Page 7 of You Complicate Me

“Apparently it was my fault,” she said dryly. “I’m emotionally closed-off. Or so I’m told.”

“Oh, hey,” he said, holding a hand out to her as if they were meeting for the first time. “I’m a commitment-phobe. Or so I’m told.”

Grace shook his hand once, laughing at his equally desert-dry tone. “So you’ve been labeled, too. Why is that? Why doesn’t anyone ever say, ‘Oh, she just hasn’t found anyone she wants to open up to.’ Or, ‘he just hasn’t met the right girl yet.’ Why is it always our fault?”

He shook his head. “No clue. Nice to know we live in the same emotional neighborhood, though.”

“Yeah. Maybe we can carpool during our next breakup.”

“That’d be great.”

Grace couldn’t help but smile. “So, what about you? Is there some six-foot-tall, Barbie-looking glamazon out there who is going to kick my ass for groping yours?”

“Nope,” he answered, turning those amazing eyes on her just long enough to cause her heart rate to kick up a notch or two. “I’m unencumbered.”

Typical guy answer, she thought, suppressing an eye roll. He made having a relationship sound as appealing as having a noose around the neck. Or hemorrhoids. “Hard to believe.”

“I know, right?”

He smiled at her again and Grace shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Bastard had at least a hundred different smiles, and each one made her slightly wetter than the last. If she could harness the power of any one of Nick’s smiles and sell it to lonely women on eBay, she’d never have to write another legal brief as long as she lived.

“Tell me about your sister. Michael never tells me anything about his personal life anymore. I know my parents have met her, but I haven’t even seen a picture of her.”

“Sadie’s the sweetest kid you’ll ever meet. Everyone loves her. She’s a journalism student. The first kid in the O’Connor family to go to college.”

Adoration and pride was clear in his voice. She’d be willing to bet Nick had been a great big brother. The kind who’d beat the crap out of anyone who hurt his little sister. Grace envied Sadie. She’d always wanted a big brother. Michael was awesome and she wouldn’t trade him for anything in the world, but as the older sibling, she’d always taken care of him. It would’ve been nice to have someone looking out for her.

“What the fuck,” Nick muttered as traffic ground to a standstill again.

Grace pulled her cell phone out of her purse. “I’ll call my cousin. He’s probably an hour ahead of us. I bet he’ll know what’s going on.”

“What?” Gage growled into the phone when he picked up on the third ring.

Grace smirked. “I take it you’re stuck in traffic as well, dear cousin?”

“Jesus,” he muttered. “I’ve been sitting here for over an hour. I think I heard a helicopter a minute ago. Must be a bad accident. I feel kind of guilty.”

“Why would you feel guilty?”

“Because about twenty minutes ago, I said, ‘Someone better be dead, because if this is just construction traffic, I’ll be seriously pissed.’”

“Well, you’re a terrible person,” she said, knowing all the while she probably would’ve said the same thing, and probably did the last time she’d been stuck in traffic in LA. “So where are you?”

“Fuck if I know. I think I passed a little town called Jericho a while ago. I’m not sure, though. Everything looks the same when it’s surrounded by corn.”

Grace glanced out the window. “Apparently, Indiana is part of something called the Corn Belt, which is basically just a fancy name for an area where the conditions are perfect for growing corn.”

Gage snorted. “Where do you even get that shit?”

“I read something other than medical journals and porn,” she replied tartly.

He grumbled something unintelligible, but she ignored it and said, “I think the fields are beautiful. I can see why Michael chose to go to school here.”

Another snort from Gage. Grumpy bastard, she thought. Grace glanced at Nick. “Gage says he passed a town called Jericho a while ago. He’s been sitting in traffic ever since.”

Nick let his head drop back against the seat. “Grace, we’re hell and gone from Jericho. With the rate we’re moving, we won’t get to the resort until tomorrow.”

Grace bit back a nasty curse word she generally saved for special occasions. “Great. Gage, I don’t think we’ll be there tonight. If you get there before us, will you tell everyone we’re on our way?”

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