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“And don’t you dare think that Hannah set it up this way. She was trying to respect that you had to work till now.”
“Molly?” Marcos called her from the kitchen, and she smiled. “I’d better go see what’s happening in there. I hope you have fun. And take your time tomorrow. I know you want Ava back, but it’ll do her good to spend time with someone other than you.”
“Yeah, I suppose you’re right. Thanks, Molly.”
He got back in the car and checked the clock on the dash. It’d only take him ten minutes to get to the Jacobs estate. And it sounded as though it would take another five to get to Hannah’s cottage once he was there. He made a face as he pulled out of Molly’s driveway and headed south. What would it be like to decide you’d had enough of life in LA and be able to go home to the family estate? He couldn’t imagine.
He’d left home when he was eighteen and never looked back. All three of them had done the same. Braydon had gotten himself into college. Kayla had joined the Air Force. He’d just packed up his board and bummed his way up the coast with Monty.
That was a long time ago now. He’d turned himself around in the last few years. He’d studied hospitality management and then worked in a couple of restaurants in San Francisco. He’d come to Napa when Molly had hired him to run the restaurant and since he’d been here, he finally felt as though he’d built a life to be proud of. He wasn’t ever going to be rich or successful, but he was doing well enough for what was important to him.
All that mattered to him these days was giving Ava the best childhood he could. Helping her grow into a decent person and making sure that she knew she was loved and safe along the way. She’d had such a rough start in life. Her dad had never been in the picture, and her mom, Kayla, had died when she was five. He didn’t like to think about the years she’d spent with Braydon and his family. But that was behind her now, and his main purpose in life was to make sure that things only got better for her from here.
He brought himself back to the present as he turned off the main road. Apart from his visit with Monty, this was his first afternoon and evening to himself in months. He shouldn’t spend it thinking about Ava. He was free to let himself focus on Hannah. He smiled at that thought. He wasn’t sure how this was going to go. He might have plenty of experience with women, but he was a newbie at relationships – and that was where he was hoping this was going.
He stopped when he reached the gate to the estate and rolled down his window. The guard came out of the gatehouse and nodded at him.
“I’m here to see Hannah Jacobs.”
“Name?”
“Grady Pierce.”
He checked his clipboard and nodded. “Okay. Go on through. I thought all you guys had left already.”
Grady smiled at him. “I’m the last one. A day late and a dollar short, as always.”
The guy smiled back. “You and me both.” He tipped his hat and went back inside.
A moment later, the gate swung open. Grady drove through and followed the driveway that led up toward the main house. Well, house was too small a word for that place. He took the first left turn that he came to and a few minutes later, pulled up in front of what Hannah had called her cottage.
He shook his head. If this was acottage… he blew out a sigh. He needed to remember what Grant had told him. Just because she lived on an estate, because she came from the kind of money she did, it didn’t make her any different. She was still the same person he’d thought she was before – she was a sweetheart, a hot, kind, caring sweetheart. Who he couldn’t help picturing hugging Ava as if they’d both found home in each other’s arms.
He got out of the car and nodded at Ellen from the shelter, who was carrying a crate to a van parked on the other side of the driveway.
“Do you want a hand with that?”
She smiled. “I’m fine thanks, Grady. You should get a move on. The others have already been and gone.”
He nodded, relieved now that he was here, that he wouldn’t have to hang out and joke around with the others while he waited his turn.
He’d almost reached the front door when Ellen called after him, “Go straight around the back. She’s still out there.”
“Thanks.” He cut around the side of the house, wondering what to expect.
He stopped in his tracks when he rounded the corner of the cottage and saw two girls sitting at a table on the patio. Hannah was bringing a tray of drinks to them. He smiled to himself, impressed. He loved that she was taking care of Ellen’s girls. She might live on an estate, but she wasn’t sitting around on her ass expecting people to wait on her. He really needed to let that shit go.
He watched her for a moment. She was beautiful. Her long blonde hair was tied up in a ponytail. Her long, long legs were clad in faded blue jeans, and she wore a white sweater that made her look young and fresh.
One of the girls had a puppy sitting on her knee. It was a cute little Dalmatian. He smiled when it jumped off the girl’s knee and threw itself at Hannah. She caught it and laughed as it licked her face and wriggled in her arms. That chased away the last of his doubts. No one who loved dogs could be a bad person in his book. And she sure seemed to love that little guy.
She buried her face in his neck and kissed him. It sent shivers down Grady’s spine—as if it were his neck she was kissing. His heart beat a little faster.Don’t even go there, buddy!He admonished himself. Before Ava had come to live with him, he would have been all about trying to charm her into the sack, but now, not just since Ava, but with Hannah, those words felt as cheap and meaningless as they probably always had been. He’d never noticed or cared before. But although he’d love to take her to bed, that wasn’t all he wanted. He wanted to get to know her, to spend time with her, to figure out if the spark between them might lead to something real. His heart pounded harder. Yes, he wanted her physically, but he wanted so much more than that. Tonight – their first real date – wasn’t about reaching the end goal of getting her into bed. He was hoping that it might be the first step on a path to something much more meaningful.
“Are you okay?”
He turned, feeling guilty when Ellen spoke behind him. “Err. Yeah. But she has the girls and a puppy back there. I didn’t want to interrupt.” He could hardly say that he was fine, he’d just been standing here ogling her!
“Go on. She’s waiting for you. The girls are just waiting for me to take them home and the puppy is your modeling partner.”
