The Sweetest Gift (The Gift) (15 page)

“I know Maggie, I remember you telling me that. The view
of the city from up there is amazing.”

They got on Justin’s bike and rode the I-80 across the Bay Bridge back into San Francisco. Justin drove to the top of Nob Hill and parked the bike in
the garage of the Mark Hopkins hotel. They entered the lobby and Justin excused
himself to talk to the desk clerk. He asked the desk clerk if he could leave
their helmets and backpack with their purchases from the bookstore. The desk
clerk said he would be happy to watch them.

Justin and Maggie then walked over to the elevator and
took it up to the 19
^th
floor. They stepped out into the Sky Lounge. Justin
walked over to the hostess and told her his name, and she led them over to a
table next to the window. The view was incredible, just as Justin had promised.
The Sky Lounge had a 360-degree view of San Francisco. Justin pulled up a chair
next to Maggie, and whispered in her ear.

“Can you see the view, Maggie?”

“Mostly,” she answered “Is that the Golden Gate Bridge over there?”

  “Yes, my love.” Justin replied.

The waitress came to their table and Justin ordered a
bottle of the Krug Grande Cuvée champagne. When she returned with the wine and
glasses, she presented Maggie with a red rose. After she left, Justin took
Maggie’s hand.

“There’s a special reason that I brought you here,
Maggie.”

He looked deeply into her eyes and then he leaned over
to kiss her. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small gray velvet box.
He handed it to Maggie and she felt butterflies in her stomach.

“Maggie,” he said and paused for a minute and smiled at
her.

“Maggie, I love you, please marry me.”

Maggie felt her eyes fill with tears. Justin immediately
looked concerned.

“Don’t cry, my love.”

He waited another moment for the tears to subside.

“So what do you think?” he asked.

“Justin, I love you too. Yes, I will marry you.”

Maggie kissed Justin deeply for several minutes. When
she was done, Justin filled their glasses with some more champagne.

“Open the box, Maggie.”

Maggie had almost forgotten about it in her excitement
at Justin’s proposal. She opened the box, and nestled inside was a platinum
engagement ring with a large sapphire surrounded by two sparkling diamonds.

“Oh Justin, the ring is so beautiful,” she said and
tears started falling from her eyes again.

“I thought it was symbolic of our relationship, the blue
sapphire stands for Jake, and the white diamonds on either side are you and me,
Maggie.”

Justin took the ring out of the box and slid it onto
Maggie’s ring finger. It fit perfectly.

“How did you know the size, Justin?” she asked.

“I borrowed your ring from Tucker and the jeweler was
able to figure out your size from that.”

“Oh…. I don’t know how I’m going to tell Tucker,” Maggie
said.

“We’ll tell him together when we get back to Nashville.”

“It’s going to be difficult, I can’t bear the thought of
hurting him. But I think we were meant to be together, Justin. I love you so
much and I think I’ve always loved you.”

“I’ve been in love with you since the first night we met
in New Orleans, Maggie. I should have told you then.”

“If you had, then Gabe and Belle would never have been
born, so I can’t have regrets about that. I’m just happy that we’re together
now.”

“Me too,” said Justin and he kissed Maggie again.

After they finished their champagne, Justin had another
surprise for Maggie. He had reserved a suite in the hotel so that they could
spend the night together alone. He said that his parents had been happy to
watch the kids, especially when he told them that he planned to ask Maggie to
marry him.

When they got to the room, Justin slowly undressed
Maggie until all she was wearing was her new engagement ring. After she got
into the bed, he took his clothes off too. Justin was very athletic and he was
taller and more muscular than Zak had been. Maggie looked at him appreciatively
for a moment before he slid into bed next to her. He started kissing her, first
on her mouth and then worked his way down her body.

“Maggie, turn over and I’ll give you a massage,” he said
huskily.

She complied and he started lightly massaging her neck
and shoulders. Then he made her turn over so he could repeat the process on her
front side. He started kissing her again until she was almost breathless.

“Justin, please, I can’t wait any longer. I want you,”
she whispered.

“Maggie, I love you so much,” he responded. “I’m so
happy that we can love each other for the rest of our lives.”

He proceeded to make love to her very tenderly,
concerned only with bringing her as much pleasure as he could. He climaxed
several moments after she did and then kissed her and held her close to him
until they both drifted off to sleep.

 They woke up late the next morning.

“Maggie, we don’t have to check out until two o’clock.
Why don’t we make good use of our time,” he said and smiled.

Maggie smiled back.

“It’s your turn, my love. I’m going to do everything in
my power to make you feel absolutely incredible.”

And she did.

After they were done, Justin ordered breakfast to be
delivered to the suite. They ate in a leisurely fashion at the dining table in
the room, enjoying the view of the Golden Gate Bridge and the rare opportunity
to be alone together for an extended amount of time. Finally, as the checkout
time approached, they left the room with regret.

“We can always get my parents to sit again and come
back,” Justin said as he put his arm around her shoulder as they walked down
the hall.

“I’d like that,” Maggie said. “It’s so nice to be alone
and with no pressure to get back to the kids right away.”

“Well, there’s always the honeymoon, Maggie. We can look
forward to that,” and a smile lit up Justin’s face at the thought.

They stopped in front of the elevator, and Maggie took
the opportunity to kiss Justin for several minutes until they were interrupted
by the elevator doors opening. Maggie and Justin took the elevator down to the
lobby, checked out and went to the garage. They put on their helmets and got on
Justin’s motorcycle. Maggie hugged Justin tightly and they rode back to Sausalito.

As they opened the door to Justin’s house, they were
greeted by Justin’s parents and Maggie’s children. Justin’s mother looked at
Maggie’s hand and smiled when she saw the engagement ring.

“Is there something you want to tell us?” she asked her
son.

“Give us a chance to get in the door,” Justin laughed.

Maggie looked at her children and smiled.

“Justin and I have decided to get married,” she said
simply.

The children looked surprised. Justin’s parents had
satisfied smiles on their faces.

“Congratulations, son.”

Justin’s mother kissed him on the cheek and then took
Maggie by the hand.

“Welcome to the family,” she said to her. “We couldn’t
be more pleased.”

Belle noticed the ring on Maggie’s hand.

“Oh, Mama, can I see your ring?”

Maggie showed it to her and Belle said “It’s so pretty,
Mama.”

Maggie held her breath for a moment, hoping that Belle
wouldn’t mention anything about Tucker’s ring in front of Justin’s parents. But
fortunately she didn’t.

Gabe furrowed his brow for a moment.

“So is Uncle Justin going to be our new step-dad?”

“Yes, dear.”

“I thought he was my Daddy,” Jake said a little
nervously.

Maggie laughed for a second.

“He’s still your Daddy, Jake. But once we get married
then he will be Gabe and Belle’s step-dad too.”

Jake seemed relieved that he was still going to enjoy a
special relationship with Justin.

Justin pulled a bottle of champagne out of the
refrigerator and took seven wine glasses out of the cabinet. He poured a little
champagne in every glass.

“O.k., everybody take a glass. I thought I would make a
toast for good luck.”

The children seemed torn between being delighted that
they were allowed to have some champagne and feeling like they were getting
away with something they shouldn’t be doing.

Justin looked lovingly at Maggie.

“Thank you Maggie, for agreeing to marry me and sharing
your family. I will love you always.”

“Thank you, Justin,” she replied. “I love you too.”

 Maggie’s children were a little shocked to see her kiss
Justin.

After they finished drinking the champagne, Belle spoke
up.

“Mama, I’m really glad you’re marrying Uncle Justin
because you are always so happy together.”

Tears filled Maggie’s eyes as she hugged Belle.

“Thank you dear. That was a beautiful thing to say.”

.

Chapter 19

Maggie woke up early on Saturday morning, too
excited to sleep. She was going to sing with Justin’s band at the Oakland
Coliseum that evening and realized that she was feeling nervous about it.
Usually with her own band, she rehearsed their songs until she could play them
in her sleep. She had only sung with Justin’s band a couple of times and she
wasn’t even sure what songs they were going to play. They were notorious for
making up their sets as they went along which really kept the musicians on
their toes. The fans liked that because no two concerts were the same.

Maggie lingered in bed, trying not to move since she
didn’t want to wake Justin. But finally, she heard the kids rustling around in
the kitchen, so she decided it was time to get up.

“Just a couple more minutes, Maggie,” Justin murmured
still half-asleep.

“That’s o.k., you go back to sleep. I’ll take care of
the kids.”

Maggie went into the kitchen to supervise breakfast. The
children were also excited about the concert. Justin’s parents had agreed to
watch them backstage while Maggie and Justin performed with the band. They were
planning to come over to Justin’s in the middle of the afternoon so they could
all drive over to Oakland together.

The children were talking loudly, so Maggie suggested
that they all walk down to the beach to fly the kite. She figured that Justin
needed to get some extra sleep and he could do that better in a quiet house. He
woke up an hour later to find himself alone. He called out for Maggie but was
only greeted by silence. He decided to get up and take a shower and make
himself breakfast. He liked to eat three good meals the day of a show so that
he would have plenty of energy to get through the concert. He was just finishing
his eggs and pancakes when Maggie returned with the children who were still
exploding with energy.

Justin looked at Maggie and laughed.

“I just hope they don’t run out of energy before the
show starts,” he said.

“I wouldn’t worry too much about that Justin, although
they’ll probably be exhausted tomorrow.”

“By the way, I have something for everyone,” Justin said
mysteriously. He went into his bedroom and found a paper bag which he brought
into the kitchen. He took some t-shirts out of the bag and handed them out to
all the children. They were emblazoned with the name of his band and the name
of the venue and the date.

“Wow, cool,” said Gabe. “Thanks, Justin.”

Maggie took the small t-shirt intended for Jake and put
it on him over his clothes. It was so big that it hung down to his knees.

“This is a special t-shirt for your Dad’s band, dear,”
Maggie said.

Jake smiled and echoed Gabe by saying “Wow, cool,”
making Maggie and Justin laugh. Belle had taken her t-shirt into the bathroom
and when she emerged she was wearing it almost like it was a dress, cinched in
with a belt over her shorts. Maggie and Justin noticed that she was also
wearing the seaglass earrings that Justin had bought for her in Sausalito.

“You look very pretty, Belle,” Justin said and she smiled
at the compliment.

The children then decided to go sit out on the patio,
leaving Maggie and Justin alone.

“I’m kind of nervous about singing tonight, Justin. How
big is the Coliseum?”

“I think it holds about 50,000 people Maggie. You’ll be
o.k. We’ll make sure that you have ear monitors and that you can hear yourself
over the band during the sound check.”

Justin remembered that Maggie had problems in the past
at some of the bluegrass festivals hearing herself sing through some of the
stage monitors. Since she couldn’t see well enough to pick up on visual cues
from the other band members, it was especially important that she could hear
well.

“So did you finally decide on what you’re going to
wear?”

“Yes, how about you?” Maggie teased. She knew that Justin
never really cared about what he wore when he performed.

“I think I’ve decided on a purple tunic top and a pair
of black pants,” she continued. “I’ll bring the black sweater in case I get
cold. I always wear pants now ever since the time I found out that some of my
male fans liked to sit in the front row at my concerts so they could look up my
short skirts.”

 “Yeah, that’s why I don’t wear short skirts,” Justin
said and laughed.

He was thinking that Maggie’s description of her clothes
for the concert sounded a little matronly, so he was surprised when she emerged
from his bedroom wearing skin tight black leather pants and a purple sequin top
with a plunging v-neckline.

“Wow, Maggie, that top is pretty sexy. Just don’t bend
over when you’re on stage.”

“I am wearing underwear you know,” and she gave him a
little glimpse of her black lace bra.

He put his arm around her waist and was starting to kiss
her when he heard his parents at the door.

“We’re always being interrupted,” he said and laughed.