Page 19 of Shot Through the Heart

Maybe this is why he needs someone here with him? To make him seem…approachable?

How the hell am I supposed to do that when the man looks as intimidating as a bear and we only have a few more feet between us and the building?

I get my answer just as Greyson moves past me to open the door.

Two little girls, who appear to be around six or seven, stand just to the right of the entrance, holding a sign made up of red-and-yellow letters asking to give the team a friendship bracelet. My heart squeezes at the sight of the two girls bouncing up and down, waving a fistful of bracelets each with their free hands.

I pause, glancing between a confused Greyson and the girls, but my mind’s made up. Taking a determined step toward Grey, I reach my hand out and wait patiently for him to accept it. His frown deepens, which is something I didn’t think was possible, but he reluctantly lets the door close to take my hand. With a tug, I pull him off to the side and smile at the girls, hoping that my positive demeanor will offset Greyson’s palpable grumpy mood.

“Stella,” Greyson grumbles, but I ignore him and focus on the girls.

“Those are really pretty bracelets.”

The smaller of the two girls beams, revealing a gap where she is missing a tooth.

“We made them! All by ourselves!” Then she sheepishly glances over her shoulder at the woman smiling behind her. “Well, Mama helped tie the knots.”

“Tying knots is really hard.” I shrug and notice the other girl staring wide-eyed over my shoulder. With a quick glance, I find Greyson awkwardly standing behind me. The sight of his unease almost makes me laugh, but instead, I focus on the girls and jab a thumb over my shoulder in his direction. “Ya know, Greyson justlovesbracelets.”

“Wait, what?” Greyson mumbles, but luckily, the girls’ gasps and squeals of joy cover it.

“He does?” the taller one exclaims, dropping her corner of the sign so that she can fumble through the bracelets in her hands. While she’s busy mumbling about finding the perfect one for him, the girl beside her eyes me warily with pinched brows and a frown replacing her earlier excitement.

“Does he actually like them? Or are you just being nice?” Her blunt question takes me by surprise. Her sister pauses, stopping her search and watching me intensely.

“Of course he likes them. Why wouldn’t he?” I ask, not bothering to glance over my shoulder to confirm with him. She looks back at her mother before leaning in to whisper to me.

“Daddy told Mommy that boys don’t like bracelets and that it was dumb we made them. And none of the other guys stopped for one.” She looks at her sister, then back at me. “So I just gots to know if he really wants one or if you’re being nice for him. I just want to know if Daddy is wrong or not.”

My heart breaks at hearing her reasoning, slowly replaced with anger at the fact that her father was putting down something that clearly makes her happy. Before I can think of anything to say, though, Greyson’s warm presence at my side takes me off guard.

I turn my head and watch as he bends to rest on one knee beside me.

“She’s not lying. I really do love bracelets,” he tells her and all the breath is sucked from my lungs at the sight of a small smile stretching across his face as he answers the child in front of me.

A wide, toothy, and crooked grin stretches across the little girl’s face as she turns to face her mom.

“He really wants one, Mama!”

I glance up, finding the woman wiping a tear from her face as she grins down at her daughter. “Well, then you better give him one so he can get to his game.”

The little girl turns back, holding up her bracelets for Greyson and asking him which one he likes best. As he carefully interacts with the girls, suggesting they pick out the ones they think would be perfect for him, all I can do is stare at him.

Which is probably the only reason I finally notice the slight tension radiating from him and the tick in his jaw. Everything else about him seems relaxed, so different from the past two interactions I’ve had with him. The man before me now, kneeling and smiling, shows me the first glimpse of the boy I once knew. But the lingering unease is still there, just below the surface and showing me that something is still wrong.

As Greyson cracks a joke and slides a shiny red bracelet onto his wrist before turning to the girl’s sister, an intrusive thought creeps in.

Is this how he would be with our daughter? Would he be able to keep his issues and newfound grumpy persona aside so that she could just have fun?

“Everything okay?” a voice asks from behind me, and I glance over to find Dean standing in the doorway, confusion coating his face as he takes in the scene before him. Shoving away my own wandering thoughts, I smile and stand so he can see the sign the girls dropped.

“They brought you guys?—”

“Friendship bracelets? Hell yeah!” Dean interrupts excitedly and practically bounces over to us. “Oo is that sparkly one spoken for?”

I step back as Dominik and Landon join in, letting the guys have their moment with the girls. As I look around, I find Lilly and Ari standing in the doorway, grinning as they watch the guys. Tearing my gaze from them, I finally notice thateveryonehas taken notice of the team with the girls. Photographers snap pictures, calling out for the guys or adjusting to get better angles, but the team is in their own world as they finish up.

Greyson is the first to step away, his gaze immediately finding me. He closes the short gap between us and the relaxed smile he had while talking with the girls falls from his face as he stops in front of me. Which is something that shouldn’t bother me as much as it does.

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