Page 31

GRAY

E mma barged into my bedroom so abruptly I had no time to warn Ozzie, who entered naked just a minute after my soon-to-be ex-wife. I blamed myself for forgetting the master keys to every room in the house. Although I’d changed the locks over the years, the keys were all labeled and kept in the same location they had been for over twenty years—the bottom drawer of the desk in my office.

The keys fell from Emma’s grasp and hit the floor with a clanging dissonance that echoed the tension in the room. She made no attempt to pick them up, and nothing could have torn me away from Ozzie’s side. We’d both meant to come clean, but not this way, with Emma seeing my beautiful man in the nude.

“Now before you say anything,” I said. “Take a deep breath, and let’s talk about this like adults.”

“You want me to take a deep breath?” Emma did just that, sucking in a lungful of air, then breathing out slowly. “Why is it not working, Gray? Oh, that’s right. Nothing can calm me down when I just found out you’re sleeping with your son’s fiancé.”

“We’re not just sleeping together. He’s my person, Emma. He’s the one.”

“No. No. I don’t believe this. You’d never do something like this to hurt our son. This is not the kind of man you are.”

“I didn’t think so too. And then I met Ozzie.” I squeezed his shoulder. “We know it’s uncomfortable for everyone, but the way we feel about each other is too real. We can’t throw that away just because of what people—you—think.”

“What about what Carter thinks?” Emma leveled her gaze at Ozzie, her nostrils flaring like one of my irate bulls. “You! You caused all this. Oh my god, it all makes sense now. This explains why you had no interest in planning the wedding, and to think I changed my mind about you not being good enough for Carter.”

“Come now, Emma. We both know Carter doesn’t want this wedding.”

“Has he ever said that to you? Why else would he have sent me here to ensure Ozzie was actually making wedding plans?”

I released Ozzie and put some space between him and Emma. “Are you listening to yourself? Why isn’t he here? I’m sorry to point it out to you, but our son’s been treating him like crap.”

“So you talk to him about adjusting his behavior, not sleep with his fiancé!” Her voice rose with each syllable until it was a shriek that pierced the room. “Is this any way for a father to treat his son? That’s despicable. You’re both despicable. Two people who claim to love him, and this is how you act?”

Ozzie inched out from behind me. “Emma, I—”

“It’s Mrs. Magnuson to you. Oh my god.” She placed a hand over her heart, glaring at me. “He’s the reason you want to divorce me?” She laughed hysterically, the sound twisted and bitter. “For years, you had no problem with our marriage, even though we’ve been living apart, but the minute he shows up, you want a divorce. Of course he’s the reason. I was so stupid. You must have had a good laugh behind my back all this time.”

“Emma, nobody’s been laughing behind your back. My relationship with Ozzie has nothing to do with you and, for that matter, nothing to do with Carter. He’s the man I love, and it so happens he was marrying my son, but not anymore. And our marriage was long over before Ozzie even came into the picture.”

“Well, good luck getting an uncontested divorce now. Is that what you were hoping for? A smooth divorce so you can marry him? My god, you’ll be the laughingstock in town. How foolish can you be ruining your relationship with your son over someone so completely unsuitable for you?”

Heat flamed in my cheeks as Emma’s words cut through the air. I clenched my jaw, fighting the urge to retaliate with words I might later regret. I glanced at Ozzie, whose face was pale and drawn.

“Now wait one damn minute. I get you’re upset about what this will do to Carter, but you watch what you say about Ozzie.” I wouldn’t have her feeding Ozzie’s insecurities the way Carter had.

“Well, am I wrong?” she snapped. “I always thought he was with Carter for his inheritance. Why else would he have put up with the way Carter treated him? Oh, but he’s a clever one. Why wait on Carter to receive a percentage of your worth when he can get his hands on everything directly through you? What hold could he have over you? Obviously, he must know a thing or two in the bedroom, since he got you to betray your family like this. Or is it the fact that he has a cock between his legs? Is that the reason you couldn’t keep our family together by staying in the city? The reason you didn’t fight for us?”

“Gray, no.” Ozzie planted himself in front of me and placed a hand on my cheek. “She’s just lashing out in anger, and we expected this to happen, didn’t we? Please don’t respond.”

I covered his hand with mine. “I can’t allow her or anyone to speak about you this way.”

He smiled, his round cheeks going a soft pink. “I love that about you. The way you want to protect me, but I can handle it. What I can’t let happen is for this to breed even more animosity by stirring up other things.”

“Spare me the righteous act!!” Emma spat. “You’re nothing but a gold-digging tramp.”

“Emma!” My voice cut through the tension-laden room like a shocking crack of thunder. “Enough!” My heart was pounding hard, and my vision blurred. A sharp, throbbing pain radiated through my skull, concentrated over the right side of my forehead.

“Gray!” Ozzie grabbed me as I swayed on my feet. “Gray, are you all right?”

“Headache.” I grimaced, closing my eyes. “Room’s spinning.”

“Oh god, the doctor warned us about this.” Ozzie guided me back to the bed, his arm strong and warm around my waist. He eased me onto the mattress with some pillows behind my head.

“Don’t think you can use your concussion to get out of this discussion, Gray,” Emma said, though she lowered her voice.

“Emma, please,” Ozzie said sharply. “In a while, we can go out in the hall so you can cuss me all you want, but not in here while Gray’s not feeling well. I insist that you leave so I can take care of him properly. His health comes first.” He stroked my hair and kissed my forehead. “Let me get you something for the headache.”

“I have Advil in my purse,” she said.

Ozzie shook his head. “Weren’t you listening? The doctor said no blood thinners. It has to be Tylenol.”

“No, no medicine,” I said. “Just need to be still for a minute. I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?” Ozzie sat next to me. “I don’t like to see you in pain.”

“I’m sure.”

“Let me at least get you something cool on your forehead. It’ll help.” Ozzie rose to his feet. “If you’re going to stay, please don’t upset him any further. We can handle the criticism, but he should be resting right now. Can we at least put it off until morning?”

Ozzie disappeared into the bathroom. I cracked an eye open. Emma was glowering at me.

“You coldhearted son of a bitch,” she whispered. “Let’s screw up our kid more than we already did when he was growing up. All the back-and-forth between us and a broken home. Why do you think Carter’s the way he is?”

“Carter’s an adult now, Emma. He can hardly blame us for his choices. He knows right from wrong, and we both know damn well he was only marrying Ozzie because that’s the only way he would get his share of his inheritance early.”

“What?”

Ozzie’s gasp echoed in the room. Oh shit. He’d heard me? I sat up, only to drop back to the pillow as the room spun around me. “Ozzie, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

“Shh.” Ozzie placed a cool rag over my eyes with trembling hands. The soothing chill seeped into my skin, easing the hot pulse of my headache. “Let’s get you better.”

“But I—”

“Not now, Gr-Gray.”

But his voice breaking on my name told me everything. He knew. He now knew the whole truth behind his engagement with Carter. Did he hate me? But he stroked my head tenderly, as if my words hadn’t hurt him when I knew otherwise. Ozzie was a sensitive man who wore his heart on his sleeve. His reactions were always sincere, which was one of the many things I loved about him. I could tell by his silence the news had hit him hard.

He’s too good for any of us. I don’t deserve him either, but I’d damn well try to.

“She’s gone,” Ozzie whispered. “You can relax now. Should I call the doctor?”

“No. She told us this might happen and that it’s a symptom associated with the concussion. I’ll be fine if even just so you can be upset I didn’t tell you the truth earlier.”

“I always suspected there was another reason he wanted to marry me.” His voice came out as a whisper. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be talking when you have a headache.”

“It’s okay.” I caught his wrist. “I love hearing your voice. As long as you speak softly, it doesn’t hurt. Tell me.”

Ozzie lay next to me, his head on my shoulder. “I thought Carter and I were going to break up. We’d been fighting a lot, and I felt at my worst from the way he treated me. That was just before we met. I thought for sure after that Christmas and the way I confronted him about how he behaved toward you, he would break off our engagement as we never made any concrete plans.”

“I remember.”

It was after Ozzie had spent almost two hours with Pascal and me. We’d taken him back into town when the snow eased up. Carter had been drinking, oblivious to how much snow had fallen, since he allowed Ozzie to drive alone at night in an unfamiliar place to bring me Christmas gifts. I’d overheard Ozzie snapping at him that his behavior and the way he was treating me were unacceptable. I’d been in awe of him at the time. How often had I wanted to say those exact words to Carter but bit them back? And there he was, a young man who didn’t know me at all, who had come to my defense.

I’d excused myself to use the bathroom and admitted to Pascal that I’d found the one but he was already in a relationship with my son. Pascal had laughed. I had too. But deep down, I’d believed it, even though I’d made it into a joke.

“It was weird, but after that Christmas, he kind of changed. He treated me better, and I thought he was learning to appreciate me, so when he settled on a wedding date, I agreed. I should have questioned it, but a part of me was scared no one would ever ask me to marry them again.”

I removed the wet rag from my eyes and reached for his hand. “Marry me?”

“What? Gray, I didn’t mean that you should ask me that.”

“I know, but I want to. Ozzie, I knew you were the one from the first time we met. It’s sappy as hell, but I could feel it. Nothing has changed.”

Seconds ticked by, the silence stretching between us. His hand was warm in mine, and his breath hitched as he turned his face toward me.

“Gray, I want to, but…”

My heart fell, and I deflated against the mattress. “I see.”

“It’s just that I said yes too soon the last time. We have something beautiful between us, and I want to get time to know you, date you, and live with you before we make such an important decision. I was about to marry for all the wrong reasons. Please don’t be mad.”

I linked our fingers, working his words past the hurt to understand them. “I’m not mad at you. You’re worth all the nos until you say yes. And I’m glad you didn’t say yes out of fear I won’t ask again. I will for as long as it takes to get the answer I want to hear.”