“Just a thing,” she said evasively, setting the plate on top of the post beside me.“I have to go.Like now.Ugh!She’s already rushing me.Bye, boys.Thanks again for the help, Bryon and Joey.”
“Sure thing, Miss Grier,” Bryon called after her.
She was in a rush, practically sprinting out of the barn.Without stopping to kiss me.Unacceptable.
“Grier,” I growled, chasing after her, and I finally caught her right outside the entrance.Grabbing her around the waist from behind, I swung her to face me and kissed her slow and deep.When I lifted my head, her eyes were unfocused, her cheeks full of a bright flush that I knew spread along her entire body when she was turned on for me.“You do not leave without kissing me, woman.”
“I’m sorry!”she said with a pout.“My mother is frustrating me, and I just want to get this over with.I’ll be back in two hours, give or take.Definitely sooner if I can help it.”
Agitation poured off her, her brows pulled together beneath her baseball cap, turning that beauty into an adorable scowl.
“Are you going to tell me what she wants you to do for her?”
Her eyes darted away, and I felt my ire rising.“Babe, the worst she can do is ask you to hide a body.I don’t see Shaw requiring that kind of service.”
Her mom, no.Mine…the chances weren’t zero.
“She’s at WomanLand.They’re doing a photo shoot for some of the new line that’s going on their website.You know she has an exclusive contract with Mila and River for some of her personal creations.One of the models canceled at the last minute.It’s fine.I do it all the time.See you tonight.”She gasped and stopped mid-step.“You are staying, right?I mean… Sorry, I didn’t even ask if you had plans.”
Her mouth shut with an audible snap, and she inhaled loudly through her nose.“No.You know what, I totally meant that.Will you stay tonight?I-I really missed you last night, and I hated waking up without you this morning.”
Over the past few weeks, we’d tiptoed around the important conversation—what is this?For years, I’d stopped myself from looking twice at Grier Armstrong.She’d been a kid when her family had moved to the area full time; I’d already been at the police academy.Up till then, she’d visited on holidays and special occasions, and her energy had just drawn me in.But she’d been hanging out with my cousins, Ian and Isaac, which was the kind of disaster I didn’t want to deal with.
Grier didn’t live her life like she was waiting for anyone.She lived it for herself—and not in the kind of selfish way some people did.She was unapologetically open, wild, refreshing.I’d seen her on my periphery, just out of focus.There, but in the background.
Because she was a kid, growing up, finding her way, discovering herself.
It wasn’t until Waffles started causing mayhem that I allowed myself to truly see Grier.And suddenly, she was front and center, and I couldn’t look away.Not from the beautiful woman who enthralled me.
That energy between us had turned into a chemistry I didn’t know what to do with right away.In all honesty, it scared the hell out of me.No one had ever made me feel so…much.
As if I wasn’t even living until I looked at her the way I was supposed to.
Then one night, after I brought Waffles home from yet another day of harmless mischief, she’d already had a cup of coffee waiting for me.Exactly the way I liked it, and I realized we’d started to become friends.Coffee had turned into a kiss, and that kiss had knocked me on my ass.
I couldn’t deny it after that.
Grier was mine.
“I’m staying,” I confirmed, bending to take another kiss.“I brought a whole duffel full of clothes with me too.Sorry, beautiful.You’re stuck with me now.”
“Oh, I like that,” she hummed, licking her lips.Her eyes were focused on my mouth, but before she could kiss me, her phone rang.She stomped her foot as she lifted it to her ear, already turning toward her UTV that was parked in the driveway.Alongside it were a big truck, a Jeep, and a sports car that went hella fast, all of them hers, gifts from her parents and grandparents.Yet she always preferred the UTV.“I said I was coming.Give me a fudging minute.Good grief!”
When she turned on the UTV, Waffles came running.She paused long enough to let him jump into the passenger seat, and then she was blowing me a kiss and shifting into reverse.
“Where’s she going in such a hurry?I just got here.”
Turning, I found Grier’s dad walking toward me, coming from the direction of her house.He was dressed in dark jeans and a faded pink T-shirt that one of his daughters must have given him because it read: Awesome Like My Daughter.
That seemed like a very Grier thing to do, especially given that it was pink.What little I knew about Fallon, I could say for certain she was not the pink type.
Having known him for years before he’d set down permanent roots in Trinity County, I had taken him in slowly.He was a good man, treated his wife like a treasure, adored his daughters in a way that stuck with a person.There was no denying that Grier and her sister were spoiled, but they weren’t snobs.Or entitled brats.This man gave his kids everything he could, including empathy, a conscience, and the ability to respect others, while still being unapologetic about who they were as individuals.
That wasn’t an easy feat.I knew because I’d seen the results of similar parenting with polar opposite effect.
I glanced back to where the UTV’s taillights were fading, already missing Grier.“Something about a favor for her mom.There was a cookie bribe.”
Jagger Armstrong snorted out a laugh.“Figures.It’s always the cookies.To be fair, my wife makes the best cookies.It’s a recipe she got from my dad.”He tipped his chin in the direction of my truck, not the cruiser I drove for work.“I’m surprised to see you here out of uniform, Sheriff.Usually, you show up with lights flashing so bright I can see you from my house.Eight miles away.”
