Chapter Thirty-One: The Cowards, the Clowns and the Courageous

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A/N: Hello everyone! This new update might surprise some of you who are probably expecting something later in the week. The story is really done so I'm posting the remaining chapters a little more closely together because the things are going to happen are pretty much leading up to the end and I didn't want to drag it out too much. 

Thank you!

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You would think that a woman with an incredible amount of money would have no issue buying gifts. But when her father-in-law was not only a ridiculously rich man as well who not only cared about her a great deal but also made the incredulous move to matchmake her with his son, it wasn’t going to be as easy as it would seem.

It was two days later and I still had nothing to give Martin for his birthday this weekend.

Since Brandon left early this morning for a business summit in Stockholm, not returning until the end of the week just in time for his father’s birthday, I was left to my own devices. I would’ve come with him if not for the upcoming birthday bash we were finalizing and the little side fact that I was still sheltering Riley and Danny in my old house until Layla could organize her official escape from Don’s clutches.

My first instinct was to turn to Anna and Tessa but the sisters still had classes so I called up Jake to meet up for lunch and hopefully a quick shopping trip downtown right after. He was the only other person close to Martin who could offer me some gift-giving advice.

The trouble was, he didn’t quite know what to get him either. 

Martin had everything he could ever possibly need and want—well, except for his wife, Evelyn, to still be alive but even I didn’t have the powers of resurrection, as handy as that might be. 

In the past few birthdays he’d had since I knew him, I’d given him a small cake I made when he stopped by Marlow’s. The only time I’d given him anything that had some kind of monetary value was when I gave him a small book of sketches by an artist in Paris who drew the faces of different diners he could see from the glass window of a cozy cafe as he sat outside on a bench every day. I’d given it to him the first time I saw him again at Marlow’s after my abrupt return from Paris. He had, after all, given me the means to escape my reality even for a little while and head out on my own to the city of lights where I had hoped to start anew. 

And just when you were resigned to the fact that you could never escape your life, he’d introduced you to a completely different one by squaring you off with his son. If fairy godfathers existed, Martin would be yours.

And since fairy godparents usually did the wish-granting, buying them a gift was like solving one of the great mysteries of life.

“I’m telling you. There’s only one gift you can give him that would put all his other gifts to shame,” Jake said as we came out of a very high-end designer store. “Grandkids. Tell him you’ll give him either a Brandon junior or a little Charlotte and he’ll be over the moon.”

I looked at him in exasperation. “I’d like to think of my future children as more than just some gift merchandise I can pop out, tie with a pretty bow, and send with express delivery.”

Jake grinned. “You know they’ll be very cute.”

“Just as cute as yours and Tessa’s little minions would be,” I shot back, wiggling my brows at him meaningfully. “If you’re so adamant on giving Martin grandkids, why don’t you and Tessa get to it, huh?”

I probably shouldn’t have teased Jake about it, knowing his heart was still bleeding in some places, because the moment I mentioned Tessa and their future children, his face went from being incredulous to pained to downright crestfallen.

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