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Pepper felt it, too, he could tell. She hesitated for a moment, a soft hitch in her breathing. An instant later she shook off the reaction, along with her coat, and pretended like nothing had happened. “Thank you,” she said reluctantly, without meeting his eyes.
Grant knew that her eyes would give her away, but he couldn’t really press the issue with his brother and future sister-in-law across the table. Playful banter was one thing, serious seduction was another. “You’re welcome,” he said instead.
“You’re weari
ng the scarf I got you for Christmas!” Ivy said to Pepper; her declaration like a bunch of neutrons spilling into the space and negating the charged environment around them.
Pepper beamed as she adjusted the beige-and-brown-plaid scarf around her neck. “Yes, I love it. The fabric is light, and yet it’s so warm. The winter has been brutal this year.”
“I’m glad you like it. When I saw it, I just knew it was perfect for you.”
“It looks nice on you. It has the same colors in it as your eyes.” Grant’s statement slipped through his lips without him fully thinking it through.
Blake narrowed his gaze at him across the table. “Have you been spending a lot of time gazing lovingly into Pepper’s eyes, Grant?”
“No,” he said, with a dismissive snort. “She won’t hold still long enough.”
“That’s right,” Pepper chimed in.
“I just happened to notice while she was sitting here now.” Grant stopped himself from continuing on. He was protesting too much. He wanted to spend time gazing into her eyes, but he’d told the truth before. She was like a hummingbird, zipping around so he couldn’t get a good enough look.
Fortunately, Emmett arrived at the perfect moment with drinks and pretzels. After that, Pepper deflected the conversation by steering it toward Ivy and Blake’s upcoming wedding plans. From what Grant could gather, the answer was that they didn’t have anything planned and they were waiting at least another year before they got married, and yet the girls chatted on the subject long enough for Grant to finish his beer and start to get antsy.
“You wanna play pinball?” he finally asked Blake.
Although he had a vested interest in the discussion, he, too, seemed interested in escaping. “Sure.” They excused themselves, got some quarters from Emmett, and went to the pinball machine to play a few rounds. Grant had beaten his older brother’s score the last two out of three rounds. He was about to gloat when Blake beat him to it.
“So when did you and Pepper start sleeping together?”
“Sleeping together?” Grant said a little too loudly. He glanced around, hoping Pepper hadn’t noticed. She was still chatting animatedly with Ivy, thank goodness. “We are not sleeping together.” And that was true. They slept together. Once.
Past tense.
Blake gave him a stern look that reminded him of their father when he was interrogating Grant for staying out after curfew or “borrowing” his car to take out a girl. He knew well enough how to get answers out of Grant. “Did you or did you not have sex with Pepper Anthony?” Blake was even starting to sound like their dad, lawyer speak and all.
Grant twisted his lips in thought and considered his answer. “That’s an entirely different question. And the answer to it is yes, I did.”
“When?” Blake pressed.
“Last Halloween.” Grant stepped aside to let Blake have his turn at the game. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall. His gaze traveled back to where Pepper and Ivy were talking. “We met up at a costume party here and really seemed to hit it off. Might’ve been the Jell-O shots.”
“Did she know it was you or did you have on a mask?”
“She knew it was me. I was lazy and dressed as a fireman. Doesn’t matter, though. It was just a one-time thing, so I didn’t mention it to anyone.”
“Was that your decision or hers? I would’ve thought you’d move on after you guys finally hooked up.”
So did Grant. “It was her choice. Honestly, she couldn’t get out of my place fast enough. I woke up and she was gone. Wouldn’t you know that one of the only times I was interested enough in a woman to see her again, she blew me off?”
Blake watched the silver pinball bounce under the plexiglass as he spoke. “Sounds like karma to me—payback for every woman you ran out on over the years. What did you expect to happen? Her family and ours don’t exactly get along. Her brother, Logan, and I got into it a couple of times in high school. I can’t imagine he’d be happy to find out that you’d tapped his baby sister.”
“Baby sister? She’s older than I am.”
The last of the pinballs sank between the flippers and Blake cussed. Turning to look at Grant he asked, “That doesn’t matter to Logan. So, are you wanting to see her again? Maybe I can get Ivy to put in a good word for you.”
Grant laughed bitterly. Both women had turned to watch them with mischievous twinkles in their eyes. He didn’t like the look of it. “I do want to see her again, but I doubt that would work.”
Glancing around, Grant noticed the bar had gotten pretty busy. Almost all of the tables were occupied and there were even a few couples on the dance floor. The floor itself was a holdover from the line-dancing craze of the early nineties. Woody’s was more of a cowboy bar back then, and folks came from all around to stand in line and dance together like robots. Grant was glad to have been in diapers back then.
