"Well, truth is, I pretty much suck at the business side of things. The money part, the business side, always made my stomach go haywire. I would much rather stick to creative endeavors. And doing the choreography for the concert made me realize how much I missed dancing."
"So there's a silver lining," Grady said, and then had to ask, "Does that mean you're going to stay here?"
"Are you asking me to?"
"Yes." He stepped back so he could look at her face. "This house belongs to you too."
"I adore this house and the fact that you put so much love into building it," she said, but she avoided directly answering his question.
"Well, I sure as hell belong to you too." He tilted her face up and gave her a long, deep, tender kiss. "Hey, no more secrets. I want to discuss everything with you and know what's going on in your life, Arabella. It doesn't mean I have to come to your rescue." He grinned. "You're a modern, kick-ass princess." He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "But you can come to me with anything, okay?"
Arabella nodded but glanced away. Grady wanted to take the conversation further but they'd covered a lot of ground and he didn't want to push her too hard and have her back away.
"Are you ready for that beer?" she asked.
Grady grinned. "You betcha. And I gotta tell you that when you're pissed, it's super sexy."
Arabella laughed. "You're crazy."
"Part of my charm," he said, and then dipped his head and kissed her again. He tried to process that she'd said she'd made him her priority. That had to mean she would stay, but he wasn't going to press her, at least for now. "Let's celebrate."
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
DON'T WANNA LOSE YOU NOW
"If I sign another sheet of paper, my fingers will fall off," Arabella complained to the empty room. The last few days had flown by in a flurry of legal documents. But on the plus side, Hip, Hop, Health would live on with her continued involvement. Arabella rolled her head from side to side, thinking she'd have to entice Grady into giving her a much-needed full-body massage. The last several days had passed by in a blur of activity. In addition to running the Heartbeat rehearsals, she'd terminated her lease on her apartment and sold the furniture to the current tenant. Because her personal items were already in storage, Jenna had set up a moving pod to send her stuff to Florida. After doing some research, Arabella had found an auto-transport company to deliver her little VW Beetle. She couldn't wait to have her cute car back.
///
With a long-suffering sigh, she scooted back from her desk in the small office connected to the bedroom. After a hands-over-her-head stretch, she headed into the kitchen to try to scrounge up something to eat. Last-minute details with Devin, press conferences, and interviews had kept Grady so busy that she'd barely seen him all week. And it was making her seriously grumpy. "I need a Grady fix and I need it now," she said while staring at the meager contents of the fridge. And tacos. Tacos would be amazing right about now. But unlike LA, Sea Breeze didn't have delivery for much of anything, so Arabella stood there and pouted. She spotted a bag of salad greens, some sliced ham, and some leftover Buffalo-chicken pizza, but nothing sounded as good as tacos. "And it's not even Tuesday." She shut the door with a bit of irritation and her stomach growled in protest. She put a hand over her tummy. "I know, but I want tacos!" In fact, she'd been craving Mexican food all week long.
"Oh . . . God!" Her knees went weak and she slid to the floor. When she'd been pregnant, she'd craved Mexican food. She counted back and then pulled herself up to locate her phone. She opened her period tracker.
She was late.
Arabella's heart pounded. "How could I be so careless?" she whispered, but then again, a part of her would welcome a baby . . . Grady's baby. But how would he react? She closed her eyes, remembering a couple of times when she'd known she'd been rolling the dice and passion had overruled caution. But maybe deep down she didn't want to be cautious.
Desperate to know for sure, she slipped on her shoes, grabbed her purse, and headed out the door. She slid behind the wheel of the MINI Cooper that Grady had loaned her to replace her rental. She drove out of town, not wanting to be spotted in the local drugstore buying a pregnancy test, so by the time she arrived back at the beach house, she was frantic with wanting to know the results.
Dropping everything but the box, Arabella raced into the bathroom. Her fingers shook so hard that it was nearly impossible to follow the simple directions, and yet she finally managed. When she saw the results, she burst into tears.