AllFreeNovel
Share Us
* * *
“Holy hell,” Ella shouted, her voice reverberating down the phone line. “Seriously? I thought you were completely against sleeping with him.”
Grace sighed. She had to talk to somebody, and Ella was literally the only person in her life who knew about Michael and would understand.
Who else was she going to confide in? Sabrina? Her mom? The thought of them finding out made her shudder.
“I was. And I tried not to. Except we can’t seem to resist each other.” Her cheeks pinked up at the memory of the previous night.
“What was that? I can’t hear you.” Ella was shouting even louder. She never talked when she could scream.
Which was why Grace had ridden Arcadia out here to the foothills, where there was still a signal but no chance of being overheard. If she was going to talk about Michael, it would happen where nobody had the ability to listen in or hear.
And yes, she could have called from home, but she couldn’t think straight there. Every time she looked at the stairs or her bed, she thought of him.
Twisting Arcadia’s reins around her hand, Grace led him ten feet to another set of trees. The breeze was rustling through the leaves, but apart from that, there was blessed silence. “Can you hear me now?” she asked her friend.
“Yes. Perfectly. Now tell me everything.”
So she did. Well, not quiteeverything. Enough for Ella to get the gist that it was good, he was amazing, and it didn’t feel like a one-off.
And that when he had to sneak out of her house at three am, they’d had the world’s longest kissing session as he pushed her against the door.
“Has he called you today?”
Grace’s cheeks flushed. “Yes. And messaged.” Like constantly. There was another message now, waiting for her to reply as soon as she got off the phone.
“And when will you see him again?”
“I don’t know,” Grace admitted. “It’s difficult. He has to lie to get out of the house and we have to hide his car away.” But it would happen. He’d made that clear.
“It’s like being a teenager again. Except he knows what he’s doing,” Ella said. She sounded almost wistful.
Yeah, it did feel like that. The secrecy was an adrenaline rush, but it wasn’t real. Not like the softness of his touch and his sweet words when he called her this morning.
Asking her if she was okay. If she regretted it. If she wanted him to stay away.
She’d answered: yes, no, and definitely no. She wanted to see him as soon as possible.
“He insisted on cleaning some cobwebs on my ceiling,” she said, smiling as she remembered him hitting the corners with a duster. “He was worried I’d be scared by spiders.”
Ella laughed. “A guy who takes care of spiders and provides good sex? Sign me up. You have to see him again.”
“We’re talking about Tuesday, maybe,” Grace admitted. It wasn’t clear it could happen, though. And it felt like forever away.
“And then?” Ella asked. “When are you going to come clean and tell people?”
A bird swooped over her head. Arcadia looked up and whinnied.
“I don’t think we will.”
“What? Why not?” Ella sounded grouchy now. “Is he trying to keep you as his little secret?”
Grace patted Arcadia’s neck, and he nuzzled against her shoulder. “It’s not that simple. If anybody in our family found out, all hell would break loose.” Her chest contracted at the thought. Her parents liked Michael. Heck, with the age gap, he was closer to her mom’s age than hers. She couldn’t even imagine her dad’s face if he found out she and Michael were a thing.
“But they’ll have to find out sometime, won’t they? Or are you going to sneak around forever?”
Grace swallowed hard. Ella’s questions were the same ones she’d been asking herself all day. But she didn’t have any answers. Michael didn’t want to cause any problems for his mom, especially while she was undergoing treatment, and she completely understood that. She loved Mia, too. She hated the thought of her getting upset.
