Page 69 of Holding Grace

“There just has to be something,” she mused again.

“I have an idea.” The words were out before I could stop them. Apparently, I was going for it. “Something that would send a message to Ellis and hopefully make you safer in the process. But I need you to really listen to me before you say anything okay?”

Grace eyed me cautiously. “Why do I feel like you’re about to say something crazy?”

“It’s not crazy. It might sound like it at first though.”

“Okay, tell me.”

Here went nothing. “I think we should get married.”

Grace blinked at me, and I could almost hear her processing what I’d said. “I know I’m still recovering from a concussion, but I could have sworn you just said we should get married. Isn’t that weird?”

“It’s not weird. That’s what I said.” Grace opened her mouth to respond but I kept going. “Hear me out. Ellis and Seth’s plan is to force you to marry Seth to get access to your property, then sell it and steal your money, right?”

“That’s what I overhead them talking about, yes,” Grace said evenly. “Me marrying Seth even if they had to drug me or force me somehow. Then they joked that once we were married, they could just kill me, and the property would be Seth’s.”

“If you’re already married to me then that plan goes out the window. And if Seth can’t marry you hurting you to get your inheritance goes out the window, too. There’s no incentive for them to do that.”

We both paused as our server set our food on the table between us.

“We don’t know if that’s even the plan anymore,” Grace argued once the server had moved on. “I never expected Ellis to pay someone to grab me off the street. Maybe he decided to just try to force me to sign the property over. If so, being married to you won’t make a difference.”

“Maybe yes, maybe no. If Ellis knows there’s an obstacle in his way, maybe he’ll decide it’s not worth the risk.”

“You don’t know Ellis. He truly hates me. Regardless of what I said before, he won’t give this up no matter what.”

I should back off, let it go, but I couldn’t.

“If that’s true then we need to do everything possible to keep you safe. Us getting married takes away the one plan we know they had and takes away any possibility that hurting you will benefit them. And think of it this way...if anything does happen – which it won’t – but if it does, I won’t have to lie about my relationship with you to anyone taking care of you. I say we do it.”

“I can’t, Michael. This is too much to ask. And I know I’m not asking but I can’t let you do this.” “You’re not letting me. I’m telling you I want to.” I had to be careful here. I didn’t want the true depth of my feelings for Grace to scare her away from this. “I know it’s unconventional, but people get married for all kinds of reasons, some way stranger than this.”

Grace surprised me with a light laugh. “I’m not sure that’s true. This is right up there on the strangeness scale.”

“Regardless, I think we should do it.”

Grace sighed and her shoulders dropped. “How would it work, though? Would we just stay married until we somehow get Ellis to stop coming after me and then get divorced? What if he never stops?”

“We can figure all that out.” During the last few minutes this had gone from an admittedly off-the-wall idea to something I was convinced we needed to do. “It ends when it ends.” Hopefully never. “We don’t need to put an expiration date on it.”

Grace was silent as she spun her glass in a slow circle on the tabletop. I wished she would look at me so I could see what was going on in her head.

I pushed a little harder. “Detective Chase said Ellis is keeping tabs on you. If we get married and make it obvious, it’s sure to get back to him.”

Now she met my eyes. “How would we make it obvious?”

“Celebrate in public? Maybe something at the pub?” Grace didn’t respond, just continued to watch me. “It doesn't have to be a huge deal. Just something to make it obvious that we’re celebrating getting married.”

Grace drew in a breath and let it out slowly. “So, we’d really be married. We wouldn’t be pretending.”

“We’d really, legally be married,” I confirmed. “Nothing else needs to change, Grace. We can just keep going like we already are.”

She nodded absently in response.

As her silence went on, I focused on keeping my expression neutral. I’d known she wouldn’t jump at the chance to link herself legally with me, but I had to admit that her continued resistance to the idea of marrying me – even for her own safety – was starting to sting a little.

Just when I was convinced she was going to turn me down, she spoke. “I guess I should probably change my name, too. I mean, if that’s okay with you.”

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