Falling for Grace (25 page)

But the fact remained that she’d made up her
mind. None of that made a difference anymore. She was leaving and
that was all there was to it.

“
Marci left Thursday for
California,” Carson said then. Gracie glanced sharply up at his
words. “She didn’t say good-bye. She left a note on the door
sometime in the night. Izzie had some crazy notion we were going to
California with her. That we were all going to be a family. She
thought we were getting married again. I told her those things were
never going to happen.

“
She’s devastated. Her
heart is broken. Friday was a long day. Yesterday she was better.
I’m hoping by today she will have forgotten most of it.”

Gracie’s heart was breaking for Izzie. It
was the first thing she’d allowed herself to feel in days and it
was damned hard for her to keep her emotions in check. “I’m sorry
Izzie’s having a hard time. I wish I could—”

“
I love you, Gracie. I
want you to spend the rest of your life with me. With Izzie and
me.”

She couldn’t sit there any longer. Abruptly,
she stood and stepped back toward the mantel again. She couldn’t
look at Carson. Couldn’t. She might just blow everything.

He loved her.

She couldn’t handle that. Not now.

“
Spend the day with us.
Just the day. Please do that for me.”

Gracie turned and looked into Carson’s face
and almost told him she would. Something inside of her wanted her
say, yes, another part of her was telling her to hold back with all
her strength.

She shook her head no. “I don’t think that’s
a good idea, Carson. I don’t think we should spend anymore time
together. Izzie has been through enough heartache this week. I’m
leaving soon, I don’t want to add to her heartache.”

Carson looked deep into her eyes for a
moment and then stood. “Well, you’re certainly adding to mine,” he
said quietly. He stood for several minutes, watching her, as if he
expected her to say something. Finally, he stepped closer. “You
know, it’s a shame that you can’t face this head-on. You’re running
again, you know, just like you did before. When you lost Evan and
your dance career, you didn’t fight to get anything back, you ran
away from it and for years you were afraid to try again. Now that
you’ve tried, suddenly you’re afraid of what that might mean, and
you’re running again.

“
Don’t Gracie. Don’t give
in to it. Sure, life dealt you a bad hand years ago. Don’t let it
deal you another. This time you have the power to make things turn
out differently.

“
I’m alive and so is
Izzie. We love you. And we’re not going anywhere. You’re the one
who has the power to make it work. All you have to do is stick
around. Be the first person in our lives to do that for us, okay?
Be the first person in our lives to stay.”

In the next instant, he left her alone. And
Gracie suddenly realized she didn’t like being alone any more.

* * * *

Carson let her be after that. Gracie didn’t
open the shop. Instead, she cleaned closets and packed some things
and cancelled orders and prepared for a final close-out sale
scheduled for the end of the month.

There was no turning back. She was
leaving.

She’d avoided Izzie as much as possible,
hoping to make it easier on the child. She knew she didn’t
understand, but Gracie knew in the end it would be easier this
way.

Amie had tried to talk her out of
leaving.

Constance and her cronies had attempted
every trick in the book to get her to admit that she was in love
with Carson. It didn’t work. None of it worked. She was glad when
they finally left her alone.

Still, his words nagged at her. She knew he
was right. She was running. Running fast and hard away from him.
From love.

From life.

Just like she’d done all those years
ago.

Thing was, the ball was rolling now and she
didn’t know how to stop it. Even if she wanted, she wasn’t sure if
she could.

It was Wednesday afternoon when a small
knock sounded on her apartment door and Gracie answered it. Izzie
stood with a scowl on her face on the other side.

“
Can I come in?” the child
asked.

“
May I?” Gracie
corrected.

“
I may?”

Gracie hesitated, smiled at her comeback,
then let her. She’d avoided this all week.

Izzie stomped to the sofa and sat down, her
arms crossed over her chest. “I’m mad,” she announced.

Puzzled, Gracie crossed the room and sat
beside her on the sofa. “You want to tell me about it?”

“
Sure do,” she proclaimed.
“I’m mad at you.”

Gracie tried not to smile; Izzie’s face was
screwed up into an awful expression. “Why are you mad at me,
Izzie?”

“’
Cause you been ‘noring
us.”

“’
Noring you?”

“
Yes.”

“
I have?”

“
Yes.”

“
And you don’t like
that?”

“
No. And neither does my
dad.”

“
Oh.”

“
He’s been awful grouchy
this week. That’s why I’m mad at you.”

“
I’m sorry, Iz. I’ve just
been busy.”

“
And you left us last
week. Where did you go?” Izzie turned her face up to Gracie’s then
and her scowl suddenly turned to one of question.

“
I...” Gracie wasn’t quite
sure what to say. “I had some business to take care of.”

“
You didn’t see my
mom.”

“
Yes. I saw
her.”

“
You didn’t meet her
though.”

“
No. I guess I
didn’t.”

Izzie shook her head. “She didn’t like us
much. She left us again. I don’t think my dad was happy when she
was here. I don’t think my mom liked visiting us. I think I’ve
decided that she should stay in California.”

It was a mouthful, and at the same time,
Izzie’s words were full of so much meaning. Gracie wondered if
Izzie really understood the significance of her own words. Thing
was, Gracie understood it completely.

“
Well, I gotta go
now.”

Gracie smiled. “But you just got here.”

“
I know. Got things to
do.”

“
Will you come
back?”

“
Maybe.”

“
Well, bye
then.”

“
Bye!”

And then she was gone again.

Gracie contemplated her visitor for the next
few hours. She ate a salad for dinner and had just settled in to
read a while before bed, when another knock sounded at her
door.

Again, Izzie stood at her threshold with
Bandit tucked under one arm and a small package in her hand.

“
I got something for you,”
she told Gracie.

Thrusting the package forward, Izzie cocked
her head to one side. “From me and my dad.”

Gracie crouched down on Izzie’s level and
opened the package. Inside, she found two red construction paper
hearts. In a childish scrawl was Carson’s name on one; Izzie’s on
the other. Gracie took them out of the box and looked at Izzie.

“
Turn them over,” Izzie
said.

Gracie did. “We miss you,” was written in
white crayon on the first one. “We love you,” was written on the
second.

Gracie looked back at Izzie, trying to
ignore the mist of tears that was glazing her eyes. “Did you make
these?”

Izzie shrugged. “Yeah. It was all the paper
we had at home. I guess maybe we could have bought a pretty card
like what’s in your shop downstairs.”

Grinning, Gracie reached out and touched
Izzie’s cheek. “No,” she whispered. “These are perfect.” Her eyes
were beginning to spill over now and something funny was happening
with her heart.

“
There’s more,” Izzie told
her then, not giving Gracie much time to think about her gift of
two hearts.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out
another box, a smaller one, then thrust it to Gracie, too. Bandit
struggled in her arm; she let the pup down on the floor. Claire
sauntered out the door and the pup chased her down the stairs with
a yip and a high-pitched growl.

Suddenly, things seemed back to normal.

Hesitantly, she reached for the box and
slowly untied the ribbon. “I can’t imagine what this is,” she said
softly.

“
It’s better than our two
hearts,” Izzie proclaimed.

Gracie didn’t think anything would be better
than getting their two hearts for a gift.

As she lifted the lid on the box, she barely
noticed the shadow moving up behind Izzie until Carson crouched
down beside the child. She looked at him just as the lid flipped
back and the diamond ring sitting inside shone back at her.

“
It’s a ring,” Izzie
announced. “Better than our dumb hearts, huh?”

Gracie looked into Carson’s eyes. “I think
your hearts aren’t dumb, Izzie. I love both your hearts.”

Carson grinned, and she saw the relief wash
over his face, followed by an expression of pure love. After a
moment, Gracie allowed herself to grin, too.

“
My dad wants you to marry
us,” Izzie said. “That’s why he gave you the ring.” She crowded in
between the two adults and sat on Carson’s knee. Gracie was still
having a hard time taking her eyes off Carson’s face. She loved him
so, and for the first time, she wasn’t afraid to admit
it.

“
So will you just marry
us?” Izzie questioned impatiently.

“
Yes. Marry us,” Carson
whispered. “Please don’t leave us. Marry us.”

“
Dad says if you marry us,
we will be a family.”

Gracie looked at Izzie. How she loved that
child, too. “Yes, I suppose we would.”

“
He says that maybe even
someday, we could have a little sister or brother for me. That is,
of course, if you decide to marry us.”

It was at that moment Gracie knew her
resolve had melted and was about to stream down her face. Through a
veil of tears, she looked at Carson. “Izzie, what else does your
daddy say?”

But Izzie didn’t answer, Carson did, when he
leaned forward and captured her lips with his for a sweet and
heartfelt kiss. “He says, he wants you to marry us quickly, so we
can get started on that baby brother or sister real soon,” he
whispered into her ear. “Please don’t leave us, Gracie. I love you.
Izzie loves you. We need you in our lives.”

Gracie pulled away and looked at both Izzie
and Carson. “How could I leave,” she finally said, looking down at
the gifts in her hands, “when I’m holding your two hearts in my
hand?”

Izzie fell off Carson’s knee when he leaned
forward to take Gracie in his arms, then kissed her thoroughly one
more time.

“
You didn’t say yes,” he
finally told her between kisses.

“
Yes. Yes, I’ll stay. I’ll
marry you,” Gracie replied, kissing him back. “I’ll marry the both
of you.”

Izzie crowded closer, her arms around the
two of them. “Oooh, yuck,” she interjected. “Lovie-dovie
stuff.”

“
Get used to it,
Munchkin,” Carson told his daughter between nibbles of Gracie’s
lips. “Get used to it.”

Izzie kissed them both on the cheek and drew
back, looking longingly into Gracie’s apartment. “If you guys are
gonna do this yucky kissy stuff, mind if I take a bubble bath in
your tub, Gracie? Will you bring me the fake champagne in a
minute?”

Laughing, Gracie told her to go for it. In a
whirlwind, Izzie raced through her apartment, dropping articles of
clothing all the way.

“
Take all the time you
want, Izzie,” Gracie called out after her.

“
My name is
Isabella!”

“
I think my tomboy is
gone,” Carson told her, grinning.

Gracie shrugged. “Naw. She’ll always be
there, deep down inside.”

“
I think I’m gonna miss
her.”

“
No you won’t, not for
long. I have plans for you mister, and it has something to do with
this incessant ticking clock in my head. I need you to silence it.
Immediately.”

Gracie smiled at the puzzled expression on
Carson’s face but just figured she tell him about it all later.
Much later. When Izzie was tucked into bed for the night and she
and Carson could have the bubble bath all to themselves.

Let it not be said that the local Diva of
Romance didn’t know how to properly seduce the father of her future
children.

The End

More Maddie James titles
coming soon

from Turquoise Morning
Press

www.maddiejames.net

Crazy for You

The Heartbreaker

New Man in Town

Out of her League

One Wild Ride

Coming throughout
2011

www.turquoisemorningpress.com