Jason started swearing, too. “You bitch! You broke my nose!”
She looked up to see blood running over his lips and down his chin.
Cupping his face with one hand, he took one step toward her.
Her heart still pounding, Lucy took a step backward. Shit, shit, shit!
But Grady stepped in between them and shoved Jason through the open doorway. “Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. She also has freakish arm strength for a girl. Her aim is usually really lousy.” He grinned. “I guess she just got lucky.”
Jason’s eyes narrowed in rage. “I’m suing you both for assault.”
“And you’ll lose,” Grady said. “I’ll be the eyewitness from hell and she’ll back me up.”
“You try it.” He pushed off the wall and stumbled toward the elevator. “I’ll see you in court.”
“Yeah. I’m off to call the media. I’m sure they’re going to love hearing how hotshot entertainment attorney Jason Prescott got punched out by his date after being an insulting asshole. What else was the poor, defenseless little schoolteacher to do? Your firm’s clients will love reading over that with their morning cappuccino.”
“Now hold on.” Jason turned. Considered. “Maybe I was a tad hasty.” It sounded like he was talking with a bad head cold.
“Right. Because it’s all about image with you, Prescott. Never anything important, like substance. Now who is the loser?” And with that, Grady nudged Lucy back into the apartment and closed the door. As an afterthought, he locked it and threw the dead bolt. He turned to Lucy and smiled. “I may be hotheaded, but I’m not completely stupid.”
Lucy’s hand was throbbing like a mofo (another word she’d never used before, but was thinking about using again real soon), but she could only stand there and stare at Grady. “My hero,” she said, somehow finding the dry smile to match her tone.
Grady grinned and nodded to her hand. “I wasn’t the one who decked the guy.”
“Only because I stopped you. I was afraid he would have slaughtered you.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“Come on. Words have always been your weapon of choice. And I must say, you wielded them quite effectively there.” She grinned. “What a team, eh?” She tried to shake the numbing pain from her fingers, which only made her yelp.
Grady put his arm around her and herded her immediately toward the kitchen. “God, Luce, what did you do?”
She shot him a sideways grin. “What you’ve been wanting to do since senior year.” She winced when he held her hand under running cold water. “Damn. It’s not fair. It shouldn’t hurt the puncher, only the punchee.”
He quickly made an ice pack and wrapped it in a damp towel. “Here.” He took her hand and gently dried it, then wrapped it in ice and terry cloth. “Do you think we should go to the emergency room?”
She tested flexing her fingers, swearing only a little. Okay, more than a little. “Everything works. I don’t think I broke anything.” She couldn’t help it, a giggle slipped out. “Except Jason’s nose.” Another sputter of laughter. “God, I shouldn’t laugh. Really. I’m a bad person.” She glanced up at Grady, and they both busted out laughing.
“Did you see the expression on his face?” Grady asked between snorts of laughter. “He was just so shocked that something like that could happen to him.”
“As much as this hurts now, and as much as I don’t advocate violence . . . I have to admit it felt good to smack that smarmy smile off his face.”
“‘Smarmy’?” Grady snickered.
“Smug, smarmy, condescending, whatever.” Her laughter finally faded. “I owe you an apology. And Jana, too. I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you guys.” She gave him a dry smile. “I bet you’re dying to call Jana and tell her.”
Grady smiled, too. “Nah.” He paused a beat. “I can wait until later.”
Lucy mock punched him in the shoulder with her good hand. “I really am sorry. For everything.”
“Ah, Lucy.” Grady sighed. He pulled her into a loose hug, careful of her wrapped hand. “I’m sorry for being such an ass. It was just hard watching you with him.”
“I know,” she said, her face muffled against his shirt. It felt surprisingly good being held by Grady. Out of nowhere, Vivian’s comments about him popped into her head. She’d been completely mistaken, of course. At the moment, as revved up on adrenaline as they both were, it was only natural to feel good at being held. After everything that had happened, she was just glad they’d finally gotten back on track.
“I should have done something sooner, ended it sooner. I just wanted . . .” She trailed off, shook her head. In some ways, she felt clearer about things than ever before. And in other ways, she was even more confused.
“You were just trying to figure yourself out,” he said. Then he tipped her chin up so she looked at him. “I should have been more understanding about that. More supportive. It’s just . . .”
His gaze was so steady, so reaching. Lucy felt so warm, and good, and, well, safe. Right here, with the one person who truly cared about her for who she was, inside and out. Vivian was right about that much.
Which got her to thinking entirely inappropriate thoughts. Like, had Grady’s body always fit with hers so perfectly? And why hadn’t she ever felt the little zing she was very definitely feeling right now, at the way he was looking at her? It was all just the power of suggestion. Grady would be horrified if he knew she was even thinking about what he was like as a kisser. She should be horrified. Only she was too busy looking at his mouth.
“You’ve always been there for me,” she said softly, forcing those renegade thoughts from her mind. Except she couldn’t help but realize just how true her words were. “I never meant to turn my back on that. No one knows me better than you, but there was a part of me that I didn’t know, that I wanted to find out about. I just wish I’d found a way to do it without making you feel like I was pushing you away.” Why had she ever pushed him away?
“It was stupid, but I felt threatened. Like by changing yourself so much on the outside, it was changing who you were on the inside.”
“I have changed, Grady. I mean, not just the hair, the makeup, and all that. That’s surface. But doing that allowed me to discover something else about myself, about what I can do, or be, if I want to. The old Lucy would have never stood up to Jason like that. I have more confidence in myself now. That’s something I’ll always know about myself, that I never would have if I hadn’t done this.” As she spoke the words, she realized just how true they were. And slowly, things began to click into place. She knew now what parts she’d keep and what she’d discard, as Vivian had advised her to do.
The most important thing she intended to keep was standing right in front of her, holding her, being her rock, and her best friend. “That never meant I didn’t still need you. Your friendship, and Jana’s, are everything to me. I just needed to know I could be more than teacher, daughter, and friend. I wanted to expand my comfort zone, so I could reach further, find . . . I don’t know. Something. Someone. Someone I might not have been confident enough to even try and connect with before.”
Grady stroked her face, tipped her chin toward him. “Maybe you didn’t need to look so far.”
Her heart started to pound. Oh, my God! Could Vivian have been right about . . . everything? Suddenly she was nervous as hell, and she babbled when she was nervous. “I know Jason was a stupid choice; it was just, I was really getting confused about what I was doing this for. You and Jana were at odds with me and I felt I had to prove something, to you guys and to myself. Jason was an obvious target. And when he came on to me at the dance, it just seemed like the best way to prove myself.”
“You never had anything to prove. Not to anyone that mattered.” Grady slid his fingers into her hair, slowly took out the last remaining drooping hot rollers. He set them on the counter without ever breaking eye contact. “Not to Jana. Not to me.”
Lucy felt her heart swell, even as her pulse raced so fas
t she thought she might faint. She really had been blind. The way Grady was looking at her, with such honest affection and . . . and love. Her eyes welled. “I had to prove it to myself,” she choked out, throat tight. “But I never meant to hurt you in the process.”
“I know you didn’t.” He paused then, staring into her eyes for so long she wasn’t sure he was going to say anything else, then he took a deep breath and said, “All those things I said about you earlier, to Jason. I meant them all, you know.”
She smiled and sniffled. “You always were my best champion.”
Grady’s eyes grew a little glassy then, but his expression had never been so serious. “Yeah,” he said, his throat working. “I’ve always felt that way, known that about you. You—you’re right. No one knows you better than I do.”
She felt his hands tense on her shoulders. His whole body seemed tense. Or maybe that was her. She felt like they were standing on the edge of a very high cliff. The moment seemed to shrink down, condense, until she swore she could feel his every breath because it matched her own. It was all going to come down to who jumped first.
“And no one knows me better than you do,” he said, stepping closer to the edge. “In fact, I can honestly say I’ve never felt connected to anyone the way I feel connected to you.” He paused, and she could swear she felt him tremble, just a little. “If I was the type to believe in fate and karma and destiny, I’d have to say I knew from the first moment I saw you, in the cafeteria, staring down Buddy Aversom. But even if I don’t believe in all that, all the years we’ve had together since have proven it true anyway.”
She didn’t know what to say.
“Jana saw it, too.”
Now Lucy frowned. “She did?”
But Grady wasn’t listening to her, he was too intent on getting the words out. “I never wanted to risk it. Our friendship meant too much. But I can’t seem—” He broke off, his voice seemingly choked.
“What?” she urged him, wanting him to jump off the cliff first. Just in case she was wrong, and he wasn’t trying to tell her what she thought he was.
“I can’t seem to find a way back, to what we were before. For years I managed to seal that part off, be content with the friendship, knowing I was far, far luckier than most, to have that much. I don’t know what the hell I would have done if you fell in love with someone else. But when it looked like, after all this time, it was going to be—”
“Oh, Grady.”
He choked on a laugh that was totally devoid of humor. “God, please don’t say my name like that. Pity, I don’t need. Any more than you ever did.”
She grabbed his face then, when he went to look away. Her pack fell off and hit the floor with a clatter of scattered ice cubes. But she didn’t even feel the pain as she turned his head back to hers. “I don’t pity you. I just—this is a shock, that’s all. I didn’t know.” She found herself stroking his face, his much-beloved face, she thought. “I didn’t know how you felt.” She swallowed hard and stepped right up to the edge herself. “Or that maybe, maybe I might feel the same way.”
His gaze intensified so fiercely she began trembling. His grip on her tightened. And then things paused between them. Like the whole world came to a complete stop. They looked in each other’s eyes and connected like they always did. She saw all of him, and he saw all of her, like it had been since the beginning. Except she’d missed that one vital element, that one clue. That he loved her. Really loved her. And always had.
Her heart started to pound again. And her knees went a little wobbly. Grady Matthews. In love with her. And maybe, it could be, that all this time, she’d been searching for what she wanted, what she needed, and it had been right there in front of her all along.
He was right about one thing. There was no turning back time, erasing the knowledge they now shared. It was terrifying, really. The enormity of what had just happened. What would happen next. The world, as they knew it, was never going to be the same.
So . . . what did she want to do about it?
She hadn’t trusted him before when she should have. Maybe it was time to trust him now. She wasn’t sure who moved first, or if they both moved together. But an instant later the gap between them closed, and his mouth found hers.
Chapter 27
Grady tried really hard to savor the moment. The moment he’d been waiting for his entire life. But he was sweating, shaking, and his heart was pounding so hard it was a miracle it didn’t spontaneously combust right through the wall of his chest.
He was finally kissing Lucy Harper.
Her lips were soft, just like he’d known they’d be. They’d kissed before, friendly pecks. But this was different.
Add rock-hard to the list of things his body was at the moment.
He tangled his hands in her hair, swearing he wouldn’t lose control, wouldn’t rush her. She’d had no idea. He didn’t want to overwhelm her.
Then he realized she was the one clinging to him, returning his kiss. Pushing for more.
Anything you want.
She opened her mouth beneath his, and he thought if he died right then, he’d go out a happy, satisfied man.
He couldn’t quite stifle the groan in his throat, nor could he seem to keep his hips from crowding hers. She bumped up against the counter, but when he went to pull back, she yanked him closer. And took the kiss even deeper.
Sweet Christ was all he could think as they tangled tongues and limbs. She was squirming against him and he wasn’t sure how long he could hold out. But it seemed a bit premature to start ripping her clothes off. Shouldn’t they be taking this more slowly? For all he knew, this was just a knee-jerk reaction on her part.
She suddenly broke their kiss and he wondered if she’d read his thoughts. He gasped for air, scrambled to regain control so she wouldn’t realize how close he’d come to losing it.
“Wait a minute,” she said, as if just realizing something.
He’d wait forever. Just so long as they got to pick up where they left off. He thought better of saying that out loud. But just barely.
“You said Jana knew. How long?”
She looked a little hurt, and he supposed with reason. So he treaded carefully. “She figured it out a long time ago, only I didn’t know that until recently. I’m pretty sure Vivian figured it out, too. And I only just met her.”
“‘Vivian’? What? Wait, wait.” She pushed him back a half step. But her back was still against the kitchen counter, and he didn’t give her any more room than absolutely necessary.
“So, you and Jana talked about this?”
“Not in so many words, no.”
“But she knows how you feel? About me.”
“I’m pretty sure she does. I didn’t want to talk about it.”
“Yes, that is your M.O. lately.”
His lips twitched. “Apparently I’m losing my ability to hide it from anyone.”
“Vivian.” Light dawned. “‘A woman can’t make up her mind about what she really wants unless she’s aware of all her options.’”
He could only nod. “That’s why I’m here. I just couldn’t stand the idea of you and—”
Now she smiled. “He Who Shall Never Be Mentioned Again?”
“Yeah,” Grady said, smiling, too. “That guy.”
“So you’ve really felt like this for? . . .”
“Forever, Luce.”
She grew serious, then looked down for a moment before looking back up at him. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
He lifted a shoulder. “I couldn’t tell if it would be reciprocated. I’m not exactly your type.”
Her mouth dropped open, offended.
“Come on, Lucy, I’m not. You don’t ever want to date guys like me.”
“There are no other guys like you!” she shot back.
“That’s because I’m your best friend, but you never once thought about me that way. And I couldn’t stop thinking about you that way. Why do you think I went off to MIT?”
�
�Oh, I don’t know, a full-ride scholarship?” she said dryly.
“I had other offers. I chose the one farthest away.”
“From me,” she said, unable to hide the quick flash of hurt.
He held her shoulders. “It was about protecting myself. I had to figure out how to stop feeling . . . what I felt. I swore I wasn’t going to come back, to keep some distance between us. I wanted to remain friends, and . . . and hopefully find someone else.”
“What happened?” She shook her head and looked around the room, as if the answers to her questions would be found printed on the walls or something. “I just can’t believe this. Really. I feel like I’ve been blind or something all this time.”
He reached out, nudged her to look at him. “If I told you, and you didn’t feel the same way, we could never go back.”
She covered his hand with her own. “Nothing’s changed. Why now?”
“Everything changed. You changed. I—I was afraid you’d found someone else. I couldn’t even stand thinking about it. That’s why I’ve been such a prick. It was all me. But it was just too much.”
“Grady,” she said softly.
“I already knew how wonderful a person you are, and I didn’t want the secret to get out, you know? You were mine and I didn’t want to share. I never really understood just how strongly I felt that until—well . . .” Now he broke off, suddenly feeling—kiss or no kiss—that he’d revealed too much, put too much out there.
Now she tugged at his sleeve, nudged him to look at her. “It’s a lot to take in,” she said.
His heart squeezed painfully. “Yeah. I know. And you don’t have to say anything, okay? It’s hard enough—”
She grinned, quite wickedly. “I know; I could tell.”
He actually blushed. He couldn’t remember the last time anyone had ever made him blush. “Sorry about that.”
“Don’t be sorry.” She tugged on his arms. “I was saying, ‘It’s a lot to take in.’ But I want to try. That kiss . . .” She trailed off, and her eyes went a bit dreamy.
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