The Grand Pact (The Grand Men #1)(58)

“Of course, please don’t worry about it or me.”

“I’ll see you soon, Lucy. Just call if you need anything.”

“I will. Thank you, Maxwell.”





I’m late getting to the chapel this evening. My hangover seemed to get worse and worse as the day went on, and I’ve slept the majority of my Sunday away. I find Ralph already sitting on the bench when I arrive, and I quickly make my way to him.

“Lucy, I thought you might’ve stood me up.” He eyes the pizza box by his side.

“Oh, you sure know the way to a girl’s heart. Give me that.”

I sit down beside him and smile on the inside when he hands me one of two china plates. He lifts the lid of the pizza box, and my mouth waters as the steam hits me in the face. “Barbecue chicken with bacon and extra cheese. I thought extra everything was a safe bet.”

“You were so right.”

“Dig in,” he tells me with no rush to make a start himself.

“Thank you,” I say, looking at him with a genuine smile before sliding out a slice.

“Have you had any news on an apartment yet, Lucy?”

I shake my head and finished my mouthful. “I have a couple I need to view, but nothing has been walking distance to work and suitable in Elliot and my friends’ eyes.”

“I like how you separated the two. Elliot and my friends,” he notes, popping a bushy grey brow at me. “I have a proposition for you, Lucy, and forgive me for being so forward, but you’ve shown me nothing but kindness since the day I met you, and you’ve seemed to have breathed a little bit of life back into me. I’m very happy I got to meet you when I did.”

I fan my eyes with one hand while holding my slice of pizza in the other. “Ralph. You’ll make me cry,” I say with an awkward laugh slipping past my lips.

I sit up straighter, my stomach churning with the way he’s set up the conversation.

“Don’t cry. You’ll set me off.” He pats my knee and picks up a slice of pizza for himself. “How about this. I’d like you to consider living in my home whilst you’re here in New York. You have eleven months left on your internship, and September will mark twenty years since my Elsie passed. I think it’s time I left the city and moved on. I need to take a leaf out of your book and pull myself together, live out our dream of retiring to our Hamptons house.”

“What, wait. You’re leaving?” My heart sinks. I love coming out to the chapel; it’s one of the only things I look forward to besides my calls to Elliot.

“I knew it was time long ago, but I’ve never wanted to let go. I’m much like you with my love of routine. I mean, look at us both.”

It’s true. From the conversations I’ve had with Ralph and the fact he’s here every evening without fail because he feels less alone and closer to Elsie. He doesn’t want to be alone, and I carry the same fears. “You’re kind—too kind, but I can’t live in your home, Ralph—”

“You can and you will. Please. And if you try to offer me money whilst sleeping under my roof, you’d only be offending me. You’d make a dead woman very angry also.”

“You can’t bring Elsie into this,” I retort.

He takes a bite of his pizza, smug. “It’s safe and will make Elliot happy. And…” He looks across at me as if he knows he’s got me. “It’s a ten to fifteen-minute walk to Soho on your legs.”

“It’s a fifteen-minute walk to my work?”

“And it’s extremely safe, Lucy. I’d feel much happier seeing you out of the hotel. It’s not feasible to stay there, surely.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

He smiles and wipes his mouth with a napkin. “That’s the thing with friendship, sometimes, you don’t have to say anything at all.”

He gives me a look that conveys all that we could say.

I crossed Ralph’s path because he needed me too, and I already knew the value of his company from the very first moment I met him on this very bench.

A very special friendship indeed.





Elliot





I rap my knuckles on Mason’s office door before walking in. He looks up from his monitor, his phone held to his ear as he holds up a finger and turns to look over his shoulder. His eyes quickly flash back to me.

Before I can say a word, Nina walks out of his office bathroom. Her face is flushed, and her eyes go wide, shortly followed by a devilish smile.

Mason covers the phone with one hand and leans away from it. “Fuck off, Montgomery.”

Nina pulls her tank the rest of the way down her torso and comes to me, kissing me on the cheek.

“It’s fine,” she says in a hushed tone, waving Mason off. “You guys are out for lunch.”

She turns back to me and gives me a look that says we all know what’s just happened, and it doesn’t need to be discussed. “I was just leaving.”

“You good, Pix?” I ask, dropping my arm around her shoulder. “He in a mood?” I mumble, quiet enough that Mason won’t hear.

“Not anymore.” She waggles her brow.

I take her in, appreciating the healthy glow that surrounds the contours of her face. My best friend’s wife is beautiful. Simple as that.