Page 47 of Shot Through the Heart

Only now he has the panty-melting muscles and the smile to make him even more dangerous. He shoots me a wink before he finally faces forward and drives off, leaving me grinning like a damn fool who’s about to fall head over heels when she knows better.

ChapterSixteen

GREYSON

Stella: Hey, I’m gonna need to take a raincheck for tonight. Daycare is sending everyone home early, so I have to go pick up Harper in an hour. The babysitter canceled for tonight, and Eva is out of town. Plus, everything is starting to close, and I now need to go shopping with a toddler.

Stella: Our first hurricane and I don’t even have batteries for the flashlight.

It would bea lie to say that I felt anything other than disappointment while reading the texts. My date with Stella was what got me through this long stretch of away games. Now a damn hurricane is ruining my plans.

“All right, boys, it’s official,” Coach James says as he enters the locker room. “The hurricane approaching just got kicked up to a category five. It’s expected to make landfall tomorrow afternoon, so tomorrow’s home game against the Nighthawks will be rescheduled.”

A collective sigh of relief comes from everyone around me, my own joining the group. We’ve all been anxiously watching the progression of the latest storm that’s about to hit us. The city has been preparing. Most of us volunteered in our downtime before practice today and yesterday at local shelters or hospitals to help set up. However, since this is Stella’s first season living in Florida, it doesn’t surprise me that she isn’t fully prepared.

Combing my fingers through my sweat-soaked hair, I try to ignore the quiver in my stomach at the thought of Stella and Harper alone in the storm. The guys start talking about camping out in Reid’s living room since he’s just outside of the city and more inland. No matter how hard I try to focus on getting cleaned up and what I need to do now that tomorrow’s game is canceled, my thoughts keep drifting back to my girls.

By the time I’m in my car to go home, I realize there’s only one thing that’s going to calm my nerves. I shoot off a text to the guys that I won’t make it to Reid’s and head to the store.

It takes me longer than I anticipated, but two hours later, I’m knocking on Stella’s door and holding my breath. Stella opens the door, Harper hot on her heels, and I’m left breathless at the sight of their smiling faces.

“Greyson…What are you doing here?” Stella asks, bending down to scoop up Harper.

I hold up my arms, which are full of bags. “Heard you needed some batteries.”

Harper’s eyes widen comically. “That’s a lot of battries.” She butchers the word adorably.

“I may have also found some snacks and toys…” I whisper and she squeals in excitement. Looking back at Stella, the surprise on her face has me momentarily wondering if I overstepped. “I also have some water bottles in the truck. And I grabbed sandbags and rope for your patio furniture in case you didn’t have those already.”

Stella’s eyes bulge, her face paling as she glances over her shoulder toward the back of her townhouse.

“I didn’t even think about that,” she murmurs and I shrug when she faces me again.

“Luckily, this isn’t my first hurricane.”

She steps aside, motioning for me to come in. I beeline for the kitchen table and set the bags down.

“Why don’t you start unloading this while I grab the rest of the bags and supplies?”

“There’s more than this? What’d you do, buy the whole store?” She sets Harper down and they both start poking through the bags.

“No, that would be crazy,” I say, backing away toward the door. “But I didn’t know what things you needed or what Harper likes, so I shopped with the thought process of better safe than sorry.”

It takes two more trips for me to bring everything in, but I can’t bring myself to admit that I might have gone overboard.

While Stella unloads the bag of fruits onto the counter, I snatch up two of the bags from my last trip in and crouch down to get Harper’s attention.

“These two are for you.” Extending the bags toward her, I hold my breath as she rushes over and takes the lighter one from me. I was expecting her to take it and run off, only to be surprised when Harper grabs my hand and drags me with her. She stops us in front of the ottoman and sets her bag down before patting the open spot beside it for me to set mine down.

Harper places her hands on her hips and assesses both bags before launching forward and dumping out the contents of the lighter bag.

“This one first,” she declares while already sifting through the contents. She picks each item up with an equal amount of enthusiasm, running off to show Stella the new coloring books, unicorn crafting kit, and the few games that claimed to be age appropriate for her.

When she’s finished going through each thing, she looks at the bag that covers the bigger item.

“There are two things in here. Since you won’t be able to play outside tomorrow, I thought these would help,” I say, moving the bag closer to her and helping her take the toys out. The first one is a unicorn-themed arts and crafts project. There’s painting involved, and I forgot to ask Stella if that was okay beforehand, but when I spot her hovering off to the side with a smile on her face, I’m relieved to see no hints of frustration.

“What’s that one?” Harper asks, her words not forming fully but sounding adorable.

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