“Whatever you do, don’t call it TLC,” Amy said. “That’ll scare an alpha into next week. Just do him. That’s all the TLC he’ll need.”
Grace, who’d just taken an unfortunate bite of her cupcake, inhaled it up her nose. By the time she’d stopped coughing and swiped at her streaming eyes, both Mallory and Amy were waiting, brows up.
“Stop,” Grace managed. “You guys read far too much into everything. Must be all that TLC you’re both having. It’s making you think everyone else is having it too.”
“So you’re saying that there’s nothing going on with you and the doc?” Amy asked.
Well, hell. She couldn’t exactly say that. “I’m saying that this was supposed to be just fun. Not anything real. I’m interviewing for jobs that I’m actually trained to do, and—”
“That your family wants you to do,” Mallory reminded her. “Because if you ask me, life here in Lucky Harbor suits you pretty nicely.”
“My parents mean well,” Grace said. “They want me to succeed.”
“Well of course,” Mallory said. “They love you. But I’m thinking success and happiness don’t get along. Sometimes you have to sacrifice one for the other.”
Grace had strived hard for success all her life, wanting to live up to being a Brooks. It meant a lot to her, but it’d also cost her. Until now she’d not managed to have any real relationships in her life, at least not long-lasting ones. They’d not been important. But now she couldn’t imagine her life without Mallory and Amy in it.
“Happiness should always win,” Mallory said quietly.
Grace sighed. They ate in companionable silence for a few minutes.
“So on a scale of one to Taylor Lautner,” Amy said to Grace, “how good is he?”
Grace thought about hers and Josh’s two extremely memorable…moments. “It’s not what you think.” She paused. “But Josh is ten-point-five Taylor Lautners. No, make that eleven.”
This caused a moment of silent appreciation.
“He makes you happy,” Mallory said softly.
Grace looked into her friend’s warm eyes. Mallory wanted the best for her. She also wanted the best for Josh. It was natural that her romantic heart would want the best for them, together. “I’ve always been a little short on the happy,” Grace admitted. “So it’s hard to say. But it’s what I said I wanted. Fun.”
Mallory’s gaze never left Grace’s as she squeezed her hand, and Grace knew what she was thinking. What they were all thinking. Yes, Grace had said she wanted only fun. But somehow, when she hadn’t been looking, she’d begun to yearn for more.
Far more.
That she’d already set the parameters with Josh was her own fault, so fun it would be. And no more.
“You could do this the easy way and just tell him,” Mallory said.
“Tell him what?” Amy wanted to know.
“That she’s falling for him,” Mallory said.
Grace shook her head. She wasn’t falling. She couldn’t be falling. Because Josh had a very full life, and there wasn’t room for her in it. And she was quite over trying to squeeze herself in where there wasn’t room. She’d done that with her parents all her life. And every failed relationship.
No more. Her heart wasn’t strong enough to take it.
Amy looked at Mallory. “She’s going down the same path I did, poor baby. The path of most resistance.”
“I’m not taking any path,” Grace said, feeling grumpy now as she reached for another cupcake. Her grumpiness hit a new level when both Amy and Mallory merely laughed at her.
“Is watching Toby as hard as you thought it would be?” Mallory asked when she’d controlled herself.
Trick question. Grace had honestly believed that taking care of Toby would be easier than watching after Tank. It hadn’t been at all, but she couldn’t remember ever enjoying a job more. Not sure what that meant. She lifted a shoulder. “Little boys aren’t all that different from big boys.”
Amy grinned. “Now there’s a lesson that should be taught to every female in kindergarten to save years of frustration and heartache.”
“You really don’t think you’re falling for him?” Mallory asked Grace.
She shook her head. Her life had always been about the bottom line, about numbers, about getting to the top. It’d never been about emotions, about heart and soul. About falling in love…She knew better than that. “Josh isn’t looking for that.”
Mallory looked amused. “I meant Toby.”
Oh. Right.
“But good to know where you’re at,” Mallory said.
Yeah. Good to know. Grace’s phone rang. A number she didn’t recognize.
“Grace Brooks?” came an unfamiliar voice in her ear.
“Yes.”
“This is Serena, the nurse at Lucky Harbor Elementary. Toby’s not sick or hurt or anything.”
“Okay…”
“But he fell in a mud puddle again…”
Since there was only a half hour left of school, Grace just took Toby home with her. She buckled him into his booster seat and slid him a look in the rearview mirror. “Do I want to know?”
“Camel flaunting,” he said very solemnly. “Me and Tommy needed to camel flaunt.”
This baffled her for a beat; then she had to laugh. “Camouflage?”
“Yes,” he said.
“For a battle.”
“Yes!”
Grace had never really pictured herself with kids. She didn’t know why, exactly. Maybe because she’d never been around them, or because she figured she’d be married to her career as her parents were. But in that moment, sharing a grin in the mirror with Toby, something deep inside her squeezed hard in yearning.
They’d just walked in the front door and let Tank loose when Grace got a call from Anna.
“Need a ride,” was all Anna said.
Grace could hear something in the girl’s voice. Tears? Whatever it was, Grace’s stomach dropped. She knew that Anna was supposed to be at physical therapy, but she also knew that Devon was a weasel, and once Anna was in his car, she was pretty much at his mercy.
Grace had tried talking to Anna about it twice since the other day, but Anna was good about avoiding talking.
A definite Scott thing.
Still, Grace couldn’t get past the gut feeling that Devon was pushing for things Anna didn’t want to give him. “Where are you?” she asked.
Anna rattled off an address that was just outside of Lucky Harbor. It was an area that Grace knew from delivering flowers, and it was not an especially good neighborhood. She looked at Toby, who was swooshing his Jedi lightsaber and making Tank nuts. “On my way.” She disconnected. “We’re going for a ride, Tobes.”
“Tank and I are in the middle of a battle.”
“You can finish when we get back.”
“A good Jedi never stops in the middle of a battle.”
She hunkered down and looked him in the eye. “We have another battle to fight.”
He looked excited. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. Picking up your aunt.”
His face fell. “Aw, that’s no fun. And you promised we’d go to the park.”
“Yes, but sometimes things happen.”
“Not to Jedis. Bad things like not going to the park never happen to Jedis.” Still holding his saber, he took off, his little feet pounding down the hallway. The next noise was the slam of his door.
Okay, so someone needed a nap. Though technically, that could apply to Grace as well. She followed him to his room and opened the door. She saw a little boy tush and a little pug tush, both adorable, sticking out from behind Toby’s large beanbag chair. The classic “if I can’t see you, you can’t see me” pose. “Toby? Tank?”
“Don’t answer,” came a little boy whisper, and then a muffled snort.
A pug snort.
“Gee,” she said. “Wherever could the Jedi warriors have gone?”
Another pug snort.
And then a giggle. “What a shame I’m all alone,” she said. “’Cause I’m really in need of a couple of Jedi warriors, the very best of the best. There’s an epic battle ahead. We have to save Aunt Anna.”
The two tushes wriggled free, complete with warrior yells and lots of barking. Grace was just leading Toby outside when Josh pulled up.
He got out of his car looking like the day had already been too long. “Need my laptop,” he said, eyes shadowed, face drawn. He made time to stop and crouch down to hug Toby before straightening and meeting Grace’s eyes.
She wanted to ask him if he was okay. She wanted to give him a hug like he’d given Toby. She wanted to give him a chocolate cupcake and warm milk. She wanted to have him beneath her again, shuddering, her name on his lips as he came.
But mostly she wanted to ask him if there was any chance that he was feeling like this thing might be getting uncomfortably close to being a lot more than just fun. “Hey,” she said, and then rolled her eyes at how breathless she sounded.
He’d been pretty far gone last night, both in alcohol and exhaustion, and she suddenly realized he might not even remember what had happened.
His dark gaze searched hers for a long beat, but he gave nothing away. Something else he was extremely good at. “Where are you guys going?” he asked.
“Anna needs me to pick her up.”
“Devon flake on her again?”
“I don’t know. This is where she is.” She showed him the address she’d scrawled onto a piece of paper.
He frowned. “That’s nowhere close to her PT.” He looked at his watch. “My car. Let’s go.”
They drove in silence. Well, except for the noises Toby and his Zhu Zhu warriors were making in the backseat. Josh turned onto a run-down street, and they all eyeballed the apartment building. Weeds in the asphalt cracks, dead lawn, peeling paint, and bars on the windows of the lower floors. Nice.
Anna was in her chair waiting on the front walk. At the sight of Josh’s car, she scowled, and then again when he got out to help her.
“I called Grace,” she said unhappily. “Not you.”
“Hello to you too.” He crouched in front of her, gaze narrowed. “You okay?” He reached out to touch her cheek where her mascara had run as if she’d been crying.
She slapped his hand away. “I’m fine. Just get me out of here.”
The drive home was tense, with Josh keeping an eye on a silent Anna, who was huddled in the backseat. Back at home, she rolled into her room, slammed the door, and all went quiet.
Toby picked up his lightsaber. “Can we go to the park?”
“Not right now,” Josh said.
“Swimming?”
“Not right now.”
Toby tossed up his hands. “You don’t let me do anything.” And then he walked down the hall and slammed his bedroom door.
In a perfect imitation of Anna.
Josh looked like maybe he wanted to tear out his hair. He moved down the hall and knocked on Anna’s door.
“Go away!” she yelled.
Josh strode back into the living room, looking as if he needed a long vacay.
“You okay?” Grace asked him.
“I don’t know.” He lifted his head and pinned her with his gaze. “Tell me about last night.”
“What about it?” she asked carefully, not wanting to fess up to anything he couldn’t remember.
He looked at her for another long moment, during which she did her best to look innocent.
“You could start by showing me the rest of that sexual fantasy list,” he said.
Okay, she thought with a blush, so he did remember.
Gaze dark, he stepped toward her, but his phone went off. Josh swore, grabbed his laptop, then strode to the door.
Grace let out a breath, then sucked it in again when he turned back and lifted her up so that they were nose to nose.
“Now I owe you,” he said softly, then set her down, brushed a kiss over her mouth, and vanished.
Chapter 14
I would give up chocolate, but I’m not a quitter.
It was a long day. At the office, every patient Josh saw wanted to talk about Mrs. Porter. They were devastated. His staff was devastated. By the time he got home, he was more done in than he’d been last night, and that was saying something.
He’d called ahead. Toby was asleep. Anna was heading out as soon as he got home. He could have done whatever he wanted with the evening.
But there was only one thing he wanted to do.
Grace.
The lights in the guesthouse were blazing. Through the windows, he could see Grace sitting on the couch, but she wasn’t alone. She was with Mallory and Amy, talking and laughing. In front of them on the coffee table was an opened file box, and papers were scattered across the entire table, bookended by an open laptop and an adding machine.
It was a visceral reminder that Grace had a whole other life outside of his.
She’d taken on two more clients, which he’d heard from Dee, who’d heard it from Lucille, who’d heard it from Anderson at the hardwood store, since he was one of those clients. The other new client was the ice-cream shop on the pier and the two brothers who ran it. Lance and Tucker probably had no bookkeeping system at all, so Grace had her work cut out for her—not that it would be a problem. She seemed to have a way of getting to it all, making everything all work out. He admired that. She was just a sweet, smart, hard-working woman doing her best to find herself. No complaining, no feeling sorry for herself, doing what she had to do to get by.