Love Restored

by Carrie Ann Ryan

  She got a small cart since she would inevitably find something else she needed in the store, and went to the prepared food section. Since it was after six on a Friday night, the place wasn’t that busy. Most sane people were either at home with their families or eating out for the night. Blake would get her sad little salad, her chocolate cake, and do some laundry that had been piling up. Mrs. Gonzales kept doing her laundry for her, and Blake hated that. So she’d gone to the trouble of hiding her laundry basket in the back of her closet so the older woman wouldn’t work so hard.

  So far, the plan had worked, but as the other woman had found the basket in its last hiding place, Blake wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep it up. It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate the woman who had taken Blake and Rowan under her wing, it was more that she didn’t want Mrs. Gonzales to tire herself out. She’d finally retired from the cleaning service she’d worked at for over thirty years, and deserved to take time off.

  Of course, Blake wasn’t sure the other woman knew what that meant.

  With a sigh, Blake turned the corner toward the salad area and promptly ran into another cart.

  “Oh crap, I’m sorry,” she said as she looked up. “You. You have got to be kidding me. Are you following me now?”

  Graham blinked at her, and she couldn’t help but like the way his broad shoulders filled out his shirt. The damn man wore a simple white tee with faded jeans and work boots, and yet she wanted to wrap her body around his just to feel him against her. She hated the man.

  Okay, not really, but she truly wanted to hate him.

  “I’m hungry, Blake. I don’t really care where you shop, but it seems we had the same idea.” He gestured down to the salads. “What kind are you getting?” he asked, and Blake just shook her head at him.

  “You really aren’t following me?” Okay, so it sounded a little far-fetched, but she refused to believe she kept running into this man for any other reason. Stubborn, thy name is Blake.

  Graham just rolled his eyes. “No, I’m not. I’m hungry after a long day of dealing with inspections, and I didn’t want to cook anything. And while a juicy burger sounds fantastic right now, I’m old and need the fiber.”

  Helplessly, she raked her gaze up his body. “Old?”

  He licked his lips, and the memory of those lips on hers had her almost squirming. Almost. “Older than you.”

  “By like a minute.”

  “I see you’re eating a salad, too,” he said after a moment. “Or, at least, were passing the case.”

  She shrugged. “My ass is getting big.”

  He grinned at her. “Why don’t you turn around and let me see. I’ll let you know.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “Are you flirting with me? I thought we fought with each other.”

  “Well, secret Avalanche fan…” he began, and she blushed.

  “Sorry about that. I was annoyed with you. And I have to tell you, it hurt me more than you to root for Toronto.”

  “You deserved it. And you’re lucky the Avs pulled out a win. Anyway, I guess I am flirting with you. Apparently, I can’t help myself.”

  She bit her lip and studied his face. “Do you want to help yourself? I mean…do you want to not flirt with me?”

  He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I somehow followed that. And I don’t know. I do know that I can’t stop thinking about kissing you again. Even after every single person I know has hassled me over the whole video of it.”

  She groaned. “God, I had forgotten about the viral thing for like an hour. I hate the internet.”

  “You’re my kind of person,” he said softly before clearing his throat. “Anyway, I don’t know if I want to flirt with you, but I am. And because I am, why don’t you grab a salad with me and we can eat them together on the benches outside. It’s a nice night. Let’s make the most of it.”

  She froze. “You want to eat a grocery store salad with me in front of the parking lot?” Not the most romantic thing in the world. Not that she wanted romance.

  He shook his head. “I meant the bench on the side of the building that faces the pond and the park. People eat out there all the time. And rather than find a place to eat or figure something else out before we think too hard about it, let’s just do this. See what happens.”

  “What if I don’t want to see what happens?”

  He studied her face. “Is that the case?”

  She let out a little scream and then winced as an older woman glared at her. “Sorry,” she mumbled. “I don’t know what I want.”

  “One measly salad outside a grocery store shouldn’t hurt.”

  “Why are you doing this?” she asked.

  “I don’t know yet.”

  Well, at least she wasn’t alone in the unknown. “Fine. But I’m also getting a piece of chocolate cake. I need it.” She didn’t mention why, and that was for a reason. She didn’t mention Rowan. Ever. It was too dangerous.

  “Can I have a bite?” he asked, his voice smooth and sexy.

  A bite of what? She wanted to ask, but didn’t. She wasn’t ready for that level of flirting. “Get your own slice, Gallagher.”

  “I can do that, Blake. I’m in the mood for something sweet it seems.”

  She rolled her eyes at that line and picked out her salad before going to get herself a slice of cake. She was going to need all the sugar she could get tonight.

  By the time they’d paid for their things in the express line and made their way to the tables outside, the sun was just setting. Since it was heading into summer, the days were longer, and she loved watching the colors play on the sky. She sighed as she opened the case on her salad and met Graham’s eyes.

  “What are we doing?” she asked softly.

  “I don’t know,” he said as he stabbed his salad with his fork. He took a bite and chewed, his face serious. After he’d swallowed, he took a drink from his water bottle and kept his gaze on hers. “Why do we seem to hate each other?”

  “I don’t hate you,” she said stiffly. “I don’t know you, and you don’t know me. But you seem to hate me just fine.”

  “I don’t know if that’s the case,” he said solemnly. “I think I’m an asshole for many reasons, and one of those reasons is that I treated you like shit before you’d even spoken a word. I’m sorry about that.”

  Her eyes widened. “Really?”

  “Really.” He sighed. “I don’t hate you, Blake. I don’t know you, like you said. And you don’t know me. But I’d like to get to know you.”

  “Are you sure about that? Because you don’t sound sure.” Hell, she wasn’t sure about anything at the moment.

  “I don’t know what I’m sure about, but I want to see if this…tension I feel around you is something I can work with. And I know that probably makes me even more of an asshole, but I can’t seem to help it.” He looked up at her. “Go out with me, Blake.”

  “I am out with you.” She wouldn’t let that little clench in her belly lead her down the wrong path. It had done that before, and she’d almost lost everything because of it.

  “Do it again.” He stood up and walked to her side. When he tugged her hand, she let him pull her up so she stood next to him. “Go out with me, Blake. Let’s see what this is.”

  She had so many reasons to say no, so many reasons to walk away just then. So she answered with the only answer she had.

  “Yes.”

  “Good.” He lowered his mouth and kissed her again, this time without the chanting of a stadium full of onlookers. Her mouth parted, and his tongue swept against hers. Her body shook, her mind going in a thousand different directions before it settled on just one thing: Graham.

  He tasted of his salad and Graham, and she knew she could become greedy for his taste. She wanted more, wanted the feel of him, wanted to wrap her arms around his body and kiss him harder.

  So she didn’t and pulled away instead. “Okay, then,” she said softly.

  He gripped her chin and force
d her gaze to his. “I’m going to want to do that again, Blake. A whole hell of a lot.”

  “And maybe I’ll let you.”

  When he grinned, she knew it had been the right thing to say, only she didn’t know if it had been the right thing for her. She prayed she didn’t end up in pain again, didn’t break everything she had just for one man.

  She’d done that before, after all, and she’d be damned if she would do it again.

  5

  Graham shot back the last of his coffee and already wished he had another one. After a long, sleepless night, his body and mind weren’t quite in the game when it came to his workday. Thoughts of Blake in his bed, in his arms, had kept him tossing and turning until almost daybreak.

  He still couldn’t believe he’d not only seen her once more at the grocery store but had also gone on a weird ass date outside the damn place—and then kissed her near a parking lot. What had he been thinking? He’d asked her out, asked her to be his if only for the moment. The fact that she’d said yes and had sunk into that kiss surprised the hell out of him.

  And yet, at the same time, it didn’t. They’d been circling around each other from the moment he’d first seen her at the house on the hill, and then later when she’d had his brother’s dick in her hand.

  Despite the lack of coffee, he grinned at that thought. Yeah, he probably should be jealous as hell, but that was one story to tell if he were honest. Of course, now he couldn’t help but get a little jealous that she’d touched Murphy’s dick—however clinical—and not his own.

  And he really needed to stop thinking about his brother’s dick.

  And his own for that matter since working on the jobsite with a hard-on was a recipe for disaster. He pushed thoughts of Blake, her sexy as hell hands, and that ass of hers out of his mind and tried to focus on the wall in front of him. And because he was a Gallagher, and a man, just the idea of pushing those thoughts from his brain got him harder.

  He had it bad, and he wasn’t sure why or how he felt about it. This wasn’t the right time for him to be thinking about a woman, and frankly, he’d thought he was too old to try something new. He’d had a marriage, done the family thing.

  He didn’t need anyone else.

  And the fact that he kept lying to himself about that spoke volumes.

  Graham sighed and took a look at his phone to check the time. He could take a few minutes’ break and try to get his head in the game because he had to take down a few walls soon, and he didn’t want to get hurt because he had his head in the clouds and his mind on a woman that intrigued him like no other. He walked out to the patio since they hadn’t started working on the large flat area behind the house yet and took a seat on the crumbling exterior quarter-wall.

  What was he going to do with Blake?

  Did he want her just in his bed? Or something more? For some reason, she intrigued him, made him want to think about her in every sense that sent warning bells through his head. He shouldn’t be thinking about her at all and especially for not more than a single night of pleasure. He couldn’t risk it. He wasn’t sure what it was about her either.

  Yeah, she was sexy as fuck, but that wasn’t it. Or at least not all of it.

  There was something in her eyes that drew him. Something that told him she saw more than she wanted to let on and had a layer or two she didn’t want others to see. She’d lived, that was for sure, and hell, he wanted to know what had happened in her past that had made her so cagey when it came to the house on the hill. Why had she left? Why was she the executor on the estate and not the outright owner? And why in the hell had anyone let the place go to ruin?

  Of course, if they hadn’t, Graham would be out of a job, and he wouldn’t have met her in the first place.

  He closed his eyes, raising his face to the sun so it could warm him, though he was already a little too hot over thoughts of Blake and the exertion of working on the site. Others toiled around him, hammering, sawing, and slamming into things. This was day two of demo, and with the size of the place, they still had a few more days to go. And while he was the boss, he really shouldn’t be slacking off, thinking about what the hell to do with a woman who had come out of nowhere and entered his life at precisely the wrong time.

  “What the hell are you doing just sitting out here?” Owen asked, clearly exasperated. His younger brother had rolled up his sleeves with the rest of them to work, though he took breaks to look at his tablet and do one of the countless other things he worked on as construction manager. “We’re doing demo, and you’re taking a break, enjoying the sun? You usually love demo, and hell, you don’t usually let the guys work while you’re fucking around. What’s up?”

  Graham grunted and flipped his brother off. “Fuck you. I’m not fucking around.”

  Owen raised his brows and stared hard at Graham before looking pointedly around the empty patio area. “I don’t see you with a sledgehammer in your hand, working on the exterior walls and shit. And don’t forget, we don’t have this area on the schedule for a few weeks. You can’t just go off-schedule, Graham.”

  Graham pinched the bridge of his nose, annoyance creeping over his skin. “Fuck the schedule, Owen. I mean, seriously, if we do something slightly out of order on demo day, we’re not going to fuck it all up.”

  “Fuck the schedule? Do you even know me? And you above all others know that there is an order to demo day. You’ll cave the place in if you just start knocking things down. What crawled up your ass?”

  “Nothing,” he bit out. “And take a look around, Owen. I’m not breaking shit. So stop freaking out. I’m just taking a breather while I think. I’ll get back to it.” He pinched at his shirt, pulling the dust-covered, sweat-slick cotton away from his skin. “I’ve been working my ass off since I got here and ran out of coffee. Just let me be.”

  Owen frowned, studying Graham’s face. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing’s wrong.” His brother saw too much. They all did.

  “Are we just taking breaks when we want to now?” Murphy asked as he walked toward them, blueprints in his hands. Graham held back a groan. Whenever his youngest brother showed up with plans, things were about to go to hell. Nothing good ever came from Murphy and his designs in the middle of demo day.

  “I can’t with you two,” Graham bit out. “Just give me a fucking moment to breathe and then I’ll get back to it. Why the hell are you on my ass?”

  Murphy raised his hands, and the top of the blueprints hit him on the top of the head. “Slow your roll, bro. I’m not on your ass. Owen might be since he rides everyone like that, but I just walked out here.”

  Owen flipped them each off. “I only ride asses because, without me, no one would get shit done. And fuck you both.” He turned fully to Graham. “Now, what the fuck is going on with you? Why are you out here in the middle of the day, thinking”—he did little air quotes—“and not working?” He paused and smiled. “We only ask because we care.”

  Graham rolled his eyes. “Care, my ass.”

  “Hey, it’s Owen who cares about your ass,” Murphy drawled. “I’m just here because you two were, and I didn’t want to feel left out.”

  Graham sighed. He didn’t want to tell them about Blake, not yet. They would only razz him about it since he’d been such an asshole to her, and for some reason, he wanted this all to be private. His heart ached suddenly for a moment, and he closed his eyes, letting out one more sigh.

  There was a reason he hadn’t wanted to get involved with Blake or any other woman. A big reason he didn’t talk about it, didn’t think about it—unless the day ended in y and he couldn’t help it. His brothers had been worried about this month with him for a reason, and the anniversary of the day his life had changed, the day his world had broken into a million pieces he only now thought he might one day piece back together into some semblance of the man he had once been, was looming.

  “I just needed a moment to breathe,” Graham said softly. “I’m fine.”

  He me
t his brothers’ gazes, and they studied him. They knew him inside and out, Jake did too, but sometimes, he needed a break from that. He didn’t want them seeing things he’d rather keep buried.

  And that was one more reason to keep away from Blake. Because he knew she’d be one of the people that saw too much. He was who he was because of his history, but that didn’t mean he wanted to drag it out and look at it every time he felt like shit. The past was buried, and that’s where it was meant to be.

  “If you’re sure you’re okay,” Owen began, “then I’m getting back to work.” He pulled out his phone from his pocket. “And by work, I mean make the next forty phone calls I need to because I’m getting behind just standing out here with my hands in my pockets.”

  “And God forbid you get behind,” Murphy said with a wink.

  Graham’s shoulders relaxed once his brothers began to harass each other. He knew they’d seen something wrong with him, and would probably come back soon to try and figure it out, but they’d at least given him this moment’s reprieve.

  Owen nodded at them before dialing a number and walking away. That left Murphy and his damned blueprints in front of Graham.

  “I’m not looking at your plans,” Graham growled. “We already have plans. We’re not changing shit.”

  Murphy huffed a breath. “We’re on demo, we’re not building yet. And there are a few things we need to refine. It’s not a big change.”

  Murphy’s ‘not a big change’ was always a damned big thing to Graham. Because while Murphy planned and helped to build, it was Graham who had to do most of the heavy lifting. His brothers were damned lucky they were family because between Murphy’s plans, Owen’s anal-retentiveness, and Jake’s artistic temperament, Graham needed a forklift to get shit done around the place.

  “Not now,” Graham said, holding up his hand. “Tomorrow we can go over it, but I’m not doing it today.”