Page 20 of Born to Make You Smile

“You are James Bond, right?” I winked. “Who else would be driving that Aston Martin outside?”

“Hush now. Don’t be giving my identity away. I’m here on a very important assignment,” he whispered, leaning in with a finger on his nose. “I’m to track down the bugger who left that nasty bump on your head.”

I let out a giggle. “Let me know when you have a lead. I’d like a word with the bugger.”

“Not to worry. I’ll be sure to take care of him myself,” he said, his brows pulled down. “By the way, how did you know I didn’t take the Range Rover?”

“The sound of the engine pulling in. It’s a dead giveaway.” I knew the growl so well I could pick it out of an audio lineup.

“Ahh.” He gave a nod. “By the way, if you are going straight home, I can give you a lift. Unless of course you have plans with Ethan.”

He glanced at Tina’s patio door, then back at me.

“Actually, we do. We're meeting Dorina and her boyfriend for drinks. But thank you.”

His brows fell as he ran a hand through his hair.

“Oh, of course. All right,” he said with a flat smile. “Well, have fun.”

Ethan came to us, dressed in the fitted white button-down T-shirt and black shorts he’d arrived in, his hair perfectly damp and tousled.

“Dr. Brinley, it's been a pleasure as usual. Thank you so much. I'll see you soon, I hope.” The two men shook hands.

“Yes, of course,” Gavin said, then glanced at me with concern, scratching his forehead. “Grace, I’ll see you tomorrow. Take careof yourself.” He turned before I could reply and headed to his daughters.

His behavior was uncharacteristically odd and abrupt.

Ethan and I made our rounds and said our goodbyes to everyone else. He put his hand over my shoulder as we walked out of the backyard. I quickly glanced back and found Gavin staring at us. He appeared upset. Maybe he was still concerned about my minor injury. Or perhaps there was more to it than that.

***

“What happened to your head?” asked Dorina, clearly noticing the red mark on my forehead.

It was such an embarrassing story, and I wondered if there was any way I could lie about it. Unfortunately, Ethan, being aware of what had happened, answered for me.

“Her boss did it to her,” he stated with amusement.

Dorina narrowed her eyes, her gaze darting between Ethan and me. “What? I don’t...”

I shook my head at Ethan, then turned to her. “It was anaccident. Gavin and I bumped heads reaching down to grab something. It's fine. It's just a little bump.”

Ethan leaned into me. “It was pretty big a few hours ago. I was worried you had a mild concussion.”

The guys got to discussing injuries. Will launched into a story about his concussion when he played football in high school.

“After that, my mom made me stop playing football. But I got into soccer, then I ended up tearing my damn ACL!” Will said, shaking his head of dirty blond hair.

I took a sip of my grapefruit martini and looked at Will. “Was it serious? Did you need surgery?”

“Yeah,” he said with defeat. “After that, I stopped with soccer and stuck to extreme sports like swimming and golf.”

We all laughed.

“Grace, remember when I fractured my ankle while walking on the ice outside my house!” Dorina said, looking over at me and then at Ethan and Will. “We were sixteen, and thank God Grace was with me. She took such good care of me. She even brought me food when I was recovering. She actually made mecachitos.”

“Yeah, that was a nasty fall,” I said.

“What’s aca-heeto?” asked Ethan with curiosity.

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