Page 70 of Five Alarm Kiss

Grand waved him off. “Whatever they do, I don’t want to hear it.” She pointed back and forth between Jake and Laurel. “So, none of that here.”

Laurel’s lungs flash-froze in her chest. Jake’s grandma was talking about Laurel having sex with her grandson!Sex!Grandmas weren’t supposed to mention their grandsons’ sex lives! They weren’t even supposed to know about it. Yet, here Jake’s sat, with a grin on her deceptively innocent face, studying Laurel with a twinkle in her vivid blue eyes.

Laurel pushed her chair back so quickly, it almost toppled over. She shot to her feet, refusing to look at Grand. She knew her cheeks had to be blazing red.

“Where’s the bathroom?” she croaked.

As soon as Laurel closed the bathroom door behind her, Jake nailed Grand with a stern look. “Really? You really had to go there?”

Grand shrugged. “I like her.”

“So do I!” Jake shouted.

Grand’s pleased expression deflated his annoyance. His grandma was a handful, but he loved her dearly. People said he took after her because he called it how he saw it and basically had no filter. People were right. Not surprising she’d rubbed off on him, since he and Jess had spent so much time with her when they were little. Grand was one of his favorite people in the world. He couldn’t stay mad at her if he tried.

“You embarrassed the shit out of her, Grand.”

“I didn’t mean to.”

“I know you didn’t.” He let out a heavy sigh. “But, can you please try to rein it in? For me. Your favorite grandson.”

“You’re not my favorite grandson,” she said matter-of-factly before scooping another bite of pie into her mouth.

He wrinkled his brows. “I’m youronlygrandson.”

“Fine,” she relented, trying not to smile. “You’re my favorite. Happy?”

He stood and leaned over the table to kiss her forehead. “Happy.” He sank back down onto his chair. “Now, please tell me you’re gonna behave. I’ve worked my ass off to get where I am with her.” He had. He’d spent weeks trying to get her to let him in. “I don’t need you scaring her away.”

He joked about his bad boy persona, but it was important to him that Laurel saw the other side. The side that didn’t go home with a different girl every weekend. That didn’t fail to takethings seriously. The side that wanted to try again after getting his heart stomped in California.

He'd laid his heart on the table, and his ex had left it there. She’d said he wasn’t the type of guy girls married, whatever the hell that meant. She’d labeled him a player, so that’s what he’d become. No strings. No promises. No second dates…. No way to get his heart broken again.

It’d taken years for him to realize she’d actually done him a favor. He hadn’t been in love with her. Not truly. He’d only convinced himself that he’d been. He’d wanted the fairytale—like his parents had had. Like Grand and Grandpa Gus had. Like Jess and Chase had now.

Over the years he’d resigned himself to the fact he wasn’t that guy. But he wanted to be. With Laurel, he realized he wanted to be. He just wasn’t sure how.

“She’s not like the others, is she?” Grand asked.

Jake offered Grand a half-hearted grin before gripping his jaw between his fingers and thumb and rubbing. He knew she could tell his smile was fake, but it was all he could muster at the moment.

Was Laurel like the others? Shit. She was light years away from any other woman he’d known. Innocent, yet tough. Sincere instead of fake. A natural beauty rather than store-bought good looks. Fucking sexy as hell. She was in a league of her own... and way too good for him.

He should walk away, but damned if he knew how.

Chapter Eighteen

Laurel woke the next morning and, for a moment, didn’t remember where she was. Until she heard a motorboat next to her head, that is. Shifting to the right on her pillow, she came face to butt with Britt’s cat, Maisie. Unlike the devil incarnate, Eugene, Maisie was a total sweetheart. Britt had adopted her from the shelter, so she had no idea what breed she was, but her long, gray fur and silver eyes made her strikingly beautiful. She was also the cuddliest cat Laurel had ever met, and as soon as she realized she was awake, the purr machine sidled over to rest a leg across Laurel’s face.

“Pfft.Good morning to you too, but I really don’t need hair in my mouth this early.” She picked up the cat and laid her on her chest. Two strokes of her hand along Maisie’s back and the purring shifted into warp speed.

“Goooood moooorning!” Britt’s annoyingly peppy, sing-song greeting preceded her entrance to the bedroom. “Hey, sleepy head. I brought you some coffee.”

Laurel scooched up to lean against the headboard, so she could take the cup of liquid eye-opener. “Thanks.” Maisie rolled down Laurel’s chest to land in her lap, never missing a purr beat.“How can you be so awake this early? It’s unnatural, especially with your hours.”

Britt usually didn’t get home from the restaurant until around eleven p.m. On the weekends, it was at least midnight by the time they’d shut down the kitchen and cleaned up.

“It’s nine-thirty, sweetie. That’s hardly early.”

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