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Chapter
Twenty-Two
Grant stared outthe windshield, not really sure where his mind had gone.When Harrison knocked on the window, he jumped, turning to his left to see who stood there.Harrison laughed, the sound coming through the glass, and Grant reached to unbuckle his seatbelt.
“You looked lost,” Harrison said, still grinning.“Sorry.I thought you’d seen me pull up behind you.”
“I didn’t,” Grant said.He shook Harrison’s hand and did his best to hang a smile in the right place on his face.“Sorry.Just thinking about something.”
“Not the new roof over the deck, I hope,” Harrison said.“The permit is just a formality.I got it.”He dug in a pocket of his toolbelt and produced a folded document.When he extended it toward Grant, his expression held trepidation.
“It’s not that,” Grant said, taking the paper.“But thanks.”They started toward the beach cottage where Bea was supposed to be staying.Grant hadn’t wanted to open up the dates for new renters just in case she changed her mind and came to Hilton Head.
His stupid wishful thinking.The positive attitude.Optimism.Whatever it was, it annoyed him in moments like this.Since he’d blocked off the weeks, and his foolish heart wouldn’t allow him to unblock them, he’d decided to do a little construction around the place.
The deck had been expanded to twice the size, and Grant had laid awake for the past couple of nights, telling himself that he’d done it because he was a savvy property owner who knew a good idea when he heard one.It didn’t matter that it had been Bea’s idea to expand the back deck.
Not to mention the roof Harrison had started to build.Apparently, any structure over twenty feet needed a permit on the island, and their roof peaked beautifully at twenty-six feet.
Grant went around the back of the house, his foot catching on a sprinkler head that hadn’t popped back down into the ground after last night’s watering.He stumbled, a curse flying from his mouth.He managed to catch himself, but it felt like a spoonful of sludge instead of hot fudge on an ice cream sundae.
He actually felt like crying, and that made a horrible, angry beast inside him rage to the surface.He’d caught himself against the side of the house, and he pulled his fist back and hit the siding again.
“Hey,” Harrison said, hurrying back to him.“Are you okay?”
Grant fumed, his eyes trained on Harrison.He didn’t want to hit one of his good friends.He didn’t want to hit anything, because now his knuckles hurt on top of the humiliation weaving carefully through him.“I don’t know,” he said, rubbing his fingers with his non-punching hand.
“What’s going on?”Harrison asked, his eyes filled with concern.Grant didn’t answer, because while he and Harrison were friends, they didn’t play cards together or hang out as buddies in the evenings.They did a lot of business together, and Grant saw him socially every now and then.
He had come to brunch with Bea and Lauren, and Grant’s sudden mood change since last week when Bea had called to say she couldn’t return to Hilton Head Island probably wasn’t as noticeable to Harrison as it was to Grant.
He’d avoided his sister and her family, and as Grant stood there, his mind wailing, his heart in utter turmoil, and his hand starting to ache, he realized he didn’t have any friends to spill his guts to.
“Bea broke up with me,” he said.
Harrison’s expression changed instantly, and he nodded back toward the front of the house.“All right,” he said.“Let’s go get a drink or something.”
“It’s ten-thirty in the morning,” Grant said.He wasn’t going to drown his sorrows in alcohol this early in the day.
“Smoothies then.”Harrison marched away, leaving Grant a good view of the new deck and the framed-out roof.It would be a fantastic place to read, listen to the ocean, trying to catch a glimpse of it, or serve dinner to your family after a day on the beach.He could see himself there, doing all of those things, and every time, Bea stood at his side.
She’d sent pictures of the Texas sheet cake she’d made for her daughter’s graduation party, and she’d promised to make one for him.He’d get the best sweet tea South Carolina had to offer, and she’d make the cake, and they’d sit on this new deck together.
The sun would go down, and they’d talk and laugh and kiss, and the life Grant had started to imagine for himself stopped there.Because there was no more.
She wasn’t coming back.
“Come on,” Harrison called, and Grant turned and left the fantasies he’d allowed himself to conjure up in the backyard at the beach cottage.
Fifteen minutes later, Harrison pulled into a space at The Mad Mango.Grant wasn’t sure if he’d spoken on the way over.If he had, Grant hadn’t answered.He’d lost another block of time thinking about Bea.
Harrison got out of the truck, so Grant followed.He didn’t even see Blake Williams until the man snapped his fingers in front of Grant’s face.That ignited the fury again, and Grant should probably just go home and stay there.The office wasn’t safe, because Vanessa would be there.She had cleaned up the files around the office, and she did handle the bookings quickly and easily.Grant had been freed up to manage his housekeeping crews and focus on improvements that he’d ignored for months.
“Hey,” Blake said, his mouth turning up into a smile.“I said I was about to call you.We need to go over your retirement contributions.”
The last thing Grant wanted to do was meet with his financial advisor.Blake was a great guy, however, and he didn’t deserve to be ignored or glowered at.He held open the door to The Mad Mango, and Grant assumed Harrison had already gone inside.
“Sure,” Grant said, his irritation settling back into his chest nicely.He hated how it could rear up so easily and quickly now.Inside, he frowned at the menu, though he had the whole thing memorized.He suddenly didn’t want a banana in his smoothie, and he told himself it wasn’t because Bea hadn’t wanted one.
