Her Forever Hero (Unexpected Heroes #3)(34)
“I don’t think she’ll go for any of the above,” Cam replied.
“She doesn’t need to know about all of it,” Axel told him with a wink.
“Dammit, Axel, you can’t say that to me. I’m an attorney,” Cam said with a glare.
“Not right this minute, you’re not. At this moment, you’re just a concerned boyfriend,” Bryson said.
“Not quite that yet, either,” Cam grumbled.
“Isn’t she moving into her new house in a week or two?” Bryson asked.
“Yes, I think at the end of this week or early next week.”
“My buddy is doing the final inspection. I think we can get a few things installed before she gets in there,” Axel said. “In the meantime, we need to make a ‘disaster’ happen at her place so she has no choice but to leave the apartment.”
“It’s an apartment. What can we possibly do that’s not going to ruin the entire place?” Cam asked.
“Leave that up to me,” Axel said with a wicked smile.
“Maybe it’s better if I don’t know. That way I can truly be shocked. But remember, there are good people living there,” Cam told him.
“I wouldn’t do anything too illegal,” Axel said.
“Damn, if only your old bosses at the FBI could hear you now,” Bryson remarked with a grin.
“I’m going to get disbarred by the end of this, aren’t I?” Cam said.
Bryson laughed. “Possibly, but your girl will be safe.”
“I need better friends,” Cam groaned.
“Oh, come on. You know you love it,” Bryson told him.
“Now that business is all taken care of, I have some news to share,” Axel said, beaming as he looked at the two men.
They waited. He said nothing else. “Spit it out,” Cam finally growled.
“Ella and I are expecting our first baby.” The normally composed Axel looked like a kid in a candy store as he shared that piece of information.
“Congratulations, buddy!” Cam stood and smacked him hard on the back.
“Thanks. Okay, sorry we got off topic,” Axel said. “Let’s get back to your girl now, since mine seems to be doing a whole lot better than yours at the moment.”
The men finished their lunch, and when Cam left, he wondered whether Grace was ever going to talk to him again. The way things were going, she might be in deeper water with him than with whoever thought it an amusing pastime to pester her.
He just wanted to keep her safe, he reasoned. It had nothing to do with his wanting to spend more time with her—nothing at all to do with that.
Grace gazed at the modest yet beautiful home sitting in the exact same place the old monstrosity of a house she’d been raised in had once sat. This house was much smaller, but she’d played a big part in its design, and had picked out every single piece of the house personally.
She didn’t know what she was trying to prove by building a cottage right on the site of her parents’ mansion, but it gave her pleasure to picture her mother’s face upon seeing this.
She’d wanted to burn her parents’ home down, to watch the fingers of dark smoke rise into the air and have a chance to say good-bye to all the miserable things that had happened in that house. She’d gotten her wish with a “burn to learn” from the local fire department when they’d burned her house down while training new recruits. But not before she’d donated all the usable pieces of the house, the windows, fixtures, expensive chandeliers, and even the flooring. She’d gutted the house, and it gave her pleasure knowing that a number of lives would be made better from the proceeds of her parents’ property. Something good needed to come out of at least one thing they’d created.
After Cam had left her at the apartment, she was paranoid for the next hour about the dang mouse, so she decided she was better off walking around the property she would soon be living on. At first she didn’t think about the fact that there were thousands of mice hanging out in the fields she was wandering through.
But then the idea started gnawing away at her brain. Yes, she knew in theory that they were more frightened of her than she was of them, but those things could fit in all sorts of places, and they could move much too fast. What if she slipped on her shoe and felt mouse whiskers against her toes? Heart attack city! A shudder ran through her at just the thought of those beady little eyes staring up at her.
Still, she couldn’t avoid going home forever. Her furniture was being delivered next week, and if she slept in the house right now, she’d be on the floor anyway, where a hundred mice could easily crawl over her.
Not ready to go to the apartment yet, she walked behind the house, listening for little squeaks all the while, and made her way gingerly down the overgrown path that led to her grandparents’ original homestead. A soft smile turned her lips up as she pushed against the door and walked inside.
When she’d come home last year, the building had been filthy, but since then she’d cleaned it all up, brought in a new rug, and hung crystals in the windows. Sitting down in the rocking chair in the corner, she thought about how many nights she and Sage had slept in the loft, how many times they’d completely freaked each other out by telling ghost stories.
One memory drifted through her, one that took her back in time to a warm summer day when the nights were short but memorable and love was floating through the air.