“Either she accepts you and our relationship, apologizes to you and becomes a grandmother, or refuses and we’ll never see her again.”
She looked up at me. “Did you really tell her that?”
“She hates that she didn’t pick you. That I went over her head and my selection wasn’t some woman waiting for her parents to die so she can inherit millions. A girl who spends summer in the Hamptons when she isn’t in Cannes and winter in the Caribbean.”
“If you’re trying to make me feel like the better choice, it isn’t working,” she grumbled.
I chuckled, hugging her tighter. “I didn’t want that woman because that woman isn’t you. Her objections are baseless and a little fucked up. The choice was mine to make. She doesn’t have to agree with me, but the cost is no longer being a part of my life.”
“I can’t believe I broke you and your mother up,” she said.
“It was time. She needed a reality check. I’ve been her emotional support dog for too long at the expense of my own happiness. I didn’t want it anymore.”
We were silent again. “Are you actually a Duke?” she asked.
I laughed again. “The twenty-seventh Duke of Marston. Yes.”
“Wow, fancy. Do you know the queen?”
“I’ve met her but we don’t get a Christmas card,” I said.
She laughed. “So, our baby…”
“The twenty-eighth duke or duchess of Marston. Yes.”
“I hate to say it, man, but I think your mother was right.”
“How?”
“I can’t raise a duke. Have you met me? I wouldn’t even know how to do that.”
“You won’t be raising a duke; you’ll be raising a baby and you won’t be doing it alone. You’ll be doing it with me.”
“I’m not part of that world, Charlie.”
I shrugged. “We can make our own world, babe.”
“So, no charity balls and stuff.”
“I’d pay money to never have to attend one of those again,” I said. “As long as we’re together.” I kissed her head.
She sighed snuggling into me. “Thank you,” she said.
No, she was the one I had to thank. She was mine, she was giving us a child. I had a family. My world was right there in my arms. She had given me everything and nothing, nobody was going to change that.
Epilogue
Brenna
One Year Later
“Where's my little girl?”
I peered over my shoulder.
“Out here, mom.” I looked out over the ocean. The water was so blue, it didn't even look real. Ashley was calm, cooing in my arms. She had just gotten up from a nap and now wanted attention. Boy, did she get it. Between me, Charlie and my mom, she was spoiled rotten. My mother walked out onto the veranda.
“There she is,” she said, scooping the baby out of my arms.