, on the gulf side, where the water is warm. Warm like you’re taking a bath. And it’s so clear that if you look down you can see your feet. The sand is white and soft. Powdery. Not like that harsh shit on the New England coast. We’d sit on the sand, watching the sunset. Only I wouldn’t be watching the sun set, I’d be watching you watch the sun set. The sky is always so beautiful there. Oranges, pinks, and reds, and shades of color you can’t imagine until you see it for yourself. And as the sun faded into the never-ending ocean, I’d pull out a ring box and hold it out to you. I wouldn’t say a damn thing. When you pull out a ring, you don’t need a bunch of words, or speeches. You’re not trying to convince someone to share a life with you. When you pull out the ring, you already know the answer. And if you don’t, you’re asking the wrong person.”
He paused and I waited for him to go on. He painted such a clear picture, a picture so full of yearning I could almost taste it. Almost feel the ocean spray on my face, the salt on my tongue.
“You’d look at the ring and smile. You wouldn’t say anything, you’d just lean in and kiss me and that would be your answer. And then I’d slide it onto your finger and then we’d walk along the beach, barefoot, hand-in-hand, back to the little cottage that’s been there since the 50s. That little cottage that’s withstood I don’t know how many hurricanes and tropical storms. But it’s still standing. We’ll be like that cottage, Hayden. We’ll withstand all the hurricanes.”
I sighed and gently reached out to cup his face so that he could see my expression when I gave him the answer, the answer I could see he still wasn’t quite sure about because the way we were getting married was all wrong. Not our feelings for each other, but the circumstance of it all. Circumstance had robbed me of that beautiful, quiet proposal that was both poignant and perfect. What I got instead wasn’t fancy. It was stripped bare of all but raw emotion.
Which was what I had to show him now.
“I love you,” I said quietly. “I love you when you’re Royce Dalton, and I love you as Bones. I love you when you have to be both of those men. I love you when you can’t be either. I love you for what you’re offering me. I love you for offering me yourself because it’s more than enough. Yes. I’ll marry you.”
He looked at me, his expression filled with tenderness. And then he leaned in to kiss me like a husband who’d kiss his wife for the rest of their lives.