The Perfect Stroke (Lucas Brothers #1)(28)

“Are you ready, sweet lips?” Grayson asks once he has his shoes on. He looks amazing, and as much as I don’t want to go to this damn dinner, I do want to be around Gray. Besides, as much as I might want to deny it, Gray and I are dating. Hell, we’re practically living together. There’s a perverse side of me that wants to see what life with a pro-golfer is truly like. I realize I’m looking for reasons to push him away even as I want to keep him close. There’s a need inside of me to prove that we’re just too different to ever make this work. Jackson is right when he tells me I’m a complicated woman. I sigh and take a deep breath for courage.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.”

“That’s my woman,” he says, and he has no way of knowing how his words set off butterflies in my system and how they warm me. I want to be his woman, even though I’m trying to find reasons to keep him away. See? Complicated.

He wraps his arms around me and hugs me close. He kisses the side of my neck and I can feel his tongue coming out to lick along my pulse point.

“Thank you for doing this for me, Cooper. I know you’d rather be shot. It means a lot,” he whispers, and a little more of resistance fades. That’s why I agreed to this damn dinner. That, right there.

“Let’s just get it over with,” I sigh grudgingly.

He laughs and leads me to the door. “It won’t be that bad, sweet lips. It’ll be over before you know it. We’ll make an appearance and leave as early as we can get away with,” he says, closing the door behind us. The sound of it echoes and sounds like my doom.

“It will be that bad. I’ll have to be in the same room with Cammie Riverton and her father.”

“Cammie promised she’d be on her best behavior. She knows you’re important to me. It will be okay, you’ll see.”

“You told her I’m important to you?”

“Of course,” he says, acting like those words don’t mean anything… like they didn’t just shake up my whole world.

I sit in the car as he closes my door and I can only think one thing: I’m important to Gray Lucas.





“Why are all the women wearing white?” CC growls when we reach the large conference room where the dinner is being held. I get a bad feeling in my stomach as I look around. All the men are in black suits just like me, but that’s not the problem. Like CC said, all of the women are wearing white. The only one not is CC who is wearing the polar opposite: red. Fuck. She freezes in her tracks, which is okay because I’ve come to a stop too trying to figure out exactly what to do here. “Gray!” CC hisses and I wince. This could get ugly. I need to try and pave things over as best I can.

“Umm, I’m not real sure,” I tell her. Wow, that was really smooth.

“You’re not sure?” she asks, outraged. I’m not sure how a woman can whisper and screech at the same time, but I think CC has the ability down.

“Well, no. I mean, I wasn’t told there was a theme or anything…”

“I’m leaving! I knew it was a mistake to let you talk me into this,” she growls, turning away.

“Listen, we’re already here, so why don’t we just make an appearance and then we can leave? It seems silly to not at least—”

“Silly? Did you see anyone else in there with red on Gray?”

“Umm, well…”

“The servers!”

“Well, technically they’re wearing black and red,” I say and then wince. I know what she’s saying. You’d have to be stupid not to. Why did I have to pick out red for CC to wear?

“Why am I wearing red? Did you do this to me on purpose, Gray?” CC asks, echoing my thoughts—well, some of them. I turn to look at her, shocked that she would even have that thought in her head.

“Of course not! I like you in red. It reminded me of your hair—which I love, you know. I almost went with the green, but…”

“But why?” CC asks, and I can tell from her face that she’s not going to forgive me anytime soon.

“Well, the saleslady said that the green dress was last year’s, and when I told her it was a special night out… I’m sorry Cooper, I f*cked up,” I tell her, truly feeling bad. “Come on. We’ll go and I’ll just call Riverton and explain that something came up.”

She looks up at me, her face heated almost to the red of her dress, but at least she doesn’t look like she wants to kill me now. That’s an improvement. I cup the side of her face, wanting her to believe me.

“Gray, I—”

“Grayson! What are you doing standing over here in the corner like you’re hiding?” Cammie’s high-pitched voice calls out from behind us. I see CC eyes close and a look of disappointment—or something, I’m at too much of a loss to describe right now—comes over her face. I feel like lead settles in my gut because this feels like my fault.

I turn around, intent on hiding CC behind me. I let my body completely block her.

“Cammie, I’m sorry, I’m afraid that something came up and—”

“It’s my fault. My dress snagged on a piece of trim that was loose in the door,” CC says, walking around me and coming to rest beside me. I immediately wrap my arm around her, anchoring her to me. I steal a glance at her. She looks calm, cool, and collected—not like she’s just been sucker punched by her stupid boyfriend.