“My pleasure.”I knew I should be thanking him.If he hadn’t asked me to come here tonight, I wouldn’t be leaving with Grace.
Since Cowboy Hat still hadn’t taken a hint, I took the long way to the stage, bypassing Grace.I stepped up behind her, resting my hands on her hips.“J.T.’s gonna get me up there in just a minute, then we can get out of her, gorgeous.”
She smiled, tipping her head back.“Sounds good.”
I smirked at the guy going home alone tonight, just to let him know he’d never stood a chance.
Since my house was closer, Grace agreed to let me take her there.She’d been too damn quiet the entire drive, making me question whether she was having second thoughts.When I finally pulled in the drive and cut the engine, I had to ask.
“You sure you want this?That you want me?”
She unfastened her seatbelt and reached for her purse.“No doubt I want you.Where we go after this… that’s what I’m questioning.”
I grabbed her hand before she reached for the door handle.“It can’t be a one and done deal, Grace.I’d rather not have you at all, than to have you just one more time and have to let you go again.”
She closed her eyes and leaned in to kiss me.“I’ve never stopped loving you.I don’t even know how to do that.”
Her words lit me up like the fourth-of-freakin’-July.Helping me to breathe through the tightness in my chest that had been there since I watched her walk out my door the last time.
“I’ll never let you figure out how, ‘cause every day I’ll give you another reason to love me…” I kissed her.“To want me…” Kissed her again.“To need me.”
Her small hand closed around my jaw and she smiled.“I never expected you, Tane Azevedo.”
“Hmm, how does Grace Azevedo sound?”
Her eyes widened before her hand slipped to my chest.“We can’t even think about the future until you work things out with Quinn.She may never accept us, as a couple.”
“I love her,” I said, knowing in my heart I’d loved Quinn even before I’d laid eyes on her.She was a part of me.And always would be, but I couldn’t let her steal my happiness.“But for years I traded happiness to pay my debts, and atone for my sins.But now I’m finally free, and I plan to live my life and give my love to the only woman who matters to me, whether my daughter likes it or not.”
“I can’t let you lose your daughter because of me,” she said, hanging her head.“I couldn’t live with that.Because I know, better than most, what it does to a young girl, having to grow up without her daddy.”
“I’m in her life now,” I said, speaking gently to Grace’s unseen scars.“And I want to be in her life for as long as she’ll have me.”
“But she told you having me in your life is a deal breaker.”
The heartbreak in her eyes pissed me off.If Quinn would just give her a chance, I had no doubt she would fall in love with Grace too.“That’s a risk I have to take, because I tried living without you, to please my daughter, and I can’t do it.”
“Is it crazy to say I love you even more for trying?”
I smirked.“Yeah, pretty sure it is.”
“If I’d had a dad who was willing to put me first, even once, I may not have spent years in therapy, trying to heal all those old wounds.I may not have these trust issues, always expecting men to hurt me and let me down, because he did.”
Her honesty and vulnerability made my heart ache, because I knew instead of giving her reason to believe I was the one man she could trust with her heart, I let her down, just like her old man had.
“I’m sorry,” I said, knowing words were hollow.I’d spend months, maybe years, showing her how sorry I was for leaving her, for not putting her first.“Sorry you had to go through all that with your old man, and even sorrier I wasn’t the guy you needed me to be.”
She shook her head.“I don’t blame you for putting your daughter first.She should always come first.”
“No.”I didn’t know how the hell to be a parent, or even how to be selfless or love unconditionally, but I had to make Grace believe no one had the power to put our relationship at risk again.“Not first.A top priority, absolutely.But giving you the life you deserve means making you my wife, and giving you those babies you want, so I can’t promise Quinn she’ll be first.Any more than I could promise our future son or daughter they’ll be first.They’ll be part of the whole that makes me a happy man.But you’ll be at the center of that, Grace.Because without you, the rest of it can’t happen.”
Her eyes filled with tears as she spread her hand on her chest.“Wow.There’s a reason people can’t get enough of your songs, you know.Your words… blow me away.”
I smiled before kissing her.“Hmm, now can I use my body to blow you away?”
“Please.”
Laying her down in the middle of my bed, with her soft hair spread out on my pillows, felt like a homecoming.I remembered the first night sleeping in a real bed, at my folks’ house, after being imprisoned so long.It felt like my first taste of freedom.And having Grace back in my bed, felt like my first taste of the future.
