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I force a smile. Her eyes dart down to the pavement, while mine stay firmly fixed on her.
“Grayson.” Sierra’s gaze returns to meet mine, and she lifts her eyebrows just a little. I had forgotten how captivating her eyes are. “What are you doing here?”
“I live here… I mean… there,” I say, jerking my thumb towards my house. “What areyoudoing here?”
Surprise flashes across Sierra’s face. She looks back at the pavement, to the ocean, anywhere but at me. She’s just as beautiful as I remember. I take her in, my heart beating triple time in my chest.
She’s wearing a cropped, dark blue top and a floral-patterned miniskirt that shows off her long, lean legs. Her hair is swept back from her face with a thin white headband. It’s a little longer than I remember it, falling halfway down her back.
It’s been two years since we met at that hotel conference, but that pull I felt towards Sierra is definitely still there. The girl is sexy. I swallow, hoping my thoughts aren’t written all over my face.
I can hardly breathe as I watch her remove her sunglasses from the top of her head and put them on the seat of her car. She’s in Reed Point. She Millie’s granddaughter.Oh shit—shit, shit, shit!
“I… my grandma lives there,” she says, motioning over her shoulder to the yellow house behind her. “I mean, she lived there…”
“Your grandma is Miss Millie?” I ask, the surprise evident in my voice. “I can’t believe all this time I never figured out she’s your—”
“Wait, you know my gran?” Sierra asks, cutting me off. She fidgets with the ends of her hair, seeming nervous.
“I do. I know her well. We’ve been neighbours for a while. We’re pretty close friends actually,” I tell her, tucking my hands in my pockets. “Your grandma is dope.”
She smiles softly, and damn if it doesn’t get my pulse racing. There’s something about the way her eyes crinkle at the corners when she smiles, the dimples that suddenly appear. It’s so good to see her again. I’m not used to this fluttery feeling in my chest. The last time I felt like this was in Miami… with her.
I’d be lying if I said I haven’t thought about her since that weekend. Sierra isn’t a girl you easily forget. Especially after the things we did together on that desk. It was hot and filthy and it’s permanently seared into my mind.
Reign it in, Gray. The girl just moved her grandma into a care facility.
But the sight of her standing here, just feet away from me, gets my heart hammering in my chest. I drag my hands through my hair and try to catch my breath.
I’ve never been able to shake the way she took off that night. It turns my stomach that she just… left.Thatfact is what has always bothered me the most, even two years later. Our time together that weekend, the flirting, the sex—none of it seemed to mean anything to her, even though it meant so much to me. Seeing her again now, feeling the effect she still has on me… I hate that I’ve kept a place for her in my heart for this long when it seems she couldn’t have cared less about me.
I take a deep breath.Stop dredging up the past, I tell myself.
“Yeah, sheispretty cool,” Sierra says with a laugh. I watch her soften at the mention of her grandma, and for a minute I get a glimpse of Sierra’s vulnerable side. It’s a side of her I’ve never seen before. She was carefree and spontaneous that weekend we were together in Miami, even wild. “I guess you know she’s moved into a care home. I hope you don’t think that—”
“Sierra,” I interrupt her. “I think you made the right decision. It was time.”
Her chocolate-brown eyes settle on me, and I notice the splatter of freckles across her nose, the way her hair is lit up by the late afternoon sun. She’s more beautiful than any woman I’ve ever seen. Her body is a work of art. I could very easily fall for a woman like her. And that is exactly the problem.
Sierra continues to run the ends of her golden hair through her fingers.
“Thank you,” she says, and I can hear the emotion in her voice. “It was rough. She didn’t want to go and… I’m sorry, I’m rambling. Listen, I should go.” She shuts the car door and I watch as she walks to the trunk, popping the hatch open and reaching inside to pull out a large box. She shifts the box to one arm, trying to balance it.
Without thinking, I step towards her. “Let me help you with that.”
She looks at me like she’s determined to do it herself. “You don’t have to help me, Grayson. I can handle it. I’ll be fine.”
Does she really think I’m going to just stand here and not help her out? Not a chance. Besides, it’s the excuse I need to spend a little more time with her. I’m not ready to leave her yet.
I take the box from Sierra and instead of protesting like I expected her to, she lets me. She grabs another bag from the trunk, then leads the way down the path to Millie’s front door.
I can’t help but notice the graceful way she moves, the curve of her shoulder blades, her long stride. She opens the door and deposits the bag a few steps into the entryway.
“Thanks. You can just put it here,” she says, motioning to the floor. “I’m going to grab another.”
I do as I’m told, setting the box on the floor. I pause to gaze around the living room. Everything is exactly as Millie kept it, with just a couple of exceptions: the picture frames that used to be scattered across the mantel and the Lazy Boy chair that Millie liked to sit in while she watched TV are gone.
I’ve spent a fair bit of time in this house over the years, fixing the odd broken appliance, picking up a delicious meal Millie had made me or sitting in on a poker game with Tuck, Jake and Holden. Even though the place looks mostly the same, it feels a little empty without Millie’s larger-than-life presence. Raking my hand through my hair, I blow out a breath as Sierra walks through the door with another box.
