The Presence of Grace (Love and Loss Book 2)(36)

“Have you thought about whether you’re going to press charges?” I asked softly. The last thing I wanted to do was upset her.

“I haven’t decided yet.” She ran her hand through her chocolate-colored hair that was down and drying against her shoulders. “I’ve seen guys like him a lot, being behind a bar. He seemed harmless, and I took him down easily enough when it came down to it. Part of me thinks he was just overconfident, you know? The booze made him bold. He’s just a kid, and I hate the idea of potentially ruining his life over one mistake. But, then I think about what if he tries it with someone else? What if she can’t fight him off as easily? I’m not sure I could live with myself if he hurt someone else because I let him off the hook.”

The more she spoke, the more I wanted just five minutes alone with the dickhead. I also wanted to lock Ruby up in a tower. Or enroll her in Krav Maga classes. Or both. I reached over and took her hand, pulling it into my lap and running my thumb over the back.

“I’ll stand behind whatever decision you make, but you have to remember that you’re not responsible for his actions. Not last night and not tomorrow. Or next month. If you decide not to press charges, you can’t worry about every female in Florida.”

“Thanks,” she said, trying to smile, but it was obvious her thoughts were still plaguing her.

I pulled into the parking spot next to her car, put my car in Park, then turned my body to face her.

“Hey,” I said, using one hand to bring her face around, looking into her blue eyes. “You going to be all right?”

“Yeah,” she answered softly, but then continued, her voice a little stronger. “Thanks to you.”

“I didn’t do anything.” I ran my thumb over the roundness of her cheek.

“Yeah, you did.” Her voice just a whisper again. “You came back for me, you protected me, you took care of me, you were honest with me, and you respected me.”

“Well.” I smiled. “When you put it that way.” Her mouth tipped up into a smile and it felt like the sun had just come out and peeked over a dark horizon. She was so beautiful. “Come over for dinner tonight. The kids will be home, I’ll cook, it’ll be really low-key.”

“Okay,” she agreed without a second of hesitation. “I’ll have to leave early to go to work, though.”

“No problem, we’ll eat early. How’s five?”

“Sounds great.” Her smile grew wider and I couldn’t stop myself from leaning over the console and kissing her, letting my fingers tangle in the wet strands of her hair.

When I finally pulled away, it was only because I knew she had things to do; I would have gladly stayed there and kissed her all day. But instead, she smiled at me again and then I watched as she opened her car door, got inside, and backed out of her parking spot.

It gave me a little relief to know she was safely on her way home, but then I shook off the image of her in the back of the building the night before, fighting off that douche bag. My fingers tightened on the steering wheel, knuckles turning white. I hated the idea of her in a bar four nights a week with drunken assholes, but I also knew it wasn’t my place to tell her to quit or ask her to look for something different. Something safer.

I let out a breath, shaking out my hands, then aimed my SUV toward my parents’ house to pick up my kids.



Hours later, Jaxy was playing Minecraft in the living room and Ruby was lying on the couch next to him reading a book. They’d both been surprisingly quiet and well-behaved all day, which I wasn’t going to complain about.

“Hey, kiddos, scootch.” Ruby swung her legs around, making room for me on the couch next to her. “Jaxy, eyes for a minute.” I waited for the groan or eye rolling, but he didn’t even grumble, just put the controller down and turned to look at me. “So, I wanted to talk to you guys about something.”

Ruby folded down the top corner of the page of her book, closed it, then looked at me with eyes that were exact replicas of her mother’s.

I swallowed hard, trying to find the words I’d been practicing in my head all day since I picked them up. “I want to talk to you guys about Grace.” This piqued Ruby’s interest, her eyebrows shooting up, but Jax just looked attentive, waiting for my next words. “I’ve invited her over for dinner tonight, and I wanted to talk to you about it.”

“I like Grace,” Jaxy said matter-of-factly. “I don’t care if she comes to dinner.”

“Jax, Daddy’s talking to us because he wants to date Grace, not just have her over for dinner.”

“What does that mean?” he asked his sister, all his eight-year-old innocence showing through.

“It means Daddy wants Grace to be his girlfriend and he wants us to be okay with it.”

I watched as his eyebrows drew close together, crinkling in the middle, thoughts obviously running through his mind.

“So, he’s going to hold her hand and kiss her and stuff?”

“Yeah,” Ruby answered. “And she’ll probably be over here a lot, and Daddy will be taking us to Grandma and Grandpa’s more, since they’ll want to go out on dates.”

“Grandma gives us cookies every time we go to her house!” Jaxy exclaimed, all too excited by the promise of sugar. His eyes turned to me, a huge sneaky grin across his face. “You can go on as many dates with Grace as you want, Daddy. We don’t mind.”