A soft knock sounded at her hospital door. She ignored it, scraping the inside of her Jell-O cup with a spoon, hoping whoever was there would just go away. Her mother, Holly, and Diana, her mother’s personal aide, had just left, and her head was throbbing. She wasn’t in the mood for more visitors. Hopefully the person would just go away.
Her spoon continued scavenging for the last bit of Jell-O. She probably hadn’t had Jell-O since middle school. How had she gone this long without it? Especially black cherry. She was going to have to start adding it to her grocery list.
A rerun of The Big Bang Theory played on the TV. She’d seen the episode before but it still succeeded in distracting her. She laughed at Sheldon and wondered if Reid had ever seen the show before. Did they play it in prison? Did he have access to TV?
Hell. So much for distracting her.
The door opened. “Grace? Hello?” Charles stuck his head inside the room.
“Hey, Charles.” She reached for the remote control, powering down the volume. He’d come by earlier with her mother, but she hadn’t been alone with him since before . . .
Before everything.
Except now they were engaged.
“I brought you some breakfast tacos.” He held up a brown paper bag. “The nurses here raved about them.” He shrugged amiably. “Figured you should always go with the recommendations of the locals.”
“Thanks, Charles.”
He pulled a chair up and drew the bed tray closer, setting the bag on it. “Unless you want more Jell-O cups.” He nodded at the empty cups littering her tray.
“Thanks, but I’ll take the real food, please.”
“Your mother said they should release you tomorrow.”
Grace nodded, watching as he lifted a taco out of the bag and handed it to her. She opened the tinfoil and immediately the delicious aroma of warm flour tortilla, scrambled egg, and bacon wafted to her nose. “This smells like heaven.” She moaned at her first bite.
At the stretch of silence, her gaze drifted to Charles. He watched her with a rapt expression.
She held her fingers over her mouth. “What?” she asked around a mouthful of taco. “You’re not eating.”
Nodding, he looked down at the taco in his hand, hurriedly unwrapped it and took a bite. She watched him curiously. He looked almost nervous, which he couldn’t be. Charles was confident and charismatic. Never nervous.
“Good,” he said approvingly, and took another bite. He glanced up at the TV, smiling. “This is a good one.”
They ate in silence for a few moments. Companionable silence. Like before. That much hadn’t changed.
“You seem . . . different,” he announced.
Her gaze swerved back to him at this. A nervous tremor ran through her. How could he know? “Different how?” she dared asking.
Did he look at her and know she’d fallen in love with one of her abductors? That she’d slept with someone else and there had been sparks? Epic sparks. Once in a lifetime sparks. The kind she and Charles didn’t have and never would have.
“I don’t know.” He shrugged one shoulder. “Stronger maybe?”
She smiled at that, a little relieved.
She felt stronger. It was a new day and she was a new Grace Reeves. She was glad he sensed that. “Tell that to my mother. She hasn’t stopped hovering.”
He smiled back. “She was worried. We all were.” He paused and looked down at his taco. “I was worried, Grace.”
“I know—” she started to say.
“No.” His voice sounded almost pained as he cut her off. “I was really worried.”
“Charles,” she said softly, unsure what to say.
“I mean it.” He lifted his gaze back up. “What we had was so comfortable. I realize that I took it for granted. I took you for granted.”
She took another bite of her taco, chewing steadily so she wouldn’t have to say anything right then.
“I know I went about all of this wrong, Grace. I went about us wrong. Your father has been calling the shots from the beginning.”
“Well, that’s what he does.”
“Well, I shouldn’t have let him. Not in this. Maybe that’s why you and I never felt real.” Abruptly, he put down his taco and stood up.
She watched him with wide eyes, her heart pounding like a jackhammer at her throat. He ran both hands through his well-groomed hair, sending the chestnut locks into uncustomary disarray. “Your father said you agreed to marry me.”
Heat crept up her face. Did her father also explain that he had blackmailed her to get her agreement? For the first time, she thought about Charles and how he would feel if he knew she had been coerced. He couldn’t like the idea. What man would?
Even knowing that, she didn’t care. She did it for Reid. For his freedom. She didn’t regret it. The choice was hers, and she did feel good about that at least. It was her decision. She was calling the shots. The very thing she had vowed to do when she returned to her family.
Charles cursed and looked away for a moment. She blinked. It wasn’t like him to use language. “Charles,” she started, pushing herself up a little higher in the bed. “Look . . .”
Her voice faded as he got down on one knee. She peered over the side of the bed at him, her mouth sagging open at the sight of him on bended knee. “I don’t need anyone to propose for me. Not even your father. I’m quite capable of doing it myself. Grace Reeves, will you marry me?”
She stared, stunned.
He straightened and seized her hand. “I know this is probably not the most romantic gesture. And certainly not how any woman imagines a proposal.” His lips twisted in a wry grin. “Over tacos in a hospital bed leaves a lot to be desired. But it’s me that’s asking this time, Grace. Not your father.”
She cleared her throat. “I appreciate that.”
“We can have something real, Grace. We can be good together. I believe it. Tell me you believe that, too.”
Her mind touched on Reid and then shied away. It hurt too much. “I don’t love you, Charles.” She had to be honest with him. She couldn’t go into this with him thinking she felt more for him than she did. She wouldn’t do that to him no matter what she promised her father. She’d marry him, but he would know the truth.
“Do you like me?”
“Yes. Of course.”
“Good, because I like you. I more than like you, and I think some day we could maybe even love each other. When I thought something might happen to you . . . that you might die—” He stopped and gave his head a swift shake. As though it was too unthinkable to say out loud. He pinned her with his gaze. “Say yes.”
He knew she didn’t love him. Despite his optimism, he knew she might never love him.
Reid’s face flashed across her mind and she shuddered. It was all the incentive necessary.
“Yes.”