“Will you forgive me?” he asks.
I look him in the eye and see something swirling in the depths of the greens and blues. I’m not sure what it is or what to call it, I just know it’s a look new to me.
As we sit on the floor and he takes my hands and holds them on his lap, I study his face. The lines are taut, a look of concern etched across his forehead. His hands are warm as they encompass mine, squeezing them gently as I choose how to respond.
“When I’m with you,” I begin, my voice cloudy, “I feel like I can conquer the world.”
“You can,” he whispers. “I can’t wait to see you achieve all the things I know you can. And I’m ready to help you in any way I can to make sure you have the means and energy to do it. I want to support you in every way, Mallory.”
My cheeks blush. “You make me feel like I could run Landry Holdings if I wanted to. Your whole family trusts me with things that are so meaningful to them. I can’t describe how that makes me feel.” I look to the floor, searching for words. “When I wake up in the morning, I smile. Do you know how odd that is for me?”
“Not a morning person?” he winks.
“No,” I chuckle. “But knowing I get to spend time with you makes me excited for the day. I feel like . . .” The words I’m about to say crash in my throat and I nearly choke on the emotion they bring.
His hand cups the side of my face. “Like what, Mallory?”
“Like I can do anything. Like I used to feel a long time ago.”
He draws me into him, holding me tight. Twisting me so I sit on his lap, he embraces me in the middle of the studio. “You matter more to me than I thought possible,” he breathes. “I didn’t realize it until I watched you walk out today and it hit me: all the things my brothers said were true. This thing between us isn’t easy, yet I can’t imagine not doing it. Spending time figuring it out doesn’t feel like a potential waste of time. It feels like the only option because I can’t replace you with something else. I don’t want to,” he adds vigorously.
I pull back and look at him as his phone chirps in his pocket. “You can get that if you need to,” I say, needing a little breather anyway.
He takes out the device, looks at it, and holds it in the air between us. “It’s Vanessa. How would you like me to handle this?”
“With a restraining order?” I volunteer, hoping the escalation in my blood pressure doesn’t cause me to black out.
With a deliberate hand, Graham answers the call. “Hello?” He listens for a few seconds before speaking again. “If you think, for a second, that I’m going to listen to you after the way you treated Mallory today, you are crazier than I thought.”
He looks at me, his features softening. “We are nothing more than two people that share an awful memory.” He reaches for my hand and I place my palm in his, waiting with bated breath to see how this goes. “We never loved each other, Vanessa,” Graham says. “I’ve only been in love once. Once you know what that feels like for real, you know if you’ve felt it before. I haven’t. Not with you.”
My smile causes my cheeks to ache as I wrap my arms around his middle. My chest lies against his side, his arm pulling me in closer, as he begins speaking again.
“Try it and see what happens,” he says, his voice cold. “But if you bother me, Mallory, or anyone in my family, you won’t like the consequences.”
He stiffens against me. “Consider yourself on notice: you are not welcome on any Landry property. If I see or hear from you again, hell will break loose.”
His phone slides across the floor and lands against his jacket. I stand still, holding him, afraid to speak. I don’t know what she said, but I do know she got to him and that’s hard to do.
“I’ve wasted so much of my life because of her,” Graham mutters. “Not anymore.”
He lays me back against the mats, his body rolling with some unnamed emotion. My heart races as he lies on top of me, holding his weight off with both hands. “No one can just walk in here, right?” Lifting my shirt and the hem of my sports bra, he exposes my breasts.
“You’re going to worry about that now after you had me with your neighbor listening?”
He grins, melting my heart. “I told you, that was then, when you were just a beautiful woman I was enjoying. This is now.”
“This is now,” I whisper. I’m not sure what all that means, but I know hearing the words fall from his lips, pregnant with so much promise, feels like the best thing in the world.
Closing my eyes, I enjoy his kisses. I relish the way Graham makes me feel. Beautiful and wanted—sure. But it’s more than that. So much more.
6 months later
Mallory
“YOU’RE LATE.” I LOOK UP from the stove to see Graham entering the kitchen with a big smile on his face. Although he was supposed to be home two hours ago and lunch is now cold, I can’t even pretend to be mad at him.
He tosses his keys on the counter. They completely miss the basket he used to be so anal about hitting. “We decided to go a full eighteen holes.” Glancing around the kitchen, he takes in the cracker crumbs on the floor, egg shells sitting in a pile of dropped egg whites on the counter, and more dirty mixing bowls than one person should have while making a meatloaf.