CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Grace had planned on working for a couple more hours the previous night after getting off the phone with Dylan. But, utterly and blissfully exhausted, all she could manage was to crawl into bed to rewind and replay every moment of their super-sexy phone call.
When Mason had awakened her this morning with his usual cheer, she’d felt just as happy. It’s because both of us are in love with Dylan, she thought as she lifted him out of his crib with a smooch. Every moment they’d spent with him was full of joy, full of laughter.
And full of love.
She was tempted, again, to call Dylan so that he would finally know the truth of what was in her heart. But with his race starting today, and the seventeen-hour time difference, she probably wouldn’t be able to reach him. Plus, it would be so much better to look into his eyes and hold him close when she told him how much she loved him. That she’d never loved anyone the way she loved him. That he made every day better and better.
And that right when she thought love had ended, it had only just begun.
She changed Mason, then brought him out into the kitchen and clipped him into his high chair to feed him breakfast. He mowed through mashed peas, carrots, and a huge handful of Cheerios. When he stopped eating and began to toss the leftover cereal at his stuffed animal in the toy box in the corner of the living room, she quickly cleaned him up with a wet wipe and then let him loose to play.
Playing that quickly turned into more awe-inspiring walking.
It took her longer than she expected to finally sit down at her computer to check her email, where she found a message waiting from her editor. Her deadline was still two weeks away, but he wanted to see something soon so that the art department could begin working on the layout of both the article and the cover, for which they would shoot the photos upon Dylan’s return from Australia.
Grace’s heart immediately started knocking around in her chest. She’d never been this nervous about something she’d written before, even during the past year and a half when it had been a struggle to get the words down. Writing about Dylan was so personal, so close to her heart, that she wanted it to be perfect. Needed it to be the best thing she’d ever written.
Dylan had augmented her great research with the best one-on-one interviews a journalist could dream of from her subject. All of the pieces for this story should have been there. But when she opened up the file again and read through it while Mason banged cars together on the floor, then toddled over them like a baby Godzilla, she couldn’t deny that something was still missing.
She replied to her editor’s email to let him know that she would be sending something over very soon, then settled Mason into his bouncy seat in the bathroom and took a quick shower. With Mia’s surprise party that afternoon, buying a present for it, and figuring out what to wear, she wouldn’t have time to work on her story again until tonight. Considering she’d redone the beginning a dozen times already, it was probably a good thing that she was getting away from her computer for a while so that she didn’t butcher the story by rewriting all the life out of it.
Because if there was one thing that she knew for sure, it was that her story about Dylan Sullivan should be as fun and as full of joy as the man himself. Anything less wouldn’t do him—or what he’d accomplished—justice.
* * *
Several hours later, Grace walked onto Tatiana Landon’s movie set holding Mason in one arm and a pretty wrapped gift in the other. She’d interviewed actors and actresses before, but no one of Tatiana’s caliber. The set was very impressive, the furniture from the 1920s authentic down to the finest detail.
When Tatiana had told her that she was working on a period film—and that she was more than a little nervous about pulling it off—Grace had marveled at her bravery. Most actresses would likely be happy to stick to what they had proved they were good at. Tatiana, on the other hand, clearly thrived on the challenge of learning a new skill set and reaching outside of what she already knew how to do so well. Ian Sullivan, Grace remembered with a small smile, had been so proud of his fiancée. The way he’d looked at Tatiana with so much love that it stole even Grace’s breath still stuck with her. It was the same way Ford had looked at Mia. The same way Rafe had looked at Brooke.
And the same way, she was finally ready to believe, that Dylan always looked at her.
“Yay, you’re here!” Tatiana rushed over and gave both of them a hug. “Wow, look at how much you’ve grown since I last saw you,” she said to Mason. “What a big boy you are!”
One day, Grace thought as she watched Mason smile shyly for the beautiful woman fawning over him, Tatiana was going to make an amazing mother. And Ian would be a great, and very protective, father. Just as he was a great, protective older brother.
“Mia isn’t here yet. I told her to come in thirty minutes. She thinks I need her help with finding another location in Seattle for a new scene in the movie.” Tatiana grinned. “She’s going to be so surprised when she sees everyone.”
“How many of Mia’s cousins were able to come?”
“Everyone on the West Coast. I hate that I couldn’t give enough lead time for the girls out in Maine and New York, but having everyone else and the kids here is pretty amazing. They can’t wait to meet you.”
What, Grace wondered, had Tatiana and Brooke told the other women about her? Especially since she and Dylan had only recently gone public with the fact that they were dating. Then again, hadn’t they all known something was up from that first dinner at Claudia and Max’s house?