“Take it back.” was Sal’s immediate reaction. If he had it his way he wasn’t bringing her back. Not tonight—not ever.
Taylor nodded. “We can do that.”
Grace still seemed very apprehensive. She turned and their eyes met again. “I can only talk for a few minutes but then I have to go home and check on Rose.”
She pulled her hands from his and walked back to the kitchen. Both Taylor and Joey watched and if Sal wasn’t mistaken, though they weren’t blatant about it, they seemed pleased. That only gave him more hope that if he couldn’t convince Grace to come back to him maybe he could count on them to help. He knew they wanted nothing more than for their baby girl to be happy. He wasn’t crazy about hearing Joey refer to her as that the first time but at the moment he loved what it meant. It meant Joey would love nothing more than to make sure Grace was happy and taken care of. Which was exactly what Sal planned on doing.
They were barely to his car when he pulled her to him. She began to protest but he felt her body slowly give into him and he leaned against his car pulling her to him.
“You said you have proof,” were the first words out of her mouth.
“I do.”
He told her about the video and Melissa and how she’d spiked his drink.
“I went to see her yesterday.”
Grace jerked away from him. “You went to see her?”
“In the hospital, Gracie.” He pulled her back to him. “She overdosed... on purpose.”
Grace’s eyes grew wide and got even wider as he filled her in on everything about Melissa and how unstable she was. “When I figured it out finally this past Friday, I really told her off. I called her a mental case. I shouldn’t have but I was just so f**king pissed. All the hurt you had to go through for nothing.” The enamel on his teeth was going to wear out from all the grinding he’d done ever since this whole nightmare with Melissa started.
Grace seemed to ease up but Sal could still see the apprehension. “Did she send the texts that night?”
“I’m fairly certain. When you see how out of it I was that night you’ll know there was no way I could’ve verbally put two coherent words together. Much less text them.”
Grace frowned but didn’t say anything at first. Then she looked him in the eye. “I didn’t believe her when she first told me.” She shook her head her eyes welling up a bit. “I just couldn’t believe that you would…”
“And I didn’t. You know that now.”
She breathed in deeply and nodded. “But when you said you did…” she looked away.
The hurt was still there and he didn’t want to, but he hated Melissa for that. He thought of what he felt when Romero informed him Frank’s car had been at Grace’s all night so he knew what Grace must’ve felt—remembered the desperation in Grace’s voice over the phone when she begged him to tell her he hadn’t slept with Melissa and he couldn’t. It choked him up just thinking about it and he brought his arms around Grace hugging her tight. “I wish I could take back all your pain. I swear to you I do, baby. But at least it’s over now.”
She pulled away from him to look at him. “Is it? How can you be sure?”
“Trust me. I took care of it.” He looked in her big eyes, feeling suddenly more emotional but in a different way than he had this past month. In a way that nearly took his breath away he brought his hand down and placed it on her belly. “How long have you known?”
She looked down, placed her hand over his and whispered. “Since last night.” Her face turned back up and met his eyes. “But I don’t want you think that I…” she hesitated before continuing. “You know that you have to…” She stopped again and shrugged. “After everything that’s happened, I don’t want this to be the reason that—”
“Are you kidding me? You really think I wouldn’t be a part of this? Grace I’d stop at nothing, especially now—” He stopped when it suddenly hit him. The pictures of Grace at the nightclub with that guy looking so different. Her spending the entire weekend with him. He was buying her a f**king house—handed over his brand new luxury car. Every muscle on his body went tense. “Wait, what do you mean everything that’s happened?”
“I’m just saying, even before all this happened we weren’t together that long. I’m sure you weren’t thinking that far ahead and certainly not in terms of marriage and I don’t expect you to just because—”
“Believe me, Grace. I was thinking all those things and more from the moment we came to an agreement. You don’t have to worry about any of that. But what I do need to know…” He took a moment to calm himself because he didn’t want to ruin things now that she seemed ready to forgive, and move on. As much as he tried his words were strained. “What the hell is going on between you and this guy from Laughlin?”
“It’s just business.”
“Really because that’s not what Sofie said it looked like Friday night and yesterday you almost kissed him.” Sal’s heart had started up again. This was not how he wanted their first reunion to be like but he couldn’t help it.
Grace’s brows pinched. “Yeah, you said that earlier. Who told you I almost kissed him?”
Sal almost wished she’d just deny it. This only enraged him further. “Vince made an observation when he picked up your sister. So did you, after they drove away?”