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“If it was going to be anyone it would be you,” she admitted. “But I don’t want that with anyone ever again.”
Grant’s jaw set but he only nodded. “I wish you’d tell me what happened with your ex so I could track him down and deck him if necessary, but I respect your privacy.”
“Thank you.” Nigel, as a topic, was completely off-limits—even to Grant. Hell, he didn’t even know about Mia, and that was how things should stay. The familiar hurt welled up, but she shoved it back down, trying to forget the sight of them together.
He sighed heavily and rubbed a hand over his too-handsome face. “I realized the other night, after I bought this place, that you were the only person I wanted to share this with. I don’t want to fuck things up with you again. If you ever want more with me, go ahead and tell me, but if you don’t I’ll live with it. The ball is in your court. I won’t push anymore.”
She tried to think of something to say, but apparently he wasn’t done.
“It wasn’t fair for me to expect more. You made it pretty clear what your limits were that night.”
“So did you, as I
recall. Our limits matched up at the time.”
He nodded slowly. “Yeah. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I had no idea I’d end up having a whole shitload of unauthorized feelings.” He chuckled with what sounded like self-derision. “Like you’ve said before, just because we had one night doesn’t give me the right to dictate who you spend time with and it sure as hell doesn’t make you mine.” His voice had roughened a little on the last word, as though that specifically had been hard to admit to himself.
“So we’re calling a truce on all of the bickering?” she teased.
It seemed like they’d done nothing but argue for ages. She’d gotten caught up in it just as badly as he had. She was almost certain it was sexual tension, but even knowing hadn’t made it any easier to stop. It hadn’t changed her feelings about him either. As much as he considered her his person, he was her person too. Will’s relationship with Juliet had left her and Grant with no one but each other, more or less. Sure, they both had friends at the club, but this level of friendship was entirely different.
“I’d like to stop fighting.” He flashed her an uncertain smile.
“We should have a word that would stop us before things went too far. Like a friendship safeword.” A laugh bubbled up Dex’s throat. The sound of it made Grant grin.
“Well, I guess it wouldn’t do for us to have a regular vanilla friendship.”
“No. What kind of plebeian wants a vanilla friendship anyway? This is way better.”
“So pick a word, woman.”
She tapped a finger to her lips. “How about ‘moose’?”
“Moose?” He grimaced at her.
“What? It will always remind us of this trip, considering how many watch for moose signs we’ve seen in the past few hours.”
“I hope all we see is signs.”
“If we see one, maybe you should stop it and ask for directions. I think we’re lost.”
“We’re not lost. And we only lost cell service for twenty minutes, and it’s back now. Quit being a baby.”
“I wasn’t being a baby about losing cell service. I was being a baby about you thinking you’re Bear Grylls and telling me to take the map out of the glove compartment.” She held a hand out at the storage compartment in question, as though to ward it off. “I’m a city girl. If you want to know how to get somewhere, you ask the cabbie, not a piece of origami paper with random blue squiggles.”
“Take a look at it! It’s not that complicated, little miss drama queen.”
She ignored his suggestion that she should take the map out again. Did she look like a Girl Scout?
“I wish I’d had my friendship safeword at that point. That sucker never would have made it out of the glove compartment. Not all of us took an orienteering course at their fancy boarding school, rich boy.”
He gave a soft, angry laugh. “It’s your own fault for being so lovable. Your parents never wanted to get rid of you, so now you’re stuck relying on your phone for directions.” He clicked his tongue in disapproval. “At least when the zombie apocalypse comes I’ll know how to build a campfire.”
She fretted at her lip, not sure whether to drop it or press for more information. His boarding school experience had always been something he tiptoed around. It sounded worse every time she got a new bit of information.
“You never talk about boarding school much. Did you like it there?”
A muscle flexed in his square jaw. “Greystone Academy? Kim wasn’t there. That’s about the only thing that the place had going for it. It was supposed to toughen us up, so you can imagine.”
