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I smiled, happy that she remembered she and my mom had once been friends and that my mom was more than just her housekeeper.
“I’m so sorry for your loss, honey,” she offered. “I wish I could’ve made it to the services. I just haven’t been feeling well lately.”
“No worries. The flowers you sent were lovely,” I assured her.
She nodded and an awkward silence passed between us.
“Thank you for setting up my room for me.”
She smiled as if proud of her decorating abilities. “I never had a daughter, so shopping for a girl was so much fun.”
I nodded. If my mother’s relationship with her was any indication of how she interacted with the help, I knew better than to think there would ever be more than brief small talk. I began to turn back to the wet pan in my hands.
“Have you met my boys?” she asked.
I turned back, not sure how much to say. “Sawyer’s very nice.”
“Am I to take that to mean Saint and Seren aren’t?” she asked.
I swallowed hard. “Oh…I just meant…”
She laughed. “I’m teasing you, Grace. My boys are all just as wonderful.” And though she seemed like she wanted to believe that, her eyes deceived her. “Maybe you four will be as close as your mom and I were—are,” she said, correcting herself.
I shrugged, knowing that was not going to happen. Maybe Sawyer and I would be friends. But definitely not Seren and Saint.
“Well, I’ll let you get finished in here. Don’t let Chef keep you too late,” she said.
“I won’t. Nice talking to you,” I said.
“You too, honey.”
When she left, I couldn’t help but wonder what my life would have been like if my mom had been set up on a blind date with Mr. Grayson instead of Maureen. Would this have been my life? And would I have even wanted that?
CHAPTER 9
Grace
I stood beside my car the following morning. All four tires were still flat. So much for wishful thinking that Seren would do the right thing. I hurried back into the house and snuck into the kitchen, opening the cabinet above the toaster and grabbing for the keys to the Jeep. The keys that were no longer in there.
“Looking for something?”
I sucked in a breath and spun around. Seren stood there shirtless and in boxers with sleepy morning eyes and the keys dangling from his finger. If I didn’t hate him so much, I may have appreciated the view more, but since the mere sight of him caused nausea to swirl up inside me, I didn’t.
“You can put your tongue back in your mouth,” he said. “Your ogling’s embarrassing.”
I opened my mouth to respond but thought better of it since I needed those keys. I stifled my aggravation. “Give them to me.”
He scoffed. “Should I tell my mother you’re stealing our car?”
“Should I tell her you flattened my tires?”
He yawned. “This conversation again? How boring.”
I hated this guy so damn much. “Sawyer lent me the car.”
“Yesterday. Did you ask to borrow it today?” he countered.
I said nothing, the anger swelling inside me becoming almost too much to contain.
