“You liked the gray towels I chose. I go first.” She turned, walked farther into the bedding section, and picked up floral-patterned sheets he didnotlike.
“Ask away, friend.”
Grace smirked. She was actually reading the information on the plastic covering.Fascinating.“I’ll ease you in. Where’d you go to school?”
Ha. He had this friendship thing in the bag. “NYU for business.”
She started to put the sheets in the cart, but he pulled it back. “What? They’re so pretty.”
“Nope.”
Grace scowled but said nothing as an announcement about a sale came over the speaker. When it finished, she said, “You’re just saying that to get a secret out of me.”
He laughed, moved around the cart, and grabbed the pale pink floral pattern that caught his eye. “These are nicer. I don’t love the color green in general. It’s dumb to have flowers be green when the leaves are green. It’s too much, you know?”
She stared at him like he’d grown an extra head. “We both said we didn’t like pink.”
He shrugged, liking that she remembered. “On a wall? No. Like this? It’s soft. Sexy. Sweet. It’ll be good for a guest bedroom.”
There was a look in her eyes he couldn’t decipher, but she took the sheets from him, their fingers brushing. Her slight intake of breath was the only sign she felt the flicker of heat, too. “They are pretty.” She sighed, set the sheets in the cart. “I need to spend some time thinking about how to make my grandparents’ house my own. I want to bring it back to life. I wanted to be there for so long but now that I am, I’ve barely done a thing.”
Every instinct in him had him stepping to her, pulling her into a hug, which clearly surprised her.
“Why are we hugging in the middle of Bed Bath and Beyond?”
He swallowed around the thickness he didn’t understand in his throat. “Because I like to hug. There. You got a free secret out of me. Cut yourself some slack. You’ve been busy.” The way her eyes went sad at the mention of her grandparents hurt his heart. He’d never felt that kind of connection to a place. Or wanted to.
Her slender arms wound around him. They stood like that, making feelings war inside of him. This woman was confusing the hell out of him. The only thing he knew with absolute certainty was that if ever a woman could tempt him to want somethingmore—regardless of his own lack of faith in love—it would be the one in his arms. Anything less for Grace wouldn’t work. He couldn’t risk what he felt for her, this unknown desire to have her in his life indefinitely, for a night of pleasure. What else could he offer? Everyone he knew believed he had no staying power. No ability to commit.
By unspoken agreement, they stepped away from each other. When she picked up a gray comforter to go with the sheets, he nodded, then asked, “Why design?”
“I hated the cramped space of our various trailers so I spent my time rearranging what little furniture we had in different ways. Then I’d imagine how the spacecouldlook.”
Was every answer she gave going to gut him?
“We’re heading to your beloved Pottery Barn after this but I prefer the bedding here. We’ll pick bedding for three rooms. I have a new idea for the second room downstairs I want to talk to you about.”
They stopped in the middle of the aisle when a little girl sat right in front of their cart. The mom gave a smiley wince and crouched down. “Get up, sweetie.”
The blond-haired cutie crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back. The large pink backpack made it seem like she was in a recliner. “I tired.”
Noah bit his lip so he didn’t laugh. With the mom crouching and the little girl sprawled, the aisle was completely blocked.
“I’m so sorry. You need to get up. We’re keeping these people from shopping. That’s not very nice of us.”
The little girl looked like she might cry. Her bottom lip trembled. An unfamiliar warmth filled Noah’s chest. He wanted to tell this little girl she could take all the time she needed.
“I sorry,” she said.
“That’s okay. Shopping makes everyone sleepy,” Grace said. She pointed at Noah. “Even this guy. I had to promise him a treat to get him to finish.”
His brows arched.A treat from Grace.He almost sighed out loud.
The mom smiled at Grace then looked down at her daughter. “Why don’t we get some French fries when we’re done here?”
“We like French fries,” the little girl said, already getting up.
“You and Mom?” Noah asked.
