For the Love of Gracie (The Southern Devotion Series)

by McClung, Amy

I kissed his cheek. "You're more amazing all the time."

  He grinned slyly. "You're pretty amazing yourself. So, did you set up Mary Jane and Derrick?"

  I shook my head. "Not really. I offered her up to watch Katelyn. While we were waiting on your surgery to conclude, Derrick told me he thought she was beautiful and sweet. I told him I'd hook them up when you were well again. I guess he took matters into his own hands tonight. I hope they hit it off. I think they'd be cute together."

  He nodded.

  "That reminds me. The night you came to the house, when you slept over, you told me that I should meet your brother. I asked if you were trying to hook me up and you acted totally offended at the thought. What was that about?"

  He shook his head. "You really have to ask?"

  I nodded and he replied, "I wanted you for myself, Gracie. I certainly didn’t want my brother to get a shot at you."

  I nodded. "I took it as you didn’t think I was good enough for your brother."

  He stroked my face. "I'm sorry I made you think that, I had no idea it came off that way."

  I shied away. "It's okay now. It's not something that stuck with me. I was just reminded of it today is all."

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Cameron knocked as he walked in the room. "Hey, Ash. How are you feeling man? I came to see if I could give Gracie a ride home."

  I sat up. "I'm not leaving here. I'll spend the night."

  Ash grabbed my hand. "Go home, get a shower and some rest. Pack a bag and come up here in a few hours. How does that sound?"

  I began to argue, he stopped me. "For me, please?" When I agreed, he turned to Cameron. "Thanks Cam for taking care of our girl."

  Reluctantly, I left with Cameron. I promised Ashton I'd be back in three hours at the most. I wanted to take a short nap.

  Cameron agreed to sit with me while I slept. "Can I get on your computer?"

  As I changed into more comfortable clothes, I said, "Uh huh." I slipped into a t-shirt and curled up under my down comforter.

  Cameron sat down at the computer to play games. He knew I couldn't rest lately without someone nearby, at all times.

  I heard him mutter, “What is this?” Then he turned to me and said, “Gracie, you FREAK! Is that Ash’s bedroom?”

  I sat up to see what he was laughing about.

  There was a screen open on the desktop that showed a view of a bedroom with a smaller box that showed a view of the back of Cameron’s head currently.

  “What is that?”

  He smirked. “As if you didn’t know, you harlot! You need to turn the webcam off once in a while, so it doesn’t make your computer run so slow. How often do you and Ashton have webcam sex? Girl you're giving me a run for my freak of the year award!"

  I walked over to look closer. “Cam, I’ve never used the webcam in my life…” I peered closer and froze. “If that's on, that means the person over there can see me? Anytime they want?”

  He nodded. “Basically, if you have it on. It was minimized on the desktop but it's still on.”

  I freaked out loudly. “Turn it off!”

  His face paled. “What is up with you?”

  I pointed at the screen. “That's Hudson’s room!” Cameron turned back to look and immediately closed the program. “Is there any way to tell how long that has been active? Do you think he did it the day he attacked Mary Jane?”

  Cameron began fiddling with the computer again. He went into properties for the webcam and found that the last access date had been months ago. “I don’t understand. He’s never been in my room?”

  Cameron seemed deep in thought. Suddenly he smacked his head. “That night that we played cards. You were on the porch with Ashton. Hudson went upstairs to use the bathroom.”

  My chest tightened, my lungs constricted, I couldn’t find the air I needed to breathe.

  "That was at least seven months ago, Cam!" I paced the room, my arms crossed over my chest.

  Cameron continued to fiddle with the computer. "That son of a bitch has probably been taping you. Dammit. That's probably why he went after Ash. He may have seen you two on this recently and realized he isn’t gay. Probably assumed you were playing him this entire time."

  I tugged my jeans back on. "Take me back to the hospital, now!"

  When we arrived at the hospital, I ran to Ash's room. He was sleeping peacefully. I sighed with relief.

  Cameron put his hand on my shoulder. "See, he's fine. Do you want me to stay?"

  I shook my head. "No, I'm fine. Come by in the morning?"

  He nodded and kissed me on the lips. "Love you, girl." I gave the best smile I could manage at the moment. "Me too."

  I sat in the chair watching Ashton sleep. As tired as I was, I felt safer here than I did in my own home now. The idea of Hudson watching me on the webcam made me never want to go back there again. I wanted to burn my computer as assurance that it wasn’t still on.

  How could I have been with Hudson for so long and not have known what a sick person he was? My mind went over the past few months and what all he might have seen, all the intimate moments with Ashton and the simple things like getting dressed.

  I shuddered from the creep factor of it all and decided I needed to take my mind off things. Pulling my Kindle out of my purse, I decided to lose myself in a good book.

  After a bit, I fell asleep. Ashton's voice woke me up, "Gracie?"

  I opened my eyes and stretched. "Good…um…what time is it? Morning…afternoon?"

  He glanced at his watch on the table next to him. "Late evening. Did you go home and rest?"

  "Not really." Standing up, I stretched my body fully and moved to stand beside the bed. "Cameron discovered something. I need you to be calm. Can you promise me that?"

  He shifted. "That makes me nervous."

  Grasping his hand, I said, "Cameron was playing on my computer and found my webcam was on. He thought you and I were doing naughty things on it."

  He grinned. "Doesn’t sound like the worst idea." I would've laughed if I hadn’t been so scared.

  He noticed my anxiety. "Bug, what is it?"

  I squeezed his hand. "The other end of the webcam looked into Hudson's room."

  He shot straight up and cringed in pain from the sudden movement. I pressed his shoulders down and begged, "Please calm down, baby."

  His head fell back to the pillow. "Damn him! When I get out of here I want you to pack your bags and move in with me."

  I shook my head. "I can't leave Mary Jane and Angel there. It isn’t fair to put them in danger."

  "They can come to the house as well. I'll protect all of you. I'm going to talk to Derrick about taking you to the gun range for me too."

  I cringed. "I'm terrified of guns, Ash. I'm not sure I want to touch one."

  Ashton replied, "Derrick can teach you to not be afraid of them. You need to learn to protect yourself, Gracie. Hudson is dangerous."

  I kissed his cheek. "I'll do it, for you. I'm going to move to the chair though so we can sleep." His lip jutted out in a pout, I leaned down to kiss it. "I'll be right over there." I pointed to the chair beside the bed.

  He sighed. "Not close enough. Hopefully we'll be in our own bed tomorrow night."

  I smiled. "Our bed, I like how that sounds."

  Ashton fell asleep first. I could sleep anywhere, but my mind was racing.

  Cameron texted to check in on me. Did you talk to Ash?

  I responded, Yep, he's worried about me. Wants me to get protection.

  Cameron responded, He's thinking about condoms at a time like this???

  I laughed quietly, Is sex the only thing you think about?

  He responded, Uh, yeah!

  I snickered and texted, Don’t forget, come see me in the morning.

  He replied, Definitely. Goodnight Gracie.

  I was not sure of when I drifted off. A gentle shake woke me the next morning. My eyes were fuzzy at first, I glanced up to Ash's face over me. "Ash? What are you doing out of bed?"r />
  He chuckled as I rubbed my eyes and yawned. When my vision cleared, I realized it was Derrick. "Oh, sorry Derrick. Good Morning."

  His head jerked toward Ash. "How's he doing?"

  I moved to sit on the edge of the bed with Ash to give Derrick a seat. "He's good. He's ready to go home." I motioned to the seat for him and he nodded in acceptance.

  "Tell me how your dinner with Mary Jane went," I said.

  He grinned, pink filling his cheeks. "It was great. I let Katelyn pick the place, so we ended up at Chuck E Cheese. MJ played with Katie the entire time. When she wanted to play in the ball pit, I talked to MJ a bit while we watched. She's such a sweetheart. I'd like to take her on a real date."

  I cheered quietly. "I'm so glad you hit it off. When you decide the night, let Ash and I babysit for you. I'd love to get to know Katelyn."

  He nodded. "It's a deal."

  I jumped when I felt a hand graze my hip. Ashton snickered. "Sorry, bug. Good morning."

  I leaned down to give him a kiss. "Good morning. Derrick's here. I'll give you two a few minutes alone. I'm going to get some coffee," I said, as I yawned again.

  As I turned to leave, I exclaimed, "Cameron! Just in time, come with me to get coffee, babe."

  Cameron held the door for me. "I heard Derrick and MJ went out?" We walked down the hall to the cafeteria.

  "Well they ate together, not a date yet, Katelyn was there. He did say he wants to ask her out, though." Cameron turned his hand and patted himself on the back. "What the heck was that?" I asked.

  "Patting myself on the back, for bringing Ashton into your life, which in turn brought Derrick into MJ's."

  If only he'd told me Ash wasn’t gay, we might not have been here right now. No, I couldn’t blame Cameron, because I could have asked Ashton at any time. It still hurt to know this could have been avoided if I didn’t have so many insecurities.

  "Do we have a few minutes?" Cameron asked.

  "Yeah, sure. What's up?"

  He pointed at a booth and we sat to chat. He sighed heavily. "I have missed our talks so much, Gracie."

  I grabbed his hand on the table. "Me too. I'm sorry things have been hectic lately."

  Cameron squeezed my hand. "You've been trying to get your life together, with Ash. I'm happy for you. I wish that ass, Hudson, hadn't made your life hell."

  Regretfully, I stated, "You and me both. I'm to blame for most of that, I know."

  Cameron's mouth opened to argue.

  I continued, "I don’t mean the rape or the beating. I knew something was off with Hudson and I ignored it. I knew that I didn’t care for him and he was possessive and jealous all the time. I should've broken it off with him sooner."

  "Enough about me. What did you want to talk about, Cameron?"

  His face lit up. "Oh yeah! I need advice. Gavin wants to move in together."

  I clapped excitedly. "Duh, say yes!"

  He sighed. "I want to, Gracie."

  I waited, he said nothing. After a moment, I inquired, "But?" He shook his head. "But…I'm not sure I'm ready for that kind of commitment."

  I switched to his side of the booth and put my arm around his shoulder. I tipped his chin upward with my index finger.

  "Cam, Gavin makes you happier than I've ever seen you. What could be wrong with moving in with him?"

  He sighed. "Me. I'm afraid I'll ruin everything."

  I kissed his cheek. "You're amazing, Cameron. Don't wait like I did. Grab your man and the life you want. Not only are you lucky to have Gavin, but he is lucky to land someone as wonderful as you."

  He pulled me into a hug. "Now will you help me move?"

  I hissed. "Ooh, sorry, I'm busy that day." I winked at him, he hugged me tighter.

  "Anything else you want to talk about before we go back?" I asked.

  Cameron smiled. "When are you going to move in with Ashton?"

  I shrugged. "I'm not sure. He wants me to move in right away after the webcam discovery. I'm worried about Angel and Mary Jane living there though."

  Cameron gave me a stern look. "Gracie Walker, you better not even think about not moving in with that man. He's freaking amazing, in every way."

  I laughed. "I know that. I'm not planning on letting him go. I'd be an idiot to do that. We both know I've been an idiot in the past. I'd like to think I've grown and matured."

  He snickered. "I don’t know about matured." I shoved him playfully and leaned into a hug.

  The next few days were pretty repetitive. I slept in the chair beside Ash. Derrick, Cameron and Gavin took turns coming to keep us both company or to give me a chance to leave to freshen up. We were hoping today was the day Ash would get to go home. It'd been almost a week since he'd been admitted.

  Cameron and I went to grab a cup of coffee. I was really tired of the hospital cafeteria's idea of java. While Cameron was telling me about his latest shopping spree, Derrick walked up to the booth and slid in the opposite side from us. I sat up with worry. "Is Ash okay?"

  Derrick patted my hand. "Yeah, honey, he's fine. I came to let you know the doctor is getting him ready for discharge. He wants to talk to you about some instructions on follow up visits, etcetera. Look, Ash filled me in on Hudson, I'd like to help. When would you like to go to the gun range with me?"

  Cameron turned abruptly. "Gracie, guns?"

  I nodded, "Ashton wants me to be able to protect myself. I don’t like it either. He has my best interest at heart though."

  Cameron turned to Derrick. "She's highly terrified of guns."

  Derrick nodded with understanding. "Once she learns how to handle it, she should feel better about them."

  Cameron's voice became more firm. "You don’t understand, she is absolutely terrified to death of them."

  Derrick glanced at me. "Is there a reason, Gracie?"

  I nodded. "Cameron and I had a friend who accidentally killed himself when he found his father's gun. We were with him when it happened."

  Derrick cursed. "Shit, I had no idea."

  "Ash doesn’t know either. It's never really come up. We were really young," I said.

  "Talk to him about it. He'll understand; he knew someone killed by a gun."

  I replied, "Addy?"

  He nodded. "He wouldn’t go near one for several months after that. He finally agreed to go to the range with me a little over a year ago."

  The thought of even looking at a gun made my chest hurt. Moments like this made me sure of my love for Ash; the last thing I wanted to do was go against my word. "I told Ash I would give it a try. I'm not going to break my promise."

  I looked up, my eyes met with Ashton's. He was walking toward us, with a smile, wearing scrubs and a new, smaller cast that was black. I jumped up and ran to him.

  Carefully I put my arms around him. "I'm so glad to see you up and about."

  His good hand rested at the small of my back. He kissed my cheek. "Me too, bug."

  With his mouth against my ear, he whispered, "Now I want you to take me home, to bed."

  The warmth of his breath against my ear sent chills down my entire body. After his statement, he lightly nibbled my ear and it caused me to moan slightly. He chuckled softly when I pulled away blushing.

  "Nice cast. Looks much easier to deal with than the one that put on after surgery."

  He held it up for display.

  "They removed a lot of the gauze to make it more manageable. Since the swelling had gone down they had to put a smaller one on so my arm couldn't shift. They said I could have white overlay or pick a color. Black seems like it wouldn't attract dirt as much, plus it will go with everything."

  Cameron snickered. "And you wonder why she thought you were gay?"

  "I'll give you two a ride home," offered Cameron.

  I wrapped my arm around Ash's waist and glanced at Derrick. "Are you on your way home?"

  He smiled. "Yep. Before I leave, I wanted to ask if you two would mind watching Katelyn tomorrow night so I can take Mary Jane out."


  I squealed, "Yes, we'd love to!"

  Ash laughed and kissed the top of my head. "That's the most excitement I've seen out of her in a long time."

  Cameron wiggled his keys from his pocket. "Oh hell, if that's the case, we need to get you home so you can rectify that. And you two feel free to talk dirty to each other all the way home. You will not offend me in the least."

  Ashton and I stopped back by to see the doctor for instructions and a number to call his nurse, if there were any problems. Cameron and Derrick waited so they could help us to the car.

  Derrick waved goodbye as we loaded Ash into the backseat. I buckled us in and snuggled up under his arm. Cameron glanced in the rearview mirror and smiled at us.

  Ashton leaned down, pressing his soft lips to mine. With my palm against his cheek, I slid my tongue along his bottom lip, teasing him. He growled low in his throat.

  From the front seat, Cameron exclaimed, "Ooh, honey, don’t make that noise with me in the car, please."

  Ashton's face turned a light shade of pink and he replied, "Cameron, turn on some music."

  Cameron obliged and turned on the radio. Ashton leaned down to my ear and whispered, "I'm thinking a game of pool when we get home is in order." He nibbled on my ear and moved his hand to my thigh.

  My breath sped up, I put my hand on his and said, "It's your first night at home, you need to rest."

  He bent to kiss my neck. "I've had plenty of rest the last couple of days. The medicine I need right now, is the kind only you can administer."

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Cameron helped us inside and then scurried out the door as though the house was on fire. I was guessing he felt the heat building between us.

  I tugged Ash toward the bedroom. He stopped me at the basement door. "I'm serious, let's go downstairs."

  Gliding my hand along his cheek, I said, "I'd love nothing more than to go live out our mutual fantasy on that pool table. You've been in the hospital for the last few days and need to heal more."

  Trailing my fingers across his chest, I kissed his cheek and whispered, "Once you're all better you can have me in every way possible on that table."