Always On My Mind (The Sullivans #8)(23)

Telling himself this was the perfect way to get her out of his hair, Grayson cut off Eric halfway into his lengthy explanation of how the evening’s pick-up would work. “Go and see for yourself.”

He didn’t have to offer twice, as Eric and Lori immediately grinned at each other and said, “Great!” at the same time.

Grayson’s hands would have fisted had he not been carrying three heavy boxes stacked on top of one another. Eric and Lori were perfect together. Both of them had a ready smile. Both of them could talk your ear off for hours. They even looked good together, Eric blond and muscular next to Lori’s dark-haired grace.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Eric said to Grayson when he finally managed to yank his gaze away from Lori. “A journalist called right before I came over here. He’s doing a story on the popularity of CSAs, but when I told him that I’m just the pick-up guy he asked if you could give him a call back.” Eric reached into the front pocket of his jeans. “I’ve got his number here.”

“I don’t need the number.”

Lori frowned at him as Eric asked, “You sure? He sounded like a nice guy, even told me that he’d heard about your CSA from several people who said you’re running the best one in the area.”

“I’m not interested in press, thanks.” Grayson couldn’t stand the thought of anyone poking into his past, not when he could guess how fast the story would turn from one about his farm and CSA into a “tragic” story of love and loss. He had never spoken to anyone about his story, and he never planned to. Putting the final boxes into Eric’s truck, he said, “Looks like you’re all set to go.”

“I’ll make sure to bring Lori back safe and sound in a couple of hours.”

Grayson barely kept himself from growling that Eric had better do just that or he’d make sure the other man paid for it.

Lori was just leaving the barn when she suddenly turned around and grabbed the cowboy hat off the nail. When she plopped it back on her head, Eric grinned at her and said, “Great hat.”

“Thank you.” Her smile at his compliment was so bright it could have lit up the entire town.

And as Grayson watched them get into Eric’s truck and then drive away, he wondered what in the hell he was doing sending her off alone with Eric. It wasn’t that he thought the other man would do anything to hurt her or frighten her. On the contrary, Eric was a good-looking young guy. He didn’t have any issues, didn’t have any reasons not to make a play for Lori and hope that she played, too.

* * *

The two hours that Grayson spent working with his hammer on the new cottage roof, so hard and fast that his shoulder ached, didn’t bring him any closer to erasing the way Lori had smiled at Eric. And when Grayson finally heard the truck come back up the drive, he was hard pressed not to yank her out of it and claim her as his once and for all with a kiss that would have both of them forgetting anything but how good they could be together.

Of course, Eric came around and helped her out of his truck like a gentleman. She gave him a hug good-bye and then stood in the driveway and waved as he drove away. Her smile was still intact as she said, “That was so much fun!”

Grayson’s heart swelled in his chest at seeing her so happy, even if he hadn’t been the one to make her that way. But when she finally looked up and realized he was standing by the side of the barn watching her, her smile fell away.

“I can’t believe you don’t do the pick-up here,” she said, evidently no longer giving him the silent treatment. “Your customers are the neatest people and they’re so grateful for the food you grow for them. Don’t you want the satisfaction of seeing how happy they are—or at least give them a chance to say thank you?”

She’d only been back for sixty seconds and already she was laying into him. How could he have been upset about her earlier moratorium on chatting?

Knowing she was going to keep glaring at him until he answered, he told her, “I’m too busy.”

She made a sound of disbelief. A loud one. “You can’t spare two hours once a week to actually interact with your customers and community, but Eric told me you give away free food to people who can’t afford to subscribe to your CSA every single week.” She shook her head. “I don’t understand you at all, Grayson. Not even a little bit.” With that, she headed inside the house and slammed the door.

The sick truth was that he didn’t understand himself, either, didn’t know how he could be feeling what he was feeling for her so quickly. She’d only been with him for a few days, and had pushed every one of his buttons repeatedly—and likely on purpose—more than half the time.

Not only was he torn between wanting to strangle her and wanting to kiss her, but frankly, he wasn’t sure which was going to happen first.

Although when he finally walked back into his house and found Lori curled up on the couch sneezing her head off with Mo on her lap as she tried to coax her to “just take one more teeny-tiny bite of the super yummy liver,” anyone with half a brain would have placed their bets on kissing.

Which was why he immediately grabbed his keys from the kitchen counter and headed straight for the local bar to watch a game he wasn’t interested in and eat a burger that tasted like sawdust, making sure he didn’t return to the house until he could be sure Lori was asleep.