by Addison Cole
“Too bad Blue and Lizzie and Hunter and Jana couldn’t come. They said they were busy.” Sky picked up a sippy cup from the deck and set it on the table. Grayson had given her a hard time about giving everyone framed copies of their front-page kiss—including, it turned out, each of their friends—but Sky had taken his complaint in stride. A kiss like that should be memorialized.
“They’re busy in bed,” Bella said.
The guys nodded in agreement. Parker wondered if they’d known that’s why she and Grayson hadn’t joined them for breakfast before today.
“You have sex on the brain,” Leanna said to Bella. “They’re probably…”
“In bed,” Sawyer said. “Which is where we’d be if I didn’t have a training session in twenty minutes.”
“Whatever,” Leanna mumbled.
“Why do you always deny that people have sex?” Jenna asked. “We had to rig your bedroom window so we could close it from the outside. Remember?” She turned to Parker and said, “She and Kurt always forget to close the window. It was like listening to the porn channel.” She waggled her brows, and Leanna turned bright pink.
Parker could only imagine how embarrassing it would be if she or Grayson had neighbors. She’d only slept with a few men, but she’d always been a silent lover. Grayson brought out sides of her she’d never known she had. Including the warm and squishy feeling moving through her now at the sight of her big, virile man bouncing his adorable year-and-a-half-old niece, Bea, on his knee. Bea’s dark hair curled up at the ends, and her smile lit up her blue eyes as she giggled anew with every bump of Grayson’s knee.
“Your lover’s calling. Your lover’s calling. Your lover’s calling.” Everyone turned toward the automated voice coming from the other side of the road, where a short-haired woman was poking at her cell phone.
“What was that?” Jenna whipped her head around.
“Your lover’s calling. Your lover’s calling. Your lover’s calling,” sounded again, and the woman poked at her phone again.
“That is Bella in action.” Leanna pointed at Bella, whispering in a harsh tone, “You have got to stop this. Seriously. Theresa turned us blue last year as payback for your pranks. Heaven knows what she’ll do next time.”
Parker realized this was another one of Bella’s pranks.
Bella was busy breaking up little pieces of a muffin for her daughter, Summer. “What makes you think I did anything?”
“Your lover’s calling. Your lover’s calling. Your lover’s calling,” sounded again, and Bella stifled a laugh. Theresa stormed inside her house and slammed the door.
“You changed Theresa’s ringtone?” Jenna laughed. Then her face went serious. “You know she has no clue how to fix it, right?”
“You should probably fix it,” Amy said. “Not that I don’t love your pranks, but what if she’s in a store and it rings?”
“Ugh.” Bella pushed to her feet. “Fine, I’ll go fix it, but you know what this means, don’t you?”
“That you’re lying and you won’t really fix it?” Amy teased.
Bella crossed her arms, shaking her head. “No, that this is it. The pranks were the last link to our carefree years. What’s left? Getting old and gray and fat and boring?”
“You’re only thirty-four,” Amy reminded her.
“Down!” Summer demanded.
“You’re not hungry?” Bella asked, holding up a piece of muffin. “Auntie Leanna made this especially for you.”
Summer shook her head, sending her blond ringlets swinging against her cheeks. Bella reached for her, and Caden said, “I’ve got her. Why don’t you go help Theresa? I promise, babe, I’ll never let your life get boring.”
Bella rolled her eyes. Caden whispered something to her that made her turn beet red.
“I’m going!” Bella bounced down the steps.
Caden lifted Summer from her high chair. “You guys know she adores Theresa. She wouldn’t prank her if she didn’t.”
“We know,” Jenna said. “And now she’ll probably pull more pranks in hopes of getting even more sexual favors.”
“Lucky me.” Caden smiled and lowered Summer to the deck. The moment her feet touched down, she was off and running, which caused Amy and Tony’s daughter, Hannah, to squeal with delight and fight for freedom, too.
“Of course you want out.” Amy lifted Hannah from her high chair and kissed her cheek, setting her down to chase Summer. Pepper, Leanna’s dog, popped up and followed the girls. “Where Summer goes, Hannah follows.”
“Which will be torture when they’re teenagers,” Tony added.
“Not this one,” Grayson said, kissing Bea’s cheek, then lifting her into the air. “Pete’s going to lock her in a closet as soon as she discovers boys.”
“Gway!” Bea shrieked.
Gway. You’re too cute.
“Bea!” he teased, and pulled the baby down to kiss her chubby cheeks, earning more sweet giggles and melting Parker’s heart.
“He will,” Jenna said to Grayson. “But I’ll have the key.”
“Keep dreaming, babe,” Pete said. “She’s not dating until she’s thirty.”
“Don’t worry, Jenna,” Sky said. “You can give Bea to me and Sawyer when she’s a teenager. We’ll raise her right.”
Sawyer’s dark eyes narrowed. “What makes you think I’d let her date? I’m right there with Pete. Thirty sounds about right.”
Jenna rolled her eyes. “But Sky believes in experiencing love as it comes, and we all know we women eventually get our way.” She jumped up as Jessica and Jamie came out of their cottage and headed toward them. “Hey, guys!”
Experiencing love as it comes. That was so similar to Grayson’s thoughts on their real lives being right that moment, whatever that moment might be. It must have come from their father.
“Did we miss breakfast?” Jamie carried their son, Dustin, who had been born around the same time as Sloan. Dustin had hair as black as his father’s and eyes as blue as Jessica’s.
When Dustin saw the mayhem on the deck, he thrust his hands out and bounced up and down in Jamie’s arms. “Pu, pu, pu!”
Jamie set him on his hands and knees, and he crawled over to Pepper, who slobbered his cheeks with puppy kisses.
“How can you stand it?” Parker loved babies, although she had little experience with them. “I’d spend all day making them giggle.”
Grayson lowered Bea to his lap, his eyes honing in on Parker. “I’m not sure you’d get much acting done.”
“Who cares?” Parker looked around the table at the high chairs, colorful plastic toys, wet wipes, sippy cups, and other baby paraphernalia. She was surrounded by the sounds of toddlers giggling and running along the deck and Pepper’s nails tapping out his sentinel path.
“This is what life should be about. A gaggle of kids, surrounded by friends, and—” She realized everyone had gone silent, save for Hannah and Summer, who giggled as they snuck down the deck stairs backward. Tony stood watch at the bottom of the steps. “Anyway, acting is great, but this would be nice, too.”
On that little reveal, all eyes shifted to Grayson, who was still staring at Parker like she’d just revealed she was a long-lost princess. Thankfully, the others chose that moment to begin cleaning up from breakfast, causing a flurry of activity. She and Grayson pushed from their chairs, but he was still giving her that look.
“What?” she finally asked.
“Nothing. I just figured…” He shrugged. “I didn’t expect to hear that.”
Neither did I, but it’s true.
Bea pulled his hair, breaking their connection, and Jenna lifted her from Grayson’s arms.
He waited for Jenna to leave, then guided Parker away from the others. “So, you want a gaggle of children?”
“One day. But isn’t it too soon to talk about this? We aren’t even talking about what’s real, like where we both live. Not that I want to jump into that, but…” She paused, not knowing where she was going with that thou
ght, because part of her wanted to talk about everything, but a bigger part of her didn’t want to think about the harsh reality of their lives being on opposite ends of the country.
He searched her eyes, his own serious—and slightly annoyed? “You’re absolutely right. It’s too soon.”
A confusing wave of disappointment swamped her.
Chapter Eighteen
GRAYSON WAS WORKING at Grunter’s on the railings for Parker’s house two days later, still thinking about what she’d said Sunday morning. Isn’t it too soon to talk about this? We aren’t even talking about what’s real, like where we both live. He’d been the one to say they should take things as they came, and now he regretted ever saying it. Even though she hadn’t confessed her love for him, he knew she loved him. Knew it with the same confidence he knew he loved her. Maybe it was time to get it all out on the table and deal with what they’d been trying to avoid.
He gripped the metal tongs and held a piece of metal over the brick forge, trying to lose himself in the sounds of the blowers, the heat thrown by the brick hearth, the scent of smoldering metal. But the things that normally calmed him weren’t even scratching the surface. His gut churned with the need to clear the air with Parker.
Hunter came into the workshop with a big grin on his face as he texted, which told Grayson he was texting Jana. The two of them texted often, or rather, sexted, which Hunter loved to gloat about.
Hunter shoved his phone in his pocket. “Hey, bro. You look about ready to explode.”
“I’m good,” Grayson lied.
“Uh-huh.” Hunter began sifting through a stack of iron rods. “How’s the railing coming along?”
“Good. Couple more weeks.” He shouldn’t take out his bad mood on his brother, but he’d done him a favor by taking on the travel for their contract with CCF, and he wished there were someone in line to do the same for him. Only he didn’t really wish he could move out to California. He just hated the idea of being away from Parker.
Last night, after they took a walk around the pond with Christmas, Parker had spent an hour on the phone with her agent. Grayson was looking forward to spending time with her in her world and sharing that part of her life, despite his distaste for the celebrity lifestyle. They had planned on traveling back to LA when he was done with the railing, but after her phone call she’d told him she had to leave next week to attend meetings for the role she hoped to get in the new film, and reality came rushing in. He had to stay here and get this railing done if he was ever going to get back to finishing the work for CCF. The designs for the last two sites, Texas and Georgia, loomed. The sooner he completed the work, the more settled he’d feel, making it easier to deal with their schedules and living arrangements.
He carried the red-hot metal to an anvil and picked up a hammer, thinking about what his future with Parker really looked like. Eventually Parker would be filming on location, even if she didn’t get this role. Very soon their lives were going to be even farther apart.
Grayson focused on hammering the metal, forming it into the image he’d created in his mind. If only life were that easy.
“You wanna fess up about whatever’s got your briefs in a knot?” Hunter asked. “Or are we going to pretend you’re not chewing nails?”
He stopped the hammer midswing and met Hunter’s gaze. “It’s nothing anyone can fix.”
“Try me.” Hunter leaned against the drawing table and crossed his ankles, casual and cocky as could be. Probably where Grayson had learned it.
“Okay, sure.” Why not? Grayson clearly didn’t have the answer. Maybe Hunter would. “I want to be with Parker. Her life is in LA, and traveling to film on location all over the world. Except for the travel for the foundation, my life is here. I can’t see a way to make those two things come together.”
Hunter shrugged. “Why not?”
“What do you mean why not? She lives across the country. It’s not a weekend drive.”
“And…?”
Grayson clenched his teeth against the urge to throttle his brother. “And I’ve got to work. She’s got to work. What should we do? See each other once every few weeks?”
“No. You’d never last.”
“No kidding.” Grayson went back to pounding the metal.
“Have you talked to her about it?”
Grayson shook his head. “Can’t. There’s no answer, so what good would it do?”
“I don’t know. Maybe she’ll have an answer.”
He set the hammer down and moved the metal aside so he could pace. “She’s been through so much already. The last thing she needs is to think I have any expectations of her changing her life for me. I’m the man. I need to make the sacrifice if I want to be with her, but, man, do I hate it out there. Something about that area rubs me the wrong way.”
His cell phone vibrated, and Parker’s name flashed on the screen. He opened and read the text. Christmas misses you. But I don’t. Nope. Not at all. And I didn’t spray your cologne on my wrist so I could smell it all day, either. It attacked ME.
He read it again, consumed by the intensity of his love for her and wondering how he’d manage to be away from her for a day, much less a few weeks.
He lifted his eyes to his brother. “I love her. She’s it for me, Hunt. I think about her day and night. I want to give her everything she’s ever wanted—family, stability, kids. Whatever it takes to fill her heart so full she never longs for a single thing. I really believed we could take this day by day and the answers would come, but I’m so lost in her, I can’t even think rationally enough to figure it out.”
“You know what Pop would say?” Hunter said. “Levelheaded decisions have no place where women are concerned.”
“So, what are you saying? I’m overthinking this?”
“What would you tell me if I came to you with this dilemma?”
“To figure it out and make it work.” Grayson paced again. “Maybe I am overthinking, which is exactly what I told Parker not to do. But still, there’s no clear answer.”
“The answers are never clear. You know that, Gray. After we lost Mom, all of us reacted differently. The answers, the way we got through it, were also different. Look at Matt. He still hasn’t really dealt with it. There’s a reason he’s never here.” Hunter knelt by the iron rods again and began picking through them. “You never know what’ll come up, so just deal with it the best way you know how as it comes.” He lifted his eyes to Grayson. “Aren’t you the one who taught me that?”
“Probably. I’m wicked smart.” He smirked.
Hunter shook his head. “Apparently wicked dumb, too, if you need me to remind you of your own advice.” He held up two different-length rods. “Help me get this under control, will ya?”
Grayson crouched beside him. “What are we looking for?”
“I saw your drawings of a gazebo with Parker’s name on it. I’m assuming we need supplies if you’re building her one. I thought I’d get started on the ordering, seeing as you’re too busy being lovesick to think straight.”
Grayson had sketched the gazebo for her yard. Now it looked like she might need two—one for Wellfleet and one for Los Angeles.
PARKER AND SKY talked while Christmas played along the pond’s edge, hurling himself at birds and barking when they flew away. Sky had surprised Parker that morning when she’d dropped by to give her a framed copy of the Us Weekly kiss, and they’d ended up spending the day together. They’d gone shopping, and Parker had found a cute pair of pink panties that said Taken across the front, which she’d changed into to surprise Grayson later. After having lunch at a café, they’d gone back to Grayson’s cottage, and they’d been sitting on the dock chatting ever since.
Parker told Sky about what happened with Abe and how wonderful Grayson was through the whole thing. Sky told her about how depressed she’d been after she’d lost her mother.
“If Pete hadn’t come to stay with me, I’m not sure how long it would have taken for me to come up for air,”
Sky said.
“I think Grayson did for me what Pete did for you,” Parker confided. “I don’t think I realized it at the time, but during all those months we were emailing, he’d become as important to me as Bert was. And after I lost Bert, I cut myself off from everyone—including him. And then, there he was, in the middle of my sugar-infused, tequila-laced nightmare. Like a knight in shining armor.” He’d become such a big part of her life. Regardless of what she was doing—studying the script, talking to her agent, discussing press with Luce, or hanging out with Sky and the girls—she felt like Grayson was right there with her.
At the sound of tires on gravel, Christmas took off for the cottage to greet one of his favorite humans. Parker’s heartbeat quickened. It always did when Grayson was around. He knelt to love up Christmas and waved to them.
“Speak of the devil.” Sky waved as she pushed to her feet. “He wasn’t your knight in shining armor, because you didn’t need to be rescued.” Her colorful skirt swished around her legs as they headed up to greet Grayson. She lowered her voice as Grayson approached with his four-legged buddy trotting happily beside him and a beautiful bouquet of flowers in his hand. “You needed to be loved so you could heal, and he was ready.”
Before Parker could ask what she meant, Grayson closed the remaining distance between them and slipped an arm around her waist, kissing her softly and handing her the pretty bouquet.
“Hey, sweetheart.”
“They’re so beautiful. Thank you.”
“Told you he was ready,” Sky said with a knowing smile.
“Ready for?” Grayson gave her a quizzical look.
“Oh, nothing.” Sky pointed at them. “I love seeing you two like this. It’s as if the universe knew exactly when to swoop in and bring you together.”