Beyond These Walls (The Walls Duet #2)(3)
I squealed, hugging him and scattering kisses across his adorable face. “You are amazing!” I exclaimed.
Grabbing my face between his hands, our eyes locked, and I felt him sober slightly. The buzz of our happiness zinging between us reduced to a hum as he pulled me toward him.
“No, it is you who amazes me—constantly, daily, every minute. I love you, Lailah, and I can’t wait to make you my wife.”
As his lips touched mine, I was the one who was truly dazzled.
“So, you’re sticking with green for my dress?” Grace asked as we wandered down the streets of Manhattan.
“Yes.” I laughed. “You asked me that last week, you know.”
“I know.” She sighed, bundling up baby Zander and bringing him a little closer to her chest.
Grace had stumbled into motherhood with little mishap. It had shaken her perfectly planned world slightly—having a creature who cried and slept whenever and wherever he chose—but she and her husband, Brian, had adapted well, and Zander was flourishing. I’d always seen Grace with a girl. She was so feminine and dainty, earning the nickname Snow White at the hospital where she worked as a nurse, but seeing her now, with her charming little boy, made perfect sense. He was the calming blue yin to her bedazzled pink yang.
“But I thought that, maybe after my constant whining, you might have changed your mind,” she added, making a goofy face in Zander’s direction.
He laughed in glee at his mother’s silliness.
“You mean, your constant badgering to change the color to pink?” I asked, looking across the street to a rare cluster of trees.
They had begun to change color, fading from green to a fiery orange, which contrasted starkly against the dark grays of the buildings in the background.
“It wasn’t pink exactly. More of a pale blush color. Think of it as a winter pink.” She smiled.
“Winter pink? Now, you’re stretching it, Grace.” I laughed. “You know why I love green.”
“Yes, it matches Jude’s eyes, which is romantic and beautiful and goes great with the wedding’s Christmas theme, but you can’t blame a girl for trying.”
“I’ll give you extra points for persistence,” I added, pointing toward the store we had talked about at lunch.
“Yes! That’s the one! We should find lots of honeymoon stuff there, huh?” she exclaimed. She was doing that strange thing parents sometimes did where they were simultaneously speaking to an adult and their child at the same time. The conversation was geared toward the adult, but the octave of the voice and the overly expressive facial features suggested otherwise.
It was both weird and adorable at the same time.
The three of us entered the large store and began browsing. It was exactly the type of store I was comfortable in. No one came rushing over to judge how much money I was about to spend. I was left alone to roam through the racks with Grace as we carried on a casual conversation, catching up on our lives.
“So, how is life in the cardiac unit?” I asked.
She held up a long-sleeved sweater with fur trim. I shook my head and laughed as Zander reached out from his BabyBjörn for the fuzzy brown collar.
“Well, we haven’t had a prom in a while,” she said with a toothy grin. “But it’s good,” she answered. “A little lonely without my favorite patient, but I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
“At least you still have Marcus,” I said.
“Yes, I do. Having your mother and him around is like having an extra set of grandparents. They are really wonderful, Lailah.”
“Well, I didn’t expect otherwise.”
The next item she held up for my inspection was a ruby-red bikini. My eyes bugged as they fell on the two barely there scraps of fabric.
“First, a sweater built for arctic weather, and now, a bikini? Where exactly is he taking me?”
Her grin widened. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
My face fell slightly as I contemplated my answer. “He didn’t overdo it, did he? I mean, he knows he doesn’t have to always offer up these crazy romantic gestures. I’ll love him no matter what.”
She hung the bikini back on the rack and took a few steps closer. Wrapping her arm around my shoulder, she ushered me toward some chairs in the corner of the store. Luckily, no abandoned husbands or boyfriends were left in the store today, so the spot was all ours.
“What do you mean?” she asked as we took our seats.
“I just worry sometimes, after everything that has happened—the heart surgery and his guilt over not being there—that he feels this overwhelming need to make up for it. I don’t ever want to be a burden to him, Grace.” Feeling like I was confessing a horrible sin, my hands nervously wrung together.
Jude was the most amazing person I’d ever met. Admitting that I thought he could somehow be acting out of guilt rather than a place of love felt like the worst kind of crime imaginable.
“Lailah, I know the two of you have been through more in two years than most couples experience in a lifetime, but please believe me when I say, these grand gestures that you consider so monumental are nothing compared to the love that man has for you. When he called me last week and asked if we wouldn’t mind flying out for the weekend, there was nothing but excitement in his voice. I remember the old Jude. He was so filled with remorse that there was no room for anything else. This isn’t him. Let him love you the way you deserve to be loved.”