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You’re taking her home? Seriously? – Grace
Mom asked me to. It’s on my way. Don’t make a big deal out of it. – Michael
There was a pause that made him realize he’d said the wrong thing. Then the little icon told him Grace was typing. He picked up his duffel, sighing.
So it wouldn’t be a big deal if I popped over and saw Ethan before I come to meet you? – Grace
Yeah, it would. He’d hate it.
I know you wouldn’t do that because Ethan hurt your horse. Can we talk about this in Charleston, please? – Michael.
He walked down the stairs with his bag over his shoulder, sighing as he saw a pair of headlights swing into the driveway. Cam’s car. Big and comfortable. Nothing like the sports car that he once drove before he became Mia’s husband and Michael and Josh’s stepdad.
That felt like a lifetime ago. Michael could still remember the day he and Josh threw a ball against Cam’s car, damaging it and causing Cam to chase them to their brand new house in Hartson’s Creek.
Where he met Mia, Michael’s mom.
Cam gestured at Michael to cross the driveway in front of him, and Mia blew him a kiss through the windshield. He lifted a hand, smiling grimly. At leastshewasn’t pissed at him.
But somebody else was. He knew that when he felt his phone vibrate once more, with Grace’s answer to his request.
Sure. – Grace.
Ouch. Damned by a single word. Michael had enough experience to know thatsuredidn’t mean sure. It meant she was annoyed. That he was gonna get it.
And maybe he deserved that. He should have walked away the moment he saw he was being set up.
For her.
Putting his phone in his pocket, he opened the trunk, throwing his luggage in the back. Then he took a deep breath and sat down in the driver’s seat, giving Rhona a tight smile.
“Sorry about that. You ready?”
“Of course.”
It looked like she’d reapplied her lipstick. He couldn’t work out if that was a bad thing or a good thing.
He was probably about to find out.
* * *
Grace sat in the hotel parking lot for ten minutes staring out at the dark night, thinking about what happened tonight. She was annoyed at herself for reacting like a child. At Michael for taking Rhona home. She was even fed up with his mom for setting him up, even though she had no idea about him and Grace.
This wasn’t supposed to be how tonight was going to go. He was going to arrive first, she was going to sneak there later, and they were going to have two amazing nights wrapped in each other’s arms.
No prying eyes. No escaping at dawn because somebody was going to find out.
A tap at her window made her jump. She looked out to see Michael standing there, his brows pinched like he was somewhere in between annoyance and pain.
She rolled the window down. “Hi.”
“Saw you’d got here.” His eyes were wary. “I was worried when you didn’t come up.”
Of course. They’d shared their phone locations to make it easier to sneak around. He probably thought she was an idiot for sitting here for the last ten minutes.
“I was just thinking.”
“Changing your mind?” he asked.
