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"Yes, beautiful, you do that a lot now. Growing our baby makes you tired, but I don't mind because that means I get to carry you around more often like this."
"I love when you carry me." He did carry me often, so I trusted he liked doing it for a reason. I'd also discovered James was very particular about how he touched me—or more so in placing me where he wanted me. He arranged me into positions or put me in places where he then had a purpose for something more to come. I could tell this was one of those times. The whole feel of his body changed. His muscles flexing against me, and the way he was carrying me with determination told me he had plans for me tonight.
I didn't ask him either.
I knew if I did ask he probably wouldn't tell me anyway.
Because my James was a fan of plans…and surprises. And so was I.
The first surprise was that we weren't home in Boston but rather at his house in Sherborn. We hadn’t come here since the first night we were together. I knew he'd bought it originally before he was supposed to marry Leah, because he told me. I'd considered he avoided coming here so he wouldn’t be reminded of her, but I wasn’t completely sure. James had his demons…as did we all.
"Are we staying the night here?" I asked when he brought me in through the front door, carrying me effortlessly, as if I weighed nothing—which was definitely not the case.
"Only tonight." He kissed me before setting me down carefully in front of the fireplace which was already lit and cheerfully warming the room, most likely from Enzo's efforts. There were blankets and pillows and drinks and appetizers set out too. It looked like my surprise was going to be a slumber party by the fireplace with James. Yes, please. "Is that okay?" he asked.
I nodded slowly, my smile taking over as I realized what he'd planned for us. "This really is a beautiful house, James."
His hands gripped my hips loosely as he stood before me. "Your beauty makes the house pale in comparison, but it's served its purpose I think. In a good way. And now I'm ready to let it go for something else altogether. Other people will find it useful I hope, especially with your help."
"You're selling?"
"Something like that, beautiful." He smiled at me, a rare one that lit up his whole face. "You're a hard one to buy gifts for, Winter Blackstone, do you know that? I've wracked my mind for weeks trying to figure out the right engagement gift, and then tonight I knew what it should be. It came to me so easily while you were sleeping in the car."
"Why do you need to give me an engagement gift, because I don't have a gift for you, and we already discussed this."
"Oh yes you do, beautiful. You are my gift because you love me and you're having our baby. Your gifts are…everything to me…so much more than any single object I could ever give to you."
"Oh James—"
He silenced me with another kiss and then he knelt down in front of me and put his lips to my belly. He looked up at me with his sludgy green eyes that held the power to make me melt and said, "Winter Leigh Blackstone, I have loved you for a long time. I've watched you grow into the most amazing woman in the world…to me you are. One who is not only beautiful, but kind, and lovely, and so smart I am in awe half the time. The other half the time I have to pinch myself that you love me and want to belong to me. So, this house is my engagement gift to you. You already told me you didn't want a big diamond ring and w
ouldn't wear one anyway, so what can I give to the woman I love who holds my heart?" He looked around the room and then back up to me. "A house, one I don't need but could be used for those that do. It's yours to have as a starting point for a shelter or administrative offices or whatever you'd like it to be. There's room for expansion too, because the land itself is just under five acres. You can have horses here, there's a barn with outbuildings and everything. I'll take care of all the permits and legalities for you, and you can do what you do best. Help the people who need it and make your dreams a reality. You have your safehouse, my Winter."
I ended up on the floor with him because my legs couldn't hold me up anymore. Especially with him kneeling and his mouth too far away for my lips to kiss.
Many hours later I woke in his arms. Enveloped in his warmth and the soft blankets of our love nest beside a fireplace glowing with embers, I'd never felt so loved. I don't even know how I lived my life without James loving me this way before he started. I've also never cried as much in my life as I have in the last few weeks. But it didn't matter, because he'd told me once that he loved my tears. He owned my "love-tears" as he called them.
Much like he owned my heart.
Chapter Twenty-Two
WINTER
February
They say every family has a few skeletons in their closet.
Whoever "they" are were not lying.
I may have just had an out-of-body experience at dinner tonight when my mother told us all that Caleb was the love-child of my father and a British housemaid who worked for them the year my parents married. When she died just three weeks after he was born of a brain aneurysm my parents made a pact to raise him as their firstborn, even moving to Houston for a few years to conceal the secret.
Mind-fuck much?
That one was going to take me a while to process, but some of the oddities of her behavior over the years had now started to make some sense. Still, my father's indiscretion was a total shock. My mother was adamant that his final wishes were for Caleb to never know…but now that truth was known. And we would all have to move forward and figure out what it meant for each one of us. Caleb had then gone the additional step of announcing his purchase of the old Blackwater estate with the intention of converting it into the Sanctuary at Blackwater, a safehouse shelter for women and children in need. Brooke's initial idea had morphed into a real opportunity for our family to do some good works and make a big difference. I was thrilled for about two seconds before being completely blown off my feet by him offering me to run the whole show, as the Director of the Board of Operations.
Overwhelmed, I cried some more, blaming my tears on pregnant hormones, even though nobody was buying my story. I felt like I could barely keep up with the changes. And now, with a shiny new job of not only Sherborn, but also the Sanctuary at Blackwater to organize into operational safehouses? I needed a day, or ten, to let everything sink in before I tried to do much exploration with my feelings. Caleb assured me I would have all of the help I needed, of course, but it was still a huge amount for me to take in.
James took one look at me and announced he was putting me to bed, picked me up, and carried me out of Caleb and Brooke's place in his arms. "I guess it's a good thing we live in the same building as them," I said admiring the hard set of his jaw, "because you don't have to carry me very far."
