“Your studio,” he says behind me.
A ripple runs up my back as I take it all in.
“Ben will work on your website with you.”
I turn around. My face must be a picture of shock.
“It’s yours whether you take me back or not,” he says. “But God, I hope you do. I want to be with you. Forever. I want to stand guard over your dreams while you stand guard over the girls’ dreams. And besides, I’m not sure I’d get much use out of a pair of custom-made dinosaur beds.”
I laugh, and it’s like a floodgate opening. The pent-up pressure of all the conflicting emotions I’ve been feeling comes out in a strange mixture of laughing and crying, and when Greyson steps closer, I reach up and grab around his neck. His arms wrap around me and pull me into him, holding me tight while I laugh-cry.
“Thanks for ruining my Christmas day makeup,” I say, wiping my hand across my cheek.
“Allie,” he says, seriously. “You haven’t answered me.”
“You haven’t asked me,” I sniff.
He pulls back to look down at me and pushes a curl out of my blotchy face. His eyes sparkle the same way they always do whenever my stubborn side comes out, and he shakes his head and sighs with mock exasperation.
“Fair enough,” he says. “Alora Brooks.... no, wait.”
He grabs my hand and pulls me outside, to the tap where we first kissed. The ground is covered in muddy slush where the snow has started melting, but he gets down on one knee regardless, and I think I might faint when he grabs my hand.
“Allie,” he says. “I love you. I love the way you laugh and the way you frown. I love the way your little nose wrinkles in the middle when you don’t like something but you’re holding it in. I love the way you’re so generous with everyone and so kind. But most of all, I love the way you speak French.”
Tears are streaming down my face, but I burst out laughing.
“And I want to be with you every day, and live in this grand old mansion with you and the girls. Will you marry me?”
My face crumples and I nod, unable to say anything. He smiles the most radiant smile I’ve ever seen, rises to his feet, and kisses me in glorious technicolor.
Chapter 27
Greyson
I can’t believe I’m standing here, in the very spot where I first kissed Allie, kissing her again. I can’t believe she’s agreed to marry me. In all of my wildest dreams of this moment, I never allowed myself to actually believe that it could all work out. And yet, I am. Here we are. If there’s a happier man on the face of the planet, I can’t imagine how.
The amount of favors I had to pull in to get the mansion ready by today has basically indebted me for life. But it was worth it, every bit, for the look on Allie’s face as I showed her around her new home.
I spend a good fifteen minutes kissing her, like I’m afraid she’ll disappear if I stop. Ten of those were after she got a call from Sadie to check that everything is all right. Five of them were after Allie told me we really needed to head back to Sadie’s right now or we were going to miss Christmas dinner.
Between kissing my fiance (!!!) and rushing to get back in time, I didn’t even think to change my pants. So I still have one muddy knee when we pull up outside Sadie and Eddie’s place.
“I guess everyone hates me, huh?” I ask, grimacing towards the house.
“Definitely,” she says, grinning at me as I sit folded up in the tiny space on the passenger’s side. We really need to get her a new car.
“Actually, they probably just pretended to for my benefit. I’m sure they’ll get over it when they see that I have.” She pauses. “Well, fairly sure.” She cocks her head like she’s considering the question more deeply. “Well...” She gives me a thumbs-up with a supportive—but decidedly uncertain—look on her face. “I guess we’ll find out soon!”
I struggle out across the driver’s seat and clamber to my feet. Allie is waiting for me, and she reaches up to kiss my lips before we head inside.
“Moral support?” I ask.
She just laughs and pushes the door open.
“Oh, hey Greyson,” says Eddie, without skipping a beat. Sadie probably warned him that I’d be coming after she called Allie back at the mansion. He’s standing in the hallway, chewing, with a half-eaten canape in his hand. He lifts it up and extends a finger towards my pants.
“You’ve got mud on your knee,” he says.
“Yeah,” I nod. “I know. Hey, Merry Christmas.”
He looks to Allie, and I guess she’s smiling because he does, too. “Merry Christmas,” he says, tossing the rest of the canape into his mouth.
“He... asked me to marry him,” says Allie, glancing downwards bashfully.
Eddie’s eyes go wide, and he looks from Allie to me and back again.
“And I said yes,” she adds quickly.
Eddie swallows his canape, wipes his hand on his pants, and comes over to wrap us both into a bear hug.
“I knew you’d do the right thing, buddy!” he says. “Never doubted you for a second! I told Sadie—”
“Told Sadie what?” asks Sadie, appearing in the door with a dishtowel over her shoulder. She stops dead when she spots me, her face somehow both expressionless and disgusted at the same time.
“Oh, well if it isn’t Runaway McCowardpants,” she says.
“Er—honey,” Eddie says, cutting in before Sadie has a chance to tell me what she really thinks. “They’re getting married!”
Sadie’s brows lift in surprise. She looks over at Allie, who nods back with a little smile.
“Oh!” Her face breaks into a grin as she comes over to give me a hug, pulling Allie in too. This is… quite an emotional rollercoaster. I’m half scared she’s only hugging me so she can plunge a knife into my back.
“That’s amazing!” Sadie says. “Well done you t—”
“Greyson!”
Lottie’s voice drowns out everyone else as she comes rushing out of the living room towards me, arms wide open, and I scoop her up and hug her close. She squeezes so tight that I’m not sure whether she’s trying to hug me or choke me out.
“Yuck!”
Emma has arrived to see what all the fuss is about, and now she’s standing a few feet away, pointing at my muddy pants.
“Oh, you’ve got mud on your pants,” says Sadie.
“He knows,” Allie tells her.
“Hey, Emma,” I say, crouching down with Lottie. I hold out my arm and Emma toddles over. As I squeeze them both, Lottie whispers quietly in my ear.
“We missed you.”
I feel a lump rising in my throat, and a huge swell of contentment sweeps over me. It took me a while, but now I know that I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.
Suddenly, there’s a commotion behind us. Someone is trying to push through the front door, and it hits Sadie square in the back.
“Hey!” Sadie shouts, turning around towards the door.
“It’s only us!” calls Sam.
Sadie shuffles away from the door to let them in, and Sam pecks a kiss on his sister’s cheek as he enters. Drew walks in behind him, and then they both stop in their tracks.
Sam’s eyes flick over to Allie. When he sees that she’s smiling his concern fades, only to be replaced with his trademark sass.
“I knew you’d come crawling back,” he says. “Never doubted it for a second.”
Eddie, who seems to have an endless supply of canapes somewhere, addresses Sam through a mouthful of food. “They’re getting married.”
Sam pauses for a moment, dumbfounded, while the information slowly sinks into his brain. He glances over to Allie, who nods a confirmation back at him. And then a wide smile breaks out across his face, and he’s back to his usual animated self.
“Ahhhhh!” squeals Sam, waving his hands around in front of him in excitement. He bypasses me completely to grab Allie into a massive hug.
“Bro,” says Drew, nodding at my legs. “You’ve got mud on your p—�
��
“He knows!” says Allie, Eddie, and Sadie, all at the same time, and everyone laughs.
Allie’s parents arrive just after noon, and there’s a big fuss because nobody has seen them in a while. When Allie introduces me and tells them we’re getting married, her mother, Mary, cries tears of joy at the news that her youngest baby is going to be a bride. Derek, Allie’s father, gives me a bone-crushing handshake and dryly tells me that he hopes I know what I’m in for.
Dinner is beautiful. Everyone gasps as Sadie sets down a huge glazed ham. Eddie carves it up and shares it out. Sam and Allie help Sadie to bring out dish after fancy dish of vegetables and other sides. By the time the meal is done, and all that’s left on the table are dessert plates with the crumbs of a delicious pumpkin pie on them, we’re all stuffed.
I hang back in the kitchen with Drew and Eddie to help with the cleanup, and then we all convene in the living room. I gratefully accept a beer from Eddie and, since there are no seats left, I lean against the wall near the door, watching Allie and Sam face off against Sadie and Drew in a highly competitive game of Pictionary.
“Greyson, do you have a minute?” asks Allie’s mom, coming over to stand beside me.
“Sure, Mary,” I smile, straightening. “What’s up?”
She beckons me into the hallway and closes the door behind us.
“I’m so glad to see Allie happy,” she says, and the crows’ feet at the corners of her eyes crinkle when she smiles.
“Me too,” I say.
I’m glad to see Allie happy. I’m glad to be able to make Allie happy. I’ve realized that my happiness is intrinsically linked to Allie’s in a way that feels almost cosmic.
Mary takes my hand and pulls it toward her, then drops something small and warm into my palm.
“Here,” she says. “Take this.”
I look down at my palm and my brows shoot up in surprise.
“Yours?” I ask, looking back at Mary.
I see tears sparkling along her lower lids and she shakes her head.
“No, son. Not mine.”
Chapter 28
Allie
After Sam and I have finished trouncing Sadie and Drew at Pictionary and I have performed the obligatory victory dance, I head off to find Greyson. I want to leave relatively early so we can get the girls back to the mansion, before they’re too tired to appreciate their bedrooms or to understand what’s happening.
I find him in the hallway with my mom, hugging her.
“Hey!” I say.
My mom breaks the hug and Greyson darts his hand into his pocket. As I get a little closer, I notice that my mom has been crying.
“Mom!” I place my hand on her arm and look her over with concern. “Are you all right?”
“Oh,” she laughs, wiping her cheeks. “Yes, sweetheart. Just happy for you is all. You know how I am.”
I smile and hug her. I can’t blame her—this is a lot for your daughter to spring on you when you thought you were just coming over for a quiet Christmas dinner.
“I think we’re going to head home,” I say. “But I’ll see you tomorrow so we can make sandwiches out of leftovers, right?”
“It’s tradition!” she grins, kissing me on the cheek.
She pats Greyson’s arm on the way past and goes back into the living room.
“What was that all about?” I ask, turning to Greyson.
He shrugs and pulls his hand out of his pocket, then wraps his arm around me and pecks an affectionate kiss on the top of my head.
“Shall we go home, then?” he asks.
It’s so strange to know that by “home” he means the mansion. That beautiful old house is where I live, now. With Greyson and the girls. A smile spreads across my face and I nod.
“Yes. Let’s go home.”
The girls were ecstatic when they saw their room. Lottie teared up, and Emma spent no less than twenty full minutes jumping up and down on her new bed. It took a good hour and a cup of cocoa each to calm them down enough to sleep, and though they both nodded along as I explained that we’d be living here from now on, I’m pretty sure I’ll have to explain it all again tomorrow.
By the time I’m done with their stories, they’re both sleeping soundly, all tucked up in their new beds, in their new home. Downstairs, I find Greyson waiting for me in the living room with a glass of red wine.
“I could get used to this,” I grin, taking the glass from him.
“Well, I wasn’t sure if you’d want to stay up a while and have some wine, or if you’d like to... get an early night,” he says, emphasizing the last part. The way he’s looking at me, with a slight grin and hungry eyes, his implication is clear.
“Hmm,” I reply, tapping my finger on my chin. “Tough call.”
He arches his brows, amused. I think he knows that this conversation is only going to end one way.
“Just kidding,” I beam, turning around and making a break for the stairs. “Race ya!”
I get as far as the landing. His thick arms scoop around my waist from behind, and he lifts me up and carries me into the master bedroom.
It’s nothing like the bare, vacant room I left a couple of weeks ago. The paneling has been painted white, and the walls above it are sage green. There’s a four-poster bed against the wall, draped with cream netting, and the bedding is shades of midnight blue and peach. I turn to face Greyson, and the surprise and delight of seeing this room for the first time must be all over my face because he’s smiling with satisfaction as he watches me.
“Nice, huh?”
“Look at you, all proud of yourself,” I grin, bopping him on the nose with my finger.
“Right, Ms. Brooks,” he says, very seriously. “That’s enough out of you.”
He throws me down onto the bed, and I roll over to look up at him. I arch my back and waggle my brows at him, making an exaggerated show of trying to be sexy.
“Bonjour,” I say, my voice low and husky.
He bursts out laughing and shakes his head at the absurdity of it, crawling on top of me as I giggle beneath him.
He takes my face in his hands like it’s a fragile, precious thing, and presses gentle kisses onto my chin, my forehead, in a trail down my nose to the tip, and then, finally, after he’s brushed his lips against mine and extracted a quiet whimper from them, he kisses my mouth.
He takes his time with me. His fingers are meticulous on the buttons of my jeans; his hands firm but gentle as they guide me out of my clothing. He pulls his shirt over his head and his mud-stained pants from his legs, and he poises himself over me again, his arms on either side of my head.
“Hey,” I whisper.
He brushes a curl out of my face and runs his thumb across my mouth, then pulls my bottom lip down with just a little pressure, before releasing it to bounce back into place.
“Hey.”
And then he pushes his hips between mine, parting my thighs wider, and presses naked sex against naked sex. I feel myself clench, my body alive with sudden, urgent desire. A smile sparkles in his eyes and he rolls his hips, teasing me, refusing to give me what I want, even as my hips roll up in response, reaching out for him.
“Do you want something, Allie?” he asks, with a wicked smirk.
“Everything,” I breathe, barely able to put a coherent thought together.
He shifts himself down a little, then slowly brings his hips forward, sliding into me, filling me. I groan and wrap my legs around him, pulling him closer, insisting on more, and he obliges with the rhythmic thrusting of his hips.
He leans down to kiss me. His breathing is heavy, hot on my cheek, and he swallows the moans he draws out from my mouth.
He shifts, propping onto one elbow and sliding his other hand down, along my side, against my hips, and then into the nothing between us, and I know I’m done for.
His fingers move against me, urged on by the rhythm of his hips, circling, teasing until I am a muddled mess of moans and whimpers underneath him. He is a pent
up animal, coiled like a spring, teetering on the edge of release. I feel the muscles of his back beneath the tips of my fingers, bunched and strained, and I hear the salacious slapping of our bodies echo back from the walls. We glisten in the moonlight, our bodies shimmering with sweat as we chase down ecstasy together.
I shatter in an explosive instant, rolling and moaning through wave after wave of pleasure, and as I ride my own euphoria I feel Greyson lose himself inside me.
He collapses on top of me, panting as hard as I am, and we float back to earth together.
I lay beside Greyson, my head on his chest and one arm draped across his stomach, marveling at the fact that this is our bed. In our home. I still have to pinch myself whenever I think about everything that’s happened today. The difference between how I felt just twenty-four short hours ago and how I feel now… it’s like another lifetime.
“Allie,” Greyson says, sitting up. I reluctantly slide off the spot on his chest that I was using as a pillow and look up at him.
“I have something for you.”
That gets my attention. He’s already given me so much today, I have a hard time believing there could be anything else.
“Oh?” I say, curiosity getting the better of me. “And what’s that?”
His expression doesn’t give much away, but there’s a gravity about the way he’s looking at me that makes me sit up and take notice.
Greyson kisses my cheek and rises, walks over to his discarded, muddy pants, and reaches into the pocket.
“I know we said we’d get a ring when the stores are open again,” he says, turning around to face me.
“Yeeeeah,” I say, questioningly. Where is this going?
He holds up his hand, and I see a handkerchief with the initials M. B. embroidered on the corner. I recognize it immediately. It’s my Mom’s.
My Smalltown C.E.O. Scrooge: A Festive Romantic Comedy Page 19
