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Grant looks at me, the question clear.
"The more the merrier," I say. "Please join us."
Grant and I play three games with the older couple, who are actually brother and sister. Both their spouses hate bowling. I have to work hard to come anywhere near keeping up with them, but I don't get frustrated or angry because Grant and his elderly friends keep me laughing all night. I can enjoy a challenge from time to time. It doesn't always have to be about winning.
I'm definitely going to have to spend more time at the bowling alley if I'm going to keep dating Grant though. I can't let him beat me forever.
When I can't stop yawning, Grant makes our excuses and walks us out to the car, his arm around my shoulders, my head tucked up against his chest. My cheeks ache from laughing and I'm just happy. It's a moment I fully appreciate as it's happening.
This. This might be love.
Grant opens my door and shuts it once I'm inside. He gets behind the wheel and turns to me. "My house or yours?"
It's so natural, like we do this all the time. Nothing about this feels like a first date anymore. "Well, boyfriend. I've never seen your house before."
He grins and takes me home. I don't waste a moment snooping or exploring. As soon as we walk inside, I wrap myself around him and drag him to bed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Dani
Ayawn overtakes me as I step into the kitchen, Skidmark at my heels. It's three in the morning and still dark out, so Skidmark is wide awake and ready to play. I rub my bleary eyes as I make my way across the kitchen, lured by the scent of coffee I set to brew on a timer last night.
It's my day off and I should still be curled up in bed, but there's a cow and pigs who are used to being fed by four in the morning, and I can't sleep, anyway. As tired as I am, if I tried to sleep in, I'd just lay in bed and stare at the ceiling waiting for the sun to rise, unable to fall back to sleep.
Warm arms wrap around me and I almost spill the coffee I'm pouring into my mug, but Grant is there to steady my hand, even as he presses his face into my neck and kisses me.
I take a sip of the coffee, black, because I need it, but then I put the mug on the counter, put the carafe back in the coffee machine and turn in his arms to face him.
"I was letting you sleep in," I say, unable to keep from smiling up at him, no matter how tired I am. His hair is still mussed from sleep, but he's dressed in jeans and a worn long-sleeve t-shirt. I've loved having him in my bed for the past three nights. It's been four days since our first date. The more time I spend with him, the more he makes me laugh and supports me, the more I like him and the more I suspect I'm falling for him.
He smiles down at me, the fondness in his eyes warming me more than the coffee did. "I want to help you feed the animals this morning. And I've got a surprise for you."
"Like the surprise you had for me yesterday morning and the day before? I was planning to come back to bed for that."
He kisses me like he's thinking about setting me on the kitchen counter and sliding inside me next to the coffeemaker, and I kiss him back like I'm one hundred percent on board with that idea, but he pulls away and steps out of my arms. "Let's get those animals fed. My surprise starts in an hour."
I study him as I sip my coffee, still black, because I'm too sleepy to bother with digging out sugar and cream and too intrigued by his surprise to turn away before I've figured it out. "So this surprise doesn't involve you naked in my warm bed?"
He strides to the door and steps into his boots. "It involves me taking the day off work, so me naked in your warm bed could happen later this afternoon."
He opens the door and heads outside before I can ask any more questions. I dig out the sugar and cream anyway and sit to enjoy my coffee. Grant knows what the animals need and I'm in the mood to let him handle it while I mull over what his secret surprise might be.
Both because I absolutely hate surprises and because I don't mind a day off from feeding the animals.
As soon as I hit the bottom of my mug, though, I get up, slide on my own boots, and follow him outside, because I miss him already and I want to be around him. Even if it means lugging bales of hay or cleaning stalls.
Ugh, this falling in love stuff is wonderful and horrible in equal measure. The horrible part being how much I miss him after such a short time. I'd never have expected it to feel this way and certainly never with the upright citizen Grant Holiday.
But, then, I've never been in love before. I've dated and had a few semi-serious boyfriends, but most of those relationships were more about good sex and a fun time. I never counted on any of those guys for anything important. I never gave any of them my heart.
Grant is with Mari, talking to her while he picks out her stall the best he can with her standing in it.
"Couldn't convince her to leave the stall?" I fill a bucket with wood shavings from the bin near the barn entrance and bring it over to add bedding to Mari's stall.
"Couldn't even lure her out with hay and grass," he says, bent over and scooping.
I shift the wheelbarrow he's loading closer to the stall, and he nods his thanks as he drops what he scooped into it. "I should have come out. I took a few minutes to enjoy my coffee."
