Touching Down(85)

“Yeah, our first grader’s been schooling me.”

A laugh spilled past my lips. “Right now, you can have an adjective fucking break. Later, you can have a verb fucking break.”

He looked like I’d just told him he had to go on a sex fast for forty days. “Fine,” he grunted. “Then you’re just going to have to dance with me.”

My eyes circled the large room. “There isn’t a dance floor, babe. Not a dancing type of shindig.”

“Does it look like I give a literal or figurative shit?” He grinned at me as he gathered me close, tucking my head under his chin.

“No,” I breathed, leaning into him. “It doesn’t.”

We stood like that for a while, wrapped around one another, moving to the rhythm of an imaginary beat.

“Ready for Europe?” he asked softly.

I nodded against his chest. “I’m ready.”

“No matter what happens, I’ll be right here. I’m not going anywhere.” His hands curled deeper into me, drawing me closer. “You’re the only one for me, Ryan Hale. In this life and whatever others we have coming. Don’t forget that.”

I felt my smile form. “How could I? You remind me on an hourly basis.” My hands disappeared beneath the back of his tuxedo coat, spreading out against his back to feel the warmth spilling from his skin. “You know, I talked with Ravi about how much this experimental drug is going to cost and holy private island price tag.” My heart stopped as I replayed the number in my head. “It’s too much. You know that, right? I don’t want your retirement plan to be a cardboard box propped beneath an interstate overpass.”

Grant’s body rocked with his huff. “If I get to retire in that cardboard box with you, sign me up.”

I leaned my head back to look up at him. “It’s too much.”

His brows came together like he was questioning my sanity. “I’d pay everything I have to spend one more hour with you,” he said, his hands cupping my face. “This has the ability to give me a few more decades. The price tag is the fucking deal of the century.”

My throat bobbed, trying to swallow the emotion creeping up my throat. “You’re the best man in the whole world.”

“Nah.” He shook his head, grinning. “I’m still a piece of shit. Just a piece of shit who loves the shit out of you.”

Our heads turned to look out at the view below us. New York City looked like it was at our fingertips. All of it within reach, waiting for us to point our fingers its way.

“Did you ever imagine we’d be here one day?” I whispered.

His fingers brushed against me. “The only thing I imagined back then was being with you. That was all I cared about.”

“Well, you have me. And Charlie. And all that comes with that.” My fingers curled into his shirt. “You’re still good with our decision not to have her tested? You’re fine not knowing? Letting her decide for herself one day if she wants?”

His back quivered for a moment, his chest stilling. Then he nodded. “Yes. It won’t change how I feel about her. It won’t change the way I love her. Nothing can change that. It should be up to her if she wants to know that one day.”

For one brief moment, I felt as though I was the one holding him up, which had become more common lately. I’d been used to Grant holding me up and sheltering me from the storm, but now we seemed to support each other in equal amounts.

“It’s the right decision,” I said.

“How do you know?”

I exhaled. “Because it isn’t the easy one.”

We stayed like that a few minutes more, dancing a slow dance to a fast song. I knew if it were up to Grant, he’d be happy to stay like this the rest of the night, but he had a role to play in this world, and it wasn’t just as the boy from The Clink who’d fallen in love with a scared young girl.

“You’ve got mingling duty.” I lowered my arms and stepped out of his hold, eyeing the party taking place all around us.

“I don’t mingle well with others.”

“Yeah, I know. Pretend you do.” Rolling my eyes, I grabbed his hand and tugged all two-hundred-sixty pounds of him back into party central.

That was where we stayed for the next hour, sipping our waters and smiling in the right places and laughing in others. Grant’s arm never left its post around me.

I’d been on my feet a while, in killer heels no less, and my mind was reeling from all of the introductions and conversations with dozens of people I’d either just met tonight or had just met this past season. It was overwhelming, and I knew I was hedging my bets the longer I stayed. My HD always got worse when I was tired or stressed.