Chapter 12 #2
“Grant . . .” Tears rolled down her face, every one of them breaking his heart.
“I love you so much. You know I do. It’s just that after the way I grew up, the constant upheaval, the fighting, the sick feeling in my stomach, always worrying when the bottom was going to fall out .
. . I simply can’t live like that anymore. ”
Every one of her words hit him like poison arrows filled with pain serum.
It occurred to him all at once that he’d done a terrible thing to her by letting the passion they shared in bed spill over into the other areas of their life together.
She was absolutely right. After her tumultuous childhood, she needed calm stability not high drama.
“You’re right.” Grant bit back the tidal wave of panic and focused on what he needed to do to fix this, because losing her was not an option he was willing to consider.
“You’re absolutely right, and I understand that the way it’s been between us doesn’t work for you—and I get why.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t make some changes to make it work better in the future. ”
She eyed him warily. “What kind of changes?”
“For one thing, we’ll no longer work together. That’s not good for us.”
“No,” she said with a sigh, “it really isn’t.”
“The screenplay is my job. I bought the rights from you and Charlie, and I’m asking you to trust me to do justice to your story.”
“No pun intended,” she said with a smile that gave him the first shred of hope that they might get through this crisis.
“No,” he said, amused, “no pun intended.” He took her hand and linked their fingers. “Do you trust me to tell your story with dignity and grace and courage and humility and all the other words that come to mind when I think of what you went through alone for so many years?”
“Yes,” she said, her voice heavy with emotion, “of course I trust you to do it right. If I didn’t, I never would’ve given you the rights.”
“Then you have to take a step back and let me do it.”
She nodded, even as tears threatened again.
He brought their joined hands to his lips. “And you, my love, need to take the money I paid you for the rights to your story and open that restaurant you’ve always dreamed of. Here or in Providence or both, if that’s what you want.”
Her eyes went wide with surprise. “How do you know about my restaurant?”
“I have my sources.”
“Did Charlie tell you that? Who else would know?” She waited a heartbeat. “Why did Charlie tell you? When did he tell you?”
“He told me the other day when I came over to see him.”
Her mouth fell open in shock. “You came to see Charlie? By yourself? I thought you were scared of him.”
Grant snorted with laughter. “I didn’t say I was scared of him. I said he’s intimidating and looks at me like he wants to kill me in my sleep.”
“You also mentioned that he’d probably learned a few ways to do that while he was in prison,” she reminded him.
“Okay, maybe I was a little scared of him, but I had something I needed to ask him, so I had to man up and come talk to him.”
“Wow,” she said, truly amazed, “I would’ve like to have seen that. What did you have to ask him?”
“I can’t tell you that. It’s guy stuff. You wouldn’t understand.”
She rolled her eyes at that. “Was he nice to you?”
“Yes.”
She crooked the famous brow that let him know she wasn’t buying his bullshit. “Really?”
“He warmed up as the visit unfolded.”
That made her laugh, which filled Grant with wild, foolish hope.
When it was good between them, there was nothing better.
He made a silent vow to work harder to make sure it was good between them all the time going forward.
Nothing was more important than her happiness, not even the damned screenplay he’d let come between them, a thought he decided he’d better share with her so she’d understand that he truly got it.
“I thought I’d learned my lesson after what happened with Abby.”
“What lesson is that?”
“That nothing is more important than you are. Not the screenplay or my career or my family. Nothing.”
“I know how important the screenplay is to you, Grant. You shouldn’t make light of that.”
“If someone told me I’d be the most successful writer in Hollywood for the rest of my life but I couldn’t have you, I’d say thank you very much, Hollywood.
It’s been a lovely ride, but I’m done now.
I have something far more important in my life than any movie will ever be.
I’ve got the real thing, the love story of a lifetime, and there’s nothing in this world that will ever be more important to me than she is.
” He shifted his body off the rock, so he was on his knees before her, keeping a firm grip on her hands.
“Stephanie, you’re the love story of my lifetime, the one I can’t live without. ”
Every emotion she possessed skirted across her expressive face as she waited breathlessly to hear what else he had to say.
In all of Grant’s thinking about this moment, it had never occurred to him that she might say no to his question, but now he wasn’t so sure.
He pushed that unsavory thought aside to focus on saying the right thing.
Words were his business. He’d never needed them more than he did right now.
“I know it’s been rocky at times and it’s apt to be again once in a while, but I promise I’ll do everything in my power to make you happy, to give you the family you’ve always wanted, the life you’ve always wanted and the security you’ve never had.
You’ll never have to wonder where I am or who I’m with, because I’ll always want to be with you more than I want to be with anyone else.
There’s nothing in this world I wouldn’t do for you, but I need you to do one thing for me first.”
“What?” she asked, sounding breathless now, too.
“Marry me.” He released her hands to retrieve the ring box from his pocket and opened it to reveal a simple square-cut diamond. He knew her well enough to suspect that anything flashier would’ve been wrong for her.
She gasped, and her hand covered her mouth.
He loved that he’d taken her completely by surprise.
Her eyes darted from the ring to his face—possibly to gauge his sincerity—and back to the ring.
“Stephanie Logan, I’ll love you every day for the rest of my life. Will you marry me?” Grant thought his eyes were deceiving him when he saw her nod. “Is that a yes?”
The word “yes” got caught on a sob, but he heard it. Loud and clear. He slid the ring onto her finger and reached for her.
She came right off the rock and launched herself into his arms. They landed on the sand in a clutch of arms and legs.
“I’ve got you, baby,” Grant said, running a hand over her back as she continued to cry. He hoped they were happy tears. “Are you okay?”
She nodded and clung to him.
“That’ll learn you not to try to break up with me.”
Sobs turned to laughter, which turned to passion the instant his lips met hers. “I love you,” he said when they came up for air. “Only you.”
“I love you, too.”
“And do you promise to never try to dump me again?”
“I may try, but I’m sure you’ll find some smooth, sweet words to talk your way out of it like you did today.”
“Speaking as a reviewer, tell me, what did the trick?”
She rolled her eyes at him. “As if you don’t know.”
“I really don’t.”
In one of her signature moves, she brushed the hair off his forehead and ran her fingers through it lovingly. “The love story of a lifetime was a pretty good line.”
“Just pretty good?”
“Extremely memorable. The security I’ve never had was a close second.”
“I thought you might like that.”
“When you marry a writer, you ought to get a proposal for the ages.”
His eyes went wide at what surely had to be one of the finest compliments he’d ever received. “Is that what this was?”
“Absolutely,” she said, kissing him again.
“How about a marriage for the ages to go with it?”
“I’m all for that. Is this what you had to talk to Charlie about?”
Nodding, Grant said, “I couldn’t ask you without his blessing.”
“And he gave it?”
“With some assurances.”
That made her snort with laughter. “I hope he made you work for it.”
“Oh, trust me. He did.” Grant’s lips found the tender underside of her jaw, one of his favorite places to kiss her. “Steph?”
She tipped her head to give him better access. “Hmm?”
The setting sun cast her skin in a warm glow. “Why didn’t you tell me about the restaurant?”
“I don’t know. I figured I’d get around to it eventually.”
“Are there other things you want that I don’t know about?”
She shook her head. “You covered all the high points in your proposal.”
“I want you to know—I get what you said about how you grew up. Things will be different from now on.”
“Thank you for listening—and for hearing me.”
“Any time I don’t do that, just give me a kick in the ass. Promise?”
“Yes,” she said laughing. “It’ll be my pleasure to kick you in the ass. Can I spank you sometimes just to mix things up?”
“Whatever you want, babe.” The suggestion was all it took to get Grant thinking about officially sealing their deal.
“Speaking of your pleasure . . .” He extricated himself from her embrace and stood, offering her a hand up.
Drawing her into his arms, he held her tight for a long time before he let her go, slung an arm around her shoulders and directed her to the path. “Let’s go home.”
An hour after they left Point Judith, Owen followed the GPS directions to Providence’s tony East Side, still hoping he was heading to her father’s house. Laura hadn’t stirred once during the ride, and her face remained ghostly pale.