Worth the Risk(61)

So, in a bid to keep our secret, I look at him. There’s so much suggestion mixed with amusement in his eyes that my breath catches.

“Turnabout’s fair play, Sidney.”

“No one said anything about playing fair.”

He lowers his voice. “I’ll remember that the next time I have you.”

I glance over toward the building where I’m sure his crew is watching us from behind the tinted windows. “Aren’t there beds in this place?”

His laugh echoes off the concrete around us as he zips his suit up. “Beds. Plural. As in all in one room.” His smile is crooked when he shakes his head. “We won’t be using any beds here. I don’t like to share.”

I open my mouth to speak and then close it. “Who knew you were so dominant?” I tease.

“You know what they say . . .” he says as he takes a few steps back from me.

“No, what?”

“It’s always the quiet ones you have to worry about.”

It’s my turn to laugh. “I’ll keep that in mind.” I take a few steps toward Marcy, who quickly averts her eyes to pretend as if she hadn’t been watching us, and then I turn back to Grayson. “Hey, Malone?”

“Yeah?”

“Keep the suit unzipped. Let the sleeves hang.”

“You’re undressing me in public now?” he asks, and laughs ring out around us. “What will I get in return?”

“Votes.”





“What did you forget?” I ask Rissa as the front door of the office opens and closes. I stare at the proofs of Grayson. The ones I can’t seem to take my eyes away from. The ones that tell me I’m in too deep when I’m not supposed to even have a toe in the water. When I realize I haven’t received a response yet, I ask again. “Rissa?”

I rise from my seat, startled to see Luke standing in my doorway. “Luke? Is everything okay?” I hate that my immediate reaction is to be worried about Grayson. “Where is your da—”

“Dad’s not here,” he says with a sheepish look on his face while I panic over what he is doing here. And then, before I make it around my desk, he holds out a bunch of handpicked daisies. Every hard part of me softens in a way I never could have expected. “I’d like to know if you’d go on a date with me.”

“What?” My chuckle is one of disbelief as I look over his shoulder and spot a woman standing in the lobby. She has shoulder-length silvery-blond hair and a soft smile on her face. “Hello.”

“That’s my nana. She brought me here.”

“Oh.” I blink a couple of times as I look from his nana then to him and then back to her. “Please come in.”

“Stay there, Nana. I need to do this on my own,” Luke says, looking back at her. She holds her hands up and gives him the most adoring grin before she nods.

He clears his throat as he meets my eyes again. “Miss Sidney, I wanted to know if you’d go on a date with me.”

How this little boy melts my heart every single time I see him is beyond me, but he does. I drop down to one knee in front of him. “A date, huh?” I accept the flowers and sniff them. “Thank you, they’re beautiful.”

“Nana says you’re supposed to bring a lady flowers. I’m not sure why. They smell pretty, but then they die, and you have to throw them in the trash, but she said you have to, so I did.”

“Well,” I say through a laugh, “they do die, but they also make the lady feel awfully special.” I cup the side of his face. “Where exactly would you like to take me on this date of yours?”

“I was wondering if you’d go to a picnic with me.”

“A picnic, huh?”

His teeth sink into his lower lip as he rocks on his heels. “There’s a picnic that we have here in Sunnyville, and I was wondering . . .” His eyes are innocent and full of hope.

“If I would go with you?”

He nods and then straightens his spine as if he realizes that he needs to act like a grown-up. “We were on our way there, and I asked Nana if it would be okay if we stopped by here and asked you to come with us. We already have a lunch made. There are sandwiches and sodas—I only get to have soda on special occasions—and chocolate chip cookies. Nana makes the best chocolate chip cookies because she puts extra chips in them and—”

“Chocolate chip cookies?” My mouth waters at just the thought of them.

He nods enthusiastically, and I notice how the fingers on his right hand are crossed for luck. This kid is killing me in the best kind of way.

“You’re on your way there right now?”

“Yep.”

“We didn’t mean to interrupt your day,” his nana says as she steps forward and puts a protective hand on Luke’s shoulder. “I’m Betsy Malone, Grayson’s mom.” She extends her hand, and I stand to shake it.

“Nice to meet you.”

She’s striking. There’s a graceful fluidity to her when she moves, her smile is welcoming in every sense of the word, and her eyes—so similar to Grayson’s—are the sort that see way more than you want them to see.

“Like I said, we didn’t mean to just barge on in here, but it’s a beautiful afternoon and we thought you might like to get out and enjoy Sunnyville instead of being cooped up in this office.”