The Presence of Grace (Love and Loss #2)(55)

His thumb came up and rubbed right under my bottom lip. “You called him Jaxy. I don’t think I’ve ever heard you call him anything except Jax.”

It hadn’t occurred to me that I hadn’t been using his nickname. I’d heard Devon and Ruby call him that ever since we started dating.

“I guess you finally rubbed off on me,” I said, lifting one shoulder in a shrug.

“I think, perhaps, you finally are starting to feel like a part of our family.”

“Perhaps,” I whispered, emotions creeping back into my voice. Never in my wildest dreams had I imagined finding a man as wonderful as Devon and finding a place in a family. A family was all I’d ever dreamed about, and sitting here with him, his arms around me, children arguing down the hall, it all seemed too good to be true.

“I think you should stay here tonight.” His words were definitive.

“All right,” I agreed. It wasn’t as though I hadn’t stayed over almost every night in the last month.

“And I want you to be here when the kids wake up.”

“Devon—” I began to argue, but he cut me off.

“I want you to get used to it as much as them. I promise it won’t be a big deal. In fact,” he sat up straighter with his words and then called out, “Kids, come out here for a moment.”

“What are you doing?” Panic made my heart race.

He smiled at me in response, then pressed a quick kiss against my forehead before moving me off him and sitting up straight on the couch. Ruby and Jax came down the hallway, both with expectant looks on their faces.

“Quick family meeting,” Devon started once both kids were in front of us. “We’re all going to go out to dinner tonight, the four of us, and we’re going to stop at Grace’s on the way home. She’s going to grab some of her stuff and she’s going to stay the night here. Then, tomorrow, I’m going to take Jaxy to Grandma’s like normal, but Ruby’s going with Grace to get a new swimsuit and do some other girly stuff.” My mouth gaped open and I stared at Devon as though he’d grown a second head. “Anyone have anything to say about any of that?”

“I wanna go do girly stuff too,” Jaxy whined.

“Sorry, bud. You cut up your sister’s swimsuit, you lose out on the fun stuff.” There was a pause. Devon gave a small clap of his hands. “Okay, as you were. We’ll leave for dinner in a few hours. No more fighting or Grace and I will pick a really boring, grown-up place.”

“Okay,” both the kids said in unison before they turned and made their way back toward their rooms.

“See?” Devon said, turning to me. “Problem solved. Now everyone’s on the same page.”

I was speechless for a moment, my thoughts trying to catch up with everything that had happened in just a few minutes. “You’re crazy,” I said on a laugh. I wasn’t laughing because I thought it was funny, I was laughing at how surprisingly he handled it, and how the kids didn’t seem to bat an eye at the idea of me spending the night.

“I’m tired of losing time with you, Grace. Tired of watching you get up early and go home to a cold and lonely bed when there’s no reason you can’t stay here, with me, and be a part of this life. Unless you don’t want to be….” His words trailed off as insecurity seeped into his voice.

“No. God, no. Of course I want to be here. You and the kids mean everything to me. I’m just worried about taking this too fast. What if we all get comfortable and a few months down the line something happens and we aren’t together anymore.”

His hands formed fists, the muscles in his forearms rippling from the tension.

“I refuse to live my life worrying about the future. I love you and you’re not some woman I just met on the street. I know you, and I know how much you care about my kids, and we’re all better off when you’re here, with us.”

I reached over and laid my hand on his arm, and let out a breath when he relaxed. He exhaled, the tension in his arms melting away, then his head dipped low and he turned to look at me. “I can’t keep you away because I’m afraid of losing you. That doesn’t make any sense to me.”

“When you say it like that, it doesn’t make any sense to me either.” I leaned toward him, my side resting against him, my head tilting until it landed on his shoulder. “I’ll try to stop worrying about everything. I want to be here. I do.”

“Just let us love you.” His words were pleading.

It’s all I’d ever wanted.

“Okay.”



There was no particular nail salon I favored, as regular manicures weren’t really in a teacher’s budget, but I figured one at the mall would be as good as any. Ruby and I had gone to a coffee shop and I’d gotten a chocolaty coffee drink with far too much sugar, and she’d ordered an Italian soda. We’d wandered through part of the mall on the way to the salon, but she was being particularly quiet. She didn’t look so great either, if I was being honest. She was pale and she looked tired. I hoped she wasn’t getting sick right before her trip to California.

When we’d walked into the nail salon, I helped her pick out a pale pink color for her nails and then decided to use the same one. We were ushered to chairs right next to each other and then the nail techs went to work on us.