Graceful Submission (15 page)

Grace blushed and Lindsey did a dance of happiness.

“Hey, count me in on this,” Toffer said, joining the group and pulling Grace into a backward embrace.

He started to open his mouth again when a saccharine voice sounded from the doorway.

“Well, isn’t that sweet. They’re recreating the pose that made the front page of the paper.”

Giselle stepped into the room and threw a handful of papers on the counter.

“What are you doing here?” Toffer’s voice was icy. “I don’t believe you’re on the guest list.”

“What’s one more friend at a party,” Giselle said. “Besides, I wanted to be the first to congratulate you on your Valentine’s present.”

“My what?”

She held up a tabloid newspaper and grinned evilly. On the front cover was a large photo of Grace and Toffer at the zoo. Grace’s back was pressed to Toffer’s front, one of his hands lightly cupping a breast. Their lips were locked in a heated kiss. The headline read “A HUGE VALENTINE FOR DRAKE.”

Giselle took a paper off the stack that she’d laid on the counter. “Here, let me read it for you.”

“Seems Drake Dawson’s tastes are changing, which is good news for all the large ladies in the land. The oh so handsome actor, who usually can be seen sporting models around town, was spotted at the Los Angeles Zoo on Sunday with a buxom brunette on his arm who seemed to be more than just a friend. Onlookers may not have recognized the gorgeous ladies’ man hidden behind the wall of his new paramour, but that was him, acting like a tourist and a lovesick schoolboy.”

Grace felt her stomach drop to the floor.
The wall of his new paramour? They mean me. I’m the wall. I’m the HUGE Valentine present
.

“Toffer?”

“You bitch. This woman wouldn’t, she couldn’t … fuck.” His words were strangled and Grace turned to see the redness of his face. Was he mad, or embarrassed that they’d been caught? That everyone had seen him kissing her in public. He’d asked her to marry him. Would he hide her away in the hills to keep from being seen with her?

“Grace, I’m so sorry …”

“Yes, Grace, he’s sorry that you were found out. I mean, obviously that’s why he wore that ridiculous hat, so that no one would notice him with you, I mean he never wore it when he was out with me. You’re bad for his image and he knows it. And she couldn’t what,
Toffer
, replace me? Well, we all know that.”

Grace backed away from Toffer, their gazes locked.

“Get out,” he said, and then reached for Grace.

She turned and bolted through the crowd, pushing past elbows and shoulders of people who had gathered to watch the drama.

“Not you! Grace! Get back here.” Toffer’s voice rang out, but Grace kept pushing through the group to the stairs. She ran upstairs to find her purse, which she’d stored in Lindsey’s closet. She could hear Lindsey yelling for the “fucking bitch to get the hell out of my house.”

Grace grabbed her purse, opened it to make sure she’d brought her wallet, and then bolted for the front door. Toffer’s words rang in her ear. “This woman wouldn’t, she couldn’t …”

She ran out the door right into a couple who had just arrived in a taxi.

“Leaving already? I hope this party’s not that bad.” The woman laughed as Grace ducked inside the cab.

“Take me to the airport, please.”

A dam of tears burst as the taxi rolled down the driveway.

“Lady, you OK?”

“Fine. Please, just go.”

Her tears fell as Toffer’s words played over and over in her brain, “She wouldn’t, she couldn’t. Get out. Get out. Get out.”

Was it her imagination or had he turned to look at Giselle after he’d said those words? Grace shook her head. No, he’d been looking at her. How could he have fooled her so? And why did he do it? Did he get kicks off deflating a woman’s ego. He’s asked her to marry him, and she’d fallen for it. She’d told him yes. When was he going to tell her the truth … that she didn’t fit into his world.

Now he didn’t have to. The newspaper and his paper-thin girlfriend had done it for him. Damn them all to hell.

At the airport, she paid the taxi driver and went inside to check the schedule. The next plane for Denver didn’t leave for another three hours. That was too long to wait. She wanted out of
California
, now. And she didn’t care if she ever came back.

Grace went into the bathroom to get her breathing under control. She washed her splotchy face and walked into the main terminal. She rented a car and asked for directions out of the city. A check of her watch showed her that it was just after ten. If she drove for eight hours she would make it to Las Vegas and get a room there.

Her cell phone rang as she merged onto the 105 East. She ignored it and seconds after the ringing stopped it started again. At the fourth call, as Grace was merging onto the 605 North, she turned the phone off and fought back tears.

Life with Toffer was over. It had been magical to experience new things with him. She wondered again about his asking her to marry him, and then saying, “this woman couldn’t …” without finishing the statement. What did he mean? She couldn’t do what? Satisfy him? Make him happy? Be more than just a decent fuck?

If that was the truth, then why did he ask her to marry him, to move in with him? Why hadn’t he turned to Giselle and shouted that no matter her size, he loved Grace and didn’t want to live without her. His order to get out rang in her ear.

Still, a nagging in the back of her brain told her that he hadn’t been talking to her. He’d been talking to Giselle. But he still hadn’t stood up for her. She debated with the part of her that told her to turn around and go back to Lindsey’s house. She was running away from a bad situation like an immature child.

She drove and drove as the situation played out in her brain. Then she stopped outside Barstow to get some very expensive gas. She checked her cell phone, and saw seventeen missed calls from Toffer’s cell phone, nine from his house phone, three from her parents and ten from Lindsey’s house. The mail envelope in the left-hand corner of the screen blinked furiously.

She knew that she should go back and straighten things out. But confrontations weren’t her strong point. She had a battle on Valentine’s Day that was going to be a doozy.

Valentine’s Day. She shook her head. It wasn’t one of her favorite holidays, since she hadn’t anyone to celebrate it with. Until this year.

This woman wouldn’t, she couldn’t
… Grace shook her head. Had she learned nothing through the years except to run away from things? Maybe Toffer was going to say that she couldn’t be replaced by anyone, that she wouldn’t fall for Giselle’s stupid tricks.

She closed her eyes and imagined Toffer as he yelled for her to get out. He had been looking at Grace, but when the words came out he’d turned to stare at Giselle. It wasn’t Grace he was telling to leave, it was Giselle.

Grace retrieved her messages and listened as Toffer begged and pleaded with her to come back.

“Baby, please! Where are you? You know how much you mean to me. Don’t let her win. Come back to me. Call me.”

The next few messages were the same mettle, varying from Toffer to Lindsey to her mother, all begging for a call. And then one of them made her laugh. “Lolly, this is your Master. If you don’t call this instance you will stand in the corner for the rest of your natural born life, and the time you’re not in a corner, you’ll be over my knee. Do you understand me? Call me immediately!”

She took a deep breath and dialed his cell.

“Where the hell are you?”

“In a rental car, heading for Las Vegas.”

“I’ll meet you at the Luxor. I’ll fly, but I think you’ll still get there before me. If I’m not there, get us a room. You’ve got quite a punishment coming, young lady.”

The phone went dead and Grace stared at it.

She did? This was his fault, not hers. Or maybe it was a mixture of the two. She was the one who had run. But she’d run because he hadn’t stood up for her. She stared the engine and pointed the car north.

Grace mentally kicked herself. She was allowing her past experiences with Jesse to cloud her judgment. She’d have to explain this to Toffer, and hope that he understood.

* * * * *

Grace fought the Las Vegas traffic, parked at the hotel and, finding that Toffer wasn’t there yet, registered herself. Once upstairs, she called and left the room number on his voice mail. She took a shower and was just wrapping herself in a towel when a knock came on the door.

She looked through the peephole and smiled when she saw Toffer staring back at her. Grace opened the door and he stood still, staring at her. She stepped aside as he brushed through, slammed the door and pressed her into the wall for a harsh kiss.

“Don’t you ever run from me again. Is that the way you handle fights? To run? Shit, Grace, you didn’t give me a chance to say anything.”

“You said, that I couldn’t. And then you told me to get out.”

“No, I told Giselle to get out. I was looking at you, true, but that’s because I wanted everyone to see that I loved you, that I couldn’t take my eyes off you. I was angry and couldn’t find the right words to tell her that you would never pull a stunt like she’d pulled, that you were more of a woman than she ever was. That I loved you more than anything in the world.”

“I’m so sorry. I just don’t deal with confrontations very well.”

“Why? Tell me why you ran so far. I expected to find you back at the house.”

Grace looked away, and Toffer put his fingers on her chin to bring her face back in line with his.

“Why, baby?”

“My ex, Jesse? When we broke up, he did it publicly. The look on your face, and the words get out, they threw me back to a really bad place and I freaked. Please forgive me.”

“Only if you forgive me. I’m so sorry. I love you and I would never do anything to hurt you. You have to believe that.”

“I love you too, Toffer. I know you’d never hurt me, but I allowed old insecurities to come into play.”

“I want us to get married, tonight.” His voice held a note of finality and Grace stared at him, dumbfounded.

“Excuse me?”

“We’re getting married. Right now. Lindsey and Peter are in their own room waiting to stand up for us. You want Elvis? Or you want more traditional?”

“Toffer, I …”

“Don’t argue with me, Grace. I don’t ever want to take the chance of losing you. This will bind us forever. So what’s it gonna be?”

Grace threw her head back and laughed. “Well, since we’re in Las Vegas …”

Chapter Fourteen

Note to self: Try not to stare at your ring finger too much. It gives away the fact that you are blissfully happy.

To Do List:

Change name on driver’s license

Change name on bank accounts

Call moving companies about boxing up house

Attend hearing about employment

The boardroom at the high school was packed. Preston said it was because of the tabloid pictures of Grace and Drake Dawson kissing.

“Everyone wants to see the woman who captured Drake Dawson’s heart,” Preston said. “Especially since it was all over the news last night that the two of you tied the knot in Las Vegas.”

Grace kissed her husband.
Her husband
. The idea still made her shake her head. They’d been wed at one of the numerous Elvis chapels in Las Vegas. And Toffer had surprised Grace by presenting her with his grandmother’s wedding ring. It was a beautiful antique setting with an absolutely stunning diamond.

They’d bought a ring for him from the chapel, and she promised to replace it with something better at a later date.

“No way,” he’d said. “This is my wedding ring and I love it, though not as much as I love my wife.”

Lindsey and Peter had been ecstatic, and after the wedding, they’d hit a few casinos and had breakfast at a buffet on the strip.

“So romantic,” Grace teased Toffer, who had laughed.

“So original,” he’d countered. “Getting married in Las Vegas. Who woulda thought it?”

And the paparazzi had followed them everywhere, anxious to get photos of the newlyweds.

“They’re quick,” Grace had said.

“I called them before I left L.A. Then I had my agent call with the name of the chapel. I wanted to counter-act the crap that Giselle had them print. I wanted them to see our wedding, and see how much I love you. To see that no one could ever mean more to me than you.”

Grace had cried, and he’d kissed away her tears as the cameras flashed.

Now she stared at the standing-room only crowd. Joe Watson was sitting stone-faced at the main table. Frank Medina had approached to shake their hands.

“This shouldn’t take long. Dominic has already admitted that everything he said was false. He said he wanted you to hurt, just like he had when he’d failed Senior English.”

“Did he say anything about Watson putting him up to it?” Toffer’s voice was harsh.

“No, and unfortunately there is nothing we can prove without him telling us. Watson knows, however, that I know the truth. I’ve told him that he needs to find another job before I find a reason to fire him.”

“Grace, I have to ask you something. It’s obvious that Watson has been harassing you, trying to get you to date him, to have sex with him. Why didn’t you say anything to us?”

“Because I thought I could handle it. It was a mistake and I wish that I’d done things differently. I apologize for that.”

“Water under the bridge. You need to thank your friend, Rebecca, who has been your strongest advocate while you’ve been gone. She and Preston have been singing your praises all over town.”

Grace turned her gaze toward Rebecca, who was staring open-mouthed at Toffer. When she felt Grace’s stare, she raised her eyebrows and smirked. Grace returned the smirk and turned a curious gaze on Preston. Becca blushed and turned away and Grace made a mental note to ask her friend about the man.

Medina smiled and shook Toffer’s hand. “It’s time to begin. We should be done with this pretty quickly.”

The trustee quickly called the meeting to order. He read the reason for the meeting; the discussion of allegations of blackmail against Grace Kinison. The school’s attorney, Carlton Bunch, read the charges and then explained to the parents who were present what steps were taken to investigate the accusations.