“Turn this song up,” I said.
“You hate pop.”
“I like it when I’m with you,” I said. “It’s more fun. It reminds me of when we were kids.”
“You always hated my music back then.”
“I didn’t.”
“You always made me turn it off and put on your stuff.”
“I was just being a jerk,” I said. “You’ve always had cool taste in music. Secretly, I liked your songs.”
She smiled and turned up the volume. I drove along, entering the edge of the city.
“So where is this flower market?” I said.
She typed into her phone and found the address. Then she entered it into the car’s GPS. It was down near the port. I guess they exported and imported a lot of plants. As we drove toward it, we passed through some of the most rundown neighborhoods of the city.
“We’re very lucky,” she said.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, we live in a beautiful, big house, surrounded by some of the finest vineyards in the country.”
“We do live in luxury,” I said.
“And now I’m going to marry a rich, plastic surgeon.”
“Living the dream,” I said.
She shook her head. “We’ve done some good things though, haven’t we?”
“Sure we have,” I said.
“I hope I’ve lived a good life,” she said.
I looked at her. There was an expression of seriousness on her face that I hadn’t seen before.
“What’s got you feeling so melancholy?” I asked.
“I don’t feel melancholy.”
“You’re talking as if your life is already over, Lacey.”
“Well,” she said, “I guess getting married to Rob has got me thinking like that. It definitely means my youth is over. Once I’m married, I’ll be a woman. Anything I wanted to achieve on my own will be over. I’ll be with him from now on, helping him pursue his goals and dreams.”
“Well, ideally, you’d both be helping each other pursue both of your goals.”
She nodded.
“What are Rob’s goals, anyway?” I said.
“I don’t know.”
I turned off the freeway even though it wasn’t our exit. I had an instinct that she wanted to drive through a few real neighborhoods. She always liked doing that. We passed rows of brick residential buildings. They were mostly African American or Hispanic, clearly rundown.
“Pull over here,” she said, outside a big, old mansion that looked like it had been the grandest house on the street a century ago. Now it looked more like an abandoned, haunted house.
I pulled over to the curb and looked up and down the street, making sure it was safe. Lacey opened her door and got out. I watched from my window as she walked up to the gate of the house. There were some kids on the front porch, six boys, all of them in their teens. I opened the passenger window to hear what she wanted to say to them.
“What is this place?” she said.
“Who’s asking?” one of the kids said back to her.
“I am,” she said, and smiled at the kid, taking the charm approach.
The kid who’d spoken to her climbed down from the porch. His friends watched.
“It’s a house.”
“Your house?” Lacey said.
“Yeah.”
“Are those boys your brothers?”
“Yeah, they’re my brothers.”
“You must be all twins,” Lacey said.
“They’re my brothers from other mothers, lady,” the kid said.
“I see. And I suppose you all live in this house together?”
“Yeah, until the city kicks us out. Then they’ll take us to child services.”
“What about your parents?”
“Lady, eight boys live in this house. If any of us had parents, we wouldn’t be here.”
“I see,” Lacey said.
One of the other boys pointed at me. “Who’s the stiff?” he said.
Lacey looked back at me. “Oh, him. He’s my brother.”
“Your real brother?”
Lacey laughed. “No. He’s my brother from another mother.”
The boys looked at each other. “Not so different from us then?”
“Not so different,” Lacey agreed.
Then she came back to the car.
“Let’s go,” she said.
I looked at her. She’d always been a thoughtful person, but I hadn’t seen her in a mood like this in quite a while. It was as if she was questioning her life, and her role in the world.
“You like those kids?” I asked as we rounded the corner. I mostly said it to break the silence.
“My father went out looking for boys like that,” she said. “After my mother died, and it was just me and him, he decided that he had to find a new purpose in his life.”
“I know it,” I said. “If it wasn’t for him, I’d be dead now. Or in prison.”
“He found you, Grady, Forrester, and Jackson. Four boys.”
“He saved our lives,” I said.
“I know,” she said. “And in the process, he saved his own life, and mine. Who knows how things would have ended up for him and I if it hadn’t been for you and the brothers coming to join us. It was the four of you that completed our family.”
I nodded. “Do you feel like you should do something similar?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I mean, I guess I’ll start a family.” Her hand was on her belly as she said it.
The image flashed across my mind of the night in the hayloft. What had I been thinking? I’d made her let me do it without a condom. It was crazy. It was almost as if I’d wanted to create a situation that would force us together. I’d wanted fate to take over, to bring us together, to fuse us. I’d made her call me husband too. And I’d called her wife.
I was in love with her. As I looked at her, sitting there, thinking about her life, I knew I was in love with her. I looked at her hand on her belly. What if I’d made her pregnant that night? I mean, I presumed I hadn’t. She’d have found out by now, and she’d have said something to me. She sure as hell wouldn’t have accepted a proposal from Rob if she was carrying my child. I was certain of that much. At least, I thought I was.
She’d tell me, wouldn’t she? If she was carrying my kid? She’d tell me?
I pulled the car over again and turned toward her.
“What are you doing?” she said.
I reached out to her, and took her face gently in my hands. Then I leaned in and kissed her. I was consumed with a feeling I’d never experienced before. It wasn’t just lust for the delicious sweetness of her lips. It was love too. I wanted to kiss her, I wanted to put my tongue in her mouth, because of the love I felt for her.
Kissing her was like being frozen, on a cold night, naked, and suddenly the sun coming out and shining on me. It gave me life. It poured warmth and joy into my heart the way the sun pours heat and light.
I pressed my lips against hers, creating a seal that I never wanted to break. My tongue touched hers, the softness creating a surge of desire through my body that I couldn’t control. My cock stiffened and throbbed.
My hands slid down over her shoulders and down to her back. I pulled her closer to me, lifting her from her seat and forcing her to straddle me and sit on my lap. I continued to kiss her, my mind and heart melting into hers in an embrace that rocked me to my core. It wasn’t like any kiss I’d ever known. It wasn’t even like the kiss I’d had with her before, in the loft. This was different. It was different because I knew I was in love with her now. And I knew I could lose her. If I didn’t do something, and soon, she’d end up with Rob, and that would be a crime against our destiny.
“Grant,” Lacey said, after I continued to kiss her, more and more passionately. “Grant stop. We can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Grant. I’m engaged. Please stop.”
“Lacey,” I said, but I didn’t have any words to
follow it up with. Words had abandoned me.
She climbed off me and got back into her seat. Then she looked at me.
“I can’t,” she said. “It wouldn’t be right. Rob might not be the perfect man, but he proposed to me, and I said yes. I can’t cheat, Grant.”
I nodded. Of course she couldn’t. She didn’t have it in her.
“I’ve been cheated on,” she continued. “I know the pain it caused. It just wouldn’t be right to inflict that on another person, no matter how badly we want it. I can’t do that.”
I nodded. I pulled back into the traffic and cleared my throat.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “Of course you’re right. I wasn’t … I wasn’t thinking.”
“I know,” she said.
“Sometimes I get carried away.”
“We all do, Grant.”
“You make it so that I can hardly think straight, sometimes. I’ll always … have a thing for you, Lacey.”
“Well, at least it happened now, and we did what we did when we did. Before I became a married woman.”
I nodded. I wiped my eye. A tear fell down over my cheek. I was suddenly overcome with emotion.
“You’re wearing the perfume you wore the first day I met you,” I said.
Chapter 29
Lacey
WE ARRIVED AT THE FLORAL MARKET and the place was even more amazing than I’d heard. They had every single type of flower imaginable, imported from dozens of countries around the world. Buyers came from all over the country to see the exotic plants. From here, they were taken in refrigerated trucks to the airport, where they would fly express to the fanciest stores, hotels and weddings in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Miami. It was an incredible sight.
“Wow,” Grant said. “I never knew flowers were such a big deal.”
I looked at him, my gaze lingering a little too long on his red lips. Those lips that never failed to intoxicate me when I tasted them. I still couldn’t believe he’d kissed me. I stopped him, but I wanted more. I wanted his delicious mouth on mine more than I wanted anything else in the world.
“Are you kidding me?” I said, forcing myself to keep my mind on the flowers. “Flowers are amazing. You know you can’t have a wedding without them, right?”
“I know,” he said, “but aren’t the roses at the local grocery store usually enough?”
“Sure they are,” I said, “but a girl can dream, can’t she?”
“What do you mean?”
“Grant! I’m getting married. Do you have any idea what that means for a girl?”
“Sure I do.”
I laughed and shook my head. He didn’t have a clue. He was literally the most clueless guy in the world when it came to weddings. He didn’t have a sentimental bone in his body. And then I remembered, that wasn’t true. He’d kept photos of me hidden in the loft for years. He was a romantic without even realizing it.
But still, Grant was the only guy I’d ever heard openly admit that he hated weddings.
We walked to a huge display of roses. They had everything. I mean everything. Only a trained botanist would be able to appreciate the effort that went into bringing a selection of that many varieties together in one place. We were looking at literally hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of flowers. They had single leaf varieties from southwest Asia, Western Roses from the Rocky Mountains, flaky roses and chestnut roses from China, cut stems from India, and the finest greenhouse varieties in Europe. It was incredible.
I looked at Grant. His eyes were wide with appreciation.
“Pretty impressive, huh?” I said.
He was surprised. “Yes,” he said. “They are actually.”
“You’ve got the whole world right here, Grant.”
“I can see that.”
“Just like all the varieties of wine depend on the different growing conditions, climates, weather patterns and soil compositions from around the world, so do flowers.”
“I never thought about it that way,” he said.
Grant spent almost all of his free time cultivating some of the finest grapevines in the Socorro Valley. He knew about plants, and soil, and the minute variations that could make the difference between divine flavor and bitter trash.
“They’re beautiful, aren’t they?”
“Yes they are, Lacey.”
He looked at me and didn’t look away. The intensity of his gaze shook me to my core. I was forced to break eye contact.
We spent hours wandering the market, and we saw more flowers in that time than many people see in a lifetime. When we got to the end, there was a little cafe and we sat and ordered two coffees.
Grant faced me with a tender look in his eyes.
“Thank you for taking me here, Lacey. I never realized there was so much beauty in this stuff.”
“Thank you for accompanying me.”
He nodded. “Rob missed out,” he said.
I nodded and got the attention of the waiter. I ordered a slice of the cake they were famous for. It was made with rosewater, extracted from a certain rose that only grew in one small valley in China.
“Wow,” Grant said when he took a bite.
“Delicious, isn’t it?”
He nodded. “Not the most delicious thing I tasted so far today.”
I blushed. I held his gaze for just a second, then pretended I needed something from my purse. I lifted my bag onto my lap and rummaged among the contents. My fingers touched my lip gloss and I took it out. I hadn’t meant to grab it, but I’d felt the need to busy myself somehow. Grant watched closely as I applied the gloss to my lips, giving them a seductive sheen.
“So,” he said, “apart from exotic roses, what else would be involved in your perfect wedding?”
“My perfect wedding?”
“Don’t pretend you haven’t thought about it a million times. I know you, Lacey. You’ve got everything planned, down to the tiniest detail.”
“I do actually,” I said, smiling.
“So, what else would you get?”
“If I could get anything?”
“Yes. If you could have absolutely anything you wanted?”
“Well,” I said, glad to have someone I could talk to about my plans, “one thing which is kind of silly, is that I’d like doves.”
“Doves?”
“I know, it’s a bit of a cliché, but doves are really remarkable animals.”
“They’re romantic.”
“They are. They’ve been a symbol of love and peace for centuries. Did you know that during the Middle Ages, people believed doves chose their mating partners on Valentine’s Day.”
“And do they?”
“Well, I don’t know what scientists say, but I like to believe they do.”
“Pretty romantic,” he said.
I shook my head. I was embarrassed. “It’s just a silly thing.”
“I don’t think it’s silly. You’ve got to create your own special meaning for things in life. Otherwise everything is gray and drab.”
“Yes,” I said. “Doves also stay true to their mate. The ancient Greeks always depicted the goddess of love, Aphrodite, surrounded by doves. The Romans did the same with Venus.”
“Interesting.”
“And of course, Jesus is often depicted with a dove, representing love and peace.”
“I noticed that.”
“Noah sent a dove to find land after the flood.”
Grant smiled at me. He was really listening. He didn’t think I was silly at all.
“So, doves, roses. What else do you like?”
“Well, sunsets obviously.”
“Obviously,” Grant said.
“But not just any sunset. It has to be over the ocean.”
“Why stop at just a normal sunset? Why not add the ocean?” he said, smiling.
“Hey, you said if I could have anything I wanted.”
He nodded. “Roses, doves, sunsets. Sounds like you’ve got your bases covered.”
“And
one more thing,” I said. “Music.”
“Romantic music?”
“Not necessarily, but live music. Real music, from a band I like.
“Any band in particular?”
“No. Just a good band. I’m not picky.”
“Sure you’re not,” he said, a wide grin on his face.
Chapter 30
Lacey
“OKAY, EVERYONE,” I SAID TO THE ROOM.
Faith, Jackson, Forrester, Grady and Grant all looked up at me expectantly. I’d called this dinner to make an announcement, and now was the time.
“So, the news I wanted to share, is that I’m getting married.”
There was a moment of stunned silence. Everyone looked up at me, their eyes wide, their mouths open. This was my family, they knew everything about me, and now, out of the blue I was announcing my engagement, and they didn’t even know who the lucky man was.
I looked at them, my heart pounding, dying for them to give me their support.
To my amazement, it was Grant who spoke first. He rose his glass and everyone else followed suit.
“Congratulations, Lacey,” he said, giving me a warm smile. “That’s amazing. We’re so happy for you.”
“Are we?” Forrester said. “How is this the first I’m hearing of this?”
“Of what?” I said.
“Lacey,” he said. “I don’t even know who you’re marrying.”
“Rob, of course. Rob Crawford.”
“Rob? I didn’t know you were still seeing him.”
“I am.”
Grady spoke up next. “You’ve only been going out with him a few weeks.”
“Sometimes things move fast,” I said.
“Yes, they do,” Faith said, giving Grady and Forrester a stern look. She obviously saw that I needed everyone’s support on this next step in my life, even if it was sudden.
Only Jackson hadn’t said anything. I looked at him. Of course, I didn’t need his permission to get married, but I did need his blessing. I needed blessing from all of them.
“Well,” Jackson said, looking at Grant as much as at me, “I don’t really know Rob Crawford, but if you think he’s the man for you, Lacey, that’s good enough for me.”
“So I have your support?” I said.
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