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My heart skips.
“Oh? What about me?” I ask innocently.
Grant glowers. “Woman, don’t think playing Miss Innocent is going to help you deflect today.”
I wince. “I’m that obvious, huh?”
“As much as I’d like to think you stopped by just to make me smile, I have a feeling that’s not all there is to it.”
Whatever I’d started to say just stops cold in my throat.
I’ve had a lifetime of sullen, withdrawn, walled-off-with-his-feelings Grant.
A whole freaking decade of avoiding what his silences mean, and everything changing the minute I break through them and it sinks in.
That’s why I have no armor when it comes to him being nakedly honest.
There’s no stopping how my face flares, burning like a fever.
“...you’re not smiling,” I stammer.
Grant stares intently for several long seconds.
Then he reaches for me with this slow, careful movement that makes me think of a giant shrugging whole mountains off his shoulders as he clasps my hands in his.
He envelops me in his warmth, his coarseness, his strength.
Like he’s showing me how he could eclipse me so easily, but he’d be protecting me with his shadow.
Then he smiles.
Slow, warm, just a flash of white teeth through his beard and a softening of his stormy hazel eyes until they look like my fondest memories.
Happier times set in dark bronze like bugs in amber.
Loyal friends and family—plus one beast of a man who never lost his faith.
God.
That quiet explosion of feeling blows my heart to pieces.
My breaths turn shallow and I’m pinned in place by this big manly smile that leaves me in stitches. It’s like witnessing a unicorn, rare and amazing.
I think I can still count on one hand how many times I’ve ever seen a real smile out of this man.
And it hurts so good that he’s smiling this way just for me.
“There. I’m smiling and you’re happy,” he rumbles matter-of-factly as his face relaxes, squeezing my hands. “Now tell me what’s wrong, Philia. I know you’re hurting.”
“Dude. You’re not supposed to read me that easy.” I swallow past the thickness in my throat.
“It’s easy because I spent every damn waking moment fixated on you,” Grant snarls. “I’d be ashamed of myself if I didn’t know you by now.”
Oh, crap.
If he keeps going, he’s going to break me for sure.
It’s like being caught in the eye of a storm, this one spot of calm while the fury of my life rages around me. I curl my fingers in his, biting my lip.
