Page 69 of Please, Stay

He took a deep breath. “I’m sorry to spring it on you with everything else.” He ran a hand down over her hair, sloppy and half falling out of her ponytail from the helmet. “You’re an amazing woman. I wanted to be here for you for Christmas, but I have to leave early.”

The rest of the dam broke loose. She gripped the front of his shirt and sobbed uncontrollably. In all the scenarios she’d pictured, he’d never asked her to leave with him. She’d never even thought that was possible. That he would want her there. Or, the outside possibility that he felt a small amount of what she’d felt for him. Her heart ripped in two. Why did love hurt so damn bad?

21

Grayson held her one last second before laying her down on the couch and pulling a maroon blanket up to her shoulders. Streaks of dried tears stained her cheeks, and worry lines crossed her forehead. Those tears. The disturbing sleep. Both were his fault. When he finally stopped driving last night, he’d assumed he could make it work. Somehow, he’d find a way.

Her rejection of his offer destroyed him too much to even consider staying another day. This woman had rooted herself so deep in his chest, leaving now or leaving Sunday wouldn’t change the amount of pain he’d go through. Or how much he’d miss her.

Besides, he’d been an idiot with the paparazzi. Worse than an idiot. He’d endangered her life by trying to outrun them. He had the training for movies. A controlled set. Controlled variables. Not cars that might plow into them at any moment. Especially with Juliana on the back. He should have called Cameron and waited at the diner. With a police escort, they’d have left under much safer conditions.

But they made him crazy. He only had one thought about getting Juliana out of the diner and away from them. Protecting her. And it wouldn’t get any better until he left. The sooner, the better.

At the sound of tires crunching over gravel in the driveway, Grayson met Cameron at the back door. Becky’s car pulled up in front of the house. Cameron pushed open the screen door, holding it open for Grayson to follow.

The rear car door flung out wide, and Carrie’s feet hit the ground running. Carrie barely stopped long enough to give Cameron a half-hearted hug before she wrapped her thin arms around Grayson’s waist. The little girl held him tight.

“Where’s Aunt Jules?”

He skimmed his hand over her incredibly soft curls, her shampoo smelled like watermelon. “Sleeping.” Grayson placed a finger over his lips as they entered the house. Carrie’s nose crinkled with her smile when he pointed to Juliana’s sleeping form. After working all night and then having her world turned upside down, he wasn’t surprised that she’d drifted off after crying so hard in his arms.

Carrie proceeded to perform an exaggerated Elmer Fudd-style tiptoe routine into the living room.

“How is she?” Eliza asked, her forehead wrinkled with concern the same way Juliana’s had been.

“I don’t know.” He shoved his hands in his jean pockets as reality bit him hard. “I don’t know if she was tired from working last night, or I scared her that much.” Or his unexpected offer put her into shock. He’d almost gone into shock himself when the words left his mouth. That hadn’t been his plan. But hope had replaced that shock. The hope that she might not think about what she’d give up, and she’d come with him to Australia.

Hope that she might think he was worth it.

“Bless her heart. She’s lived alone with Daddy for the past eight years, aside from college. I doubt you scared her,” Eliza said.

“She was shaking pretty bad after they chased us here.”

Becky stomped up to Grayson. “Chased you? I didn’t hear they chased you.” Her eyes shot back at Cameron. “Cameron has a bad habit of leaving things out.”

Cameron held up his hands. “You just walked in the door.”

She met him toe-to-toe, her head craned back to meet his eyes. “You should have called. I’d have given those paparazzi a piece of my mind instead of serving them pancakes and coffee at the diner. They all filed in there as if the wind blew them into town without a care in the world.”

“How’s your dad?” Grayson asked.

Eliza rolled her eyes. Becky snorted.

“That good, eh?”

Becky stepped close to his other side, keeping her voice low. “Ms. Iris put him to work waiting on the paparazzi. She told the lot of them that if they were sittin’ in her diner, using her Wi-Fi and soakin’ up her heat, that they’d have to order something.” Becky and Eliza exchanged a glance. “Carrie is a little actress. She patted Mr. Campbell’s hand and told him that she was sure Juliana was safe with you. That you were like Tarzan and would rescue her. Hugh didn’t buy it, of course, but he kept his mouth shut in front of her.”

Juliana sat up when Carrie stopped next to the couch. She pulled Carrie up onto the sofa with her. If Grayson hung around town, who’d end up in harm’s way next time? Eliza? Becky?

He took a steadying breath. Carrie? He’d come into their lives and disrupted it. A sleepy little town with their own problems contained within the county line. They didn’t need the world watching them, questioning their every move, and criticizing every decision they made. That’s all he’d brought them.

It’d been selfish asking her to leave it all for him. That struggle he’d seen in her eyes after offering her Australia left him needing to pull her close for the time they had left but push her away, so he didn’t fall any harder.

Carrie pulled the blanket over her and Juliana, giggling and whispering.

When he looked back down at Eliza and Becky, he cleared his throat under their intense scrutiny. “What?”

Eliza’s eyes were round and unblinking. Becky’s mouth gaped open like a fish with little incoherent sounds emerging, which was odd considering Becky was never short of words to say. Suddenly, she broke out into a huge grin.

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