CHAPTER 14 DANNY
We spend the night wrapped in each other’s arms, and when morning dawns and we’re both awake, we head up to the rooftop deck for bacon and eggs and start planning our wedding.
“We should get our license here in Carmel,” she suggests. “That way if we’re traced, it’ll be to here, and it’ll buy us time to head south to San Diego.”
I tap my temple. “Smart thinking. Good thing I’m marrying you for your brain.”
“I thought you were marrying me for my sexual prowess.”
I shoot her a cheesy wink. “All part of the full package.”
“I’d like to stop at a shop we were in yesterday, too. I saw a dress I liked and I can’t stop thinking about it,” she says. “And maybe dinner out again tonight. I don’t really want to leave this place, but I know we have to.”
“I don’t, either,” I murmur. I reach across the table and take her hand in mine. “But we can always come back.”
She nods. “We will be back.”
I hope she’s right.
As sure as I am about the two of us, what I’m not as sure about is how the hell we’re going to make this work beyond this week we have left together. What happens once she crashes back into reality?
Her father still wants the merger to happen.
She’s going to have to deal with the fallout of running away from her wedding…from her life.
Her father will never accept me as part of his family.
But I’m not even sure she cares about that. She’s made up her mind.
A sneaking fear wedges its way into my chest. Did she only make up her mind as a way to prove to her father that she’s capable of making her own choices?
Did she only choose me because I’m the bad boy of baseball—representative of everything that’s so completely opposite of what her brand stands for?
If she did, she did it subconsciously. I don’t believe she’d ever do something like that purposely.
Either way, the fear is still there, icing over the warmth in my chest. But only when I allow it to—which is why I keep choosing to push it away.
“Should we call your mom and tell her the news?” she asks.
I nod. In the romance of getting caught up in the moment last night, we kept the news to ourselves.
But if we’re going to successfully pull this off, we’re going to need some help.
And my mother is the perfect person to help us. The only person who can help us, really.
I dial her number and put the call on speaker, setting my phone on the table between us.
“Good morning,” she answers cheerfully.
“Hey, Mom,” I say, and at the same time, Alexis says, “Hi Tracy!”
“Oh, I just love hearing from the two of you,” she says. “How’s it going up there?”
“Good.” I glance over at Alexis. “Really good. I asked Lex to marry me, and she said—”
“Yes!” Alexis yells before I get the chance to get the word out. We both laugh and so does my mom.
“Oh my goodness, congratulations!” my mom cries. “I just couldn’t be happier for the two of you.”
I half expect her to ask about grandkids, but she doesn’t.
“How did he do it?” she asks Alexis instead. “Please tell me it was in a way appropriate to share with his mother.”
Alexis giggles. “It’s appropriate. It was so, so romantic.
He decorated the rooftop deck here at the house with all sorts of string lights, and he had soft music playing and candles everywhere…
he got down on one knee at sunset and asked, and I, of course, accepted.
Oh, you’ll have to send her the picture,” she says to me.
“There’s a picture? Yes! I need to see it!”
I pull up the photo and send it right over while we talk.
“I thought you’d look shocked in that second one,” Alexis says.
My brows dip. “How come?”
“Because I’d just told you I wanted to get married before Christmas Eve.”
I laugh. I wasn’t shocked at all. Instead, my smile was wider—because ultimately, that’s what I’d been hoping she’d say.
“Wait a second,” my mom says. “Before Christmas Eve? Like…as in next week?”
“Yep,” we both say at the same time, and my eyes meet hers.
“Oh…my. Oh, okay. We have things to do…” she says, clearly flustered.
“We’ll take care of it, Mom,” I say. “And we want you to be there, of course, so we decided we’d come down to San Diego and do it there.”
“You…you…you want me there?” She sniffles.
“Actually, if you’d officiate, that would be even better,” Alexis says.
“Officiate? Oh, dear. Oh! Yes, of course, whatever you two want.”
I can tell she’s nervous even to be asked, and I think it was sweet of Alexis to think of her.
But when I think of the people who have supported us since the beginning, the list is rather short…mostly because nobody knows we’re even together.
My mom. Anna. Rush and Cooper. Gregory.
That’s about it.
And that’s the extent of who I’d want celebrating the wedding with us, anyway.
“Mom, I have a favor to ask.”
“Anything, honey,” she says.
I made some notes on my calendar and have a tentative plan.
“Can you find someone to watch the boys and then book a rental with a rooftop deck with at least five bedrooms, let’s say for Wednesday through Saturday?”
We’ll leave here tomorrow, split the eight-hour drive into two days, and stop and stay somewhere near a winery tomorrow.
Then we’ll haul it down to San Diego and stay at the rental my mom secures for us.
We’ll spend a few days there, get married, and then head up to Disney the day before Christmas Eve.
It’ll be fast, but it’ll be perfect.
“Five?” Alexis echoes.
“Trust me,” I say softly.
She nods.
“You got it,” my mom says. “What else do you need? Clothes, flowers, food?”
I glance at Alexis, and she takes the reins on that one.
“Flowers. My mom had white and pink peonies in her bouquet, and I always wanted that, too,” she says softly.
“I’ll take care of it, honey,” my mom says.
“I think everything else we can take care of when we’re there.” Alexis glances at me. “Anything else?”
I shake my head. “Thanks, Mom.”
“Anything for you, baby. Listen, though. I have a little bit of news I need to share.”
“What is it?” I ask, already alarmed.
She sighs. “Gregory called me last night. They were able to find some footage of you in San Luis Obispo at a gas station. I know you’re way up in Carmel now, but they’re on your tail if you’re trying to stay out of sight.
I didn’t tell Gregory a single thing other than that you’re both safe so he didn’t indirectly lead them to you, but I just wanted to let you know. ”
“I think we’re okay up here,” I say. “California is a big state, and it took them a couple of days to find that footage. Fingers crossed it’ll take a couple more to find us up here, and by that time, we’ll be gone.”
I hear her doorbell ringing in the background. “Oops, I better go see who that is. You two be safe. I love you.”
“Love you!” we both say back, and I end the call.
Alexis’s eyes are wide as they meet mine. “They traced us?”
“It’s still two and a half hours away. They’ll never think we’re somewhere like here, where it’s a busy town. They’ll assume we went somewhere small,” I say, sure I don’t believe my own words.
“But now they know we’re together.” She sounds nervous about that, and I’m not sure what she’s thinking about that.
I nod and press my lips together. “Yeah, they do. But they did anyway.”
“I just don’t want them bothering your mom or your sister. I don’t want them involved in any of this.”
“I know.” I nod. “I don’t, either. And even if they do, Gregory will be with them, so it’ll be okay.”
“I hope you’re right.” She doesn’t sound as confident as I do.
But I hope I’m right, too.