Page 39 of Candygrams

My eyes jerk open and land on the one man I will only ever allow myself to have in my dreams. Shit!

“Grayson, hi, uh…do you need something?” Real smooth transition stupid.

“Yeah, I need to know why you’ve been ghosting me for the past week.”

Okay, first of all, it hasn’t been a whole week, just a couple of days, really. Second of all, calling it ghosting is a little… harsh.”

“I…oh, I wasn’t trying to ghost you, Grayson.” On purpose anyway. Just trying to stay away from you so I can protect myself. “I’ve just been really busy, you know. What with getting the shop open in a matter of days and me having to pick Tandy up and watch her…it’s just been…really busy, you know.”

He steps around the counter and comes right over to me. I have to still myself before I fling myself at him with no care about other women or my fucking fragile heart. When he reaches out to touch me, I unconsciously pull away from him and even though his eyes turn a chilly gray he follows through placing his thumb under one of my eyes.

“You look…”

I swivel my stool to the opposite side and hop down. “Like a zombie? Yeah, I know. I…you know…it’s…just been busy and…”

“Too busy to sleep?”

“Pretty busy.”

“Ah, see I thought someone might have told you something that made you doubt me.”

I answer right away, “Nope. No. I’ve really been so busy I haven’t talked to a lot of people or heard any of the local gossip. Guess I’ll have to catch up when the shop opens.”

It’s easy to say since it’s all true. I have been busy, and no one told me anything about Grayson to make me change my mind. It was actually him that cleared stuff up for me. I start fiddling with the shelving we need to put up before the end of the week and pretend like I have something to do hoping the entire time he gets tired of waiting and leaves.

Chapter Eighteen

Grayson

“Are you here by yourself, Bonny?”

I don’t like how she isn’t meeting my eyes, how tired she looks and the distance she keeps trying to put between us.

“Um, Candy will be back in like ten or fifteen minutes.”

I also don’t like how she fell asleep up front with the door open and nobody else in the place with her. Anybody could look at her through the big windows and come in to take her. She would be in trouble before she even realized what was happening.

“You should put bells on the door, Bunny.” She frowns like she doesn’t understand why I would tell her to put the bells up. “So, you know when someone comes in.”

“Oh, um, I’ll let Candy know.”

When she turns back around, I am standing so close to her she runs into me. “Bunny,” I cup her face in my palm, “I’m going to let you have today and tonight baby, but Friday after closing time…you’re mine.”

I bring my lips down on her but keep the kiss short and sweet. I hear the door open and close right before I take a step back and turn. Candace is standing in front of us giving me a hard look. She crosses her arms over her chest and tilts her head at me like she might be trying to figure me out.

I keep my distance even though I indulge by waiting for her to leave and following her home to make sure she gets there safely. I sit outside watching as Tandy runs around her in circles and ends up pulling her to the porch. I can tell how tired she is, damn it. Not like I can say very much, it isn’t like I’ve been sleeping either.

What the hell happened? Did someone say something to make her change her mind? Did one of the little shits from town confront her? I discard that idea immediately. I know enough about Bonny that I'm sure she would never listen to someone else and judge a person for no reason other than gossip. She’s not that type of person. No this is something she’s heard, or seen, or…I try to think of a recent time she might have seen me with another woman and misconstrued something, but I don’t go around hugging or touching any other people. Just her and it will only ever be just her.

I suffer through another sleepless night spent pacing through my house. The next morning, I am sitting outside her house waiting for her to pull out of her driveway and follow her to the shop. By the time I shut and lock the door at the close of the day, I am more than ready to grab Bonny and figure this shit out. I’m so close to breaking that, I’m not sure if I can go another night. I’m not sure I can let her go. I might resort to tying her to the fucking bed.

When I don’t see her car out front, I check the back and find nothing. God damn it! I speed from my office over to her house. Her car is there but when I call her, she doesn’t pick up. I sit and wait for her to come out. I know she’s got a girls’ night planned tonight and I have no problem stealing her away and taking her to my house. Lilly and Candiace will just have to get over it and have their night without her.

When it starts to get dark, and she doesn’t come out I start to worry. So, I get out of the car and knock on her freaking door. She opens it and lets out a little squeak.

“Is Tandy here?”

She frowns at me. “No, Mom’s taking her to a birthday party for one of her little friends. Why?”

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