-NATE-
It'd been a long time since I'd felt nervous around any woman—let alone Paige—but just knowing that this was our first official date made me want to ensure that everything went just right. This was a new beginning of sorts for us and a night that I hoped we'd both recount to our little one with fond, sweet memories.
So far, the night had been off to a good start. We'd nestled into my black Beemer with the fancy butterfly doors that had finally been delivered from L.A. and I'd given Paige the grand tour of my old stomping grounds in the neighborhood. I'd taken her around to see the tourist spots in downtown Boston when we'd first arrived, but this tour was strictly of places that had sentimental value to me—my high school, my old hangout spots, the park where Maria and I had gotten in snowball fights with our childhood friends and neighbors, and the music store where I'd bought my first guitar. There wasn't anything particularly notable about any of the places, but each one held its own set of personal memories and I couldn't think of a better way to open up to her than to let her peer into my world.
Paige had listened intently with a smile and laughed at all of my wacky stories before sharing similar tales from her own days growing up in L.A., except instead of stories of snowball fights and snowmen, hers were full of sunshine and beach days. She also recalled having fun designing her own outfits and I vaguely recalled that she'd still been into fashion when we'd first met—she'd even designed t-shirts for the release of my first single off my sophomore album, Revenge. I'd asked her why she stopped designing and she'd looked thoughtful before deciding that life had gotten in the way and she'd needed a "practical" degree in business. Her music industry minor had already been a long-shot, despite her experience working with me, and she hadn't thought it was realistic to add fashion too.
After a while longer of driving around, we'd finally reached the parts of my town that always went all-out with Christmas lights and she'd asked if it would be okay if we got out to see them up close. I'd asked if she was up for walking in her condition and she'd declared through giggles that she was pregnant, not plagued with a deadly sickness to which I'd had to chuckle, "True". Thus, we were now strolling along together in the suburbs of Boston and admiring all of the fun decorations while we played twenty questions.
"My turn to ask or your turn?" I asked as Paige looked up at me with her big, brown eyes.
"Um," she scrunched her face and giggled for the millionth time that night in a way that told me this was all making her nervous too. "I think yours?"
"Okay," I nodded and reached over to take her gloved hand into mine. "Favorite Christmas song and why? Mine would have to be Joy to the World because the children's choir at my Meme's church would sing it every year and I always loved getting to be lead and literally screaming at the top of my lungs with the church bells."
"I can imagine you as a tiny lead singing that," Paige grinned and I smiled as I felt her intertwine our fingers. "Do I have to pick just one?"
"Yeah, your all-time, if all the other Christmas songs went away and you could only have one, favorite," I lifted up our connected hands and placed a light kiss on the back of her glove until I heard a clicking noise that made me lift my head in search of the sound.
In the midst of talking and sharing, I'd almost forgotten about the paps who'd been following us around since the second we'd pulled out of my parents' gated neighborhood. I had no doubt they'd been sent out on a special assignment to try to figure out why I'd quit my tour and disappeared off social media, but it didn't change the irritation of it all. My true fans understood that I needed time to step back, but the media seemed hell-bent on making a story of it.
I had to admit that this set of camera men weren't as intrusive as the Los Angeles paps who seemed to get a thrill out of yelling out offensive questions just to get a rise out of me; instead, they stayed at a decent, silent distance. Nonetheless, their mere presence was was an invasion of my privacy and I felt bad for Paige as she peered around me to see the man squatting and pointing his camera at us.
"Between our shopping pics a couple of weeks ago and these snaps, they're going to have us coupled-up in the media in an hour," She sighed and began to pull her hand away. "It's going to be back to how it was on your first tour and it's only a matter of time before rumors start."
"Just try to ignore them, Pay," I said softly and held on to her. "Besides, if they want to tell the world that we're together, that's fine by me. At least it's true this time."
"It is?" she looked surprised.
I nodded and smiled before walking alongside her hand-in-hand, "Unless I've scared you off tonight?"
A slight blush came to Paige's face and she shook her head, "I just thought this was one date."
"One date that I hope is going to lead to many, many more dates," I squeezed her hand gently and she seemed to melt under my touch.
"I hope so too, Nate," she agreed and I kissed her cheek. "I've really loved getting to see all the little things that make you, you. I understand why you like it here so much. This is a cute town."
I smiled, "I'm glad you think so because I can already picture you in green and white."
"In your dreams, I bleed purple and gold, always and forever, baby," Paige rolled her eyes playfully as she caught my reference to our longstanding back and forth over our beloved rival basketball teams, the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers.
"Mmhm," I winked at her and swung our arms as we walked together.
A few snowflakes began to fall from the sky and I tilted my head back to catch one on my tongue.
"You're such a kid still," Paige giggled again and I smiled.
"Is that such a bad thing?"
"No, but can you even taste anything?"
"Of course," I said. "Try it."
She gave me a look before she reluctantly tilted back her head and tried to catch a few of her own as we paused underneath a streetlight. "I can't taste anything."
"That's because my mom always said you have to close your eyes first and imagine it's a little tiny piece of heaven."
"Yeah?" she asked and I nodded.
"Yeah."
Paige looked skeptical, but she tilted her head back and stuck out her tongue once again; this time with her eyes closed.
"You taste it?"
I watched her pale cheeks redden from the icy-cold wind before she nodded and looked back at me with dancing eyes, "I actually do! It's like a vanilla cotton candy."
"Best thing ever, right?"
"Uh huh," she grinned and I wrapped my arm around her, snuggling her into me while we got nearer and nearer to the festive lights.
I found myself gazing down at Paige and soaking in the feeling of her on my arm a little more than I ever had before. Her small frame fit into me like a puzzle piece and I decided to silence all the million thoughts in the back of my mind and just stay in the moment. I wasn't a thinker, I was a feeler, and I realized that was okay. I felt happy right now and that's what mattered. Tomorrow would bring whatever it brought and I'd deal with it then. If Paige and I could have a million more moments that felt like the one we were in now, then I'd consider myself a lucky man regardless of everything else.
It took me a good minute of her looking back up at me before I realized she was talking to me.
"What's that?"
"All I want for Christmas is you," she repeated.
"Well, I think that can be arranged," I teased and she laughed before shaking her head.
"No, well, I mean, that'd be nice, but I'm answering your question. . .you know, favorite Christmas song if I couldn't have another? Mine would be Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas is You." she said and I chuckled.
"Oh, gotcha."
She snuggled close, "It's kinda cheesy, but every single year my dad and I would put on that song on Christmas Eve and run through the house Annie and Daddy Warbucks 'I Don't Need Anything But You' style and sing it, so it's my favorite."
I tried to picture a little Paige dancing along with Ethan and a smile came to my face, "That's not cheesy, it's adorable."
"We weren't really festive in my family with lots of traditions or sayings or anything like it sounds like your family had, but we always did that and I always loved it. Sometimes I wish I could go back to those days. There really is nothing like that childlike innocence where there's magic and wonder and you believe in everything because nobody's ever lied to you or hurt you. You can just believe the world is full of good and happiness."
I softened, "I miss that too, that belief in fairness and that everything is wonderful and the good guy always wins."
"Yeah," she agreed. "I remember right before my freshman year there was this like tea party thing that all of my friends hosted with their moms for a mother-daughter event and they didn't invite me. One of the girls claimed my invite had gotten lost in the mail and it would've been fine if I'd come with my aunt, but I knew it wasn't true because we all talked about everything and they hadn't mentioned it to me once until I'd seen the pictures online. I'm pretty sure I cried myself to sleep for a week because I was so hurt. I knew it was just a party, but it was just that feeling that the friends I loved so much could exclude me that I couldn't shake."
"That's awful, I'm so sorry you had to go through that," I said gently. "They weren't real friends, Pay."
"No, I know that now, but at the time I was young and I took it to heart. I ended up deciding to change my whole look and everything. My aunt ended up moving to San Diego because of her job, so I had a lot of freedom to select my own wardrobe and do what I wanted. I had like a whole stock of Cosmo magazines with all these tips about how to be sexy and I just completely transformed myself from this meek little nice girl to being "all grown up". It made me popular with all the boys, but of course in hindsight, it didn't make me feel all that good about myself. It just resulted in me giving up a lot of that innocence before I think I was really ready for it. Sometimes I wish I could go back in time and give myself a shake and be like 'Wake up, Paige', but I guess we all go through phases for a reason. You can't stay innocent forever, but if I could do it over, I'd cherish it a bit longer I think."
I rubbed her back, "It sounds to me like you needed a hug, not a shake. You needed somebody to tell you that you were amazing just the way you are. Lots of guys like nice girls."
Paige offered me a smile, "I don't know about lots, but I believe it coming from you. You're the old-fashioned, chivalrous type in a lot of ways."
I chuckled, "Well, I honestly thought for a long time I'd marry my high school sweetheart and do the happily ever after thing, but then life happened and it didn't work out like that."
"You mean your mom's attack? I always knew that it took a pretty big toll on you, but you never really seemed like you wanted to talk about it," Paige rubbed my back lightly.
I sighed, "I didn't because I couldn't wrap my head around it. I was just so, so angry and I don't think I even knew how to truly verbalize just how angry I was. It was just this palpable feeling of pent up tension in my veins and I was pissed off at everybody. Before that happened, I knew there was bad stuff out there, but I'd never come that close to losing someone. It scared the hell out of me and I couldn't understand the whole idea of my mother getting jumped on the side of a street and beaten within inches of her life without there being any consequences for it. Even when I saw she was okay, I was still livid that no one else seemed to feel my rage or at least they weren't acting on it.
Everyone around me just kept telling me that I needed to accept that "bad things happen to good people" and that God was in control or whatever. They had good intentions, but I didn't want to hear that. My whole world was turned upside down—my relationship that I thought would last forever was over, my mom was injured, and my dad was postponing the tour—I felt like I was losing everything that meant something to me. As much as I love it in Boston, I knew I couldn't cope with all that anger here. I couldn't take hearing about the attack, nursing a broken heart, and giving up on music all at once so I decided to get away and go see the world on my own to try to make sense of it."
"That's why you called me to promote your single?"
I nodded, "Yeah, looking back I probably shouldn't have come out to your place with all my baggage, but at the time it was exactly what I felt like I needed."
Paige peered up at me as her chin rested on my shoulder, "For what it's worth, I'm happy you did. I know our whole friendship has been unconventional and like I said, if I could go back to those high school days and do it again, I wouldn't have been such a flirt, but even though I have a lot of regrets, I can't say I regret anything that happened between us. If this just ends up as one date and we decide we're better off as friends, I still won't ever regret getting to know you, Nathan. This isn't anywhere close to what I'd planned for myself, I thought I'd build my career and then get married in my thirties and have kids when I thought I was truly stable, but in my wildest dreams, I couldn't have asked for a better dad for our child. I can already tell you're going to be really great at it and if nothing else, I'll always know our baby has a really wonderful father."
"I don't regret it either," I shook my head. "It might not've been my smartest move to run across the country, but I was following my heart at the moment and that's all anybody can really do. I wouldn't have imagined this is where it'd lead me, but it's part of my journey and the start of our journey. I think we'll be wonderful parents together."
"Even though I'm not the sweetheart you envisioned?" she asked.
"Who's to say you're not?"
"I'll say it, Nate. I'm not oblivious. I think everybody saw the way you loved her. I just kind of ended up there in a hard time of your life and it got complicated really fast and now we're here."
I felt a tug in my heart, "Well, everything happens for a reason. You were there for a reason and we're here for a reason."
"You think so?"
"I absolutely do," I kissed her nose. "You are going to be an incredible mom. I already see it in the way you handle the pregnancy. You had so much love and concern for our baby before you were even certain you were pregnant, I have no doubt you're going to be amazing."
Tears collected in her eyes, "I just, I don't really have a road map here, Nathan. I don't come from a big family with lots of happy relationships. My aunt never had children and none of my friends have had babies yet. I mean, I know a few things just from life or whatever, but in a lot of ways I'm just kind of grasping for straws. Your mom has been a really big help to me, but I know she's ultimately your mom, not mine and that comes with its own boundaries. I'm trying to tread lightly in this whole thing and figure out where I stand."
"You stand next to me," I caught a tear that trailed down her cheek. "When my mom says she wants to be there, she means it. You and our baby have all of my support and my family's support too," I kissed her temple. "You don't have to worry about that."
She brushed at her face and breathed out, "I don't know how this turned into such a heavy conversation. It was supposed to be about Christmas music and here I go with the water works."
"That's okay," I told her. "I think this is the stuff we need to be talking about and figuring out. All Celtics jokes aside, you have a place here in Boston and anywhere else that I go. You are not in this alone. This whole parenting thing is terrifying to me too, but I think as long as we stick together, we'll be alright."
Paige's eyes were still teary as she nodded slowly, "I know the original plan was for you to stay here and me to go back to L.A., but you'd be okay if I stayed here for a little while?
I softened, "Of course. I want you here with me. I'd never put you on a plane and send you back there by yourself pregnant," I shook my head as I realized the source of her fears. "God, no, Paige. I think we'll probably want different living arrangements than separate rooms at my parents' eventually, but whatever my plans are, I want you to be apart of them."
"I want that too," Paige wrapped her arms around me and I dipped my head slightly before kissing her and she ran her fingers through my hair.
I pulled back slightly and let my breath warm her cooled cheeks as I gazed into her enchanting eyes and held onto her tightly before she leaned up and kissed me again.
I wasn't certain how long our embrace lasted before we finally pulled away and continued towards the dazzling lights.
"Wow," she breathed and I watched her gaze at all the different houses seemingly in awe. "So beautiful."
"Stunning," I replied, but my focus wasn't on the Christmas lights, it was on her—watching her eyes dance with the lights and her face fill with a smile like a little girl in a candy shop as we made our way from house to house.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Next Day
-MARIA-
"Sadly, I can't get out of this meeting. We're pressed to launch the app and it's my team so I have to attend, but promise me you're going to go over to your parents' and take a little break from all this today?" Tony asked as he kneeled on the edge of our bed and leaned over my stacks of notes to place a kiss on my cheek.
"Promise," I barely moved my eyes from my computer screen while I brought my hands up to his neck to adjust his tie out of habit. "I just have to finish trying to consolidate a list of people I want to invite and then I have to get your list. We can't do anything until we know approximately how many people we need to accommodate."
"My list is simple: you, my mom, and Grace."
"Oh, c'mon, I know there's more than that. You're not even including your best man and groomsmen."
He looked thoughtful, "Okay, so add Colt Hampton as best man and I'm sure you already have your brothers down for groomsmen."
"Don't you have cousins or college friends or something you want to include in the wedding party? And what about the guests?"
"Look, baby, the only part of the wedding that really matters to me is marrying you. It could just be the two of us at the duck park with Grace, my mom, your parents and siblings, and I'd be perfectly content."
I sighed and looked at my long list of people, "So you want a small wedding?"
"No, I want you to have the wedding of your dreams. I'm just saying don't worry about my list because I'm not inviting my dad's side of the family and I wouldn't count on much of my mom's side flying in from Chicago. I guess I have a few friends I can ask to attend, but it won't be the end of the world for me if they can't make it."
"I just want you to feel as represented in all this as I am."
"I will, Maria. The day should be about the two of us anyway, not everybody else," he kissed me again on the cheek before trailing his lips to my jawline and I sighed as I leaned into him.
"If you say so," I mused and turned my head to meet his eyes.
He tilted my head up slightly and kissed me, "I do." a cheeky smile came to his face whilst he ran his thumb over my Cinderella engagement ring.
"I like the sound of that," I hooked my arms around his neck.
"Me too, baby," he agreed and I brought my lips to his in a needy kiss while I ran my fingers through his hair.
He shifted the rest of his body up on the bed and I pushed aside my laptop while drawing him nearer by the collar.
"I want you," he mumbled against my mouth and I brought my hands up to the buttons on his shirt until a soft groan escaped his lips and I felt a vibration against his thigh.
I lifted a curious eyebrow, but he made an unpleasant face as he reached down between us before pulling out his phone.
Tony cursed under his breath and sighed as he smashed it to his head, "Yes, Ed, I'm in the car now," he muttered and gave me a look as he rolled his eyes. "Uh huh, yeah...yeah...I'll see you in a bit...okay, bye."
"That's your cue to go?" I asked as I propped my elbows behind me to hold myself up.
Tony sighed. "That's my counterpart, Ed, he should be able to function just fine on his own. He's been at the company longer than I have, but he acts like he's going to have a coronary if I'm not right there for every little decision."
"Well, you are the boss's son," I trailed my hand along his jaw.
"Don't remind me," Tony shook his head and rested his hands on either side of my body. He scanned me up and down and bit his lip. "Can I get a rain check? I was really hoping we could do a repeat of last night."
I couldn't decide whether to blush from the memories of our escapades from the night before or giggle from his sad, puppy dog eyes and I found myself doing a little of both.
I gave a little nod and kissed him, "Maybe that can be motivation to get you home in time for dinner again? It's really nice when you're home early."
"I'll try my absolute best, baby," he nodded and kissed me. "Promise me you're going to take a break from the planning today?"
"I promise," I agreed, reluctantly.
"Okay, love you, sexy," he winked at me.
"I love you too," I grinned. "Drive safely, please."
"I always do," Tony kissed me once more before scooping up his briefcase and heading out the door.
I stayed still for a moment as I watched him go before I pushed myself up to a sitting position and gathered up my notes.
After a couple of hours of making notes of which addresses I had and which ones I'd need from my mom, I forced my body off the bed and trudged into the bathroom to quickly get dressed.
I decided to go casual with an old Boston University hoodie and skinny jeans and I let my dark, curly hair fall loosely around my head in a disarray as I made a mental note that I was overdue for a trip to the stylist to get my split ends clipped.
Once I was all ready, I stuffed the notes and laptop into the tote bag that had become my wedding planning life-line and carried them downstairs while I sent a quick text to my mom to let her know that I was on my way over and to ask if I needed to bring anything for Gracie.
"There you are, Marisa."
I lifted my head just in time to see Tony's father emerging from the kitchen and stepping into the foyer as one of the butlers followed after him.
"I'm sorry, sir, but I cannot just let you barge in like this—"
"I've told you, I'm not barging, I'm here to visit with my daughter-in-law," Antonio offered me a large smile before his dazzling blue eyes that he'd given to his son focused back on the man and narrowed. "Although if I was barging, you'd have a serious problem on your hands, wouldn't you? That's quite the breach you have in your system."
"A breach?" I asked.
The butler, who's name I couldn't quite remember gave me an apologetic look, "I don't know how, but he slipped in through the back door undetected. I'll have him escorted out right away and I'll personally watch the door, ma'am, I'm very sorry."
I looked between the two of them for a second as I tried to decide how to take the scene and I shook my head, "No, that's alright, he can stay."
"You're sure—" he began and I shook my head as I continued down the stairs until I rested my hand lightly on the spiraled end railing.
"Yes, I'm sure, thank you."
"But Mr. Holloway said that his father was banned from the premises—" The butler protested.
Antonio ran his hand through his always-stylish lush dark hair as he leaned in towards him and his jaw clenched, "In case you don't understand plain English, her 'I'm sure, thank you' was a nice way of telling you that you're excused to go figure out how the hell you could allow such a fuck up to occur and put her in danger. Let's face it, if I was a bad guy with a gun, Marisa and my granddaughter could very well be dead right about now. So if I were you, I'd be wringing my hands and worrying my ass off trying to figure out exactly how I was going to explain to Anthony tonight that I let a strange man in his house with his two girls. You'd best believe, it won't be a pleasant conversation for you."
The butler looked flustered before he stood up a little straighter and cleared his throat before exiting.
"Useless," Antonio gave a look of disgust and shook his head, "You need to tell your fiance he needs to bring an expert in this place to put in a good system."
I bit my lip and shifted my weight back and forth between my feet, "I'm pretty sure he had that done when we first moved in."
"Well, he needs to do it again because I found five different ways to sneak in here and I'm sure if I took a little more time I could find plenty more," Antonio said blankly. "And I'm a tech guy, not a security expert."
"My uncle is in security, I guess we could have him look at the place."
"I'd do that ASAP, if I were you. Not to scare you, but there's plenty of not-nice people that think it's fun to play Robin Hood and steal from the rich."
I bit my lip and looked around anxiously. I never had gotten used to the feeling of not really knowing what was going on throughout the mansion.
I turned back to look at him and swallowed hard, "I'm sorry, why are you sneaking into my home again? I thought Tony made it perfectly clear he didn't want you here?"
"Well, A, I wanted to make a point about the security and B, I was hoping you and I could talk. Before Anthony showed up at the soiree, I think we had a pretty good dialogue going, don't you?"
"No, Antonio...Michael...whoever you are, I don't. I think you lied to me and then got into a vicious fistfight with my fiance in front of all of our guests and now you've basically broken into my house."
He shook his head, "I didn't lie, Marisa. Michael is my name...just not my first one and I only gave you that name because I didn't want any pretenses clouding our introduction. I got to learn more about my granddaughter from you in five minutes than I've gotten from my son in the past five years. I don't even know what she looks like."
I softened, "If you want to be more involved, then I think that's something you two should talk about as father and son and from one father to another."
"That sounds good in theory, but I'm sure in your time of being with my son you've learned that he has a mean streak. Tony isn't exactly the most reasonable person in the world when he's angry."
"No, he isn't, but he says he gets his mean streak from you and judging from the things I heard you saying to him, I'd have to say that's true. I couldn't imagine my father ever talking to me or any of my siblings like that. So whatever you have going on needs to be worked out between the two of you. I don't know that it's my place to get in the middle of it."
"I won't claim I'm father of the year," Antonio defended. "But I'm not the worst person in the world either. I always paid for whatever he needed, he's got his career, his education, and even this house all because of me. I think for that alone I deserve to at least meet my granddaughter. You wouldn't deny me of that, would you?" he glanced towards the stairs. "Just one meeting?"
"She's not here right now," I breathed out, "Besides, Tony and I make decisions concerning Grace together and you're asking me to go behind his back on this. I can't do that, I'm sorry."
Antonio reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out an envelope, "I understand your family is hosting a Christmas play, correct?"
"Yes, but my brother is far more involved with helping with that than I am. I didn't get the Knight performing genes."
"Well, your mom's best friend told me all about it and I think it's a wonderful cause that I'm happy to support."
I stared at the envelope blankly, "I thought Tony was arranging the sponsorship through Holloway Tech Corp?"
"He was, but I took it over and delivered the funds directly to the theater," he nudged the envelope into my hands. "You can read it all right in there."
I ripped open the envelope and skimmed over the information inside, "A million dollar donation in honor of Grace Holloway?"
"Mmhm," he nodded. "I put it in her name and the theater is requesting a picture of the two of us to display in the hallway. That's why I'm asking for the chance to meet her first, but if not, then I guess we can just meet when we take the photo."
I wasn't sure what to think as I looked at the paper and then back up at him again, "Why would you go through all of this and spend all of this money instead of just talking to your son? I don't understand."
"Trust me, I wish it didn't have to be this way, Marisa, but it is and so I have to get creative," Antonio shrugged.
"That's what you said about inviting yourself to the soiree too. Don't you see you're just pissing him off? If you want to know why he's so angry at you, Antonio, it's because of actions like this. He's not your teenage boy who got his girlfriend pregnant anymore. He's an adult with a family and whether you recognize it or not, he works hard every single day to take care of us. He doesn't just take advantage of his last name or the money you've given him. I watched the way my dad cared for my mom and me and my siblings growing up and I see those same characteristics in Tony. He's not perfect and yes, he has a mean streak sometimes, but he's trying. For that, I respect him as the leader and protector of our family," I held up the paper. "And this? This is so disrespectful it's borderline criminal."
"Last time I checked, it isn't a crime for a man to want to see his grandchild."
"No, it isn't a crime, it's a privilege," I gave him a look. "Just because you want to see her doesn't mean you're entitled to see her and no amount of money can change that. The only man who has any entitlement in her life is Tony, because he's her father, and he's told you to stay away from her. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go and I would like for you to leave and not break into my home again or I will call the police."
"Marisa," Antonio reached out towards me, but I shook my head as I gestured to a blonde butler who passed through. I was pretty sure I remembered his name was Collin.
"Can you see him out please?"
"Yes, Ms. Knight, right away," Collin agreed.
"Marisa," Antonio called again and I ignored him.
Instead, I sucked in a sharp, shaky breath and continued on out to the garage where I quickly climbed in my dark blue MINI Cooper.
~~~~~~~~~~~
-LIA-
"Papa, lookit, I can do it too," Grace said excitedly as she tried to follow along with Jordan's morning stretch routine on our bedroom floor.
I giggled and watched her reach for her toes with one hand while she brushed her messy hair out of her eyes with the other.
"I see, you're doing so good," he encouraged. "You're a natural!"
"Yeah?" she grinned and Jordan nodded as he continued on his routine.
"Can you do try the tree pose?"
"Let me see," she wobbled back and forth on one leg to attempt to mimic his every movement.
I scooped up the towels I'd been folding off the bed and plopped them into the basket before carrying them throughout the house to put away. As I headed to the downstairs, linen closet, I heard the ding of the alarm to indicate the front door opening and I turned to see Maria coming inside.
"Hey, honey," I smiled. "Sorry, Grace isn't dressed quite yet. She decided to join your father and exercise first."
"Oh, that's fine," she nodded as she pulled off her jacket, but the slight frown lines on her face made me pause.
"Everything alright?"
She sighed, "No, I just had the weirdest thing ever happen. Antonio Holloway got past security somehow and popped up in my house with this envelope," she held it out to me and I sat my basket aside before I took it from her.
I peered into the ripped envelope and skimmed my eyes up and down over the check and document inside as my eyes widened, "He's giving a million dollars to the theater?"
Maria nodded, "Yeah, but not from Holloway Tech Corp, he's doing it in Grace's name...or what he thinks is Grace's name. I didn't even bother explaining to him that her last name's Knight. He said a friend of yours mentioned the play needed sponsors and he got this "brilliant" idea to use it as a chance to get a photo op since Tony won't let him see her."
"What?" I asked, surprised.
"My exact response," she shook her head. "I mean, who comes up with something like that? I don't even want to bring it up to Tony because I know what his response is going to be. You saw how he acted when his father appeared at the soiree uninvited, if he finds out Antonio is involving Grace in his tricks—I don't even want to go there."
"Well, nobody could blame Tony if he does fly off the handle. That's his little girl," I said as I sank down onto the couch and gazed over the letter.
I felt a knot form in my stomach and my thoughts drifted to Mallory. I had to give it to her—she was clever—she wanted to push buttons and she knew exactly how to do it. She wasn't going after Jordan or me directly—she was interfering in the lives of our children and that made the blows about ten-times worse.
"I won't blame him, but still, I don't want him in the hospital—or jail again. Last time I had to bail him out was because of something his father said about her. He's a ticking time bomb when it comes to him," Maria sighed and sat down next to me. "Antonio tried to make the case that he's her grandfather and he should be able to see her, but I don't feel like that's my place to make that call. I think it should be Tony's decision and I trust his judgement on this. Am I in the wrong for overreacting?"
"No, sweetie," I shook my head. "You're not in the wrong. You're right, if Tony said no and it's his family then I think you should respect that. I mean, if things were more calm then I'd say talk to him about it, but this check certainly isn't going to make for peaceful family relations."
"That's my take on it too," Maria nodded. "I don't want to keep it from Tony, but I don't really want all the drama either."
"Yeah, let me just talk to my friend first and see if we can make this whole thing go away and then once it's settled you can talk to Tony about it, okay?" I asked.
"Okay," Maria still looked frustrated, but she nodded. "I've just never been put in a predicament like this. It's just so crazy to me to see a family function like this."
"It's unfortunate," I agreed and held onto the envelope. "But I think we can reach a reasonable solution."
"I hope so."
I skimmed over the page once more before I offered Maria a soft smile, "There's muffins in the kitchen if you're hungry and I sat aside the invitations from my wedding on my desk if you want to take a look. I'm going to go handle this."
"Thanks, Mom," Maria agreed and I stood up from the couch.
I pulled my cell phone out before I stepped out onto the front porch and dialed Mallory's number. I listened intently as the phone rang and rang for a good minute before I finally got an answer.
"Hello?" Mallory's voice sounded on the other end of the line.
It took everything in me to keep my composure as I felt the cold air hit my cheeks, "Hey, Mallory, it's Lia."
"Oh, hi, Lia," Mallory replied. "How are you?"
"Not too great, actually."
"Oh?"
"No," I cleared my throat. "Listen, I think you and I need to meet up and talk."
"Oh, um, alright, then, do you want me to come to your place?" she asked.
"No, actually, I think it'd be better if we met up somewhere. We can get tea or something maybe?"
"Like the place we met for brunch?"
I made a face as I recalled how she'd been sitting across from me going on and on about her strip poker trip knowing full-well she was talking about Jordan the entire time, but I maintained my tone of voice, "Sounds fine to me. We can do brunch again."
"Okay, so in an hour?" she asked.
"That works."
"Alright then, can't wait, sis," she said in her usually cheery voice. "See you there."
"See you," I managed as I sucked in a breath and ended the call.