When we got back to the stables, Steve and Dylan were standing out front, looking like they were hiding something. I turned to look at Samantha; worst poker face in the entire world. She had a huge grin on her face, which she quickly pursed into a bizarre scowl, now trying to not smile.
“Gentlemen, are we all set?”
“Yes, sir!” Dylan saluted Grant, then they both laughed.
“What’s going on?”
“Well, let me help you off that horse, Ma’am, and you can see for yourself.”
“Oh brother.” Chelsie rolled her eyes.
Everyone dismounted and we led the horses into the stables. Steve, Dane, and Dylan took the horses, which was a surprise in itself. Everyone was including Dane like nothing had happened. It was a relief, at least for today, and I wondered if everyone had just called a truce for my birthday. Grant took my hand and led me out the back of the stables and up the path to his backyard. It was a really beautiful walk, as the entire path was lined with trellises and grapevines. He said not a word, but had a smirk on his face the entire time.
When we reached his terrace, the entire place was decorated with tables, umbrellas, flowers and candles. It looked like a restaurant. Every tree was covered in small lights, which were lit, but hard to see in the daylight. I imagined by tonight it would look like hundreds of fireflies dancing in the leaves.
Did I forget to mention there were tons of people there? It was a full-blown party. Pierre smiled, ran up and swept me into his arms for a full on bear hug.
“Happy birthday, my Lanie.”
And soon, I was surrounded by friends and family, all hugging me and wishing me well. So much for not a big deal. But it was sweet, and Grant just stood there beaming. He looked proud, like he’d been planning this surprise for a long time. I shot him a glance to let him know I was grateful and happy for all his hard work. My dad was finally able to get through the crowd to give me yet another birthday hug.
“I have something for you today from your mom, Lanie. She told me to wait and give it to you when I thought you were ready. You’ll get it later on tonight. Okay?”
“Dad, you have something from Mom? How did you keep it all these years? I wouldn’t have been able to wait this long.”
“Well, she gave it to me knowing I could hold it back. I’m like that.”
“Yep. You’re a real enigma, Dad.”
“I guess I am.” He placed a small kiss on my forehead.
When everyone had settled into conversations with each other, I took more time to see everything. Wow, it was truly amazing. There was a stone fire pit with some sort of meat slow roasting on it. In the corner of the terrace were steps that led down to a grassy area that opened up to overlook the cliff. I looked over and could see Joe and Jennifer placing all sorts of seafood in a big dug out ditch filled with hot coals. It was surf and turf, clambake style. Everyone had gone through so much work and trouble to make this party amazing. It was like a wedding.
“I feel under dressed or something,” I said to Grant.
“Don’t be ridiculous. You’re beautiful. And everyone is casual.”
“Grant, this is amazing. How did you do all this without my knowing?”
“I had tons of help.”
“He’s been working us like slaves.” I heard Dylan come up behind me. He was carrying a cooler with Steve, filled with all sorts of bottles of wine, coolers, and beer.
“But today it all pays off, ‘cause we get to eat and drink all night long.” Steve smiled and grabbed a beer once they put the cooler down.
“You’ve all been in on this?”
“Hence the trip with the girls yesterday. We spent the entire time stringing lights in trees,” Steve said as he rolled his eyes.
“Seriously, Lanie, this man of yours pretty much had the whole town working on this party. He must really love you.” Dylan smiled and pulled me into a brotherly hug while giving Grant the double eyebrows.
“Hands off, man. She’s mine,” Grant growled jokingly. Dylan jumped to my right side.
“Nope, the shirt says she’s with me. See the arrow?” He dipped me into a loud, sloppy kiss.
“Eww. You’re getting your slobber all over me. Let go!” I giggled.
I spent quite a while making rounds with Grant, saying hello to everyone. We ate amazing food all day. We had amazing music playing. Did I mention that Grant hired a DJ for this gig? He thought of everything. When the sun began to set, Grant grabbed my hand and pulled me out onto the path connecting our houses.
“I just want a bit of alone time with you for a minute.”
“I like alone time with you.”
He led me to my terrace and we stood overlooking the ocean. All the trees were lit up here, too, and it was just beautiful. There were pastel colored lanterns placed all along the terrace wall. He stopped and turned me towards him.
“Lanie, I love you so much, and as you know, I always have. I can’t imagine another day in my life if it isn’t spent with you as my partner, in every way. So I was thinking that I shouldn’t ever be without you. And in order to do that, I—
Suddenly we heard Dane shouting for us. Grant breathed a frustrated sign and turned towards his voice.
“We’re over here.”
“What the hell does he want? I want to hear what you were saying.” I was getting annoyed. That was the second time Dane cut Grant off from telling me something I think I might really want to hear.
“Hey, where have you guys been? Haley told me to find you. They want to do the cake now.”
“Cake. Well, I guess cake comes first. Don’t want all those candles to start a huge fire.” Grant pinched my ass when he said it, which made me squeal like a little girl.
“Grant, maybe we can save some icing for later.” He gave me a sultry smile and put his arm around my waist as we headed back for cake.
“Lanie, are you enjoying your birthday?” Dane was like a little kid. He seemed to be his old self. I was completely relieved. But I still felt like we had to work out what happened between us now that things were on the right track. Maybe a new conversation would put this all to rest. At least he was finally stepping down so Grant and I could be together without his getting involved.
When we entered Grant’s terrace, everyone was standing around a beautiful cake full of candles. Actually, twice as many candles as my age. Steve was laughing hysterically, so I was pretty sure he was in charge of the candles. They all sang Happy Birthday to me. My cheeks flushed a rosy hue. Grant kept his arm around me and I leaned into him, just because I loved him so much, and to hide my embarrassment, of course.
“Go ahead, Lanie, blow them all out! I dare you to do it on one try.” Steve was all riled up. He was obviously drunk. I liked him that way. He was a total riot.
“Wait, wait. You’re so old I might have to get you the fire extinguisher.” Chelsie grabbed Steve by the ear and pulled him closer to her. She elbowed him in the ribs, which made him laugh all the more.
Okay, he wanted to play? I could play. I pushed Grant back to give myself room. I took in a huge exaggerated breath and started to blow as hard as I could. I made sure my face got super red and I did my best Dizzy Gillespie cheeks. I hoped I didn’t spit all over the cake.
Steve was roaring. He was laughing so hard I thought he might pass out. I blew all the candles out, all fifty of them. Everyone started to cheer. What? All the candles fucking lit back up again! I just blew them all out. Now Steve was in tears.
“Oh Grant, I thought you said Lanie could blow really well.” This made Chelsie shove Steve, who just fell to the floor, laughing. He was literally rolling. Grant smiled and shook his head. My dad just stood there, looking shell-shocked.
“Sorry, Dad. Steve thinks he’s a comedian today.”
“Do it again, Lanie, blow them out again. Oh please, one more time,” Steve guffawed.
I just stood there, trying to think of a way to put the candles out without passing out. I saw a cup of water and grabbed it.
I gave Steve an evil smirk and dipped my finger in and began dousing each of the candles.
“Cheating. That’s cheating! Your wish won’t come true.” Steve laughed out.
“It already did.” I looked at Grant when I said it. “There isn’t anything more in this world I could ask for. I have the most amazing family and friends, and I found the man of my dreams.”
I reached up to Grant’s face and pulled him into a deep kiss. All I could hear were claps and ahs coming from everyone. Grant smiled into our kiss.
“I love you, Babe.”
“I love you, too.”
The cake was absolutely divine. Grant had talked Haley into making a special cake. There were crushed sandwich cookies on the bottom, then vanilla champagne layer cake, then strawberries, then cake, then chocolate hazelnut spread, and another layer of cake all topped with chocolate mousse icing. It was our sex life in cake form. I laughed my ass off when he handed me the first piece.
“This is so coming to bed with us tonight.”
“There’s a smaller version for later. Haley made a special one just for us.”
“You’re a man after my own heart, stomach and you know …” I gave him double-eyebrows.
“Yes. I plan on making sure it stays that way.”
The party started to thin out and soon it was only family and close friends. The music was loud and we were all dancing up a storm. It was one of the best days of my life. Everyone was happy and laughing, including me. My life felt complete. Grant and I danced, drank, ate, and laughed with everyone. It was epic. The entire place was lit up with the small firefly lights. It was like a dream. Grant grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the side.
“Lanie, I really want to steal a few moments with you. Come with me.”
“Hell yeah! Where? Stables? My bedroom?”
“I hadn’t thought about one of our bedrooms. But not right now. I want to talk to you. Alone. It’s important.” He was suddenly serious.
“Sure, Babe, anywhere you want. Just take me with you.” My dream started to flash through my mind. I knew there was no way he was going to break up with me. Not after planning a whole amazing day like today—but I suddenly got a pit in my stomach. What did he want to tell me? He must have noticed my agitation.
“Lanie, you look scared. You better not be worrying. There’s nothing bad about what I want to say to you. Nothing. I just want you alone.”
I think I must have been holding it, because I let out a huge breath. Grant laughed and pulled me into a hug, and then proceeded to look around like we were going on a covert mission. I looked around with him. Dane was talking to Jeff and Jack; Dylan and Samantha were making out in the corner; Chelsie and Steve were playing a drinking game, and Joe and Jennifer were watching us.
“Your parents are staring at us.”
“Smile and wave.”
We both waved, gave them a stupid smile and then we took off. We were running and laughing, and I felt like I was going to pee myself I was laughing so hard.
“Where are we going?”
“I have no idea!” And we started laughing even harder.
Finally, Grant seemed to have a direction. He pulled me to the edge of the cliff overlooking the ocean right between my house and Dane’s. The trees were all lit up here, too, and I had no idea how in hell they had gotten this all done.
“Grant, this whole night—everything—it’s just so beautiful. I mean, you are just so amazing.”
“No, Lanie, you are amazing and have been to me since we were kids. I love you. I have always loved you and always will. If you ever decide you don’t want this, I will pine for you until my last breath and then some.”
“Shut up. Don’t say that. I’ll always love you. Nothing will ever change that. Not ever. Do you hear me?”
He smiled and put his hand on the side of my face, pulling me closer and pressing his lips to mine. I still got lost in his kisses. My entire body lit up with excitement and I melted. He pulled back and he looked very nervous.
“What? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, Lanie, everything is perfect. But I want to make it even more perfect.”
“Grant, do you want to move in with me?”
“Lanie, I want so much more than that. Believe me, you have no idea.”
“No, you’re wrong. I do. I can’t stand one minute of being away from you. Not one. I want you by my side every second of every day.”
“Lanie, do you have any idea how happy it makes me to hear you say that? I feel like my heart is going to explode it’s beating so hard for you right now.”
“Is there anything else hard for me right now?”
“It’s always hard for you. You give me a perpetual hard on.”
I licked my lips and tangled my fingers into his hair. Pulling him closer, I reached down between his legs and gave him a soft squeeze. He was right; he did have a perpetual hard on for me. I pushed my body against him and looked at him from under my eyelashes.
“Come to my room with me then.” I used my best ‘I’ll give you anything you want’ voice.
“Lanie, I promise to take you up on that very shortly. But first I have something I need to say.”
He looked down at me and just had this pure look of total love and adoration on his face. I felt myself blush, my heart began to race and my skin started to get all goose-bumpy.
“Lanie, you have made me so happy. I don’t want this feeling to ever end, so—”
And that’s when the basketball came and hit Grant right in the side of the head.
“Damn it!”
“Oh my God, Grant, are you all right?” Samantha said as she and Dane came bounding up to us.
Grant had his hand over his face. He let out this grumbling flow of words I couldn’t understand. His voice got higher pitched and the words started coming faster.
“Grant? I can’t understand you. Are you okay? Talk to me.”
At this point, Grant straightened up and uncovered his face. He was laughing so hard nothing was coming out. No sound at all. I started to get scared he wouldn’t stop and would pass out. He almost looked like he was about to go all straightjacket on me.
“I’m fine, Lanie. Just peachy.”
“Grant, I am so sorry. I really didn’t think I was going to even come close to you. You owe me ten bucks,” Samantha said as she turned to Dane giggling, and then high-fived.
“You bet Samantha she couldn’t hit Grant in the side of the head with a basketball? Really?” I was in bitch mode. I wanted to hear what Grant had to say. He’d been trying to say it all day and we kept getting interrupted.
“No. I bet her she couldn’t even come close to reaching you guys. She was supposed to roll it. We just wanted to get you guys for some hoops. We’re all playing. Even the parents.”
“Oh. Well, I guess we’ll come play.”
I turned and looked at Grant, who was shooting daggers in Samantha’s direction. Her smile immediately wiped off her face and she made an O-shape with her mouth. I walked over to Grant’s side and reached up to rub his head where the ball hit.
“I feel so bad for you. Can I laugh now?”
“Yes, you can laugh. I did.” I giggled simply because the entire day had just been so much fun and I was in the best mood ever.
I didn’t want Grant to be in a bad mood now. It seemed he didn’t want to either, because the smile stayed on his face and he even giggled a bit more with me.
They were already choosing teams when we got there. Chelsie was one captain and Joe the other. Chelsie was a total bitch to play against in any game. She liked to win. I wanted to be on her team.
Chelsie turned to look at me. “I get the birthday girl. Let’s go. Play rough.”
Joe followed with, “Fine, I get her boyfriend. That way he can distract her. Grant, you’re mine. Play dirty!”
I loved when we all played together. It was always hysterical. Chelsie chose me, Dylan, Steve, Jack and Haley. Joe chose Samantha, Dane, Jennifer, Jeff, and
Grant. This game was going to be a blast.
We were playing hard. There was shoving and bumping, and even tickling. I went up to take a shot and felt Grant grab my ass and squeeze. I totally missed the basket. I turned and gave him a face, but he was too cute and I couldn’t even try to look mad. I saw everyone doing little things to mess each other up. The ball was everywhere and everyone was laughing. Grant went up for a shot and Dane jumped in and poked him right in the stomach. Maybe a little bit too hard, because all his breathe blew out in one huff.
“Damn, Dane, you’re killing me today.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The Cliff Page 26
