Chapter Twenty-Seven
Zachary
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Since Grace didn’t have time to go out tonight, I texted Anthony and Beckett. They’d asked me to join them at a bar this evening, but I’d flat-out refused because I had plans. I had half a mind to insist Grace go out tonight because I wanted to celebrate with her and find out why she wasn’t interested in the ranch anymore. But she was having a busy week, so I didn’t press. I had plenty of time to pamper her and talk to her this weekend.
After leaving my office, I went directly to Bourbon Street. Julian had snapped up this location after Kyle skipped town. I was glad he did. Love it or hate it, Bourbon was the place to be in the French Quarter.
It wasn’t my favorite type of hangout. It was more of a club than a bar, but it was convenient and the closest to LeBlanc & Broussard. Anthony and Beckett were already sitting on one of the half-moon couches in one corner. Anthony waved at me. As I sat down, I realized they had three drinks.
“Bold of you to already order for me.”
“They’re testing some new drinks, and I volunteered us as guinea pigs,” Anthony explained.
“Good thinking. If not us, then who? What am I drinking, by the way?”
“I forgot the name. Just keep in mind if you like it or not.”
I glanced at their glasses. I had something different.
“So?” Anthony asked as I took a sip.
“It’s good,” I replied.
“So, why are you hanging out with our sorry asses? Did Grace ditch you?”
I shrugged. “Maybe I just decided that I want to hang out with my brothers.”
Anthony tilted his head. “No, that’s not it. You were very quick to turn us down because you had plans with Grace.”
“She’s busy tonight and isn’t in the mood for going out, and I wanted to celebrate, so I figured why not call you?”
“That way of talking makes us feel really special,” Beckett said. “So, what are we celebrating?”
“The owners of the ranch called me today. They want me to be the sole investor.”
“That’s great news. I know you really wanted that.”
I nodded. “I do.”
“So, how about Grace?” Anthony asked.
“Gaston said she isn’t in the running.”
“Right,” Beckett replied, then held up his glass. “Okay, let’s clink even though we’re all drunk.”
“Wait a second,” Anthony said. “What do you mean, she’s not in the running?”
I looked straight at him. “She probably decided not to go forward with it.”
“She told you that?” he asked.
“No.” I waved my hand. “We never talked about it. We always had better things to do. And honestly, Gaston took so long to reach out that I assumed he’d changed his mind about taking on an investor at all.”
Anthony looked at Beckett.
“What?” Beckett raised a brow at him.
“I’m thinking,” Anthony replied. He turned to look at me again, frowning. I wasn’t used to seeing my younger brother frowning.
“What’s bothering you?” I asked.
“The question is, why isn’t anything bothering you?”
I jerked my head back. “Sorry?”
“So, you were supposed to go with Grace tonight?”
“Yeah,” I replied, wondering why we were back to that.
“And then you talked to this owner of the ranch who told you that he’s moving forward with you.”
“Exactly.”
“And then Grace ditched you?”
I rolled my eyes. “She didn’t ditch me. She just said that she’s not in the mood to go out tonight and congratulated me on the investment. Then ‘I hope you understand.’”
Both of my brothers groaned.
“What?” I asked.
“Dude, come on,” Anthony said.
I replayed the messages in my mind, a visual reel of each text.
“Fuck,” I exclaimed. “I assumed that ‘I hope you understand’ just meant that she hoped I didn’t get mad for her bailing on our date.”
“No, I think your woman might be upset,” Beckett said. “But don’t quote me on it in case I’m wrong. Definitely not my area of expertise, knowing how women think or understanding what they want.”
“Shit.” I took out my phone and looked at her messages again. I blinked. “Fuck! You’re right.”
How the hell did I misinterpret this? True, I’d been running on adrenaline for the past few weeks, but it was right there in black-and-white.
I ran a hand through my hair, looking up at my brothers. “I need to leave.”
Beckett laughed. “Making us feel even more special.”
“Dude, I screwed up. I need to fix it.”
“You know,” Anthony said, “this is the first time I’ve seen you lose your cool... Well, maybe that’s not the right way to say it.” He took another sip, tilting his head like he was having a lot of fun. “But you’re usually so in control of yourself, so sure that you can solve any situation or challenge. Now you’re fretting over some messages.”
I stood up, pointing at him. “It’s not just a few messages. You know that. Stop making fun of me.”
“No chance,” Anthony replied.
Beckett laughed again. “Dude, sorry to break it to you, but you can’t boss us around. But it’s fun when you try. So, by all means, continue entertaining us.”
“Another time. I need to go see Grace.”
“Where is she?” Anthony asked.
I considered this for a second. “She told me her schedule for today...”
Why wasn’t I remembering it? My neurons were more fried than I thought.
Then it hit me. “She worked from home today. That’s right. I was supposed to pick her up from home.”
“Dude, you really are fucking exhausted,” Beckett said in a serious tone.
“As I said, it’s been a rough few weeks.”
Anthony straightened up at the table. “You know you can always count on us to pick up some slack whenever you have an emergency, right? We know you’re the fixer and all that, but we’re here to help.”
“Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind for the future. Right now, I need to find my woman and apologize.”
“No way we can help there,” Beckett said.
Anthony nodded. “We would probably just make it worse.”
“I didn’t ask the two of you to help,” I pointed out.
“I will say, though,” Beckett replied, “that we already did by pointing out that you can’t read, I guess.”
I shook my head. “Stop giving me a hard time.”
“There you go again, trying to tell us what to do. It’s not working,” Anthony argued.
“Okay, I’m leaving now. I have to get to Grace.”
I hurried out of the bar, pulling my keys out of my pocket as I practically jogged to the parking lot behind LeBlanc & Broussard. I wanted to see Grace right now. The more I thought about our messages, the more callous my replies seemed. Like I was rubbing it in her face.
I should’ve discussed this with her earlier, but with everything we both had going on, it slid to the back burner. I didn’t even give much thought to what would happen when Gaston finally contacted us again. I just assumed we’d work it out.
When I arrived in Grace’s neighborhood, I parked right in front of her building. As I stepped out of the car, I checked her window. The lights were on—she was home. I didn’t want to call and check beforehand because this apology was a face-to-face kind of thing. I was lucky that her favorite bakery was open until late into the evening and on the same block as her building.
I stepped inside and looked at the display case. They were almost sold out.
“Good evening. How can I help you?” the sales assistant said.
“I’ll have all your remaining donuts with... Is that pistachio?”
“Yes. And before you say that no one likes it—”
“My girlfriend does.”
Her eyes lit up. “Oh, you’re dating Grace, right?”
“Exactly,” I said.
“I thought you looked familiar. She loves them. She was in here earlier today—twice, actually. She looked pretty down, too, so I’m sure these are going to cheer her up.”
Fucking hell. She’d already been here twice?
“Please add those cupcakes also.” I pointed behind her. One was pink, the other blue.
“On it.” She smiled. “You’re bringing out the big guns.”
Nah. These were far from being the big guns. They were just damage control.
As soon as I paid and she packed everything up, I headed to Grace’s building. I was about to buzz the intercom when I realized the door was open. The doorman signaled with his head that I could come in.
“Good evening.” He didn’t ask for my ID. Then again, I’d been here often over the past few weeks, so he knew who I was.
I went straight to the elevator but didn’t have any patience to actually wait for it, so I jogged up the stairs. Usually, when I encountered a difficult situation, I liked to prepare beforehand if possible. But right now, my mind was completely blank. The only thing I knew for certain was that I needed to see her and make things right.
Once I reached her door, I knocked, but nothing happened. I knocked again, louder. Was she not home? Maybe she’d forgotten the lights were on.
I rang the bell next, and then I finally heard footsteps. Grace opened the door a moment later.
“Hi, Zachary. Did you text that you were coming?”
She stood back and then swallowed hard. She was wearing a delicious nightgown—black silk that barely covered her pussy. Her nipples were peeking out.
Jesus, Zachary. Grovel first, seduce later.
“No.” I held up both bags. “I come with goodies.”
“Sure.”
She opened the door wider, and I stepped inside. As far as her enthusiasm at seeing me, I had hoped for much better. But then again, what did I expect?
“Listen. Tonight... Well, today, actually, when you texted,” I said, giving her the bag with the pistachio and chocolate donuts, “I didn’t realize what your messages meant.”
She opened the bag, then stopped in the act of reaching inside. “What do you mean?” She took out one donut and bit into it immediately. “Oh, I love these, though I already had a few today.”
I was wondering if she was talking about the donuts because she didn’t know what else to say.
“Grace...” I stepped closer, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. A few stray ones caught at the edge of her mouth, which was now sticky from the sugar. I disentangled them slowly. “I didn’t realize you didn’t want to go out because of what went down with Gaston.”
She frowned, swallowing hard. “I’m not even sure what to say.”
“Let’s talk about it.”
The noise in the background was incessant. I kept looking over my shoulder. “What are you watching?”
She grinned sheepishly. “Yet another Hugh Grant rom-com.”
“There’s more than one?” I asked, stunned.
“Oh, Zachary. Yes, there are many. How can...? Never mind.” She lowered her eyes to the donut.
“Listen, we should talk about the ranch. I didn’t bring it up because...” I ran a head through my hair. “It didn’t seem to be going anywhere considering Gaston didn’t contact either of us. I figured we’d talk when he got in touch.”
Grace nodded. “Look, I’m not even sure why I’m upset.”
Fucking hell, she’s upset? I’d thought she might be confused at best, not upset.
“But you outbid me, so it’s fair that he chose you as an investor,” she continued.
“Wait a second. What do you mean, I outbid you? I asked Gaston today about you, and he just said you’re not in the running.”
“Yes... because you outbid me.”
I just stared at her.
“Let me pause this,” she said, walking into the living room.
I took off my shoes and followed her. Something wasn’t right here.
“I don’t even know what your bid was, so how could I outbid you?”
After pausing, Grace glanced at me sideways. “You told Gaston that no matter what I offered, you’d outbid me. Which is fair, but—” She sighed. “I wish you’d told me sooner. Then I wouldn’t have gotten my hopes up.”
I blinked rapidly. “Grace, I told him that a million years ago when I first talked to him. I completely forgot. I wouldn’t just outright ask him now how much you’re bidding so I could purposefully offer more—not without talking to you, anyway.”
“Oh.” She’d taken out the second donut but put it back down and placed the bag on her coffee table. “Right. Okay. Sorry. I assumed... Well, never mind.”
“Tell me what you assumed.” I was panicking now. I wanted to make this right.
I cupped her face with both hands, and something changed in her body language. She seemed less closed off than when I’d first stepped in.
“I jumped to conclusions.” She winced and added, “I felt betrayed.”
“And I didn’t even pick up on that. I truly am running on too little sleep! But that’s no excuse. I wouldn’t do something to one-up you. Why would you think that?”
She broke eye contact, looking down at her hands. She seemed to shrink in front of me.
“Because of him?” I asked softly.
Grace shook her head, looking back up. “No, I think it’s time I stopped blaming everything on him. I’m obviously not healed even though I’ve tried hard. Apparently not hard enough.” She frowned, closing her eyes. She seemed to be having this conversation more with herself. “I can’t believe I didn’t just ask you what was going on. I preferred to hole up in here by myself.”
“Grace, you don’t have to be so hard on yourself. Babe...” I caressed her cheeks in small strokes, and she opened her eyes again.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“For what?”
“Today.”
“Grace, listen to me. We all interpret things incorrectly or misconstrue them. Just know I would never do anything to hurt you.”
“But this is different, and you know it. I carry more baggage than I thought.”
“So? Who cares? I love you, Grace. We’re on this journey together.”
Her eyes instantly softened. I felt the tension in her entire body ease even though I was only touching her face. I wanted to look down and double-check if her hands were relaxed by her side, but I didn’t trust myself to glance downward. Even in the midst of a serious conversation, Grace’s gorgeous body could totally throw me off my game.
“You love me?” she whispered, like that was an outrageous thing to say.
“Yes, Grace. How can you doubt it? You mean so much to me, babe.”
To my astonishment, she became teary-eyed. “I figured I’d have to heal completely to deserve to be loved.”
“You deserve everything, and I want to be the one to give it to you. I wouldn’t change a thing about you, Grace.”
“I love you so much, Zachary. I can hardly believe the things you’re saying.”
I stepped even closer, kissing one corner of her mouth and then the other one. I could feel the adrenaline leaving my body. I’d been so on edge since reading her second text. Only now was I starting to relax.
“We’re in this together, Grace. Everything is a journey. And I’ll say it again—a million times if needed. You don’t need to have it all together or anything to be worthy of love. I love you. I love you more than I thought I could be capable of. You don’t have to do anything to earn it.”
She looked up at me from beneath her eyelashes. Her mouth curled up in a small, shy smile, but then it grew in size. Then she put her hands on my shoulders. I knew what would follow even before her feet left the floor. I braced myself just before Grace jumped into my arms, my hands immediately going to her ass cheeks to hold her up—and she was fucking commando.