Page 6 of Deceiving Grier

I rang up his order on the register, wishing the ground would open up under me and swallow me up. What the hell was wrong with me? He’d been flirting. I should have asked him out, or flirted back, got his number,something! Instead, I blurted out what he’d owed for the coffee like a complete idiot.

I passed him his change, and he grabbed his coffee, but hesitated before leaving the shop.

“I’ll see you around, Miller,” he said. “Try not to miss me too much.”

Chapter Three

Grier

WhenIgothomefrom work, Jett was in the living room playing some shoot’em up video game on his gaming console. It was dark already, and he hadn’t bothered turning on any lights. The flickering glow from the television was the only light in the room. I flipped on the lamp and dropped onto the couch next to him.

“How was work?” he asked.

“Fine. The usual. I saw Tyler Innes tonight. He came in for a coffee.”

Jett’s brow scrunched up, but he didn’t look away from the screen. “I forgot to tell you, I saw him on Friday night at The Dunes.”

“I think he was flirting with me.”

“Yeah? What did he say?”

I repeated the conversation.

Fingers still flying over his controller, Jett nodded sagely. “Oh, yeah. He was definitely hitting on you. What did you say?”

“Ugh.” I buried my face in both hands. “Nothing. I just told him what he owed for his coffee.”

Jett laughed. “You are so bad at this.”

“Shut up,” I groaned, even though I knew he was right. “What would you have said?”

“I don’t know.” He jerked a shoulder but didn’t look away from the screen. “I probably would have told him what time I finished work, then offered to show him just how much I missed him.”

My face heated, and a strange mix of anticipation and dread coiled inside at the thought.

“I don’t think I could say something like that.” Never mind actually following through.

“Shit!” Jett’s game character collapsed to the ground, and a red haze spread out over the screen. He tossed the controller onto the coffee table, then turned to face me, his expression unusually serious. “You know Tyler is not the kind of guy who’s going to want something long-term and exclusive, right? You’re not going to get what Finn and Alistair have from Tyler Innes.”

I knew that. I had eyes, after all. Almost every time I saw Tyler at The Dunes or around The Square, he was with someone different. Not that Tyler’s disinclination towards exclusivity mattered to me. Tyler or not, I was never going to have what Finn and Alistair had, period. But there was no point in unpacking all that here with Jett. Instead, I shrugged. “I’ll be headed back to Wisconsin once school is done. Long-term isn’t an option for me, either.”

“Yeah,” Jett said, frowning. He didn’t like to think about school ending and us leaving The Square anymore than I did. Then he brightened. “I heard from Sawyer. He’s moving in on Saturday. I said we’d help.”

Less than a week and Sawyer Banks would live under the same roof as me for the foreseeable future. “I hope you’re right about him.”

“What don’t you like about him?”

Jett and I hadn’t really had the chance to talk about Sawyer alone before. First, Jett had been offering him the room on the spot. Then I’d had to leave for work.

“It’s not that. We don’t evenknowhim.” I sighed. “Maybe that’smyproblem. We barely know this guy, and he’s going to be living with us.”

“You worry too much,” Jett said, leaning forward and grabbing up his controller before starting another game. “It’ll be fine.”

I wished I had Jett’s confidence. I started to tell him, but my phone buzzed in my pocket. I slid out my phone and my stomach sank when I looked down at the screen and saw my father’s number, followed by a fresh wave of guilt.

Your father’s sick. You don’t know how much time you have left with the man.

All of those things were true, but I also knew why he was calling, and I hadn’t had time to do what he asked. I was about to disappoint him—again.

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