Wrecked (Crystal Book Billionaires) (31 page)

Luke’s hands trailed up and down my arm, the light touch making me groggy. Soon I was drifting off to sleep, being rocked into slumber by the rising and falling of Luke’s chest.

Luke

I
lifted the wooden spoon from the pot, giving the marinara a taste.

“So?” Grace asked from behind me.

I shrugged. “Tastes good to me.”

“Does it need more oregano?”

She pulled her colander from an upper cabinet and set it in the sink. Long strands of her dark hair fell over her bare shoulders. Outside, the November night was chilled but inside Grace’s little kitchen, the air was hot. Grace had taken her sweater off a long time ago, leaving nothing but her tank top and jeans on.

“What?” she asked, glancing at me and fluttering the dark lashes on a face bare of makeup. She’d taken to not only wearing less of it but also washing it off once she got home. I kept insisting to her that she looked great no matter what was on her face, but lately, she’d alluded to the fact that she didn’t care for wearing it as much as she once had.

I smiled. “I just don’t get tired of looking at you.”

She bit her lip and grinned, obviously pleased at my words.

“Watch that pot,” she nodded at the stove. “It might burn.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

I turned back to the pot, lowering the heat and stirring its contents. Grace and I had taken to cooking a lot together the last couple of months — or rather,
learning
to cook.

It had started with moving past sandwiches and frozen entrees into the realm of easy breakfasts. Omelets. Hash browns. With our combined cooking experience, we’d started out at the level that was likely possessed by an average ten-year-old. It took us a few tries just to not burn toast.

We’d eventually moved past breakfast, though, and on to slightly more complicated meals. Casseroles. Salads with homemade dressing. Internet recipes and herbs from Aunt Ginger’s garden had helped a lot.

The pasta with homemade marinara sauce was our newest adventure.

“I still think you got off easy,” I told her. “Cooking pasta is a no-brainer.”

She shot me the look that told me to can it. “Actually, it’s not. It takes a lot of focused attention to get the perfect al dente bowtie.”

Nails clipped on the floor, and I turned around to see Junebug walk into the kitchen. She edged her way among the chairs and settled down underneath the table, one of her favorite spots.

I scoffed. “I don’t know why she likes it down there. She barely fits.”

“Dogs are cave dwelling creatures,” Grace matter-of-factly explained. “It’s in their DNA. They want to be in little spaces like that. It makes them feel secure and safe.”

I grinned at her. “You’re turning into quite the professional.”

She blushed.

“Speaking of small…” I trailed off. I had been planning on waiting until after dinner, but my nerves had begun to get the best of me.

Grace cocked an eyebrow. “Speaking of small…” she prompted.

I turned the heat on the sauce off, opting to forget about it for a minute. I edged along the counter, down to where Grace stood. She watched me intently, lifting her face up to gaze into my eyes as I got close.

“Speaking of small, what?” she asked.

My heart did a little flip. Here went nothing.

“Speaking of small,” I repeated. “Your whole house is kind of small.”

“Yeah,” she agreed, confusion etched across her face. “It is.”

I cleared my throat. “And, um, what do you think of it?”

She laughed. “It’s cozy.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, trailing my hand up her arm. “It is. But do you ever wish you lived somewhere bigger? You know, somewhere with more space?”

“I lived in a big house my whole life. Why would…” She trailed off, the realization of what I was saying hitting her. “Oh.”

I peered at her face, studying her eyes in an attempt to see just how she felt about the situation.

“Grace?” I said after a few more moments. “Would you…” I licked my lips, still ridiculously nervous. “Would you like to move in with me?”

A grin broke across her face, allowing me to let out a relieved exhale.

“Luke,” she said, still smiling. “That’s… I don’t know what to say…”

“I can give you a suggestion.”

She giggled. “God… of course I’d love to live with you!” She threw her arms around my neck, pulling me in for a hug. I breathed deep, inhaling and relaxing into her familiar scent.

“Don’t forget Junebug,” I said into her hair. “You’d be living with her too.”

She pulled back, her brows suddenly furrowed. “But…”

“But what?”

She clutched the side of the counter and turned to sweep her gaze across the kitchen. “I just moved in here.”

“Don’t worry about the lease. I’ll pay for the rest of the year. You can even keep most of your things here if you want. This house could be your little getaway.” I picked up her hand and squeezed it. “The only thing that would be different is you’d be sleeping every night with me.”

She smirked. “We already spend almost every night together.”

“Yes, but our clothes aren’t in the same closet. And our names aren’t on the same mailbox.”

Grace laughed. “So that’s why you live in such a big house by yourself.”

“What do you mean?”

She faced me full on. “That house is way too big for one person. And you’ve barely got anything in it.”

I shrugged. “I’m not the best at decorating. I thought maybe you could help me with that.”

Her face became even more serious. “I have to ask you one question.”

“Okay. Shoot. But shouldn’t you put the pasta in yet? It sounds like the water’s boiling.”

“Hey, don’t tell me how to do my job,” she playfully reprimanded, although she pulled away and grabbed the bag of pasta. Ripping it open, she carefully dumped its contents in the big pot on the stove’s back burner, talking as she did so.

“So this was my question. You never intended to live there all alone, did you?”

I leaned against the counter and thought about that one.

“It’s for a family,” she continued.

Having kids was something we’d briefly talked about. For both of us, it was a “someday” thing. But had I bought the house in Crystal Brook with the explicit thought of a wife and kids?

Perhaps.

But it was hard to remember.

“I don’t know. It was for sale, and I bought it.” I shrugged. “All of the other ones near the downtown area seemed too small.”

Grace laughed and opened the cabinet under the sink to toss the empty bag in the trash. “You’re kidding, right?”

“What?”

“You mean too small to fill with half a dozen kids.”

“No,” I slowly said.

“There are five bedrooms upstairs in that house.”

“Yeah. I know.”

“So I was just curious…” She shook her head. “Not because it really matters or anything. I just always wondered since the day I found out you lived there all by yourself.”

“It’s the smallest house I’ve lived in.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Wait. Counting your family’s penthouse in New York?”

“Square footage wise, yes.”

“So really, you downsized.”

“I guess you could say that.”

“But why? Why hold onto that place if you don’t need it now? We could always buy a bigger place in the future.”

I stepped forward and took her hand. “I haven’t thought about it, honestly. Is there something you don’t like about that place?”

“No,” she quickly said. “It’s not that. It’s just that I love this cottage.”

“But you can still keep it, remember? I’ll get the lease extended if that’s what you want. This place could be your office.”

Her eyes searched my face. “Okay,” she nodded, finally smiling again. “I would love to move in with you.”

Hearing the words made my heart nearly burst from joy. To celebrate, I pulled her forward and planted a big kiss on her mouth. “I should have gotten champagne,” I whispered into her lips.

She pulled away with a smile. “I have whipped cream. We can eat if off of each other.”

I lightly pinched her side. “That sounds even better than champagne.”

With one last saucy glance in my direction, she flounced back over to the stove to give the pasta a stir.

“Will you get out the lettuce?” she asked. “There are some radishes in there too, and a cucumber if you want it.”

“Okay.”

I did as she asked and then got to work washing and dicing the vegetables. As my hands got busy, my mind wandered. Upon moving to Crystal Brook, I suppose I
had
been thinking about having a family one day. But two years ago, that idea itself had been so far down the line…

“Maybe I did it out of habit,” I announced.

“What?” Grace turned around from where she was setting plates on the table. Junebug crawled out from between the chairs, having just picked up on one of the signs meaning dinnertime wasn’t far away. She sat patiently in the middle of the floor, looking from me to Grace to see if either one of us would drop a piece of food.

“I think I just bought the house out of habit,” I explained.

“What do you mean?” she laughed. “I don’t get what you’re saying. You’re used to buying things? Isn’t that the first house you’ve bought?”

“Yeah, it is. But what I mean is, I didn’t even consider looking for anything smaller. I’m used to living in such a big space. Even if I don’t use it.”

I arranged the diced vegetables into a neat little pile on the cutting board and stared down at them, wondering why on Earth I hadn’t had this realization about myself sooner.

“Well, now you’ll have me there,” Grace said, going to the fridge and pulling out a bottle of salad dressing. I looked at the wall, something still not sitting right with me — although I couldn’t figure out what the problem was.

“What?” Grace asked.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s just… it seems so silly now, buying that big house. Even with the two of us there, it’s still a lot of space. We could add everything from
this
house into it, and there would still be empty rooms.”

“Yeah,” Grace slowly said, setting the dressing bottle on the table. “So let’s just stay here.”

“In your house?”

“Yeah… why are you making that face?”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to. It’s just that this place is… so…”

“So what?” She came forward and wrapped her arms around me. “So small? So cozy? So perfect for two people and their German Shepard?”

I smiled down at Grace, unable to fight anything she was saying when her eyes sparkled up at me like that. She could have asked me for the moon at that moment, and I would have died trying to find a way to get ownership of it for her.

With the love of my life pressed close against me, and my faithful dog thumping her tail on the floor and smiling goofily up at her two humans, the very idea of downsizing began to suddenly become appealing.

What did I need all that space for anyway? I’d never so much as thrown a party there. When guests did come to stay overnight, it was never more than one or two of them.

And there was something else about Grace’s little place that was extremely comforting. You couldn’t be inside of her house without knowing exactly where everyone else was. With its old walls and creaky boards, I could stand in the kitchen and know that Grace was in the bedroom, and Junebug was sneaking up on the living room couch.

At my house, it was nothing like that. Sometimes, I had to walk around the whole bottom floor and then halfway up the stairs yelling for Grace before discovering she was up in the game room watching TV.

“You’re right,” I said, my nodding gaining momentum as I did it. “But we have to do something with that house.”

“You mean sell it?”

“I was thinking something else… and it only now just occurred to me, so it’s a rough idea, all right?”

“Okay,” she agreed, her eyes sparkling with curiosity.

“Crystal Brook has two food pantries now.”

“Thanks to my hunky and amazing boyfriend.”

I inclined my head. “I’ll accept that compliment.”

She grinned and waited for me to continue.

“But there’s more we can do,” I said. “What if… what if we turned my house into some kind of center?”

“Like what? A community center? I don’t think it would work for that…”

“No, not that. Like, a place to help people.”

“A halfway house?”

“Maybe.” I ran my hand over my jaw.

Grace twisted her mouth and looked to the right, making the face she often did when thinking hard about something.

“What if it was something to help single parents out?” she suggested. “If Tracey could have had access to something like that when her husband left, it would have changed everything for her.”

“Exactly,” I agreed. “It could be a temporary boarding house for single mothers and their kids. A place where they can go to get on their feet. They’ll know that they have a safe place to come home to at the end of the day. A place where there’s everything they need… food, electricity. They can just focus on building their lives back up.”

Grace’s eyes danced. “Oh my God, Luke,” she gasped. “This is such a great idea!”

“It’s going to be complicated, of course. There will be all sorts of federal and maybe state requirements and regulations, I’m sure. It will be a while before we even get the place open.”

“Then we’ll get started tonight,” Grace said. “After dinner. I’ll start researching.”

I looked skeptically at her. “Don’t you have homework to do?”

She shrugged. “I’ll stay up till it’s all done.”

A massive tidal wave of appreciation filled me. I could hardly believe the woman in my arms was there. After everything we’d been through in life — both separately and together — it seemed almost crazy to be standing in the place we were.

“You know you’re the most amazing thing that’s ever happened to me,” I whispered to her.

Her eyes went soft. “And you’re the exact same to me.” She blinked fast, looking close to tears. “I wouldn’t be who I am today without you.”

I pulled her closer. “I love you, Grace.”

She gazed up at me. “You don’t even have to say that. I feel it every time you look at me.”