The Convenient Marriage

Chapter 39

Matt

"Oh, Matt, you didn't have to." Christina said as she accepted the cheque.

"No. Please do. Gracie and I feel really bad about what happened last night. I'm sorry we ruined your event." I apologized.

She shook her head. "It happens I guess. When the ex and the wife were in the same place at the same time." She smiled. "Are you and Gracie going to be alright?"

I nodded. "It was just a misunderstanding." I said sheepishly. "Uhm..." I cleared my throat. "Have you seen Shelley?" I looked for her this morning to come talk to her, but I hadn't seen her since last night's ruckus.

"No." She pulled out her phone. "She hasn't called me back yet either. Last time I saw her she was with Steve when he pulled her away from Gracie"

I made a face. Oh no. I should have known Steve would handle this himself. No wonder I hadn't seen Steve either. Given how protective he was over Gracie, I figured he would have rushed next to her. But he was last seen with Shelley? I hope he wasn't too hard on her. I seriously had a lot of apologizing to do for to Shelley.

"Anyway, we have to go, before more media start coming to us." I extended my hand to Christina. "Thank you and sorry."

She shook my hand. "Don't worry about it. I'll still invite you over if I ever plan to host another football game."

I hadn't even stepped outside and I could already see a handful of reporters waiting outside. I spotted Gracie sitting at a table right by the door fumbling her phone.

"Hey." I called as I stood next to her.

She looked up from her phone and stood in surprise. "It's a mayhem out there, Matt!" Her voice in less audible yet sounded really panic. "And look at this!" She held out her phone to me. "We're all over the news. Oh my god!"

I grabbed her wrist and started to move towards the hotel's threshold. "Let's go."

"What?" She paused then realized where we were heading. "Are you crazy?!" She tried to pull her wrist out of my grip. "I'm not going out there!"

I turned and gave her look. "We can't stay here and hide, Gracie." I paused as I looked her in the eye. "Trust me?" She didn't say anything after that and hang her head as I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and walked out of the hotel.

The reporters started swarming around us the moment we were out. The flashes were everywhere and their questions about what happened last night were all over us. I tightened my grip on Gracie's shoulder as she circled her arm around my waist and buried her face on my side. I walked us out to our car as fast as I could. When we were seated, I glanced at Gracie and she really looked like she was about to cry and the reporters kept their camera flashing at us, so I did what I thought would make them go away. I leaned over the passenger seat, rested my right arm on the headrest, saw Gracie's eyes widen in surprise before I leaned in to kiss her on the mouth. I opened my mouth to lightly bite her upper lip then grazed my tongue along her lower lip. She kissed me back moments later as I heard more ruckus outside of our car. I pulled away and looked into her eyes. My face broke into a smile as I held her hand with my free hand and drove us away from all these mess.

"Thanks." Gracie said breaking the silence we had had since driving away from the hotel.

"For what?" I kept my eyes on the road.

"I know you did that to keep them away. The kiss, I meant."

"What if I just wanted to kiss you?" I teased.

I felt her gripped my hand, "In any case, thank you for not leaving me."

When we got to the house, I immediately changed clothes for work. I was buttoning up my shirt sleeve when I reentered our room and found Gracie sitting on the bed fiddling on her phone again.