"I mean, yeah, I broke some plans, but they have been for legitimate reasons,” he said.
"All right, then I can report back a happy man,” Bill said with a smile.
Trent was hesitant to respond, his face contorting into worry as he had the overwhelming feeling he often got when he was about to pour everything out to Bill.
“Right, Trent? I can report back a happy man, right? You're not planning on breaking up with the poor girl, are ya?”
"Not at all,” he said as he pulled open his desk drawer and removed a little silver box. He slid it across the table to Bill and watched as his friend flipped the lid open. “Kinda the opposite, actually,” he said.
"Wow, man. That's huge!” Bill exclaimed, shaking his head in disbelief at the ring.
"I know.”
"So, what's with the face?” Bill laughed. You had me freaked out for a second there!”
"The problem is...Lily's back.”
Bill froze, then snapped the box closed and tossed it back to Trent, who caught it deftly. “Are you kidding me?” Bill scoffed. “That girl has got a personal radar for your happiness. The minute you're starting to get your life back together, ZOOM! Like Batman to the bat signal.”
"Yeah, and the thing is, she wants to get back together.”
"And she thinks you're crazy enough to do it?” Bill mused, then paused, frowned, and asked, “Are you...crazy enough to do it?”
"You know how I feel about her,” he said, fully aware that he hadn’t given a definitive yes or no.
"What...did she break up with her boyfriend or something? Now she's come crawling back to you?”
"Bill,” Trent said firmly.
"Did she?”
While he wouldn’t say it to Bill, that was Another thing that frustrated Trent about Lily coming back. He couldn’t trust a word she said.
Did she really break it off with her boyfriend because she had been in love with Trent all of this time, or did he break it off and kick her to the curb? Was she only coming back because she had nowhere else to go?
How could she go from not giving Bex a second thought for two years to wanting to be mother goose?
She was complicated many aspects of his life—his love, his choices as a parent, his ability to focus on his business—and yet, he still felt the need to defend her.
"They aren't together anymore. But so what?” Trent questioned. “Why shouldn't this be a chance for us to make things work? I always said I would forgive her. I said I would do anything to make things work. I mean, can you imagine if we managed to get it together? That would mean that all that time we spend together wouldn't have been a waste.”
"If you think you can forgive her, then why haven't you done it already?”
Trent gave pause.
“Because I love Grace,” he said.
"Look, Trent, you know you're my bro. You know that I'll support whatever you do, but you can't mess Grace around like that. If you want to try to work things out with Lily…” he paused. “I mean, honestly? I would think you were insane,” he said with a soft laugh. “But I would understand. I would get it—everybody would. She's the mother of your child. Nobody would blame you for working things out with her, but you love Grace. You love her enough that you bought a ring.”
"Yeah, I know.”
"Now you have to decide whether you love her more than you love the idea of working it out with Lily.”
Trent knew his friend was right, but he’d already thought about these things.
The truth was, he’d always thought that if Lily came back, he would accept her with open arms. He could forgive a lot of things, and nothing she had done was un-fixable.
That’s what he always believed, so when she showed up on his doorstep and he didn’t feel that spark toward her, he felt troubled by his own belief system.
His love for Grace had swallowed him up.
By the end of their conversation, he knew that he had no intention of getting back together with Lily. He loved Grace and fully intended on popping the question after their big race, but he felt he owed Lily the chance to be a mother to Bex.
"I just need time to think,” Trent said. “Please, I am begging you, please don't tell Maisie before I've had the chance to talk to Grace, okay?”
"You're killing me! She's going to know something's up; she knows all my tells!”
"Then learn to have a better poker face,” he joked. “Come on, please. I need to figure this out, and the fewer interferences, the better. Besides, if Maisie tells Grace, she’s going to do it in the most dramatic way possible, and I don’t need that right now. I need Grace to hear it from me.”
Bill sighed, giving Trent a testing look. “All right!” he submitted. “Just...figure it out soon, okay? I can only keep quiet for so long, and besides—”
"I know,” Trent interrupted. “It isn't fair to Grace.”
16
Grace
"Feels like I haven't seen you in forever.”
These were the all-too-familiar words that were quickly becoming a regular part of Grace’s vocabulary with Trent.
Grace had been doing her best not to take his sudden standoffishness personally, but it was getting harder to push her worries aside. She saw him a few times at the yacht and once for dinner, but something about him seemed terminally distracted. She didn’t know what his “family troubles” were, but she was getting closer and closer to asking about them.
She didn’t have any reason not to trust him. He’d never given her reason to give pause or to question their relationship, but the familiar beat of having the rug pulled out from underneath you wasn’t a memory that went away quickly—especially not when the man you were in love with was suddenly acting out of character.
His love for her was there, she could feel that much. He still seemed charmed to be around her, still seemed happy to see her, or to get her call, but he reached out less than he did before.
"I know,” Trent said from over the airwaves of their phones. “Me too. I miss you.”
"The race is in tomorrow,” she said. “Can you even believe it?”
"And you know what that means?” he asked.
“We’d better clear some shelf space for a big ole’ trophy?” she teased.
“That,” he said with humor, “And, that means we've been together for four months. Four of the best months of my life.”
"You wanna come over?” Grace suggested.
"I can't,” he said, his usual reply these days. “Bex is sleeping.”
“You want me to come over there?” she offered, her tone more than flirtatious as she said, “I promise I'll make it worth your while.”
Trent let out a lustful breath. She could hear the smile on his lips as he said, "You make a tempting offer, but I can't. I'm swamped.”
Grace was glad they weren’t on a video chat because the face she was making was beyond displeased. “Again?” she asked in a bored tone, dropping any lingering flirtation. “I feel like I keep putting myself out there with you, Trent.”