Defining Us (Rocky Waters)

Chapter 20

20

GRAYSON

I t seems like the summer passes by in a blur. By the time fall rolls around, Bella’s wedding is finally here. The Friday before the wedding, I get home before Ainsley. Okay, I actually never left the house. I canceled my clients last night so that I could get started on the cake for the girls' rehearsal dinner tonight. But I didn't tell Ainsley. She thinks we are going to bake it when she gets home. She only has one class on Fridays for this fall semester so she's done by eleven. Usually she stays on campus, but she is heading home right after class today.

She's having a hard time this semester, even though it’s only a few weeks into it. Her schedule is horrible, and she has a bunch of one hundred level classes, which are a lot of work for her. She's really looking forward to the wedding and getting away for the weekend, even if it's just to a hotel close by. We have her brother’s wedding next month in Chicago, and then maybe we can take a real vacation.

“I'm home,” I hear her call out, slamming the door behind her. “God, my day sucked. Care to make it better? Where are you?”

“In the kitchen,” I call back to her.

She appears in a minute, looking a bit disheveled but still sexy as ever. Since I don't want her to know I started the cake yet, I keep her away from the island. “What happened?” I ask, grabbing her into me.

“I don't want to talk about it. Plus, we need to make the cake for dinner tonight. And then we have to shower.” She takes in my appearance and her face falls. “Did you already shower? Why aren't you all sweaty?” I ignore her questions and distract her with a kiss. “Mmm,” she mumbles against my lips. “I see what you’re doing. Don't think I'm not onto you.” She slips her tongue in my mouth, licks the underside of my tongue, and pulls out. “Come on. We have a cake to bake.” She walks to the pantry and goes in for the ingredients she needs. “Gray, we don't have any flour. Shit.”

“It's on the island.”

I watch as she comes out of the pantry and finds the empty flour container on the island. Anger crosses her face when she takes in the flour spilled all over. And then her eyes go big when she sees what I've done. She gasps and puts one hand over her mouth. Her eyes fly to mine, then back to the island, and then back to me. “Gray?” The shock on her face is reflected in her voice.

“Believe it, love.” My face erupts into a huge smile as I pull the black box from my pocket. And for entertainment purposes, I get down on one knee. I ask the question I had written in the flour. “Ainsley, marry me?”

She smiles just as big, only stopping when it reaches her eyes. There are tears at the corners of her eyes and one manages to escape down her cheek. “Yes,” she croaks out. “Yes!” Her eyes start to twinkle. “OMG, yes!”

I push up and lift her off the ground. I crash my lips to hers and kiss her like I've never kissed her before, letting all my love for her pour out through my lips. She respondswith a serious kiss of her own, making me see stars. Guess that’s really a thing.

I break the kiss so I can slip the diamond on her finger. With Kylie’s help, I picked a ring that I thought she would love. Slipping it on her finger, it fits perfectly, and she can’t help but gaze down at it. “Grayson! This is huge. It’s gorgeous. I love it. But it’s huge!” The smile hasn’t faded from her lips. “Did I mention it’s huge?” she repeats as she peers down at it.

“It makes your finger sparkle. It’s the perfect size.”

“You would think so.” Then she gasps and her smile fades. “I CANNOT wear this tonight! It’s your sister’s rehearsal dinner. No way.” She starts to slide it off her finger, but I stop her.

“Don’t you dare,” I tell her. “Do not take that ring off, you got me?” I stare down at her, letting her know how serious I am.

She shakes her head. “Grayson, you don’t get it. You aren’t a woman. I’d be PISSED if someone showed up at my rehearsal dinner wearing this. I will not be that person. I love you and this ring, but there’s no way I am wearing this tonight.”

She has a good point. I can only imagine Bella’s reaction if she DID show up wearing the ring. Not because of its size; just because of the meaning behind it. Reluctantly, I give in. “Okay, I get it.” I slip the ring off her finger and back into the box. I hand it to her. “As soon as the wedding is over, that ring goes back on your finger, you got me?”

“Understood,” she tells me, pecking my cheek. “I love you.”

“I love you. And I can’t even tell you how much more I love you by making me realize that my sister’s happiness is more important than you wearing my ring. For the next two days, just so we are clear. That’s so selfless.”

“I just wouldn’t want it to happen to me, so I can’t do it to someone else. If that makes me selfless, then so be it. And you will not speak of this until after the wedding. Now, we have a cake to make!”

“Will you be mad if I told you I already baked the cake?” I ask, my tone pleading for her understanding.

Her face loses the elation for a minute, then it comes right back as she says, “Oh thank god. After the day I’ve had, I have no desire to bake. That’s insane, right?”

“Wow, that bad, huh?”

“You ever have one of those days that you think to yourself, ‘ man, if I didn’t need this job, I would so quit right now?’ That was my day today.”

I’m quiet for a minute. Ainsley and I never really talk finances. She knows I have the means to support the lifestyle we lead, but she has no clue how far they stretch. “So quit.” I don’t say anything else as I wait for her reaction. I’m almost certain she’ll think I’m crazy.

She looks at me, her face giving nothing away. “Okay,” she challenges me, shrugging her shoulders. “I will.” There’s not even a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

I know she’s waiting for me to challenge her back, but I’m not going to. I’m serious that she should quit. “Dead serious, love. Quit. Your. Job.”

“Grayson, I said I will.” The green in her eyes gets a little lighter as she cracks a smile.

And I thought I loved her ten minutes ago! “You’re seriously going to quit your job because I told you to?” I ask incredulously.

She nods. “It’s not so much because you told me to; it’s because you respect me enough to support my decision to quit. I don’t love my job; I never have. I thought that when I became a professor at a college, my mom would be proud of me. Yeah, not so much. I’m done doing things for people who don’t appreciate my talents and my skills. I want to do something I love, something that makes me happy to do every day, something that doesn’t feel like work.”

“You want to bake,” I supply for her, grabbing a hold of a strand of hair and twisting it around my fingers.

“Every damn day. Except for right at this moment,” she says with a laugh. “But I can’t do it without you. And I don’t mean just your financial support. I want you to ‘work’ with me because we make an excellent team in the kitchen. What do you say?” She looks up at me, her eyes pleading with me to say yes. “Well?” she asks after a minute or two of silence.

“There’s nothing I would rather do than help you bake. Every damn day.”

Her face is giddy with pure joy. “You sure know how to make a girl’s day improve. An engagement, a dream job. What’s next, a baby?” She lets out a laugh, but it’s a nervous one.

“Well, that’s the next logical step, isn’t it?”

She nods her head, but when she looks back up at me, she’s lost some of her happiness. “Not right away,” she starts, her voice barely above a whisper. “I can’t wait to have babies with you, but considering how fast we came together, there’s so much of the relationship left for us to explore before we bring kids into it. I want to enjoy you, just you, for a little while longer.”

“I’m on board with that. You let me know when you’re ready to share me. And, babies, plural?”

“Oh yes, there will be more than one,” she utters, the smile returning to her face. “I’m guessing you’re okay with that?”

“Yep.”

Changing the subject, she asks, “Did you frost the cake?” When I nod, she looks at the clock. “Now we have plenty of time to shower.” She puts her hands on the hem of my shirt, tucks her fingers underneath, and trails them across my abs. “Come on, let’s go shower.” She leads me by the shirt and begins to make her way out of the kitchen. She stops abruptly at the door. “You took a picture of the flour?”

“Of course I did,” I tell her sarcastically.

She contemplates going back and taking a picture but thinks better of it. “It will be here when we get back,” she voices aloud, confirming her decision to proceed upstairs.

“Good choice, fiancée.”

“ N o, I’m not doing it,” I protest for about the fifth time.

“Grayson, you have to,” Ainsley practically begs. “Bella wouldn’t have asked you to do it if she didn’t want you to. She knows you can do it.” She places her palms on my cheeks. I try to shake them off, but she anticipates that and somehow manages to keep her hands planted and steady on my cheeks. She looks me in the eyes, and I take in hers: the emerald swirling around, a caring expression filling them. “I know you can do this. I’ll be right there next to you.”

For the life of me, I can’t remember why I agreed to make the toast at the wedding. Oh right, there was Bella. And Kylie. And Ainsley. The three of them ganged up on me and wouldn’t back down until I said yes. Ainsley and Kylie wrote the speech; all I have to do is get up there and repeat it. It really shouldn’t be that difficult; it’s basically a proclamation of how much I love Bella and Kylie. And I do. Love them. But I’m having a hard time breathing and my palms are all sweaty. So, I start pacing, as much as Ainsley tries to stop me.

Psyching myself up, telling myself I can do this, Ainsley comes up behind me, wraps her arms around me, and lays her head on my back. One of her hands finds my wildly beating heart, and she begins to tap my chest in a slow, steady beat. Between her calming breaths at my back and the way she’s tapping my chest, I start to relax. When she’s just about finally calmed me down, she whispers, “Deep breath, Gray. You got this.”

I spin around to face her, taking in her appearance for the hundredth time today. The dress she picked, with Bella’s approval, is form-fitting at the top, and while she doesn’t have much in the chest area, Kylie managed to find her a bra that gives her a little more lift than usual. I trail my fingers along the swells of her breasts. I can’t help myself but drop my head to her chest and trail my lips along them too, which makes her shiver. “You ready?”

“Getting there,” I tell her, letting my tongue linger a little longer on the right breast. Not wanting the other one to feel left out, I slowly drag my lips over there.

“Grayson, you have two minutes until we need to be back out there so you can give your speech. Do not start anything you can’t finish. That’s what the hotel room is for later.”

I pull my head up from her chest. “Thank you. I couldn’t do this without you.”

She meets my gaze, stands on tippy-toes, and exclaims, “You won’t ever have to do it alone.” She kisses one cheek and then the other.

God, I love this woman. So damn much.

“One more hug,” I insist, wrapping my arms around her, squeezing her as if my life depended on it.

“I love you too, Grayson. Now, get out there and give that speech.” And then she adds, “Just think. The next time you have to do this, you’ll be professing your love to the crazy girl that stole your heart the first time she kissed you and hasn’t given it back since.”

“Damn straight,” I tell her. “Come on. We might as well get this over with.” I grab her hand and lead her back to our seats at the reception.

We get back just in time for the toasts. Before she begins her “toast,” Bella glares over at us, like we’re late or something. She stands behind her seat at the table but passes on the microphone. It’s a small venue, but she can make her voice carry regardless.

"First of all, thank you, everyone, for coming to share in our wedding. Kylie and I are so thrilled that you could join us. We can't wait to start our lives together.

“A huge thank you to my brother, Grayson. Not only for your continued love and support for both me and Kylie, but none of this would have been possible without your financial support. You gave me, I mean us, the wedding we've dreamed about. Mom and Dad would be so proud of the man you are.”

As if I wasn't nervous enough, she throws out the last line. I find her gaze and mouth “Bitch” in her direction. She smiles at me, wipes a tear from her eye, and then continues. “I love you, Grayson. You’re my rock, and I would be lost without you.” She blows a kiss in my direction. “Your turn, big bro. Knock their socks off.” She sits back down and Kylie whispers something to her which makes her smile and her eyes sparkle even more than they already are today.

I push up off my chair, heart beating faster. As I pass by her chair, Ainsley flashes me that smile I've come to love more than life itself. I lean down and pop a kiss on the top of her head as she murmurs, “You got this. I love you.”

“Thanks, love. Hope I do you proud.” I flash my smile and make my way to stand behind Kylie and Bella.

I pass on the microphone too because it would just shake in my hands. As I look around the room full of family and friends, my breath catches as I realize my parents should be here to share this moment with Bella. And then I realize they are here, just not how we would have thought. Taking in a deep breath, I begin. And I totally go off-script.

“I'm Grayson, Bella's brother for those of you who don't know me. Like Bella, I want to thank you for coming to help these two kids celebrate their love. They truly are the perfect pair, and I couldn't be happier to share my sister with you, Kylie. You make her so happy, you put up with everything she throws at you, and you tame her wild side. Well, you tame it more than anyone else could.” I pause as the crowd breaks into laughter. “I'm happy to add you to our family as another sister. I love you.”

I lean down and hug her. She wipes the tears from her eyes and mouths “I love you” and hugs me back.

I stand back up and try to garner the confidence to continue; it's not going to be easy. I steal a glance over at Ainsley. She puts her hand over her heart, and I match her movement in return.

I can't look at Bella as I continue. It will be too hard. So I stare at the back wall as I start. “To my Bells, I can't tell you how happy I am for you. You did it, kid. You found the love of your life and made it so that she loved you back. You’ve always been a fierce lover, and no one in your life ever deserved your love like Kylie does. She's seen you at your worst, and it was her love that saw you through your darkest days.” I swallow the lump in my throat because I’m not quite done yet. “We don't always see eye to eye, but there’s not another person in this world that I would want as my sister.” The tears fall, but I have to finish. In barely a whisper, I continue. “There isn't a day that goes by that I don't thank my lucky stars you weren't in the car with them that fateful day. I know I had to take care of you, but you were the one who gave me the strength to get up and live during that time. You will never know how much you mean to me, and I'm positive that Mom and Dad are looking down, with tears in their eyes, at the woman you've become. I love you, Isabella, and am proud to call you my sister.” When she hops out of her chair, I lose it. She wraps her arms around me and hugs me tightly.

“I love you, Gray. More than you’ll ever know.”

I rest my head on her shoulder to compose myself. And then I feel another set of arms around me. “Thank you, Gray. You will never know how much your speech meant to both of us,” Kylie chokes out, tears streaming down her face. “Bella and I are the lucky ones to have you in our lives.”

I'm not sure how long we stand there, but none of us care. Once I've composed myself, I pull out of their hold. They wipe the last tears that are falling and sit back down. “One more thing. I know you think it was me, but I didn't pay for the wedding.” Bella shoots me a “WTF” look. “Dad had an account set up entitled ‘Bella's wedding.’ All I did was invest it wisely so I didn't have to finance your over-indulged choices. I mean, come on. I can’t really deny my future wife the wedding she deserves because I had to pay for yours, right?” That garners another laugh from the crowd. Automatically my eyes find Ainsley’s. She's wiping the tears from her eyes. “I love you so much,” she mouths.

“Speaking of your future wife, when are you going to ask her?” I hear Bella call out from behind me. “Or do I have to ask her for you?” She stands up. “Ainsley, what do you say?”

I should have anticipated this; I mean, it’s Bella we are talking about. But I’m pretty sure the shock I feel is reflected on my face. “Bella, sit down,” I hiss. “Don't embarrass her.”

Kylie tries pulling her down too, but she's up out of her seat and heading in Ainsley's direction. “I believe,” she starts, “this is still MY wedding.” The determination in her face and body language suggests she’s not going to let this one go .

All eyes follow her to where Ainsley's sitting, a hush falling over the crowd.

I watch as she takes a seat in my vacated chair, right next to Ainsley. She takes both of Ainsley's hands in hers. Ainsley shoots me a look, a look that screams “HELP!”

“Bella,” I spit out quite angrily. “Stop.”

She drops Ainsley's hands and looks back at me, challenging me. “You going to ask her?” She's daring me.

“He already did,” Ainsley states quietly.

Bella whips her head around to face her, an incredulous look on her face. “What? When?” She lifts Ainsley's left hand, her ring finger still bare. “I don't see a ring.” And then a look of fear crosses her face and she looks like she's about to flip out and says, “Oh crap, did you say no?”

I reach into my pocket and dig out the ring box. I wander over to where they sit, and go up behind Bella, allowing me to still look at Ainsley, who is looking quite confused.

“You want to tell her what you said or should I, darling?” I ask Ainsley.

“I think we should make her sweat it out a little more,” my girl says, playing along.

I look over to Kylie, who like the rest of the crowd, is sitting there speechless. “I bet you didn't think your bride would upstage her own wedding, did you?” Kylie giggles and shakes her head.

“No, especially because I specifically told her not to do this. Clearly I can see how well she'll listen as a wife.” She shoots Bella a death stare.

Bella glares at her from where she's sitting. When she turns back to Ainsley, she tries to read her facial expressions.“Okay, the suspense is killing me. What did you say?”

Ainsley looks at me and gives me a slight nod, indicating I should share. “She said,” I begin, pulling Ainsley out of her chair, a small gasp escaping her mouth. I take her left hand, slip the ring on her finger, and finish with, “Yes!”

Bella's eyes grow big, and her hands fly up to her mouth, silencing her gasp. “Oh my god!” She hops out of her seat and pulls Ainsley into her. “I knew it! Two weeks, I was right!” And then she looks down at the ring. “Damn girl.That rock is HUGE!”

“That's what she said,” I state with a smirk.

“Jeez, Gray. Overcompensating for something?” She leans against me. I drape my arms over her shoulders and place a kiss on the top of her head.

“Absolutely not,” Ainsley exclaims, a smile appearing on her face.

“That's my girl.” The crowd erupts in laughter again. I bring Ainsley into the other side of me. Giving each of them a squeeze, I know I'm the luckiest man in the world with these two, and there's not anything in the world I wouldn't do to let them know that every day.