Take a Chance (Chance, #1; Rosemary Beach #7)(48)

“Turn around,” Grant growled, pulling my arms around him this time.

This was a bad idea. His face looked even better all sleepy. His eyes weren’t fully awake, which only made his long lashes more obvious. And his hair was all messy. Made a girl want to run her hands through it.

“I don’t do relationships. Closest I got was with Nan, and that was because she was so damn needy. I liked being needed. No one ever needed me. She did. But then she was also crazy as f**k and heartless, and that ended things for me. So what you and I are doing right here is a first for me. I’ve never wanted to wake up and cuddle with a female in my life. I’ve never missed her when she wasn’t around. You’re all I can think about, Harlow. Where I’m headed is new to me, but I damn well want to go there as long as that’s where you’ll be. You’re worried about getting hurt, but I don’t think you understand yet that you’re holding all the damn cards, sweet girl. All the damn cards.”

I stared up at him and let his words sink in. Why me? What was it about me that made this man want to do something he had never done before? Was I needy? Did he think I needed him? Because I was pretty damn self-sufficient.

“I’m not needy,” I told him.

He grinned. “I already figured that out. But I am—at least where you’re concerned.”

And there went my resolve to strengthen one of the walls I had built around myself. Instead, it crumbled a little. This man knew exactly how to make me weak.

I started to say more when a loud banging noise sounded at the door, followed by “Grant Carter, get your f**king worthless ass out here NOW!”

And there was Nan.

I jumped out of bed, thankful to be wearing my pajamas and not nak*d, like Grant had wanted. “She figured it out,” I whispered.

Grant sighed and lay on his back as if he didn’t care. “Go away,” he called back.

She started banging on the door again. “I will not go away, you motherf*cker! Get out of there now! I won’t let her do this. She has it all, why the hell does she have to take you, too? Stupid slut!”

My eyes went wide. I’d never been called that, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it.

Grant sprang out of bed and stalked to the door. The murderous look on his face had me backing up against the wall. Maybe I wasn’t as brave as I thought I was. Grant was an even-tempered guy, so I’d never seen him look so . . . pissed.

He jerked the door open. Then he reached for her. I watched as he grabbed her shirt and pulled her close to his face. “Don’t ever call her that again. Do you f**king understand me? Ever.” He let her go and she stumbled backward, and then he slammed the door in her face. The sound of the lock turning echoed in the silence around us. I think he had shocked her into silence, too.

His shoulders were rising and falling hard as he laid one hand on the door and stared down at the floor.

I didn’t move and I didn’t speak.

Finally, he turned to me, and the anger I had seen earlier was gone. He looked like Grant again. Fun-loving, easygoing Grant. “I’m sorry,” he said simply.

I didn’t know what to say to that. “Okay” didn’t seem like the right word to use here. I just nodded.

“She just wants to hurt you. I’ve tried to talk to her and help her see that nothing is your fault, but she won’t listen. If I could muzzle her I would.”

A mental picture of Nan muzzled made me smile. Grant smiled back at me in return and then walked over to me. “She should’ve never called you that. You’re so far from that, and she knows it.”

He was talking about the slut comment. Was that what set him off?

“I think you scared her. She’s not saying anything.” I wasn’t even sure she was still there.

A frustrated frown touched his forehead. “She isn’t done. She’s just too mad to react right now. I’ve never been that tough on her. I typically just walk away and let her talk. But that,” he shook his head, “that shit was going to be dealt with.”

“Are you trying to fix things again?” I asked, wondering why he thought he had to fix all my problems.

He grinned and bent down to press a kiss to the corner of my mouth. “No, sweet girl, I’m just correcting a wrong. No one can fix Nan.”

I was afraid he was right.

Grant

All I wanted to do was get Harlow nak*d and back in that bed. But I was behind on work and we both needed to leave the room and get this Nan shit over with.

I let Harlow get dressed while I cleaned up in the bathroom. I couldn’t watch her dress because we’d end up back in bed. Screw work. Once we were both dressed, I opened her bedroom door slowly, just in case Nan was standing out there, waiting to pounce.

Harlow waited behind me and I was pretty sure I heard a sigh of relief when we saw the hallway was empty. I reached back and took her hand as we walked out of the room and to the stairs. I didn’t think Nan was going to jump out of a damn corner and attack, but I still felt safer with Harlow as close to me as possible.

I wasn’t going to let Harlow stay here alone until I was sure Nan was over this. I didn’t know what she’d say to Harlow, and I wasn’t going to let her lash out at her without me there to protect her and shut that shit down.

“Hungry?” I asked her as we reached the bottom step with no Nan sightings.