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The conversation lagged awkwardly for a few minutes as they worked on the shelf. This was what he was afraid of. She wasn’t her normal, chatty self. She didn’t greet him with a hug or a kiss. Pepper could be preoccupied, but odds were, he’d screwed up on Monday.
“Listen,” he said, setting aside the screwdriver. “I wanted to apologize for Monday night.”
Pepper looked at him with her brow furrowed in confusion. “Apologize for what?”
Grant mirrored her look of befuddlement. She didn’t even remember what happened, so she wasn’t mad at him. And yet, there was a distance between them that wasn’t there before.
“Well,” he explained, “I was short with you at the restaurant. I don’t really like talking about my dad. I didn’t want him putting a damper on our night together, but it seemed to anyway. I didn’t know if you were upset with me about it.”
Pepper shook her head and set down the wood panel in her hands. “No. I understand how family stuff can be. I shouldn’t have pressed you about it. None of my business, really.”
“Then we’re okay?” he asked.
Pepper smiled and leaned in to kiss him. The contact was brief, her lips tighter than usual. “Yes,” she said, but he had a hard time believing her.
“Is something else bothering you, then? You seem a little . . . I don’t know . . . distant, maybe.”
Pepper sighed. “Sorry. I’ve just got a lot on my mind the last few days. It’s nothing to worry about.”
“Well, dump it on me. That’s what I’m here for. You’ll feel better if you can talk about it.”
“I really can’t talk about it.”
“Sure you can. You can tell me anything.”
She looked at him, a sadness in her dark brown eyes. “Not this.”
Grant didn’t like the way she said that. There was an ominous tone to her voice that worried him. “Don’t you think it’s a little early to be keeping secrets from each other?” he tried to say in a joking way, but she didn’t smile.
“I know you’re Mr. Honesty, Grant. And I promise to tell the truth whenever it’s humanly possible, but I can’t tell you this. I need you to leave it at that.”
He was so stunned by her blunt words, he didn’t know what to say. “Okay,” he managed.
“What are you doing this weekend?”
Grant let her change the subject. It was easier than trying to figure out what to do about this issue looming between them. “I work both days and then I’m off Monday and Tuesday. Seven on, two off, then I switch to night shift for another seven straight.”
Pepper winced. “Okay, then. I guess I won’t be seeing you much when you’re on nights. That’s a miserable schedule.”
He didn’t mind it. He wasn’t slaving away, standing on his feet twelve hours on
some assembly line, so the long shifts weren’t as bad as they seemed. “I get off at six. I’ll be able to meet you for breakfast before the salon opens, maybe. Or a quick dinner after the salon closes.”
“Okay,” she said, her expression brightening. “That’s not too bad. What do you say we knock this entertainment center out and I’ll make us some grilled cheese sandwiches?”
“That sounds good to me.”
They focused on getting the rest of the furniture put together. It didn’t take long once they put their minds to it.
Within the hour, they had the new entertainment center in place and Grant hooked up her electronics for her while she went to the kitchen to make grilled cheese and tomato soup.
Grant tried to focus on his chore, but he couldn’t keep the worries from creeping into his mind. What could possibly be so bad that she couldn’t tell him? He didn’t like secrets, and he certainly didn’t like his girlfriend keeping something from him so blatantly. Then again, who was he to point fingers? One mention of his father and he was looking for the exit. It seemed they both had things they didn’t want to share.
Chapter 14
“We have a one-car rollover with possible entrapment,” the dispatcher’s voice barked through the radio. “Location on Interstate 59, northbound near mile-marker 153. HEMSI already en route. Assistance requested.”
Grant and Mack hurried out of the fire station and leaped into the truck. It had been a long and busy day already. They’d had a small warehouse fire, three car accidents, and an older man who fell and broke his hip. They’d had to break down the door for that one.
