Chapter 36
Ali blinked rapidly, but it wasn’t enough to stop the tears. One trickled down her cheek, then another, until she had to swipe at them before they fell onto the paper she was holding.
It was a simple story, in a child’s simple hand.
It was also simply beautiful.
“Have you read it?” she asked Colby, not even caring that the powerful emotion she was feeling had tightened her throat and made her words a little shaky.
He put the mug of coffee he’d poured for her down on the counter in his kitchen, then sat on the stool next to her.
She’d watched Liz and Grace leave early this morning, and confirmed that Irene was still in the house.
That had started Foxworth moving. Quinn and Teague would be tracking them on the other side, keeping in touch, while Colby prepared for the engineered meeting on Monday.
He had an appointment with Gavin de Marco tomorrow morning to go over the plan, but had asked her if she would come here today so he could give her Grace’s gift.
“No,” he answered now. “She said you had to read it first, since it’s your present.” He seemed to hesitate before adding, “After that, it’s up to you.”
“You should read it. I know how hard that was on you yesterday—this will make you feel better.”
He grimaced. “You mean telling her I give up, I can’t fight her alone anymore?”
“Yes. Even if it isn’t true, it had to sting.”
“Slash, more like,” he muttered. But then he gave her a sideways look and an almost smile. “But it really isn’t true, is it?”
She put everything she had into the smile she gave him then. “No, it’s not. And boy, is she going to be surprised.”
She got a much better smile back then, and it warmed her to the bones.
She held out the story his little girl had written, a fairy tale of sorts, about a family who had come together in a different sort of way.
A handsome prince who had fought bravely, a princess who had had sad times, and a little girl who wished more than anything for them to be a family.
And a very smart dog who seemed to think they already were.
And they needed a dog of their own so a little black-and-white puppy came to live with them, and they were all happy forever after, and the evil queen went away because she didn’t like being around people who were happy.
She remembered that ending word for word.
She thought she always would. The assessment of the mother was razor-sharp, and Ali thought anyone who ever underestimated Grace Kendrick would soon learn the size of their mistake.
But more important to her was the clear, simple certainty that the prince and princess and little girl would be happy, because they’d be together.
Forever after.
She watched him read it, saw his expressions change as he did, from a smile simply because it was from his precious girl, to his eyes widening as he realized who she had cast in the parts of her little story, to quickened breathing as he neared the end.
And she saw his eyes were glistening in a reaction just like her own.
For a minute, maybe two, he just sat there staring at the end of the story. Then he spoke, without looking at her, but sounding as if his throat was as tight as hers had been.
“You ever read a fairy tale and wish more than anything that it was true?”
Ali’s heart leaped with joy at his reaction. “Yes,” she said softly. “Just now.”
He looked at her then. “You mean it?”
“I mean it.”
Colby looked like a man who had opened a door and found paradise. And also as if he couldn’t quite believe it. And it made her love him all the more.
Her heart took another little leap as she acknowledged the truth.
If you’d asked her a month ago she would have said she didn’t think she’d ever love again, not the way she had loved Josh.
Now…now she knew better. And somewhere deep down she knew that Josh would approve of her choice.
They would have been friends, these two, had they ever had the chance.
Colby swallowed hard. “I mean it, too. I know this is…a crazy way to have met, and a crazy mess we’re in, but…when things calm down…”
“After you win, you mean?”
A flicker of his old fear flashed in his eyes. “What if I don’t?”
She let out an intentionally snorting bit of laughter. “Foxworth took down an evil governor and a crooked senator. Do you really think they’re going to let the likes of the mother beat them?”
It worked. The fear vanished, and it was the Colby who knew he had a small but very effective army at his back who was smiling at her now.
“Then…can we try and make this—” he held up Grace’s story “—come true.”
“We’ll do more than try. We’ll plan out life after you’ve won,” she said. “But for now…could we take advantage of being actually alone together?”
His smile became the one that she remembered, from the afternoon spent in his bed. An afternoon she wished to repeat. And even as she thought it, he swept her up in his arms and proceeded to make the wish come true.
Colby settled the earpiece in his ear, more for something to do than because it needed it. It was in his right ear, facing away from the rest of the big dining area that was rapidly filling up, probably with a lot of government types given the county seat was just a couple of blocks away.
He was a little peeved at himself, because just the thought of being in the same room with Liz was bugging him more than sitting across a small table from a world-famous attorney.
As if he’d read his mind—and given his courtroom abilities, Colby wouldn’t be at all surprised if he could—Gavin de Marco reminded him of their rehearsal.
“You’re happy. You know you’re going to win. And when you spot her across the room—after she spots you—you’re going to…?”
“Laugh,” he said.
“Believably,” de Marco suggested rather wryly. “Think of Grace, and being where you should be in her life.” The man lifted a dark brow. “Or think of Ali. I gather that should put a smile on your face.”
Not for the first time since Ali had come into his life, Colby was glad he wasn’t a blusher. “Who told you that?”
“Hayley told me early on that Cutter had decided.”
He hesitated, then asked, “He really got you and your wife together?”
“He did. And believe me, it wasn’t easy.
I was stubborn. My logical, fact-based brain did not want to even play that game with him, but he made it impossible not to.
Thank goodness. Katie’s the best thing that ever has or ever will happen to me.
” He tilted his head slightly, assessingly, before adding, “Just as Ali will be for you, I think.”
He remembered last night, and the long, sweet hours they’d spent together. And smiled. “I love her.”
De Marco smiled. “That’s obvious.”
“If you two are done, the play is about to begin.”
Quinn’s voice in his ear startled Colby, and considering what they had just been saying, he could only hope they hadn’t been listening all along on the Foxworth end.
Especially when he knew since Grace was in school Ali was there with them, no doubt hearing everything.
But then, he’d already told her those words last night as he’d held her close, finally letting himself believe.
Good, because I love you, too. I think I have ever since I realized everything Grace says about you is true.
The joy ran deep, and he couldn’t help smiling.
“Now, that’s the happy Liz needs to see,” de Marco said. Then, for the sake of the earpiece that was in his left ear so neither of them would be visible from what would be Liz’s table, he said, “Ready when you are, Quinn.”
“No changes,” Quinn said. “She’s with the Community Development guy we researched.”
Colby remembered how they’d been happy to discover this was the first public engagement of the two, because it implied she was just beginning to try and reel the guy in. She probably needed some rules bent, and would offer to make it worth his while to bend them.
“We’re on,” came Teague’s voice a moment later, from where he was stationed outside the door, wearing something Liz would be sure to overlook, a waiter’s outfit. “They’re on their way in.”
“Rick is ready, too,” Hayley said.
She was back in the restaurant’s office with Rick Giles, the manager who was readying to step on stage.
Colby had met him briefly, when they’d first arrived.
The man was middle-aged, a bit round, and looked slightly nervous as he fiddled with the mic Foxworth had rigged him with, attached invisibly to the back of his name tag.
They would be able to hear the entire exchange at the table, for as long as the man could manage to be there.
Oddly, his nerves had calmed Colby a little.
This man, who didn’t know him at all, was going to play a crucial role in his fight for Grace.
And when that man turned to him and said, “Foxworth saved my life, and my son’s.
I’m honored to help them do the same for you,” Colby had never felt more humbled.
Except when he’d first held baby Grace.
And last night, when Ali had said she loved him.
He’d spent so long afraid to hope. But now here it was, bubbling up inside him like the untouched glass of champagne on the table before him.
“We’re celebrating, remember?” de Marco had said when he ordered it. “We’ve found what we need to take her down, and we’re delighted.”
Colby had stared at the face he’d seen in the news so many times. “How much of what you do is acting?”
De Marco had burst out laughing. “Oh, so much,” he’d said.
And then they were there. Liz strode in as usual, dressed to the nines, head high, phone at her ear.
“You said she always does that, the phone thing?” de Marco asked.
Colby nodded. “Half the time, probably more, it’s not even real, she’s not talking to anyone.”
“But she wants it to seem like she’s so in demand that her guest should be grateful that she’s allotted him some of her precious time.”
He smothered a laugh. “You sure you haven’t dealt with her before?”