Chapter 39
“What do we have here?” Garrett murmured as he grabbed the small box off his front step and headed inside, dropping his bag by the door as he made his way into his office.
It had been a long fucking day with back-to-back meetings, two court cases, and a wild goose chase to meet with a client that apparently didn’t exist. He was beyond fucking ready to call it a night, Garrett thought, glancing down at his watch only to realize that if he moved his ass now, he could be in Boston within the hour and have Kristen in his arms soon after that.
He dropped the box on his desk and moved to go upstairs when he saw “Congratulations” written across the box in black marker. Wondering what that was about, he opened the box to find a hand-written note and a paperback novel by an author named Nix Cruise.
He ignored the book and focused on the handwritten note.
Garrett,
I couldn’t have done this without you. It’s too bad that we didn’t find out about the baby sooner, but don’t worry, I’ll make sure to put it in the sequel.
-Amber
P.S.
You might want to take a look behind your bureau.
“What the hell is she talking about?” Garrett said, frowning as he grabbed the book and headed upstairs with Blanket following close behind. He made his way into his room, tossed the book on his bed and made his way to his bureau, where he found a gift-wrapped box waiting for him.
He quickly ripped open the box only to find a bound manuscript with the words “A K.L. Haven Novel” typed across the front page and realized that Kristen finished her book.
Wondering if this one was about Tristan, he dropped down on his bed with a sigh and turned the first page only to swallow hard when he found himself reading about the day that Kristen pulled up in front of her aunt’s house with the DCF worker and realized that this was their story.
For the next two hours, he found himself lost in the book, smiling when she told the story about how she made him walk the plank only to feel his heart break when he came to the scene where he destroyed everything.
He realized just how badly he hurt her that night and how long it took her to get over him, only to feel a moment of hope when she saw him that fateful day last year, which was quickly followed by realizing just how much he still hated her.
He winced as he read about all the shit that he put her through, the antics that he’d pulled, and how she felt when she finally told him the truth.
From there, he read about their deal, how badly she wanted to trust him, how much she’d missed him, and how every day she felt herself falling in love with him again.
He read about their first kiss, the first time that they made love, and he read about the moment when she realized that she could write again and-
He read about the moment when she found out that she was pregnant.
Swallowing hard, Garrett quickly realized that’s where the chapter ended. He quickly turned the page only to find the epilogue empty. Trying not to panic, he dropped the book on his bed, grabbed his phone and called her only to have the call immediately go to voicemail.
He needed to see her, Garrett decided, even as he tried to wrap his mind around the fact that she was pregnant as he made his way to the door only to remember the other book. He made his way back to the bed, picked up the book by Nix Cruise and-
“What the hell...”
-felt his stomach drop as he read the first page, the one that made it look like he’d finally made Kristen pay for everything that she did to him.
“Oh, God,” he said, quickly scanning through the book, taking in all the bullshit claims, the private moments that were stolen from them, and found himself cursing as he moved his ass.
He headed downstairs, torn between finding Amber so that he could wring her fucking neck and finding Kristen so that he could pull her into his arms and-
“Why?” came the softly spoken question that drew his attention to his office to find Kristen sitting on his couch.
Swallowing hard, he walked into his office only to feel his stomach drop when he saw all the printouts spread out over his coffee table, death threats, bad reviews, and emails calling her a bitch for what she put him through.
Struggling to figure out what was going on, he looked at Kristen to find her watching him.
“Why did you pretend that we weren’t friends?
And why did you pretend that you didn’t see me at recess?
Or invite me to your birthday party or any of the hundreds of things that I would have given anything to go to.
Why was it that the only time that you acknowledged my existence was when there was no one else around? ”
“I didn’t want to share you,” Garrett found himself answering.
“I had seven brothers and a sister. I shared a room with three brothers, shared my toys, my clothes, everything, with them and it never bothered me, but I refused to share you,” Garrett said, swallowing hard.
“I didn’t want to share you with anyone. ”
Slowly nodding, Kristen focused on the papers spread out over the coffee table. “She’s been busy,” she said as she picked up the image of someone setting one of her books on fire.
“I had nothing to do with this, Kristen,” Garrett said, ramming his fingers through his hair as he struggled to figure out a way to fix this. He would do anything, absolutely-fucking anything to make her believe him, even get down on his hands and knees and fucking beg her.
He-
“Oh, I already figured that out,” Kristen said, shrugging it off as she tossed the paper back on the pile while he stood there, narrowing his eyes on her.
“What do you mean by ‘you already figured it out’?” Garrett demanded, wondering why she didn’t put him out of his fucking misery sooner.
“Besides the fact that this was just sloppy,” Kristen said, waving her hand towards the mess covering his coffee table. “This whole thing just screams amateur.”
“I mean, let’s be honest. If you were really behind this, you would have had a better plan than to break into my computer and steal my book and use it in your own book.
You also wouldn’t have been stupid enough to admit to everything that you did, from downloading spyware on our phones so that you could turn them into microphones, which had the unfortunate side-effect of draining our batteries, to admitting to breaking into our houses to plant cameras and everything in between. ”
Garrett released a curse as he moved to tear his office apart to find them only to frown when Kristen pointed towards his desk, where he found two disabled cameras in Ziploc bags.
“I found them exactly where she said they would be in the book,” Kristen said with a sad shake of her head. “She really isn’t bright.”
“No, she’s not,” Garrett murmured as he glanced back at Kristen to find her worrying her bottom lip between her teeth and-
“You know, don’t you?” she asked, not quite able to meet his gaze.
“That you had your dirty way with me before marriage?” Garrett said, watching her lips twitch.
“She switched out my birth control,” Kristen said, making Garrett’s stomach drop.
“What else?” Garrett asked as he dropped down on the chair across from her.
“Besides the fact that she tried to ruin my career, made me the target for thousands of pissed-off readers, and apparently had a hand in knocking me up?”
“Besides that,” Garrett said, waving it off as though that was a given.
“She apparently plagiarized one of my books years ago under a different pen name and was forced to remove it when readers discovered it,” Kristen said, looking lost in thought.
“She put that in there?” Garrett asked, stunned that anyone could be that stupid.
“She really is an idiot. That, and she wrote the book as a tale of revenge, so she felt the need to share how she pulled it off and why,” Kristen said with a heavy sigh.
Nodding, Garrett thought that over as he said, “You know that I’m going to marry you, right?”
“Because of the baby?” Kristen asked after a slight hesitation.
“I can’t have our child thinking that I’m a whore, Kristen,” Garrett said, making her lips twitch as he sat there, debating how he wanted to do this, find the roll of painter’s tape or find some twine. “I think we’ll go with a traditional Bradford wedding,”
“What’s that?” Kristen asked as she reluctantly reached over and started straightening out the paperwork that was going to make what he was about to do to Amber a hell of a lot easier.
“Well, first I’m going to have to kidnap you, which usually involves some form or tape or rope, then I’m going to have to take you across the street and tear your house apart to find your birth certificate for the marriage license unless you want to take pity on me and just tell me where it is,” Garrett said, watching as her lips twitched.
“You’re joking, right?” Kristen asked as he released a heartfelt sigh and got up, knowing that there was no point in putting this off any longer.
“Not even a little bit,” Garrett said, shrugging as he made his way to the closet.
“You know that you could just propose, right?” Kristen said while he searched his closet until he found a fresh roll of painters’ tape.
“Bradfords don’t propose,” Garrett said, shrugging as he turned around to find her frowning as she looked from him to the roll of tape in his hands.
“Why don’t they propose?” Kristen asked, watching as he made his way back to the couch and knelt down in front of her to make this easier.
“Proposing implies that you’re thinking clearly, which kind of defeats the purpose,” Garrett said conversationally as he grabbed her hands and gently placed them together before he began wrapping them together with tape.
“Bradfords don’t get married until they’re willing to risk a felony charge, letting them know that they are head over heels in love with their bride,” Garrett said, making quick work of taping her hands together before he leaned in and brushed his lips against hers and-
“You probably should have made a run for it when you had the chance,” Garrett said, shrugging it off as he reached for her legs.
“That’s what I was just thinking,” Kristen said, nodding solemnly.
“If you want, I can help you get to your feet and give you a thirty-second headstart,” Garrett offered.
“Sixty seconds would be better,” Kristen said, raising her arms so that he could help her to her feet.
“It’s the least I could do,” Garrett said, stealing one more kiss before he gestured towards the door. “You might want to put that sixty second headstart to good use.”
Kristen went to do just that only to frown as she asked, “What happens when you catch me?” making his lips pull up into a shit-eating grin.
“That’s when the fun begins.”