‘I‘ve never been here!’ I exclaimed.
Dom had brought me to Christkindlmarket, Chicago’s Irish Christmas market.
‘I thought we could both try something new.’
I grinned up at him. December was always my favorite month of the year, but so much more this time around because I could share it all with Dom. Usually, I dragged anyone who had time to Christmas markets, but since everyone in the family got hitched, I kind of felt guilty taking them away from their loved ones. Thankfully, Dom liked to indulge me.
The booths reminded me of European Christmas markets. I once went to see Kimberly in Paris in December and visited quite a few.
My phone beeped as I took pictures of the decorations. My stomach clenched when I saw the text.
Malcolm: Maybe now you’ll pay attention to me.
I scrolled up and down, but he didn’t say anything else.
What the hell is he talking about? After all, I hadn’t heard from him since last week when he burst into the hotel.
I put my phone away, determined to enjoy the evening. Declan said Malcolm had no legal means to claim any money. He just wanted to intimidate me, and I wouldn’t allow it.
As we walked around the stands, I could barely restrain myself from buying all sort of goodies.
‘Come on, Reese. Tell me what you want,’ Dom said.
I grinned at him. ‘How can you tell I even want something?’
‘You keep leaning in whenever you smell something good.’
‘I’m in the mood for those honey-glazed peanuts.’
We stopped in front of one of the stands, and I bought a cone chock-full of goodies.
‘They’re delicious,’ I exclaimed. ‘And so are you.’
He pinned me with his gaze. “Don’t talk like that in public. You know I can’t control myself.’
I chuckled. “Duly noted.”
‘You want us to look at every booth?’
‘That’s what I was going to suggest.’
We were freezing, so we speed-walked around the Christmas market. I couldn’t help myself and stopped at every single booth. They sold everything from candles to hand-painted globes. Some were gorgeous, some downright kitschy, but it was all fun.
Dom stiffened when we reached a booth with drinks.
‘Are you cold?’ I asked him before realizing he was holding his phone. Whatever he was reading was bad news. I was sure of it. ‘Dom?’
He cleared his throat, immediately sliding his phone back into his pocket.
‘What’s wrong?’ I asked.
‘Nothing.’ He replied so quickly that I knew it wasn’t just bad news—it was something personal. If it were business related, he’d tell me. ‘Is everything okay? Is your dad fine?’
He looked at me incredulously before kissing my forehead. ‘Yeah, Reese, Dad’s fine.’ He hesitated and then said, ‘Fuck it. I don’t want to keep anything a secret from you.’
My body tensed, and I suddenly didn’t feel cold anymore.
He nodded to one of the tables where people stood, drinking mulled wine. One of them was empty. He pulled his phone back out, handing it to me. I stared at the screen, and for a few minutes, my brain didn’t understand what I was looking at. Then I realized it was an article about him: ‘Fashion Mogul and Maxwell Heiress.’ I speedread it.
I knew how much Dom hated being in the spotlight, but this was all right—or so I thought. Right at the end, they speculated that he might have been cheating on his wife with me because we’d been an item since that charity evening, which was, after all, only a short while after he’d signed the divorce papers.
“A lot of people know about us since we’ve attended a few high-profile parties together. But I don’t understand why they’re taking this angle—or how they would even know about the charity evening,” Dom said.
My stomach clenched. I had a terrible feeling.
‘I think this might be Malcolm’s doing,’ I whispered.
“Why would you say that?’
‘I got a message from him a few minutes ago that didn’t make any sense, so I completely ignored it. It said that maybe now I’ll pay attention to him.’
‘Reese, it’s not your fault. And the article wasn’t bad.’ His voice was tight.
“Will this impact your business?”
“No way to tell. I don’t like people speculating that I’m a cheater. But it’s not important. It’s nothing I can’t deal with. Don’t waste your time worrying about it, okay?’
‘How can I not worry? None of this would have happened if I didn’t have so much drama going on in my life.”
“Reese, we’re in this together, remember? And honestly, this could be a good thing. If I can trace it back to him, then I can sue him for defamation.’
‘You’re grasping at straws,’ I insisted.
I wanted to disappear. I knew he was trying to maintain a calm facade for me. He’d told me when I first met him that he valued his privacy above anything else, and that he wouldn’t date someone with a high profile again.
‘I feel cold,’ I said.
‘You want a drink?’
‘Yes, please.’
Nodding, he went to stand in line.
He handed me a cup of hot mulled wine not two minutes later. I took a sip, enjoying feeling warm inside. My hands were frozen from holding the phone for so long.
“What are you thinking about?” Dom asked.
“I don’t think Malcolm will stop. I thought he would have by now, but obviously I was wrong.”
“So what? We’ll fight him.”
I looked up at him. ‘But it’s not your fight. And you hate being in the press.’
‘It’s nothing I can’t deal with.’
‘Stop saying that. I don’t want you to put up with anything because of me.’
‘I don’t mind.” He spoke slowly, as if he wasn’t sure I understood him. ‘We’re in this together,’ he said, kissing my temple. ‘We both have been through a lot. It’s normal for stuff like this to pop up from time to time.’
I shook my head. ‘Yeah, but my stuff tends to hurt the people I love and care about.”
I put my hand to my forehead, pressing into it.
‘Are you feeling okay?’ he asked.
‘No, I’m starting to get a headache.’
‘Where do you want to go?’ he asked. ‘My place or yours?’
‘Let’s go to my place,’ I said.
‘Okay. Come on.’
He brought the peanuts with us, and I took a few more sips of the mulled wine, but I wasn’t in the mood for the latter anymore.
Once we were inside the car, he immediately turned up the heat. I wanted to curl into a tight ball and just sink into myself, but I didn’t want to be rude to Dom.
We didn’t speak at all on the drive home or on the way up to my condo. Once inside, he made me hot tea. I curled up on the couch with the cup he gave me and drank it immediately.
‘You don’t want a sip?”
He sat next to me, watching me intently. ‘No, I’m good. I just want to make sure you’re okay too. Do you want to talk about it?’
I shook my head. ‘I don’t know what to say.’
I wanted to keep him safe, but I didn’t think I could. I wanted to be alone, with my thoughts, yet I didn’t want to push him away. He’d told me many times that he wanted us to fight through things together, but I wasn’t sure I knew how to do that. That’s why when we went to bed, I pretended to be asleep when he came out of the shower.
Ever since Dom and I got together, my insomnia seemed to have disappeared. But I was awake for most of that night.
