It was snowing on Roosevelt Avenue in the borough of Queens. The fat, frilly flakes danced to and fro around Gracie as she stood at the edge of a vacant lot that would soon be a pediatric clinic. Although it was early April, and the snow wasn’t supposed to last for more than a day—a good thing in light of this afternoon’s ground-breaking ceremony—Gracie liked seeing it. There was something promising about snow. Something clean. Something genuine. Something hopeful. Something that said everything was going to be just fine.
And everything was fine. The clinic was the last recipient of Harry Sagalowsky’s billions. In the last ten months, she had spent his money on hundreds of projects and thousands of institutions that would affect millions of people. She’d traveled all over the country to participate in not only ground-breaking ceremonies, but also ribbon-cutting ceremonies. She’d visited preschools, elementary schools, high schools and colleges, attended meetings in churches and synagogues, temples and mosques. She’d even been invited to a couple of weddings and a barn-raising that had been facilitated by Harry’s estate.
She had seen firsthand the good things money could do when it was placed in the right hands. Harry had been wrong about money causing the world’s problems. Greed did that. Money properly spent could create a utopia. She hoped Harry was resting easily now, wherever he was.
“Not the best weather for a ground-breaking,” Bennett Tarrant said from his position on her left.
He was elegantly bundled in an exquisitely tailored camel-hair overcoat, a paisley silk scarf tucked beneath the lapels. Gus Fiver was a mirror image of him, his own coat a few shades lighter, and Renny Twigg almost epitomized Gracie’s initial impression of her as someone who should be working outdoors in flannel, wrapped as she was in a red-and-black-checked wool coat that was belted at the waist.
Gracie would have felt bland beside her in her own creamy Dior-style coat, circa 1950, if it hadn’t been for the luscious way Harrison was looking at her—the same way he’d been looking at her since she’d come out of his bathroom wrapped in a towel this morning. And that was a weird thought, since she’d come out of his bathroom wrapped in a towel lots of times. So why was today any different?
He was another reason the last ten months had been so fine—and so hectic. Bicoastal relationships weren’t the easiest thing to maintain. But she’d wanted to finish her degree in Seattle, and his business was in New York, so one of them had flown across the country almost every weekend. Or he’d flown to whatever event she was attending with Harry’s money to join her. She sent up another silent thank-you to Harry for making that possible. Yes, he’d wanted her to buy a house on the water or go to Spain with some of his money, but using it to see a man who had become more important to her than anything had given Gracie a lot more happiness.
But she’d had her degree for more than two months and still didn’t have a job. Of course, that could be because her work with Harry’s money had intensified once her classes concluded. It could also be because her search for work in Seattle had been kind of halfhearted. Then again, her search for work anywhere had been kind of halfhearted. There were probably more positions in a big city like New York—and, truth be told, she’d applied for as many jobs here as she had in Seattle. But as good as things had been between her and Harrison—and as big a pain as it was living thousands of miles apart—neither had brought up the subject of taking things to the next level. Like living in the same city.
“I like the snow,” Gracie said in response to Mr. Tarrant. “It’s very pretty.”
“I like it, too,” Renny Twigg said from his other side. “It looks like wrapping paper on this big, beautiful gift that Harrison Sage is giving to the neighborhood.”
Gee, Renny Twigg had something of a whimsical streak, Gracie thought. Maybe she really should be doing something besides working for a probate firm.
“I think they’re about to begin,” Bennett Tarrant said. “Shall we?”
The ground-breaking ceremony went off without a hitch. Gracie and Harrison laughed as they jabbed their shovels into the ground, fighting to get them deeper than a couple of inches into the frozen sod. Gracie even stepped up onto the top of the blade of her own shovel in an effort to drive it deeper. But all that did was send her teetering backward. Thankfully, Harrison was there to catch her. He set her on the ground beside him before returning both their shovels to the community leaders in charge.
Once all the thanks had been made and the farewells uttered, Tarrant, Fiver & Twigg returned to the big black Town Car that had brought them, and Gracie and Harrison headed for his. As they strode across the vacant lot, the snow began to fall harder around them, blurring the rest of the urban landscape, making her feel as if there were no one in the world but them. Harrison seemed to sense it, too, because he entwined his gloved fingers with hers.
“I heard you applied for a teaching position at my old school,” he said. “Kindergarten. Starting this fall.”
Dang. Busted.
“Well, the listing came up on LinkedIn,” she said, “so I thought, what the hey. I mean, I’ve applied at schools all over the place,” she added, fudging the truth a bit, since she hadn’t applied for positions in, say, Nauru or Abu Dhabi—or anywhere else that wasn’t Seattle or New York. “I probably won’t get it, though, since I’m sure they want someone seasoned who feels the same way about education that they do.” She couldn’t help adding, not quite under her breath, “More’s the pity.”
Harrison grinned. “I’ve spoken to the director about you. Seeing as I’m sitting on the board now and all, I have some pull there.”
Gracie grinned back. “So then I guess I really can kiss that position goodbye, since you know the first thing I’d do is rally for art and music classes to be mandatory and for the uniforms to be eighty-sixed.”
Harrison’s grin grew broader. “You should be getting a call this week, actually. You could really shake things up there. Get ’em while they’re young and teach them about the stuff that’s really important. Not that I told the director that part. I just told her you’re exactly the kind of teacher that place needs. And hey, you’ll have an ally on the board.”
Gracie chuckled. “Thanks, Harrison.” Then she sobered. “Of course, that means I’ll be moving to New York. Will that be a problem? For us, I mean?”
Now his expression turned confused. “How could that possibly be a problem for us? We’d finally both be in the same place at the same time for more than a few days.”
She shrugged. “I know, but we haven’t—”
“Of course, apartments are crazy expensive in Manhattan,” he interjected. “Living there on a teacher’s salary would be impossible.”
Ah. So. Evidently, that “taking things to the next level” discussion was still on hold for a while, since anything she would be able to afford in New York was probably still going to land her in another state like Connecticut or New Jersey. Still, they’d at least be closer.
“Yeah, crazy expensive,” he reiterated. “So it would probably be better if you move in with me.”
Oh. Okay. So maybe they were going to talk about it?
“Or we could look for a new place together,” he continued.
Wow. Really going to talk about it. At least, they would be, if Gracie wanted to jump in. At the moment, though, she wasn’t sure what to say. Harrison clearly was, though.
“But you know,” he said, “the school where you’ll be working is pretty traditional. For now, anyway. They might frown on one of their kindergarten teachers living in sin.”
So then maybe they weren’t going to talk about it. Or take it to the next level. Never mind.
Harrison sighed with resignation. “So it might be best if you just marry me.”
Before Gracie could say a word—he’d just skipped every level there was!—he withdrew a small velvet box from inside his coat and opened it. Nestled inside was a diamond ring. An old diamond ring. A modest diamond ring. An absolutely beautiful diamond ring. It was probably about a third of a carat, mounted on a white gold, filigreed setting, and it was dazzling amid the falling snow.
“It was my grandmother’s,” he said. “I found it in one of the shoe boxes where my dad stowed stuff. The minute I saw it, I thought of you. If anyone could make this represent happy memories instead of sad ones, it’s you.”
That, finally, made Gracie break her silence. “You told me you finished going through your dad’s things back in October.”
“Yeah, I did.”
“So you’ve been thinking about giving me this since then?”
“No, I found this in August. But you were so busy with school and my dad’s estate, I didn’t want to overwhelm you.”
Overwhelm her? He’d overwhelmed her the minute she saw him.
He smiled again, a little less certainly this time. “So what do you say, Gracie? Will you marry me? Or should I have asked you sooner?”
Well, he could have asked her sooner, she supposed. But it was never too late for something like this. Then again, with Harry’s money no longer a strain on her time, and with her starting a new job in a few months, and with Harrison just looking so gorgeous and being so wonderful...
“Your timing is perfect,” she said.
Just like you, she thought.
“Just like you,” he said.
“Just like us,” she amended.
He smiled at that. As he removed the ring from the box, Gracie tugged the glove off her left hand. And when he slipped it over her third finger, it was... Well, it was perfect, too.
“I love you, Gracie Sumner,” he said softly, pressing his forehead against hers.
“I love you, Harrison Sage,” she replied.
As the snow continued to swirl around them, and as he covered her mouth with his, Gracie couldn’t help thinking she’d been wrong about the clinic for which they’d just broken ground. It wasn’t the last recipient of all that Harry left behind. Because she’d just received the last—and best—part of that herself.
* * * * *