Play It Safe(34)
“Maybe not but it’s the only time I’ve ever done it so I hope she gets my point and, knowin’ that now, I hope you do too.”
Wow.
I got it.
I got his point, definitely.
And I loved his point.
I didn’t respond, just looked into his blue eyes with their dark, russet tipped lashes.
“Ivey, darlin’, you with me?”
“If she feels uncomfortable enough that I feel it, will you take me back to the hotel?” I asked.
“Absolutely,” he answered.
I gave him more of my weight then I whispered, “I’ll try not to walk in on you in the bathroom.”
He grinned. “Didn’t complain last time.”
No, he didn’t.
I grinned back.
His grin died about a half a second before his eyes dropped to my mouth then his head dipped down and he kissed me.
It was nearly better than the first except this time, he didn’t push it, I didn’t whimper and it didn’t careen out-of-control. It was wet, it was deep and it was sweet.
And I loved every second of being in his arms on a snowy plain by a creek in the cold with his mouth on mine.
Every blooming second.
He lifted his head, eyes locked to mine and muttered, “Let’s get you back so you can deal with your brother, I can deal with my shit and then I can bring you back home.”
Home.
That was what he said.
Home.
I loved that too.
“Okay,” I whispered.
Gray grinned.
* * * * *
Three hours later…
I walked the streets of Mustang.
Casey had come back and Casey was super okay with letting the hotel room go because, “My girl, she’s all over me. It’s cool. I’ll crash with her. You and me will hook up for lunch at noon tomorrow at the diner.”
He didn’t ask about my first-ever date.
He didn’t ask if I got home by ten (I didn’t but it wasn’t that far after).
He didn’t care that I was crashing at Gray’s.
He just was rabid to get back to his girl (after, of course, he begged me for another hundred dollars which, of course, being me, I gave to him).
So he took his bag, the car, I dropped mine off with Manny at the front desk who assured me Gray had talked to him and even though we checked out late, he wasn’t going to charge us the extra day. I paid him for the time we stayed and then…I was free.
For a day, I…was…free.
I walked down the sidewalk of the square only just able to stop myself from whistling. Halfway down, I turned right and pushed open the door.
My eyes went to the bar.
Janie’s eyes came to me.
My body went to the bar.
Janie’s eyes followed me.
I put my hands on the bar.
Janie’s eyes didn’t leave me.
My mouth opened and this was what it asked, “That job still open?”
Janie smiled huge and this was how she replied, “Take it the date with Gray went good.”
At that, it was my turn to smile huge.
Chapter Twelve
I’ll Wait
Seven hours later…
“She doesn’t even know how to cook,” Grandma Miriam hissed at Gray in the kitchen while I sat in their comfortable, lived in, countrified living room that had crocheted doilies on the backs of the couch and armchairs (yes, doilies), my eyes glued to a TV that came nowhere near to drowning out her voice.
“Gran, Ivey’s in the next room,” Gray growled.
She ignored him. “Who’s ever heard of a twenty-two year old girl who doesn’t know how to cook?”
“Cecily knew how to cook and still, everything she made tasted like shit,” Gray returned.
“At least she knew,” Grandma Miriam retorted.
“And Nancy was so damned flighty, she knew what she was doin’ but still, she’d forget and every time I went to her house for dinner, the place smelled like it had just been badly renovated after a massive explosion because she either flat out burned the shit outta something or something boiled over, the gas went out-of-control, burned the wallpaper off the wall and I’d begin my date wielding a fire extinguisher,” Gray shot back.
I didn’t want to laugh because I was mostly terrified out of my mind seeing as Grandma Miriam seriously didn’t like me and didn’t mind me knowing but, it must be said, Gray was funny.
“She still knew how to do it,” Grandma Miriam rejoined.
“Yeah, and so do I and so do you and, it comes to that, which, Gran, this is our second date so why you got yourself in a snit, I don’t know, then you teach her or I teach her,” Gray responded.
“I’m in a snit because before date one, you got yourself a cut over your eye because of that girl’s troubles and this might be date two but it’s night two that girl’s sleeping under this roof.”
“In the guest bedroom.”
“Grayson Cody, look at me. I’m seventy years old and I had four sons. Four. And I was married to your granddaddy. Do you think after all that experience with Cody men that I don’t know?”
Oh dear.
“First,” Gray clipped and I bit my lip at his tone, “I would not disrespect you like that. Second, I wouldn’t do it to Ivey. I’m a Cody, Gran, and I’m more intimately acquainted with your other three boys’ bullshit than you are these days but I’m my father’s son. Remember that.”