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I feel obligated to help Grace get settled in.
“It’s like a little village,” she says, leaning to the side to get a better look out my window.
The Grace I remember was never manipulative, and I don’t see her being that person now, but she has to know her breasts are resting right up against me as she takes in the clubhouse for the very first time.
I don’t realize I’ve stopped breathing until she pulls back as we park and a rush of air presses past my lips.
Legend chuckles from the driver’s seat, and I look up to catch his eyes on me in the rearview mirror. I’d flip him off right now if she wasn’t beside me, but I know she’ll want to know the reason for my sudden irritation with my friend. I’m not in the right head space to explain a damn thing at the moment.
I nearly roll out of the SUV when I open the door, but Grace is too busy looking around as she steps out herself to notice. I feel like a hypocrite, both glad that she’s not paying attention to me as I adjust the front of my jeans and a little disappointed that she isn’t paying any attention to me. I’m like a cat that rolls over to have its belly rubbed only to attack with kicking feet after the attention lasts a second too long.
This woman is determined to drive me insane, and the fucked-up part is that she’s not doing anything intentionally.
I narrow my eyes at her, thinking maybe she’s just really good at this form of manipulation.
“I know exactly what it was.”
Her words in the hotel room before I managed the strength to walk out comes back to me once again. This phrase was on repeat in my mind the entire plane ride back from Nebraska.
Does was imply never again? Or does the woman mean she’s perfectly okay with there being a sex-only sort of arrangement between the two of us?
And like that bipolar cat I just imagined myself being, the consideration of both options causes me grief.
“More houses are going up back there.”
I watch as Legend points across the street, indicating the very area Kincaid showed me on the map Max had pulled up on his computer. For a split second, before I can shut it down, a little regret for being so insistent for not having a house built on Cerberus land tries to weasel its way into my mind.
“Faith and I are on the list for the next round after those few are done,” Legend continues.
“They’re beautiful,” Grace tells him with a genuine smile, causing those simmering suspicions to start to boil a little heavier.
I would’ve never used manipulative to describe this woman, but a part of me is wondering if that is just one more trait she has picked up along the way.
“How about we move this little party inside before I freeze my nuts off?” I mutter, walking past them toward the front door.
Legend laughs like I told a joke, but I know that sound a little better than I’d like. It’s riddled with assumptions and predictions. It makes me want to donkey kick him as he climbs the stairs behind me, and I would do it if Grace wasn’t in the line of fire.
“Grinch, how are you comfortable with your jeans so tight?” he asks before I can even lift my hand to open the front door.
“They look fine to me,” Grace says, making the situation in my jeans that I nearly had under control after sitting beside her, breathing her in for the last several hours, start all over again.
“If you didn’t skip leg day, your ass would fill your jeans as well,” I mutter, knowing damn well the man has massive legs and has no problem filling his jeans.
His only response is another round of laughter. Grace joins in, the light tinkle of her chuckle nearly making me stumble over my own feet. It isn’t until I’m hearing it now that I realize she hasn’t done it once since I walked into her hospital room.
Why should she? She hasn’t really had any reason to laugh, and I find I’m in agony, waiting to hear it again. Maybe that’s the solution to getting her ready to be on her own again instead of clinging to Cerberus because she’s fearful of going back home. I just don’t know if I will survive her finding joy while she’s here, and two of those reasons grin when we walk through the front door.
“Grace, this is Aro and Ugly,” Legend says as he steps around us to make introductions.
The guys stand from the sofa, Aro pausing the television, but neither step forward, somehow knowing that she wouldn’t want to touch them even to shake hands. She probably would if they offered, but she’d be uncomfortable doing it. Legend told me about her coming to the room we were sharing and how she responded when he reached to steady her when he thought she was going to tip over.
