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“No!” she said, hiding her face. “I look weird!”

He laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous, Luce, you’re gorgeous.”

She stopped hiding her face to look up at him, heart going mushy. He looked back at her with so much heat in his eyes that she suddenly felt shy. Her pulse quickened.

With a start, she realized that perhaps being in a truce with him was more dangerous than being at war.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Grayson

The next day was Monday, which meant the bookstore was closed. Grayson woke up early, like he usually did. After showering and getting dressed, he made his way down to the kitchen with his laptop and brewed a strong cup of tea for himself. He sat down at the island, replying to some emails that had come in hours ago, when Dublin had hit morning.

His gaze strayed to the clock, waiting for it to get closer to eleven, the time Charles woke up on Mondays. Usually, on their days off, Grayson tried to have breakfast ready, but today, he held back.

When Charles came in half an hour later, he was still in his pajamas and wearing fluffy slippers. He took off his glasses, rubbing his eyes, and put them back on.

Grayson stood from the island, heart hammering. “Shall we go grocery shopping together?” he asked. “I thought we might get ingredients for French toast. We can make it when we get back?”

Charles blinked, looking confused, and for a moment, Grayson thought he had gotten everything wrong—again—but then Charles smiled. “I’d like that.”

Grayson nodded.

“Let me just get dressed.” Charles disappeared into his room. Twenty minutes later, he returned wearing a pair of worn jeans and a patterned woolen sweater, his cane in hand.

“Shall we?” Grayson asked, grabbing their coats, and with a snap of Charles’s fingers, Charles was wearing his. They went outside, where the sky was clear and blue. Though the air was cold, everything felt fresh, and the sun was warm. They made their way to the car, and Grayson helped Charles ease into the passenger seat.

“Comfortable?” Grayson asked, his hand still on the door.

“Mm-hmm.” Charles looked up at Grayson. “Did you and Lucy make up, then?”

Grayson nodded. He pulled out his phone, swiping to the photo album, and turning the screen to Charles. At the image of them smiling together, Charles broke out into a grin.

“Wonderful!” He clapped. “Now come on, let’s go!”

Grayson smiled at Charles’s good mood, closing the passenger door. His gaze went back to his phone, to the photo of him and Lucy. He swiped to the left, to the picture he had taken before that one: Lucy was looking up at him, her face shy and sweet. Her nose was pink from the cold, her cheeks flushed.

Grayson had looked at the picture numerous times since last night, and as he walked around the car to the driver’s seat, he made it his phone background for easy access, trying not to think too much about why he was doing so.

He and Lucy had a truce, he reasoned. They were turning over a new leaf. This was a symbol of that.

Grayson drove to the grocery store, Charles humming alongside him the whole way. And as the glass doors to the entrance finally parted before them, Charles’s face lit up like he was a kid in a candy store.

“Now, I always start on the left, where the produce is, then make my way through every aisle,” Charles advised, informing Grayson of his strategy.

“Oh.” Grayson blinked. “Shouldn’t we just go to the aisles with the things we need? We only need vanilla extract and brioche bread; we’ve got eggs and milk at home.”

“Silly boy!” Charles exclaimed, laughing. “We have to go through every aisle, or how will we know what we need?”

Grayson nodded, going along with it, and followed Charles’s orders. They began in the produce section, stopping by the strawberries. “Your mother loved strawberries,” Charles said, reaching for a box. “Would paint her fingers red with the amount she ate.”

And it was like that in every aisle: Charles would see something that reminded him of a moment or a memory. He talked his way through the entire grocery store, and what should have been a simple ten-minute excursion ended up taking an hour.

They left the store with two bags full of things Grayson wasn’t quite sure they needed, but he found that he didn’t mind the impracticality of their trip. He was beginning to understand it was more about spending time together than about what was easiest and most efficient. And as they began cooking together after arriving home, he felt close to Charles for the first time since he’d come to the States.

He was glad Lucy had given him the pointer. Already, the truce was going well, and he hoped it would only continue to go well.

What wasn’t working in his favor was how badly he wanted her. His thoughts returned often to the evening in the bookstore when she’d taunted him about being jealous.