“I hope my grandmother didn’t pick them out,” she said as I led her into the spacious master bedroom.
“As much as I want to see you in one of the obscenely sexy dresses she would have picked,” I said mildly, “we do have a high-society event to go to.”
“Oh!” she exclaimed as I opened up a wardrobe to show her the dress selection.
“These are…”
I held my breath. Would she like them?
“These are beautiful.”
“Good,” I said, my shoulders relaxing. “I picked them out myself.”
Grace raised an eyebrow.
“Maybe I do need to have you come into the wedding business with me,” she said. “I’m impressed with your skill as a stylist.”
“So the lady at the boutique helped a lot,” I admitted.
* * *
Grace was stunningin a structured white dress as we walked into the National Portrait Gallery. The dress framed her figure perfectly, and it was all I could do not to whisk her off to a secluded corner and unwrap her out of the fabric then bury myself in her.
“We’re going to the new American photography exhibit!” Grace said happily when she saw the signs. “I’ve been wanting to go! This is perfect.” She reached up on her toes to kiss me.
“Worth missing work?” I asked.
“Totally!” she said as she dragged me over to look at the first set of photographs.
The exhibit displayed the work of various famous photographers who had taken pictures that represented America. There was a black-and-white one of several schoolkids playing an intense basketball game, another of a family of women preparing tamales in a colorful kitchen, and another of a cat sitting on top of a golf cart at a fancy country club.
“Fancy seeing you here!” Horace boomed, appearing by my side. I reached out to shake his hand, but he gave me a big hug instead.
“Out on the town with your lovely bride?” Horace chortled. “I’m glad he’s taking good care of you, Grace!”
“Very good care,” she assured him.
“Ah, young love! I knew I didn’t make a mistake with pulling the trigger,” he said while I desperately tried to figure out how to keep the old man from blabbing about my inheritance. Grace would kill me if she found out that I had strung out our marriage so I could secure ten billion dollars and that I wasn’t giving her a penny of it.
“Yep,” I said, desperate to cut the conversation short. “We’re totally in love. Couldn’t be happier! And in the spirit of taking care of my wife, Grace is actually starving. It was great to see you!” I waved then grabbed Grace’s hand and tugged her away.
54
Grace
We’re totally in love.
Chris said he was in love with me! My heart soared as I desperately tried to bring it back down to earth.
But it was too late. I was flushed just thinking of him being in love with me. Me!
Danger! Danger!the rational part of my brain protested. But it was drowned out by the construction noises of the shrine I was building to Chris in my heart. We would travel to see art exhibits, we would have quiet evenings at home, and every Tuesday we would go to Antonio’s Italian restaurant where he would greet us like old friends. On rainy afternoons, I would make ChrisKäsespätzle. Then we’d lay in bed together reading books. It would be perfect and amazing!
I kissed him happily when we were back at the townhouse.
“Thank you,” I told him sincerely as we walked inside. “I needed that break—more than I thought.”
“You can’t say I’m not good for stress relief,” he joked.
