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“Grant,” she whispered after a moment. I noticed how her body went a little rigid, full of sudden tension.
I sighed. I knew this part of the conversation was coming but I was dreading it completely.
“I’ll talk to Pete.”
“No,” she replied, but I shook my head.
I pressed her closer to me and reached down to brush her curls away from her face.
“Yeah, I have to. And it has nothing to do with our relationship. He has no say in what you do with your life. I want to be with you, and you want to be with me just as much. I was serious when I said you were mine. I was serious when I said I want you to make this house a home. I’m not letting you go and I don’t give a shit what Pete thinks about it.”
“He’s going to kill us both.”
“He can try,” I breathed, “but this isn’t about how he feels.”
She was silent for a moment before sitting up and looking down at me. “I don’t want you guys to hurt each other.”
I didn’t want to say it would probably come to that, and then Pete would never speak to either of us again, but I didn’t have the heart.
“I’ll handle it,” I said, then pulled her in for a kiss.
We didn’t get out of bed for another hour. I lingered on the edge of sleep until the alarm I’d set on my watch buzzed, letting me know I had to stop whatever I was doing and start getting ready to hit the road.
“I have to go to Helena. I’ll be back on Wednesday,” I told her as she got out of the shower. She dressed in one of my cotton button-down shirts, the thing like a dress on her, which was great because I’d torn her shorts in half in my haste to get them off of her last night. “I was supposed to leave this afternoon but I think I’m going to head out tonight, after dinner.”
“Are you going to have dinner at the big house?” she asked with a bit of a blush.
I understood why she was blushing. Grant already knew Keely had spent the night here, which meant Moira knew, which meant we’d likely have to explain things over dinner.
“Of course,” I said, closing the distance between us. She was raking her fingers through her wet hair but paused, smiling up at me as I took her in my arms and pressed her against the sink. “Especially if you’re cooking.”
“I hope you like my cooking,” she teased, arching her back as I kissed her neck. “I’m the only woman who’ll be cooking for you for the rest of your life, George Neimons.”
“I’ve already had to let my belt out once in the last three weeks,” I said, then nibbled her neck. Her fingers curled into my shirt. “You’re moving in with me after Moira has her baby.”
“Okay.” She smiled, then laughed and squirmed when I nibbled her behind the ear. She was ticklish there, and I loved to hear her laugh. It was the best sound in the world as far as I was concerned.
“I’m going to take you back to the big house. I have some loose ends to tie up before I go to Helena.”
“What’re you doing there?”
“Visiting my mother,” I admitted, pulling away from her. I had it in mind to ask her to come with me, honestly. But I had an errand to run while I was in Helena and I couldn’t bring her with me. I was already chomping at the bit to put a ring on her finger but I still wanted it to be a surprise. “Then I’m going to… stop and talk to Pete.”
“I think we should wait on that,” she said solemnly.
I pressed two fingers to the underside of her chin so she was looking up into my eyes. “It’s going to be okay. I promise.”
“I trust you,” she said.
I pulled her into an embrace and held her there for a moment. She relaxed around me, her arms roping around my waist as I rested my chin on the top of her head.
I looked at my reflection in mirror and tried to wrap my mind what needed to happen next. Being with Keely was the easy part. Getting her brother to agree without killing me was going to be difficult. I knew it was going to come to a fight. I didn’t want to hurt him. I couldn’t. He was my best friend and her brother.
If he was going to swing; he’d have to swing first.
And I was betting that he would.
“Let’s go,” I whispered, patting her ass and roping my arm over her shoulder. “You can go back to the big house and change and then we’ll go out to lunch.”
