For the Love of Gracie (The Southern Devotion Series)

by McClung, Amy

  Ash had a stereo on the underside of his cabinets, I turned it on a low volume as I worked. As I prepared the salad, I was dancing to John Mayer and snacking on cherry tomatoes. They were ripe and juicy and it helped to suppress the hunger a bit.

  I couldn’t wait for Ash to wake up. Even though he was just in the other room, I missed him. It was odd for me to want to be around someone so much; this was all so new to me. The timer showed ten minutes left on the lasagna. I popped a few croutons in my mouth as I was finishing up the salad.

  I snuck into the bedroom to see how Ashton was doing. The blanket had fallen down further, and it gave me a glimpse of his beautifully toned ass. The bed sunk slightly as I sat next to him. I ran my hands over his back, tracing the tattoo there. I couldn’t help myself; I bent down and lightly nipped the side of his hip.

  His deep husky voice sounded muffled against the mattress as he said, "Did you just bite my ass?"

  I giggled. "Um, maybe."

  He rolled over, smiling. My leg was pulled up on the bed. His hand moved up my thigh, massaging his way up as he spoke. "Why are you out of bed?"

  I gasped as he grabbed my waist and flipped me over, his body hovering over me. His hair was sticking up in all directions. I ran my fingers through it to smooth it back. Ashton brought my wrist to his mouth; his teeth nibbled at the sensitive skin.

  I felt the passion building up. "Why does that feel so good?"

  He grinned. "Because I'm doing it and I am that awesome."

  I burst out laughing. "You've been hanging around Cameron too much. He's rubbing off on you."

  He rolled to lie next to me. "You give the best wake up calls," he said with a smile.

  I laughed as his lips brushed against mine.

  The oven beeped, his eyebrow rose. "Are you cooking?"

  I nodded and smiled. "I woke up starving. You looked so peaceful I didn’t want to disturb you."

  He breathed in deeply. "It smells delicious."

  We went to the kitchen. I was about to open the stove when I glanced over at him and laughed.

  "What?" he asked.

  "You might want to put something on."

  He glanced down and realized he was completely naked. He laughed. "Oops, be right back."

  The lasagna was perfect. I slid on oven mitts to retrieve it from the stove. With the spatula, I sliced us each a nice chunk and put it on plates. Just before Ash had woken up, I had set the table for us with candles, napkins and silverware. I lit the candles, set the plates and went back to fix us each a salad. When he came out of the bedroom again, he was wearing shorts and a t-shirt.

  "Wow, everything looks great." He kissed my cheek. "Especially you."

  I motioned to the table. "Sit, I'll get our drinks and salads." He took a seat and I brought in a bottle of wine. Holding it up, I asked, "Is it okay to open this?"

  He nodded, "Yeah, of course." We sat down to eat.

  "Can I ask again, what made you text me last night?"

  Ashton's face hardened. "I felt something…a pull in my chest. It felt a lot like the grief I felt when they told me Addy had died."

  He set his fork down and placed his hand on top of mine on the table. "I had been thinking of you non-stop. Something told me you may be in a place, mentally, where you felt alone. I wanted to remind you of my feelings for you. I wanted you to know that I was available if you needed me.”

  He stopped talking, and shook his head. "Gracie, I've never been so happy for texting in my life."

  "I'm going to find a doctor to talk to. I don’t want to go to that dark place again. This morning, our reunion, that's the life I want. I know that now. I want to wake up next to you each morning, and make love to you each night."

  He grinned, "I like the sound of that life. So, when do you want to move in?"

  I choked on my bite of food. "What?"

  He reached for my hand. "I don’t want to go to sleep another night without you. Move in with me?"

  The truth was, I hadn’t thought about anything other than staying with him. The last thing I wanted to do was go home and be away from him. The commitment of moving my things here had not occurred to me before, for some reason.

  My phone kept me from answering.

  "Hey Gorgeous. I'm fantastic." I burst out laughing and said, "Yes, Cameron, I made it up to him good and proper with some naked happy fun time."

  Ash snickered.

  "Hold on a sec." I whispered to Ash, "Can I invite them over to eat?"

  He nodded and said, "Of course."

  Back on the phone, I said, "I made some lasagna if you and Gavin want to come over and eat. Great, that sounds perfect. Love you too."

  I turned to Ash. "Does it bother you the way I talk to Cameron? Or the fact that he kisses me on the lips?"

  Ash's face scrunched up, confused. "No, of course not. He's your best friend and that's the way your relationship has always been. I'd never ask you to change that part of your life. Why would it bother me?"

  I shrugged. "No reason."

  He leaned over, checking me out under the table. "You might want to get dressed."

  He cleared the table while I put my jeans back on. I twisted my hair into a bun and stuck a pen in it. When I turned, Ashton was propped against the door watching me. His face was clean shaven, except for the soft trace of beard that I loved so much on him. His lips turned up in a beautiful, gleaming white, smile.

  "Hey gorgeous," he said.

  I smiled as I sauntered over to him. "Funny, I was thinking the same thing."

  Chapter Twenty

  There was a knock on the door, Ashton answered it while I grabbed the food. Ashton had warmed up a plate for Cam and Gav, so we sat down to chat.

  "Guys, there's sort of a bigger reason I asked you over here. I wanted Gavin here, too, since he is important to both of you. And he's becoming an important part of my life because of his connection to my two guys."

  Cameron smiled at Gavin, squeezing his hand.

  "I went to see Hudson yesterday."

  The moment the words left my mouth, Cameron and Ashton stood up, slamming their hands on the table yelling, "What?!"

  Gavin put his hand on each of their shoulders. "Calm down, let Gracie explain. The last thing she needs is to see you two so angry."

  I mouthed 'thanks' to him; he nodded.

  Cameron mumbled, "Gracie Walker, I swear you're going to kill me one day."

  Ashton remained quiet, patiently waiting for an explanation.

  "I went to his house." I watched Ashton's fist clench harder with each sentence. "I followed him to see what he does in a day. I don’t know what I was doing truthfully. I guess I was hoping he was feeling guilty or something. Anyway, I followed him to a coffee shop. He met someone there, a man that he hugged."

  Cameron exclaimed, "Well, we all know it wasn’t his boyfriend; he's a freaking homophobe. So who was it?"

  Gavin interjected again, "Will you let the woman finish, please?"

  Cameron threw his hands up in mock surrender.

  I replied, "I'm not sure how they know each other, but he was one of the police officers that took my statement."

  Ashton and Cameron both yelled, "Shit!"

  I pointed from one to the other and said, "You two have hung out too much lately." Neither of them laughed.

  Ashton spoke up, "Gracie, this is serious. We have to find out how they know each other. This cop is obviously a conflict of interest in your case against Hudson. I'll be damned if I'm going to let anyone jeopardize you getting the justice you deserve."

  I choked back tears. "There's more."

  I pulled the text up on my phone and passed it to Ashton. Cameron leaned over to see what it was. Ashton clenched his fists tightly. His teeth were clamped together as he said, "We need to go to the police station and report this, today."

  "How will that help? They aren't going to believe me over a cop."

  Ashton's face was red with anger. "We can use this text to get a restraining order or
something against Hudson. He threatened you!"

  I nodded. "After he stated that I was following him around town. He isn't stupid. He knew that I couldn't use that without explaining why I was following him. It would add to his accusation that we were harassing him that day."

  Ashton stood up and paced the room. He tugged on his earlobe alerting me he was deep in thought. He pressed his hands against the mantel of the fireplace, his back bent, leaning his head down in defeat. Cameron nodded his head towards Ash and whispered, "Go to him."

  Ashton sighed as I wrapped my arms around him, laying my head against his back. He placed his hand over mine. "My ladybug." He moved to face me. He kissed my hair. "We'll get through this, together, somehow."

  Cameron and Ashton wanted a moment to talk. They stepped outside, leaving Gavin and I to clean up. "Ashton is pretty crazy about you, you know?" Gavin said, taking a dirty dish from me to load the dishwasher.

  I smiled. "I'm pretty crazy about him, too. How long have you two been friends?"

  Gavin turned the water on in the sink to rinse some of the dishes off first. "We met in high school," he said.

  "That's right, he told me that once. So, you knew Addison then?"

  He stopped and glanced at me a little confused. "Ashton didn’t tell you that?"

  I shrugged "All I know is how they met and how she died." His face became grief-stricken. "I'm sorry, Gavin. Were you good friends with her, too?"

  His eyes glistened with fresh tears ready to spill. He turned away "Addison was my sister." I dropped the plate I was holding; it shattered on the floor.

  I gasped. "I'm so sorry."

  He grabbed a broom to help me sweep it up. "Sweetie, you're fine, you didn’t know." We dumped the broken plate in the trash.

  He leaned against the counter with his arms folded across his chest. "Addison started dating Ashton Junior year. I was a sophomore. The year they became seniors was the year I came out to my parents. They went crazy, spouting off religious mumbo jumbo about my destiny to go hell, etcetera. Addison protected me. She was worried that Ash would react the same as my parents. The next day, she prepared to break up with him. She told him about me and how my parents had reacted, expecting that he would end things with her over it. He asked if he could talk to me about it, instead. My dad had never met Ashton. When he saw us together, he flipped."

  "He ran at me, calling us both abominations. Ashton shoved him away from me and told him that he should be ashamed of himself. Ashton told him that it was his job as a father to love me, unconditionally. My father threw me out, told me to never come back. Ashton's family welcomed me with open arms. They are my family now. He was the best thing that ever happened to Addison."

  I smiled, adding, "And vice versa."

  Gavin patted my arm, "No, you're the best thing that ever happened to Ashton. You're his saving grace."

  We both snickered at that.

  "Sorry, no pun intended. What I mean is, Ashton was destroyed after Addy died. I didn’t think he'd ever find anyone to fill that void. Then he met you. He has talked about you non-stop ever since."

  Feeling self-conscious, I wrapped my arms across myself. "Really? And it doesn’t bother you to see him with me? As though it's offensive to her memory or something?"

  Surprised, he said, "What? No, of course not. You and Addison would have been great friends if she was still here. She'd love knowing that you're making Ashton happy now." I wrapped my arms around his neck. He squeezed me tight.

  Cameron's voice from behind me teasingly said, "Get your hands off my man!"

  I turned to him, leaving my arm around Gavin. "This man is fan-fucking-tastic." I kissed Gavin's cheek. Turning back to Cameron, I narrowed my eyes and pointed a finger in his face. "Don't screw it up."

  His lips turned up in the most genuine of smiles. "Never."

  Ashton came in the kitchen and saw the broken plate in the trash. "Everything alright?"

  I nodded. "Yep, Gavin just shocked me when he told me he's Addison's brother."

  Cameron was confused. "Who's Addison?"

  Gavin replied, as Ashton looked at me sadly. "My sister. She passed away a few years ago."

  Cameron was still confused. "Yeah, Gracie said you were Addison's brother, so I deduced that she was your sister from that. I'm pretty smart that way. Why is it so shocking to Gracie?"

  Ashton walked over, lifted my hand and said, "I wasn’t keeping it from you. We just haven’t talked about her much."

  I kissed his lips softly. "I'm not mad, just surprised."

  Ashton glanced at Gavin. "How did it come up?" Gavin responded, "Gracie wanted to know how we met. I told her what you did for me."

  Smiling up at Ashton, I added, "Makes me love you even more." His face softened from worry into a smile.

  Cameron whistled. "Um, hello! Can someone fill me in on why we love Ashton even more?"

  Gavin pulled him aside to tell him. While we had a moment alone, Ashton stepped in front of me and pressed me against the sink. His hand stroked my cheek as he lowered his mouth to mine. His soft lips glided against mine as his beard tickled my face. I giggled.

  He pulled away smiling. "What are you giggling about?"

  I ran my fingers over his beard. "It tickles my cheeks."

  He grinned. "You sure you don’t want me to shave it for you?"

  My mouth fell open. "I'm positive. I love it."

  Cameron stepped back in the kitchen. He raised his hands up defensively. "I don’t want to know what you want to shave for her. Sculpt it, brush it, trim it, shave it, hell, tattoo a lawn mower on it and die it green with a sign that says 'Keep off the grass', just don't tell me about it. I wanted to thank you guys for dinner. We're heading home. Ash, we'll talk?"

  Ashton nodded. "I'll walk you guys out."

  I busted out laughing. "Keep off the grass, Cam?"

  He shrugged. "You laugh, but I've seen it done." Cameron faked a shiver as if creeped out.

  While Ashton walked the guys out, I had an idea. I wrote a note stating to meet me downstairs. I ran to the bedroom and slipped off everything but my panties. I slid on a button-down shirt of Ash's, leaving the top few buttons open.

  I ran down the steps. I leaned forward and shook my hair out, giving it that sexy messy look. I boosted myself up onto the pool table, sitting on the edge with my legs crossed as I leaned back and waited for him. The door opened. I fixed my shirt to show a little cleavage and a whole lot of leg. "Gracie?"

  I smiled and said, "Down here, Ash."

  His feet came into view and I prepared to seduce him, leaning forward so that he could see straight down my shirt. Ashton stopped when he saw me. "Wow. Um…" He glanced up the stairs, and then I saw a man peer down at me.

  I sat and covered up quickly. "Hi?" Ashton pushed him back up the stairs. He came down a few minutes later with pants for me. "I'm mortified, who is that?"

  He smiled. "My little brother has perfect timing as always. Baby, I want you back here after he leaves. You have no idea how many fantasies I've had of you on this pool table, especially since that night we played pool together."

  I smiled. "Probably as many as I've had."

  He grabbed my collar and pulled me in for a kiss that made my body ache for him. His hands were on my naked thighs; I wrapped my legs around his waist, tugging him closer. His arousal pressed against me, causing me to whimper against his mouth.

  My hands tugged at his belt, but he stopped me.

  He groaned. "Damn it, Derrick. Why did you show up now?" He moved away and tossed my jeans to me.

  I smiled. "You sure we can't have a quickie?"

  He grinned. "Don't tempt me."

  I followed Ashton up the stairs, once I was wearing pants again. I kept his button up shirt on and just tied it in the front, to keep it from being so long on me. Derrick sat on the couch, playing on his phone. He stood up when he saw me enter behind Ashton.

  He held his hand out. "You must be Gracie, I'm Derrick."

  I took h
is hand, shaking it firmly. "I'm so sorry about what happened downstairs." Derrick grinned, looking exactly like Ashton when he did. "It's not the worst thing I've ever walked into. Actually, it wasn’t bad at all." He winked at me.

  Ashton's palm landed on Derrick's chest. "Watch it, kid."

  Derrick laughed. "Not trying to offend you, Gracie. I like giving my brother here a hard time."

  Derrick was very attractive. Of course he was, he looked like Ashton. His hair was longer than Ash's, and his face was clean shaven. He was slightly shorter, same build though, which was rock-hard sexy goodness, at least from what I could tell.

  "I've heard a lot of great things about you, Gracie. This guy hasn't shut up about you."

  Ashton spoke next, saving me from having to lie and tell him I've heard tons about him. "What brings you by, Derrick?" I took a seat on the couch, Ashton sat next to me.

  "Katelyn's birthday is this weekend, she asked me to deliver this personally."

  He handed Ashton an invitation that had a giant four on the front. Ashton took my hand. "Gracie, Katelyn is my niece. She is the other special woman in my life."

  I nodded. "I remember, you mentioned her before."

  He turned to Derrick. "You tell my Katie that I'll be there. You don’t mind if I bring Gracie, right?"

  Derrick grinned. "No, not at all. Gracie you like kids?"

  I nodded. "Yeah, of course."

  I slipped my hand against my stomach, remembering my bun in the oven.

  The depression came slamming back full force. I felt the room closing in on me. The downward spiral into despair was crushing me. Ashton and Derrick were talking, their voices sounded muffled in my head.

  I stood up abruptly. "I don't feel so good. I'm going to go lay down."

  Ashton stood up with me. He put his hand on my shoulder, causing me to flinch slightly. "You alright, bug?"

  I lied so he wouldn't run his brother off to take care of me. "Just tired. You two visit. It was nice meeting you, Derrick. I'll see you at the party."

  Derrick nodded. "I hope you feel better." I smiled as I passed by him, keeping my distance.

  When I got to the bedroom, I closed the door behind me. I curled up in the bed, pulling the blanket up to my chin. I needed to make a decision on what I would do about this baby, before I got too far along. My phone rang. It was an unlisted number which probably meant it was a telemarketer. I'd had a lot of unlisted calls lately so I decided to answer it and find out.