by Mignon Mykel
“She’s pretty ruthless, isn’t she?” I said instead. “The drive to the house earlier, she was all sly winks and shoulder bumps that you were going to be there.”
Grace smiled and laughed lightly. I could hear the slight change in her tone, a bit less apprehensive. “Last night when Cael told her you were coming, she was the same with me.” She took a deep breath and her lips fell together in a soft smile, one that was all sweet Grace. “How have you been, Soy? I’m sorry we didn’t talk after Bri was born.”
I wanted to tell her I was sorry for not talking after meeting Jeremy, too, but I didn’t think rehashing that was a good idea. Not when I already did as much a little while ago.
“Good, I’ve been good,” I nodded a few times. “Let’s just keep those times in the past. You’re talking to me now, right?”
“Right.” She turned back toward the water, her hands dangling over the side of the rails. “It doesn’t matter how loud and hectic it gets here, there’s always a sense of peace,” she mused, her eyes focused on something in the distance.
“I like it out here.” I leaned into her and bumped her shoulder playfully. “Like it better with you.”
“I’m sure you say that to all the girls,” Grace joked and for the first time since my plane landing, I felt like what she and I had was salvageable.
That I hadn’t completely ruined our friendship.
“Just the pretty ones,” I answered in return, mirroring her lean and not afraid to close some of the distance between us. With just a slight sway to her left, her arm would brush mine.
“Did you guys make plans for the weekend, you and Syd?” Grace asked, looking over at me. Wisps of her hair had fallen out of her long braid, more than could be contained behind her ears. I refrained from brushing her hair back again, as badly as I wanted my hands on her.
“No. Caleb just told me if I wasn’t on call, it would be a good weekend to keep Syd company.”
“I think he’s afraid of leaving her with all three kiddos for longer than a night,” Grace said with a smile. “But I think that’s only because he’s afraid to be with all three by himself for longer than a night.”
“Three’s a lot.” I hadn’t really ever thought about kids, but I did know that after any family event my nephews were at, I was exhausted. And that was only the two boys, and for less than six hours.
How my sister did it day in and out, with a newborn in the mix too, was beyond me. I’d be afraid to be alone with them for a night, too.
Grace shrugged, her smile small again, and looked back toward the water. “I think it’s a good number.”
I was about to ask Grace about her shop when someone plowed into my knees. “Uncle Soy! Mama says it’s lunchtime!”
I looked down at Brandon, chuckling and lifting him in my arms. “That so?”
Brandon nodded his head and pointed to where his mama was, packing up the rest of the sand toys.
“Alright, I guess you’re right,” I told the boy. “You hungry, Gracelyn Dewey?” I itched to reach out and offer her my hand. Instead, I shifted my nephew on my hip a little higher and put my other hand in my pocket.
“I guess I could do lunch. For you,” she said, tickling my nephew in his belly.
She may be going for Brandon, but she was making me extremely happy.
Grace
Lunch consisted of a noodles place and elbow macaroni hitting the floor when Brandon started flinging his fork. It was extremely comical watching Sydney in mom mode.
“I swear this is new,” she apologized again after sweeping the remaining cheese covered noodles toward the napkin she held in her hand. Brandon was now sitting in Sawyer’s lap across the table from me, Soy’s arms bracketed around the wiggling boy. Just before Brandon could start screeching at his confinement, I watched as Sawyer blew a raspberry to the boy’s neck, sending him into a giggle fest.
God, he was so good with his nephews, and I didn’t think he knew just how good he was.
“Not a big deal, Sydney bean,” Sawyer said as he pulled away from Brandon, his face split in a huge grin. His arms were still crisscrossed around Brandon when his fingers started in at the torment, tickling Brandon in his sides.
Sydney laughed lightly as she brushed her hands off, all the wayward noodles on the plate that was no longer being used. “He’s super ticklish, Soy. Be careful.”
I grinned and stretched my legs out under the table, my foot accidentally hitting Sawyer’s sneaker. I quickly snatched my leg back and sat up straight but not quick enough, as Sawyer smirked across the table at me before addressing his sister.
“He’s super ticklish because you’re super ticklish, Syd.” He relented his tickling though, allowing Brandon’s giggles to calm.
“Caleb is too, so the B’s really have zero luck in that department,” Sydney said, looking over to her two other, still sleeping, children, a quiet smile on her face.
Sawyer’s own face fell so fast, I had to refrain from laughing. His face was now one of unrestrained disgust. “Yeah. I don’t need to hear that your husband is ticklish. Way too much information.”
“He’s got this spot—” Sydney began to taunt her brother.
“Sydney!” Sawyer’s eyes were wide, his brows high, as he stared at his sister across the table. “TMI.”
“Are you ticklish?” I asked Sawyer before I could think better of it. I wanted to bite my tongue; instead, I folded my lips in and looked down at the table. I glanced up with my eyes to see if I could still catch his reaction.
“Nah,” Sawyer answered, his face dropping to pay attention to Brandon. “How’s Brody holding up?” he asked, changing the subject quickly and making me wonder if indeed the man was ticklish.
And why the hell I cared if he was or not.
Sydney looked back to the double stroller beside her, where Brielle was in her car seat on top and Brody was buckled into a lower toddler seat. “Out. It’s his naptime.”
Brody had taken a bite of broccoli and eaten two single noodles before asking for his pacifier. The not quite two year old zonked out shortly after.
“Should we head out?” Sawyer asked, to which Sydney nodded.
“Probably. He’ll probably fall asleep the moment we hit the freeway,” Sydney said, referring to Brandon. We all piled away from the table and, with Sawyer holding Brandon and Sydney pushing the other two in the stroller, I felt insignificant. I didn’t have a purpose.
Even though it was more than obvious that Sydney and Sawyer were siblings, with the two of them with children and me just…there…I felt like the third wheel. The unwanted party member.
I could feel eyes on us and I was curious of what people were thinking.
More than curious, I was afraid of what people were thinking.
Sawyer held open the front door and Sydney slipped out with the stroller, while I followed behind. After I cleared the door, Sawyer shifted Brandon to his other hip as the boy rested his head on Sawyer’s shoulder. I averted my attention from Sawyer. I didn’t want to be caught with my looks lingering too long.
Sydney pushed through the people meandering on the walkway in front of the low key restaurant, moving toward the parking lot. I trailed just after her, with Sawyer walking slightly behind me. I startled when I felt his hand brush my lower back briefly.
“You ok?” he asked quietly, to keep between the two of us I was sure.
I pasted a smile on my face and nodded. “I am.”
He stared at me as we walked, his eyes not leaving mine until I had to break the eye contact in order to walk into the parking lot and not fall into it. The way he watched me, the way his eyes searched mine…
It was a little disconcerting to know that someone could read your thoughts, and that was exactly what Sawyer had been doing. Even with the small time and great distance between us, he knew me so incredibly well.
But maybe that was because I was see-through. Maybe everyone could read my thoughts, could sense my worries, could feel my anxiety.
<
br /> Maybe—
His hand took mine and my heart rolled in my chest.
All he did was squeeze my hand once before letting go, but the feel of his roughened skin against my own had my heart tightening. As well as other parts.
Sawyer and I had never been hand-holding friends. Hugging friends, sure. Kiss to the cheek friends, yeah. But never hand-holding friends. Not only had he held my hand for the briefest of moments, but he’d brushed my back before, and had held me in a tight hug earlier today.
What was his end goal? Because surely this wasn’t how he was going to go about being my friend again. Granted, I did still consider him a friend, even if I couldn’t talk to him anymore. But after his jealous comment, was he considering—
And once again, Sawyer pulled me from my torment. He put his free arm around my shoulders and leaned down, his lips near my ear, brushing my temple as he spoke low. “Stop thinking, Gracie.”
Sawyer
When we got back to the house, the girls took the boys inside and I managed to undo the infant car seat, bringing Brielle in. The entire ride back from the restaurant, Sydney talked while Grace sat all the way in the back in the third row, completely quiet.
Not that quiet was new for her, but I worried about what was going through her head.
It was probably an asshole move for me to make, but I couldn’t stop myself from putting my hand on her back earlier. Or holding her hand.
And as brief as that contact had been, it had been electrifying. I knew without a doubt in my mind that if distance weren’t a factor, Grace could easily be a woman I’d spend my days and nights with. But distance was a factor and it was best if I tamped down on the urges coursing through me that simply holding her hand gave me.
Six hours in her company and it was more than evident that regaining her complete abandon was going to take longer than this weekend but I was going to put forth the effort. If I couldn’t have her in my bed, I at least wanted her in my life in some smaller capacity.
I lowered the car seat to the floor in the living room and debated taking my niece out. Would she wake up? She was only a month or so old, so she should fall back to sleep, right? And really, how comfortable was sleeping in a bunch of straps?
I kneeled in front of the car seat and carefully removed her, then stood with Brielle curled into my chest. I looked around, unsure where to put her when the girls came back downstairs.
“I can take her,” Sydney said as she cleared the stairs, walking over with her hands out. Easily, she took Bri from me. “She’ll want to eat soon anyway.”
“Do the boys nap this often usually?” I asked, moving to the couch to sit. Grace walked to the kitchen and I watched as she found a glass and filled it with water. She was incredibly comfortable in this house and it made me happy that she still had some sort of peace in her life.
“Brandon doesn’t usually take a morning nap, but he woke up at five so I wasn’t surprised he napped when I went to pick you up. They both normally nap now though, yes.” Sydney sat at the other side of the couch I was on and Grace came back into the living room area, sitting in the armchair that was near Sydney. She pulled her legs up and sat with her legs crossed under her, one hand on her lap and the other holding her glass on the arm of the chair. I wish she were sitting nearer, but I took pleasure in the fact she was comfortable. She may not be one hundred percent there when it was just me and her, but her sitting there, comfortable right now while I was in the room, was a far cry from the closed off Grace I encountered when I first walked into the house this morning.
We were getting somewhere.
Slow and steady.
“What are you doing the rest of the weekend, Grace?” I asked, hoping it sounded casual. From the corner of my eye, I watched as Syd grabbed one of those apron blanket things and put it on over her head. I shifted in my seat, uncomfortable about what was going to be happening, but I wasn’t about to leave the room. Hey, if she wanted to pop out her boob with her friend and brother in the room, she must be ok with us here.
“I’m not sure. I usually take the weekend off from Sweet Grace things so probably just lounge. I do have to go through inventory tonight yet though, to close out the week.”
“You don’t have the store open on the weekend?” I asked, curious. She fought hard to open up a store front, wanting to do more than hide behind a computer and sell the items she loved.
Grace’s eyes flickered to Sydney before back to me. “I stopped using the store front as an actual store about six months ago. I use it now for storage and photos for the site.”
I frowned. “Why?” When she opened Sweet Grace three years ago, she simply had the internet presence, but she leased a space in a boho-chic area downtown and I thought she’d been doing well.
“I just.” She paused and shrugged a shoulder before offering me a smile. “It was too big of a step for me,” she said honestly. She glanced back at Sydney and I sensed there was more to the story and that Sydney knew all about it.
I’d have to ask her later.
“But the store’s still doing extremely well online.”
I rested back into the corner of the couch and crossed my arms over my chest, at ease, and considered Grace. She didn’t shift under my watch. Score one for me. Slow and steady.
“Will you consider opening up the store front again?”
“Sawyer,” Sydney warned, protective of her friend.
I glanced at her, trying not to think about what was going on under the white and gray cloth draped over her chest. “It’s just a question.”
“It’s ok, Syd.” Grace took a sip of her water. “I’m not entirely sure. But the store front is still great advertisement and it allows me to have a place to put everything. That and if people do need to return items, they have an address that’s not my home to do so.”
Put it that way, and I completely agreed. Not that I heard of many disgruntled boutique shoppers, but people could get pissed for literally nothing and if that anger was brought to her doorstep, I’d be livid.
Yes. Her having a separate place for the business made a lot of sense.
“Has your department had a lot of strife with the whole cop-hating thing going on lately?” Grace asked me and while the question was said with confidence, I could hear the ever-slight waver in her voice.
Just like I cared about her, she cared about me.
On that thought…if her boutique wasn’t an active store front business…
Shit.
Work on the regaining the friendship first, Soy.
“Not terribly so, no. Nothing more than we’ve seen and heard before.”
Sydney frowned at that. “Just stay safe, ok?”
“Always, Sydney bean,” I answered with a chuckle. We were trained to deal with these situations, and short of a head shot, we were protected pretty damn well in Kevlar. Being a detective, I didn’t see as much of the action as our street cops did. I still saw plenty of action of course, but I mostly dealt with the aftermath.
“I should probably head out,” Grace said as she unfolded herself from her chair.
“You sure?” Sydney asked from her perch on the couch.
Grace nodded. “Yeah. Like I said, I have some inventory and shipments to set up so I don’t have to worry about it over the weekend.” She spoke as she moved around the couches and into the kitchen, rinsing her water glass—yes, rinsing a glass used for water—and putting it into the dishwasher. She was such a fucking sweetheart, and her little quirks only made her sweeter.
“I’ll walk you out.” I lifted myself from the couch and Grace made her way back, waving a hand at me.
“Gosh, no. Don’t worry about it.”
“I’ll walk you out,” I repeated. She shrugged and headed toward the mudroom, and I followed behind, appreciating the way her body moved one last time today.
“Oh, hey! Before you go, come for breakfast in the morning!” Sydney called as we slipped back into our shoes.
Grace glanced up at
me then back down to her tennis shoes, slipping her heel into the back without untying them. I wanted her to say yes, but I also didn’t want to be the annoying broken record that begged her to come back.
She stood up fully and repositioned the baggy top, this time exposing her other bare shoulder before answering. “Ok.”
She didn’t look at me again, but fuck if I couldn’t stop looking at her.
Grace
Sydney really couldn’t be more obvious and really, I was done avoiding it.
If Sawyer weren’t here, I would be spending every moment with her this weekend. It’s what I did when she was home but Cael was away on road trips. There was no sense stopping what I normally did, even if her brother would be there and I was incredibly attracted to him and could only be his friend.
I could only be his friend.
Without looking back at Sawyer and seeing in his eyes what I wanted to see, because there was no way he was looking at me with a heat and hunger I hadn’t ever witnessed in even Jeremy’s eyes, I grabbed my keys from on top of the washer and headed out of the mudroom into the garage, hitting the button so I could walk to my car.
I heard the door shut with a thud behind me but still, I didn’t look over my shoulder to see if Sawyer was coming. One, I knew he was, but two, I could feel him.
I could feel him all around me, much like his hug earlier today down by the seal deck.
“I’m glad you came today,” he said from behind me as I played with my keys, flipping them around my finger slowly until I came up with the fob to unlock the doors. While I did unlock them, I didn’t move to open the door. Instead, I turned and leaned back against it.
“I’m actually glad I did too.”
“We good?” He stopped in front of me and I fought from looking down to see how close his toes were to mine. I wasn’t sure why, but something about being toe to toe just felt close to me.