CHAPTER 35

After hours of trying to figure out how best to handle Grace’s latest dilemma she finally had to change the subject. She was so drained from this topic already.

“Yesterday after she got home—mind you she spent Friday evening with him and most of the day yesterday—she asks if it would be okay if he picked her up from school instead of taking the school bus. So I told her no. Three days in less than a week is a bit much, don’t you guys think?”

Taylor made a face and she knew he would. He, as always, was on Rose’s side. God, he loved spoiling her. Before he’d start stating why he didn’t agree with Grace, she lifted her hand. “Remember, Taylor. She’s only fifteen.”

“But if they’re just hanging out and if you know you can trust her, and you know you can Grace, then I don’t see the issue.”

Joey shook his head. Finally someone was on her side. “I think you’re forgetting, Taylor, what it’s like to be a sixteen-year-old boy. Too much time together could be trouble. Not to mention that his own cousin warned Grace about him.” Joey turned back to Grace. “So she’s mad at you, sweetie?”

Grace nodded a bit saddened. “I hate for her to be mad at me but I told her it was for her own good. I knew the time would come when she would rebel even against me. I just didn’t think it would be after only a couple of times of hanging with him.”

“You really think she’ll rebel? Like maybe get sneaky?” Joey asked.

Grace hadn’t thought that far ahead but the thought was alarming. What if she did? As if she really needed more to worry about.

The knock at the door was loud and severe, making all three of them turn at once. “Grace? You here? I need to talk to you.”

Sal’s voice was ominous—demanding. Rose was the first thing that came to mind. School had been out for over an hour and she hadn’t checked in like she normally would when Grace wasn’t home at that time. Grace assumed it was because she was mad at her but with Sal banging at the door she wasn’t sure what to think. She jumped from Joey and Taylor’s kitchen table where they’d all been sitting the entire time.

Without even thinking she hurried to the door and swung it open, her heart at her throat then feeling the all too familiar rush of emotion at the incredible sight of him. She barely managed to say the words. “What happened? Is Rose okay?”

With the relief of knowing this had nothing to do with Rose, suddenly the anger and hurt that she’d worked so hard to keep sedated over the past month began to emerge. The front she had to put up for everyone else’s sake, out of fear of worrying them she could no longer contain. “You have got to be kidding me.”

Sal didn’t back down instead he stood even taller, every word more looming than the last. “Is he here?” Sal eyes searched the small apartment. “I saw his car out front. Are you seeing him now, Grace?”

He took one step forward cupping her face in his hands weakening her resolve just like that and she went speechless, staring into his frightened eyes. “I didn’t sleep with her, Grace. I swear to you. She concocted the entire thing. I have proof for you. But I need to know what the fuck is going on with you and this guy? Why is he here with you? And why’ve you’ve been with him all weekend. Are you…”

His words seemed to catch while Grace tried to make sense of what he’d just said. “You have proof…” She almost allowed herself to believe it but caught herself. “No!” She pulled his hands away from her face. She wouldn’t fall back into this. “You said you did. You can’t just take that back now.” Feeling what she’d known all along she’d feel if she ever had to be around him she could barely speak now. “You need to leave. I told you I want nothing to do with you anymore.”

“Just tell me. Is he here?” He looked around again eyeing the hallway to the bedrooms. “Is he fucking hiding?”

“No!”

“Then what’s his car doing out front? I know I can prove to you I didn’t do a damn thing with Melissa, but you’ve been with this guy all weekend.” The fire in his eyes was ever blazing and she knew she should be mad but he sounded so determined when he said he could prove his innocence it gave her mangled heart an ounce of hope.

She hadn’t thought it possible but the ferocity in his eyes went up a notch and he took a very deep breath. “Really? He loaned you his car and he’s getting you a restaurant, too? In exchange for what, Grace? Your business partner nearly kissed you yesterday… or maybe he did. You wanna explain that?”

“Grace,” Taylor spoke up. “Maybe you should tell him.”

Sal’s suddenly alarmed eyes finally pulled away from the glaring hold he had on Grace to look at Taylor. “Tell me what?”

He turned back to Grace and she bit her lip, the words still unbelievable even to her as she thought them, but she forced herself to say them. “I’m pregnant.”

The look in Sal’s eyes was not what she expected. She knew he’d be surprised and she didn’t exactly expect him to be thrilled but she wasn’t expecting the devastating expression he wore now. His eyes full of questions, he asked the last thing she would’ve imagined he’d ever ask. “Whose is it?”

Before she’d even allow the massiveness of what he just said to her manifest, she slapped him so hard it stung her hand.

~*~

Even with the heat of her hand still stinging his face, two thoughts buzzed in Sal’s head loud enough to almost drown out the words Grace now yelled at him. Grace was pregnant—with his baby.

“I said get out!”

Sal snapped out of his daze and reached out for Grace’s hand. She pulled back but he reached for it again and held it firmly staring into her tear-filled but angry eyes. “I’m sorry, Gracie. I just… I don’t know. You were with this guy all weekend. It made me so crazy.” He pulled her to him and thankfully she didn’t fight him. “This whole time without you I’ve been going insane. I don’t know what I was thinking. I didn’t mean that—”

“What else could you mean?” Even though her words had lost their wrath her eyes bounced from his eyes to his lips but she was still insisting on one thing. “I need you to leave.”

Unable to control the incredible urge to taste her lips again, he kissed her softly and though she didn’t really participate she didn’t push him away. “I think we both know I’m not leaving, especially now. Not without you anyway.”

“I can’t.”

Joey who had jumped from the kitchen table to come to Grace’s aid or maybe Sal’s when Grace slapped him, but stopped in the middle of the front room when he heard Sal apologize finally spoke. “Grace you should talk.” She turned her attention back to Joey. “Whether things between you two work out or not, you still have to talk about some kind of arrangement. You may as well get it over with now. ”

Sal knew exactly what was going to happen between them because nothing was keeping him away from her now but he’d keep that to himself for the moment. And the only thing they were getting over with was this damn relationship—business or not—she had with the casino guy. It didn’t matter what Joey said if he could convince Grace to leave with him, Sal would bite his tongue.

Grace glanced at Taylor. “But—”

“But nothing,” Taylor said. “I’m with Joey. Put your feelings aside for just a moment and think of what’s best for this baby. The rest will work itself out.”

The baby. Sal had been so strung out with his thoughts of Grace and the other guy it hadn’t really registered yet. She was having his baby.

She turned back to Sal who could barely restrain himself from taking her and smothering her in his arms. But he managed to refrain and instead said, “We do have a lot to talk about.”

“I’m in Frank’s car.”

Sal’s jaw tightened at the sound of her saying his name. Before he could spit out what he was thinking, Joey once again had the answer to that protest. “Taylor and I can drive it back to your place, or Sal can bring you back later.”

“Take it back.” was Sal’s immediate reaction. If he had it his way he wasn’t bringing her back. Not tonight—not ever.

Taylor nodded. “We can do that.”

Grace still seemed very apprehensive. She turned and their eyes met again. “I can only talk for a few minutes but then I have to go home and check on Rose.”

She pulled her hands from his and walked back to the kitchen. Both Taylor and Joey watched and if Sal wasn’t mistaken, though they weren’t blatant about it, they seemed pleased. That only gave him more hope that if he couldn’t convince Grace to come back to him maybe he could count on them to help. He knew they wanted nothing more than for their baby girl to be happy. He wasn’t crazy about hearing Joey refer to her as that the first time but at the moment he loved what it meant. It meant Joey would love nothing more than to make sure Grace was happy and taken care of. Which was exactly what Sal planned on doing.

They were barely to his car when he pulled her to him. She began to protest but he felt her body slowly give into him and he leaned against his car pulling her to him.

Grace’s eyes grew wide and got even wider as he filled her in on everything about Melissa and how unstable she was. “When I figured it out finally this past Friday, I really told her off. I called her a mental case. I shouldn’t have but I was just so fucking pissed. All the hurt you had to go through for nothing.” The enamel on his teeth was going to wear out from all the grinding he’d done ever since this whole nightmare with Melissa started.

Grace seemed to ease up but Sal could still see the apprehension. “Did she send the texts that night?”

“I’m fairly certain. When you see how out of it I was that night you’ll know there was no way I could’ve verbally put two coherent words together. Much less text them.”

Grace frowned but didn’t say anything at first. Then she looked him in the eye. “I didn’t believe her when she first told me.” She shook her head her eyes welling up a bit. “I just couldn’t believe that you would…”

“And I didn’t. You know that now.”

She breathed in deeply and nodded. “But when you said you did…” she looked away.

The hurt was still there and he didn’t want to, but he hated Melissa for that. He thought of what he felt when Romero informed him Frank’s car had been at Grace’s all night so he knew what Grace must’ve felt—remembered the desperation in Grace’s voice over the phone when she begged him to tell her he hadn’t slept with Melissa and he couldn’t. It choked him up just thinking about it and he brought his arms around Grace hugging her tight. “I wish I could take back all your pain. I swear to you I do, baby. But at least it’s over now.”

She pulled away from him to look at him. “Is it? How can you be sure?”

“Trust me. I took care of it.” He looked in her big eyes, feeling suddenly more emotional but in a different way than he had this past month. In a way that nearly took his breath away he brought his hand down and placed it on her belly. “How long have you known?”

She looked down, placed her hand over his and whispered. “Since last night.” Her face turned back up and met his eyes. “But I don’t want you think that I…” she hesitated before continuing. “You know that you have to…” She stopped again and shrugged. “After everything that’s happened, I don’t want this to be the reason that—”

“Are you kidding me? You really think I wouldn’t be a part of this? Grace I’d stop at nothing, especially now—” He stopped when it suddenly hit him. The pictures of Grace at the nightclub with that guy looking so different. Her spending the entire weekend with him. He was buying her a fucking house—handed over his brand new luxury car. Every muscle on his body went tense. “Wait, what do you mean everything that’s happened?”

“I’m just saying, even before all this happened we weren’t together that long. I’m sure you weren’t thinking that far ahead and certainly not in terms of marriage and I don’t expect you to just because—”

“Believe me, Grace. I was thinking all those things and more from the moment we came to an agreement. You don’t have to worry about any of that. But what I do need to know…” He took a moment to calm himself because he didn’t want to ruin things now that she seemed ready to forgive, and move on. As much as he tried his words were strained. “What the hell is going on between you and this guy from Laughlin?”

“It’s just business.”

“Really because that’s not what Sofie said it looked like Friday night and yesterday you almost kissed him.” Sal’s heart had started up again. This was not how he wanted their first reunion to be like but he couldn’t help it.

Grace’s brows pinched. “Yeah, you said that earlier. Who told you I almost kissed him?”

Sal almost wished she’d just deny it. This only enraged him further. “Vince made an observation when he picked up your sister. So did you, after they drove away?”

She thought about it for a moment then it seemed to come to her. “Oh that.”

“You did?” Sal stood up straight, no longer feeling the ease to just lean against the car anymore.

“No!” Her hand slipping into his had an amazing way of calming him. “I was feeling dizzy. Of course I didn’t know it at the time but it’s all pregnancy related. The dizzy spells and horrible nausea I’ve had for weeks have completely drained me and Rose has been really worried. So I’d waited for Rose to walk away before leaning against him for support.”

Sal stared at her remembering Vince mentioning she’d been sick. As much as he felt the urge to pick her up and take her home to start taking care of her, one nagging thought still occupied his mind. Even feeling completely drained she’d still gone out dancing Friday night—with Frank—looking hotter than ever. But before he could put it aside for now, and focus on her health instead she added, “but we do need to talk about me and Frank.”

Me and Frank. Never had three little words have such a nauseating effect on him.