She gave herself a mental and physical shake. She couldn’t do that. Wouldn’t do that. Not when there was a little boy sleeping just a few feet away who depended on her to protect him. She was done making mistakes with good-looking, wealthy men.
Grace had always trusted her instincts, at least until she’d fallen for Richard. After having gotten things so horribly wrong with him, she’d been keeping her guard up, to protect both herself and her son.
She’d never be able to forget what his parents had said to her when they’d paid her a surprise visit the day after she’d told Richard about her pregnancy: “Our son has a weakness for inappropriate girls like you, unfortunately. But his temporary mistake cannot become a permanent stain on our family.” She’d been stunned when the esteemed former senator and his wife had handed her two certified checks drawn on an account with no identifiers on it. One for an abortion…and the other as payment for her silence. She’d started planning her move that same day, to a city as far away from Washington, D.C., as she could get.
But as wealthy and powerful as the Bentleys were, Grace was pretty sure that the Sullivans were even more so. Would any of them ever deal with “accidents” in this way? By buying off and burying them?
She couldn’t imagine that they would, couldn’t wrap her head around any of the men or women she’d met tonight doing anything that terrible. Then again, how could she know for sure? After all, she’d only just met them all. And hadn’t Richard snowed her, too?
As renewed wariness crept back into her, she decided it was good that Dylan was still here. That way, she could make it perfectly clear before he left that the two of them were never going to move beyond the story she was writing.
Because even if Dylan and his family were as good, as honest and kind, as they’d seemed tonight, the truth was that it would only make things harder. Maybe if Dylan had been like his architect brother and Realtor sister, whose lives were about putting down permanent roots, then that fantasy might have had a chance of coming true. But if she’d learned anything during her two-hour interview this afternoon on his parents’ back porch, it had been that the man on the other side of her bedroom door was meant to sail away wherever the wind took him, whenever it started blowing. Once upon a time, she might have been able to believe in fantasy happy-ever-afters and go with him. But she couldn’t do that now. Building a safe, loving home for Mason was her top priority.
Looking up into the mirror, she saw that the brightness on her face was now gone. In its place was acceptance…and determination not to get swept up in attraction or romance.
“Sorry that took me so long,” she said when she returned to the living room. “I needed to get Mason changed before tucking him in.” Not to mention the time it had taken to get her head back on straight.
“It gave me time to admire your pictures.”
Dylan was standing in front of one from the day Mason had been born. Seven pounds, two ounces, wrapped in the hospital’s swaddling blankets, he’d been red-faced and hairless. Grace still remembered how awed she’d been by the life she’d created…and how terrified she was at the thought of taking him home all by herself.
“It was the best day of my life.”
“I’ll bet it was.” She could feel Dylan’s eyes on her now, instead of the picture. “Everyone in my family loved the two of you. Just the way I knew they would.”
“Your family is fabulous,” she said as she walked into her small adjoining kitchen to put the coffee on. “Mason was in heaven playing with everyone. And they were all so kind, even when he almost ruined your sister’s wedding.”
“He didn’t come anywhere close to ruining anything. Trust me, Mia meant it when she said it was her perfect wedding.”
Grace knew she needed to get serious with Dylan, but there was something she needed to tell him first. “Tonight was amazing. Mia and Ford’s wedding was the most beautiful one I’ve ever been to. They’re so perfect for each other, and the fact that your brother Ian officiated made it even better.”
“Mia’s always had a knack for doing things her own way.” She could hear how much he loved his sister in his voice, see the obvious affection in his eyes. “I’d say the wedding tonight was exactly right for her and Ford.”
“It was beautiful. Did you really not know anything about it?”
“Nope, nothing. Ian and Mia have always been especially close, so it’s not surprising that they’d have cooked this up. They would have known how much my parents would love it, too, more than having to contend with hundreds of strangers and paparazzi everywhere.”
Grace had never really understood the pressure that someone like Ford might have to deal with until tonight. Obviously, none of the Sullivans was complaining about their good fortune, but it definitely added another layer to why Dylan might choose to keep his distance from the press. She sincerely hoped her story about him didn’t end up opening a can of worms for him.
“Your parents really did love it,” Grace said with a smile as she handed Dylan a cup. “Everyone was so happy that even Mason couldn’t resist cheering at the end.” And she hadn’t been able to resist moving into Dylan’s arms to hug him and share in the joy all around her.
Remembering how warm, how good, it had felt to be in his arms, jolted her into realizing that all this wedding talk had veered her even further toward the personal. Knowing she needed to build up her professional boundaries once more, she made herself circle back to the real reason she and Dylan were spending time together.