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“Thank you for this, Cash. It’s been a perfect night,” she says as she polishes off a piece of key lime cheesecake.
“Do you trust me?” I ask, as I lower to my knees beside her.
Grace’s hand flies over her mouth, but she doesn’t have the same fear as she did days earlier. It’s still not the reaction I want when this is real, so I pull her hand to mine and kiss it.
“Relax, Gracie, I’m not proposing today.”
She squirms and looks around, but we’re by ourselves. “Then get off your knees; you’re making a scene.”
I silently chuckle. “Ya didn’t mind me on my knees a few hours ago.”
“Cassius James, stop teasing me!”
I laugh louder. “Sorry, you make it so easy.” I look up into her eyes. “Do you trust me?”
Grace sighs. “Yes, I do.”
“Move in with me. Tell me your hopes and dreams. Let me help make them come true.”
Her smile softens. “Can you please stand up? Or sit down…really just get off your knees.”
I laugh as I swipe the sand off my pants and sit across from her.
Grace meets my eyes. “I’m nervous I won’t be any good at this.”
“At what?” I ask honestly.
She sighs. “Motherhood. Living together. Being your partner. Whatever it is that we are doing, I’m afraid I’ll screw it up.”
I nod, already aware of her fears.“Can I share something with you, Angel?”
Grace looks at me pensively. “Anything.”
“I’ve been seeing a therapist.” She sucks in her breath as I continue. “I have no idea what the hell I’m doing. I’m far more screwed up than you, and I’m scared to death that I’ll mess up everything.”
Grace reaches her hand out to me. “You will make a wonderful father.”
I raise my brow. “Will I? I don’t have a good role model…I could be just like my father.”
She shakes her head. “You’ll be nothing like your father. You’re warm, and kind, and loving…you are there for every single person in your family. You’ll never abandon your child…I may have worried about how you would be with me, Cash,”—I flinch because I hate that I ever made her doubt me but know I’ve earned every concern—“but I never worried about you being a father. If anything, knowing you, and knowing all that you would give to our daughter, made it impossible not to give us a second chance.”
I smile. “Yes, Angel. I will do anything for our daughter. And for the record, I’ll do anything for you. I am going to keep putting in the work. Keep trying to be better. I promise, you areeverythingto me.”
“I can’t promise you I will be what you are looking for,” Grace admits. “I mean I had a terrible model for a mother, and I have no idea how to be in a relationship. I don’t want to lose myself to make you happy.”
I smile.
“Why are you smiling? I just told you I think I’ll be a crap partner and mom.”
“I’m smiling because I know you won’t. And I know it because you’re finallytalkingto me. You’re being honest, and Grace, if we are honest with one another and talk through our fears, we don’t have to become our parents. I don’t have to be a miserable workaholic and crap father, and you don’t have to be a selfish, controlling mom. We can be ourselves and still achieve our goals because I’ll always be in your corner, and you’ll always be in mine.”
I squeeze her hand three times, and she seems to relax and finally opens up. “I don’t want our children to be raised by nannies or to go to boarding school. I don’t want them to look forward to summer because that’s the only time they have one-on-one time with us.” She hits close to my childhood, but I know she’s only doing it because she cares.
I smirk. “Children?”
Grace looks at me nervously. “I know you didn’t propose, but I’m planning a life here.”
I try to hold back the grin, but it bursts through. My plan is working. She’s finally picturing a life with me…she’s making plans.
