Page 7 of Grayson

“It’s just a hookup.”

“Just a hookup.” She laughs and then her hand collides with the side of my head. “There is no such thing as a hookup with that disgusting boil.”

Gia is far from disgusting, but I don’t bite back.

“You do know when she leaves Nashville and goes off to another town or city she has a man at each stop right?”

I shrug.

“So when you decide to sleep with her you don’t care that you are sleeping with half the universe too?”

“First off we don’t sleep.” I waggle my brows and get hit once again, this time in the stomach. “Jesus,” I say in a huff.

“You are nasty and part of me wants to throw a bowling ball at your head. What is wrong with you?”

“There is nothing wrong with me.” I move around the table positioning it between us so that I don’t get hit again. “Gia is easy.”

“Ain’t that the truth.” She crosses her arms over her chest and stares at me.

“I don’t mean easy in that sense.” Scarlett shrugs as if to say well too late. “I meant that there aren’t any expectations, no I’ll call you in the mornings, or us worrying about what the other is doing or who. We scratch an itch and nothing more.”

“I’m surprised that itch of yours hasn’t turned into a festering rash.”

No matter what I say or do, Scarlett will never accept the arrangement that Gia and I have had and used for more than a year. Archenemies, the one person my dear cousin will never like even a little, that is what Gia is to her.

“She’s gone now so.” It’s my turn to shrug.

“Please that oozing puss bag will never truly be gone.”

Scarlett gives up and walks toward my couch, flopping down onto the plush cushions. “Don’t you get sick of it, Gray?”

I join her and kick my feet up on the coffee table. “What?”

“The continuous variety of girls.” I arch my brow and she rolls her eyes. “I’m serious, the chitchat, the unknown, the awkwardness. Don’t you just wish you had that one person that knew you better than you knew yourself? The one opposite you that you could be yourself with no matter what and they’d still love you.”

“You need to tell me something, Scar?”

I watch her as she takes in a deep breath and looks down at her hands that she twists nervously in her lap.

She is quiet for too long in my opinion, but I sit and wait, giving her time.

“Justin is back.” Her words are low but the second I hear his name my shoulders tense. “He decided not to reenlist and last night when I came home, there he sat on the curb outside my apartment.”

Justin, the guy that I swear took a piece of Scarlett the day he decided to join the Army. I watched her slowly fall to pieces after he left and I think we all know that he is the reason she’s pushed away every guy she’s been involved with since.

“No one has ever known me the way Justin has,” she adds.

“Not because there haven’t been those who’ve tried.” She doesn’t attempt to argue, because she knows I’m right.

“Would I be a complete idiot if I let him in again?” I’m not going to deny that Justin loved Scarlett, hell he still may. But to see the way she hurt in his absence is something I don’t want to see again.

“I can’t tell you what to do.” Even though I want to. “You’re the only one that knows what you want, or don’t want. You are the one that has to forgive and forget.”

“Do I sound like a sappy fool to say that I never stopped loving him?”

“Yes.” She turns to look at me and narrows her eyes making me laugh. “But I already knew that.” Everyone has, but none of us ever mentioned it. Scarlett is stubborn, if there is something she doesn’t want to discuss she won’t no matter how hard you push.

“Just do me a favor and take it slow.” I reach out and place my arm over the back of the couch. Hooking her shoulder I pull her closer and she sinks into my side. “If he hurts you, I may have to tie him to tieback of the rig and drag him through Nashville with the emergency lights flashing.”

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