Boots Optional

by Nicole Edwards

  Fuck.

  “Yeah, I’m thinking about it too,” Lane told him, and Grant laughed.

  “We can’t do this tonight, you know that right?”

  “Yeah, I know.” Lane sounded incredibly disappointed, but not like Grant was telling him something new.

  Lane turned to face him and Grant couldn’t keep from looking into his eyes. Goddamn the man was handsome. Big and broad, he almost made Grant feel small although six-foot-one was not small by any stretch of the imagination. But it wasn’t just Lane’s physical presence that made him so big. It was the life in him.

  “I’d give anything to be back inside her house, to have you both up next to me, Grant. I don’t want this to fade away. Do you understand?” Lane was serious. Deadly serious. “I’ve wanted this for so long. Both of you. And goddammit, I’ve tried to figure out what it would be like with just one, not both of you, but it doesn’t work. Well, it does and it doesn’t.” Lane smiled sheepishly.

  “I know,” Grant whispered back.

  They stood there like that for a few minutes, neither of them talking.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow,” Lane finally said as he reached out and touched Grant’s hand. From the outside, it would’ve looked innocent, but being this close to Lane, Grant saw the hunger and longing in the man’s beautiful brown eyes.

  “Tomorrow,” Grant agreed.

  Unable to make his feet move, Grant stood there in the yard surrounding Gracie’s cabin as he watched Lane walk away.

  When Lane was out of sight, Grant turned to look back at Gracie’s house. He was surprised to see her standing there, framed by the doorjamb of the front door. Before he could say anything, she took a step back and the door closed slowly. She’d heard everything they said and she hadn’t run, hadn’t shut the door on them. She had stood there listening. And Grant was inclined to believe she was on the same page they were. It wouldn’t be long.

  He hoped.

  Chapter Five

  “So, how’s Grant?” Faith asked the following Friday night while the two of them were sitting in the main recreation room keeping an eye on things.

  Out of the five of them, Grace and her four sisters took alternate shifts hanging out with the guests on Friday and Saturday nights. She would have to admit that it usually wasn’t a hardship because with as many guests as they saw in a given week, there was never a lull. And tonight was no exception.

  “Shut up,” Grace mumbled through gritted teeth as she pretended to be watching the few groups scattered throughout the two-thousand square foot recreation area. For the past week, Faith had been giving her shit about Grant, and Grace’s patience with her sister had finally run out. “Out of condoms yet?” “Who’s the chocolate syrup for? You or him?” “I thought I heard someone screaming his name the other night. Was that you?”

  No matter what Grace did, she couldn’t get Faith to shut up. The only positive was that, as far as she could tell, Faith hadn’t run her big mouth to their sisters or to their father. And yes, that was the only positive in the entire screwed up situation.

  Not only had Faith been reminding her of Grant, which in turn reminded her of Lane, but Grace had also been thinking about them far too much. When she was awake, she couldn’t stop thinking about the kisses they shared. When she was asleep, things got significantly hotter until she was waking up soaked in sweat, completely frustrated.

  Both men had given her a wide berth for the better part of the week. Although they both checked on her each morning, neither of them were pushing her. For anything. And that disappointed her, even if she didn’t want to admit it.

  No, what Grace wanted was to go back to Monday night when the three of them were standing in her living room and insist that they explain how this was possible. People didn’t have three-way relationships. Did they? God, she didn’t know and she damn sure didn’t want to look on the internet to find out because heaven only knew what she’d find.

  “Faith.”

  Grace looked up at the same time her sister did. There, on the other side of the room was Rusty Ashmore. Glancing back to her sister, Grace noticed that Faith was blushing profusely, but she wasn’t smiling.

  “Uh-oh,” Grace muttered beneath her breath, an impish grin tipping her lips. Payback was a bitch.

  It was Faith’s turn to tell Grace to shut up.

  She didn’t because what fun would that be.

  “Hey, Rusty,” Grace greeted him as he moved closer, his eyes glued to Faith. “How’s it hangin’?”

  “Grace,” he said in response, seemingly ignoring her entirely. Grace laughed.

  “Well, you two kids have fun. Oh, and if you need any, I seem to have an abundance of chocolate syrup that I won’t be needing,” she offered to the pair as she pushed out of her chair and headed across the room.

  A quick peek back and Grace grinned at her sister’s bewildered expression. Nope, she hadn’t expected that one.

  Just when she was going to try to sneak out, Grace skimmed the room before her gaze landed on two men at the pool table, both of them laughing.

  Grant and Lane.

  Unable to stop herself, Grace stared at them, watching the easy way they talked and laughed with one another. Maybe she never noticed it before, probably because she had no reason to, but it was clear by their body language that they found one another attractive. She doubted anyone else would see it because as far as the rest of the world was concerned, they were just two friends who liked to rib each other constantly.

  God, they were incredibly attractive. Lane’s booming laugh echoed in the room, causing several of the female guests to glance his direction. A pang of jealousy resounded in her chest and Grace immediately pushed it aside. She didn’t care what they did. Or with who they did it with.

  Liar.

  As though they felt her observing them, they both turned at the exact same time. Grace instantly turned away, but she didn’t run for the door as she had originally intended. No, there was some sort of centrifugal force pulling her back and she didn’t try to fight it.

  She didn’t want to.

  And that meant she’d gone completely crazy.

  “Gracie!”

  This time Grace turned to see her sister Mercy coming her way and that alone should’ve sent her screaming from the building. At least one time or another, Grace had wondered how she came about her name because the one thing Mercy lacked was, well, mercy. She should’ve hightailed it out the door, but thanks to the odd magnetic pull from the two men across the room, she couldn’t get her feet to move.

  “Where’ve you been?” Mercy asked as she approached.

  “Here,” she said, confused.

  “I’ve been looking all over for you.”

  “Me?”

  “No, the dude standing behind you. Yes, you. Shit.”

  Ummm… okay. Grace stared back at Mercy, waiting for her sister to continue.

  “I need to run into town tomorrow. I was wondering if you had a list of things you wanted me to get for you.”

  Grace’s mouth fell open and her ears began to burn. At that same moment, Mercy grinned like a fool. “No? Nothing. Fine. I’ll go ask Grant if he needs anything from town.”

  Grace grabbed her sister’s arm just when she started to turn away. “Don’t you dare!”

  Mercy laughed and heads began to turn.

  “Relax, sister mine. I won’t say anything. At least not yet.”

  “What does that mean?” God, Grace could feel the blackmail coming on.

  “It means that if you go over there and talk to those two cowboys, I’ll keep my mouth shut. If you don’t… Well, I’m gonna have a little fun.” Mercy made a spectacle of looking around the room, causing Grace to look, as well.

  Shit. There were way too many employees, not to mention guests, in the rec room at the moment which meant if Mercy opened her big mouth, Grace wouldn’t be able to show her face for at least a decade. Maybe two.

  “Fine,” Grace said in a harsh whisper. “I’
ll go over there. You better keep your damn mouth shut.”

  “Wait. Where’re you goin’?” Mercy asked when Grace turned to walk away.

  “I’ve got a sister to pummel into the ground first. But then, as I said, I’ll go talk to them.”

  With that, Grace stormed away to the sound of Mercy laughing her ass off behind her.

  □●□●□●□

  “Gracie doesn’t look happy,” Lane mentioned as he lined up to take his shot at the table.

  Grant didn’t turn to look. Instead, he tipped his beer back and watched Lane over the edge of the bottle. He knew Gracie didn’t look happy. She hadn’t looked happy since the night they’d kissed her.

  In fact, for most of the week she had managed to evade them at every turn. They’d run into her a few times, but she’d been overly polite, refusing to make eye contact which had begun to piss him off.

  And right now, Grant wasn’t in the mood to watch her walk away.

  Hell, he was getting a little tired of the whole scene, but he had promised Lane that he’d come to the rec center for an hour or two. Glancing up at the clock on the wall, he was glad to see that his two hours were almost up.

  “Shit,” Lane mumbled when he missed, his eyes transfixed on something behind Grant. “Mercy’s on her way over.”

  Yep, shit was right.

  Grant stood up straight, downing what was left of his beer when she reached his side.

  “I’ve just handed you the winning cards. If you don’t know how to play this hand, then y’all are sad, sad excuses for men.” With that, the blonde walked right on by.

  Grant looked at Lane, his eyebrows raised in question but his friend didn’t have an answer either.

  “Can I play?”

  It was a damn good thing his beer was empty because Grant would’ve spilled its entire contents down his shirt. A small glance to his left assured him that yes, he’d heard correctly. Gracie was standing at his side, peering up at him as she waited for him to answer.

  “Sure.”

  “Man, we’re in the middle of a game,” Lane huffed, grinning from ear to ear.

  “I’ll play the winner.”

  Grant glanced down at the table, counting the balls and trying to figure out the odds of him winning. Slim to none, and the wicked grin on Lane’s face said he knew it, too.

  “Good idea,” Lane said as he moved closer, brushing against Gracie as he passed by. “She’ll play the winner. Oh, wait. It’s still my turn.”

  Lane strolled back to the table, his cocky walk exaggerated as he all but celebrated his success.

  Then again, unless the guy fucked up majorly, there wasn’t a chance in hell that Grant was going to win this one anyway. He was a good pool player, but he wasn’t great. And tonight he was completely off his game. More so now that Gracie was close enough that he could smell the fruity scent of her shampoo.

  “You’re losing,” Grace told him, a smirk on her pretty mouth.

  “I am,” he agreed. No reason to deny it, the truth was laid out right there on the table for all to see.

  Laid out on the table…

  Lord, his mind was going in a direction that it really shouldn’t but no matter how hard he tried, Grant couldn’t reel it back in.

  “Are you doing all right?” he asked, trying to make small talk.

  “Nope, but I’m here. That’s all that matters.”

  Grant shifted so he could look at Gracie directly. “What does that mean?”

  “It means I’m being blackmailed by my sister,” Gracie answered easily, still watching Lane. “All thanks to you.”

  Grant glanced around the room until he located not one but all four of Gracie’s sisters. Faith, who was currently chatting it up with Rusty and looking none too happy about it; Trinity, who was sitting on a chair with a book open in her lap; Hope, who was sitting at a small table with two other women, laughing openly about something one woman said; and… Yep, there was the troublemaker. Mercy. Although Grant had no idea what she could possibly have on Gracie.

  “Faith’s blackmailing you?” he asked, stunned. Little Faith Lambert was nothing if not sweet and seemingly innocent. She was the youngest of the five sisters, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything.

  “Nope. She went and delegated that to Mercy.”

  “She told…”

  “Yep. Are you happy now?”

  It was clear that Gracie certainly wasn’t happy, but he didn’t get a chance to answer when Lane walked up and clapped him on the back. Hard. “Maybe next time.”

  Shit. Looking at the pool table, Grant noticed that Lane had certainly swept him.

  “My turn?” Gracie asked sweetly, but again, she didn’t meet his eyes.

  “Looks like it.” Grant handed her the pool stick he’d been using and took a step back so he could watch the pair.

  It looked like it was going to be one of those nights.

  □●□●□●□

  Lane hadn’t heard the conversation between Grant and Gracie, but he didn’t have to be a brainiac to figure out that Gracie wasn’t happy about something.

  “You break,” Lane told Gracie as he once again brushed up against her as he passed by.

  Gracie nodded, paying special attention to the chalk in her hand. He knew she wasn’t that worried about this game, so he figured she was just trying to avoid looking at him.

  Several minutes later, Lane had gone easy on her to avoid ending the game too soon. It was clear that pool wasn’t one of Gracie’s favorite things to do, but she was there, and that was all that really mattered to him. She and Grant. His night had gone from good to phenomenal when she approached. And now he didn’t want it to end.

  “S’up?” Cody Mercer, Dead Heat Ranch’s head equipment mechanic, said as he approached, his eyes darting between the three of them before landing back on Lane.

  Fuck. Shit. Damn.

  “Nada,” he told Cody. “What’s up with you? How’s your mama?”

  “Good, man,” Cody answered, staring back at Lane as he sipped his beer.

  Lane liked Cody. He was a good guy. But at the moment, his presence meant Lane’s night was about to go to shit even if Cody didn’t mean for it to. The guy had good intentions, but it wasn’t a secret that he opened his mouth at the most inopportune times. Right now was one of them.

  “She just got out of the hospital,” Cody declared, looking over at Gracie. “So who–”

  “They find out what was wrong with her?” Lane asked, purposely cutting Cody off, trying to tell him no with his eyes. Do not go there, bro. That’s not gonna be cool.

  “Dehydration,” Cody said easily. “She had the flu and she was so dehydrated, her blood pressure dropped. They filled her full of fluids. All’s good now.”

  Maybe all was good with Cody’s mom, but it wasn’t going to be good if the man shot off at the mouth. Lane didn’t say as much.

  “Good to hear.”

  “Your turn,” Gracie called to him as she stepped back from the table.

  Lane was hesitant to move away from Cody, wanting to be close enough to tackle him if he said what Lane expected him to say. But, he didn’t want to look suspicious, so he moved over to the table, opposite Gracie.

  “So,” Cody began, and Lane closed his eyes, “which one of you lucky bastards won the bet?”

  Lane lined up a shot, took it. The balls clanked together from the force of the hit, but he sank his ball and then turned to look at Grant.

  “What bet?” Gracie asked, her eyes on Cody.

  “The one these two’ve had going for… How long’s it been now? Two years?”

  Gracie looked more than a little interested and when Grant tried to step in front of her, blocking her view of Cody, she pushed him aside. Sort of. She tried to push him aside, but Grant held his ground so she just moved around him.

  “Two years, huh?” Gracie asked, pretending not to be in the dark. “That long? Wow. I had no idea.”

  “Shit yeah,” Cody laughed. “I
thought for sure they’d never get you to give in to either of them. So which is it? Who gets to claim this as a date?”

  Chapter Six

  Gracie could feel steam coming out of her ears.

  A bet?

  For the first time that night, she met Grant’s navy blue gaze, hoping like hell she wouldn’t see what she expected to see. But, sure enough, there it was. Guilt.

  “You’re a bastard,” she whispered, handing him the pool stick as she walked as calmly as she could manage passed him.

  “Gracie, wait,” Lane hollered.

  Grace didn’t stop. She couldn’t. They’d made a fucking bet which went to prove that the other night had just been bullshit. They had made a fool out of her, playing her like an idiot. All so that one of them could win some stupid fucking bet.

  She had just rounded the side of the building, grateful for the shadows that would hopefully conceal her misery because the tears were right there, threatening to fall.

  “Goddammit, Gracie, wait.”

  She was just about to up her pace when a strong hand came down on her arm, stopping her. Rather than turning to face him, Grace kept her eyes forward, counting down from one hundred to keep the tears at bay. It was stupid of her to cry anyway. It wasn’t like she had a relationship with either of them. They’d kissed her. That was all. Hell, they had kissed each other, so it clearly meant little to them.

  “Look at me,” Grant’s voice was low and deep, an urgent plea in his tone.

  “I can’t,” she told him honestly. If she did, she’d surely cry, and she damn sure wasn’t going to let him know his deceit had hurt her so much.

  Grant startled her when his body heat enveloped her, his hard body against her back, his heavy arms coming around her gently. “Let us explain.”

  Us?

  As though she’d welcomed him with open arms, Lane moved around to stand in front of her, efficiently sandwiching her between the two of them. Great. This definitely wasn’t helping.