Page 15 of Never Always
She examines the card and thwacks it on her palm, a gesture she does when she thinks, I can tell. “Let’s make plans right now. I work down the street at the rehabilitation center. I’m a physical therapist in the pediatric department. Want to get together for lunch soon? I’d love to get to know you better. Next Monday at noon? Something to look forward to on the worst day of the week.”
Excitement reverberates in my chest. “Yes. Of course. That would be fantastic.” My smile must be wide, because she grins back, her soft pink lips pulling back to reveal bright teeth. She’s beautiful—not in the typical way one would judge beauty, but in all the parts that make her equate to something otherworldly. I ask her about her job and watch as she lights up, telling me about a case she’s working on. Her passion is contagious, and I recognize her fire as the same one that burns for my career. We are kindred.
She waves me off. “Enough about me. Tell me everything about you. Thank you for inviting us into your home, by the way. You must think it so forward having never met us before. Tonight has been pretty crazy. Rexy worries for Grange so much that there was no way he could have relaxed tonight without laying eyes on him in person.” There’s loud, raucous shouts from my living room. Maeve’s laugh is infectious. “Someone must have won.” She moves to peer in their direction and then shakes her head. “Grange won.”
“How? He beat me, too!” I exclaim, clapping my hands once in defeat. “I don’t want to seem full of myself, but chess is my game. When you don’t have hobbies outside of your job, you take what you are good at seriously. He’s good.”
Maeve slides in next to me and tells me that one of his foster brothers taught him how to play. It became a refuge in the turbulence and he would practice incessantly. For validation from his foster family, and because it quieted his mind. I could kiss her for giving me that tidbit. It’s exactly the same for me—the feeling of single-minded focus. “Grange has some other weird talents. I’ll let you discover those on your own. Who taught you how to play chess?”
Grange pops in, face exhilarated from winning against his friend, and for the second time in one night. “Someone who could use some more practice taught her,” he answers for me.
I fist my hands by my sides as Maeve groans. “He’s going to gloat forever now. He’s good at that, too.”
He opens his hands to the sides, stance wide and enigmatic. “When you’re good, you’re good.”
I jab a finger at Grange. “For someone so good at a game filled with logic and planning moves in advance, you sure don’t apply that to your own life. You could take some notes,” I quip. “And my dad taught me, thank you very much.”
Maeve slaps Grange on the shoulder and says, “Burn, my friend. Burn.” A muscle twitches in Grange’s jaw. “You have the whole Team pissed at you for bowing up at Mercer’s. Probably didn’t think far ahead, did you? Even past your own nose? I know Sierra is a snake, but you know that too. You’ve moved on from that. You have to stop kicking that dead horse.”
Rexy overhears and chuckles, ambling into the kitchen as well. “It would be too easy if Grange was logical. He excels at shooting from the hip.”
Grange eyes me, a playful smile on his face that gives me butterflies. “Not really into easy things,” Grange says, making me blush and probably making his friends uncomfortable. Grange looks at Rexy, “You aren’t either, so don’t pretend that’s something strange and maybe I did plan several steps ahead tonight.” His gaze flicks between his friend’s and mine.What does that mean?
Rexy folds Maeve into his arms, almost violently, and presses a long kiss at the hollow of her neck. Her eyes flutter closed and I turn my face away. Rexy coos, “I don’t know about that. What do you think, babe? I have a feeling you’ll be easy for me tonight.” Maeve suppresses a giggle as her reply and turns into his arms to press her body against his.
“Get a room,” Grange says, followed by a disgusted noise from his throat. “I’ve kicked your ass, you’ve seen I’m not in a prison cell, I’m alive and I’m not harming anyone, you can leave now.”
Rexy raises both brows. “You want a ride home? Or at least back to your truck? Or, ah, you staying the night?” He glances my way. “There is no disrespect behind that question.” What a gentleman. Seriously Grange’s opposite.
I didn’t even think about the fact that he would be stranded here unless I brought him somewhere. Grange throws up gun thumbs. “That’s a good idea. I highly doubt Tennyson wants to loan me her bed for the night.”
I roll my eyes and prop a hand on my hip. “Theoretically, you could take the sofa. It pulls out into a full bed.” Looking at his full height, I add, “You may be too big for it.”
“Nah. I’m more of a real bed guy. No couches for my back and hips. My body is shot.”
Sighing, I shake my head. “Corrick Granger, you aren’t taking my bed. Go home.”
He looks crestfallen, like he actually expected me to want him to spend the night. “Sure then. Of course. Let’s go.” I hear Grange’s temper behind the cool indifference. Maeve and Rexy make a move toward the door.
Oh, punch buggy, he did think that. Maeve might be right about him liking me. As impossible as it feels to me, it seems that way right now. My pulse becomes an erratic staccato inside my brain, my neck, I feel it beating in my fingertips. “You are working at the lab in the morning with me,” I edge, swallowing down the automatic reticence that comes with this offer. The first of its kind I’ve ever made in my entire life. “If you change your mind. It’s yours.” I nod at my sofa. “My bed is clean. You’re not getting near it. I can take you to get your truck tomorrow after we finish up. It makes sense to let them get on with their date.”
He turns, sliding his hands in his pockets. “You want me to stay?”
I pull my ear, just once, leaning my head to the side. “It’s the logical solution. Want has little to do with this.”
“Fine, only because you want me to spend the night,” Grange says, rolling the last word with an accent. He turns to his friends. “Guys, have a good evening. Sorry to have spoiled whatever slow mo plans you had before.”
Rexy looks annoyed. “Far from slow motion, man. Stop being a fuck head and it won’t matter what plans I have.”
Grange looks at the floor and back up to his friend. “Yeah. Sorry, man. Maeve, until I see you again.” He tips an invisible hat and bows in her direction. “Don’t be too easy. You hear?”
“Mind your biz, Grange.” Maeve slides the card I gave her into the little bag she has slung across her body. She meets my eyes. “It’s better if the large dog stays anyway. Those girls disappearing is super scary. Terrifying. I don’t want to go anywhere alone at night now.”
Rexy clears his throat. “You shouldn’t be going anywhere at night anyway. If you’d move in with me, it would solve all your worries.”
“Not now, Rexy,” Maeve says, breathing out. “Seriously though. Be careful. The news said they may have found a body of one of the missing women which mean this might be a serial killer.” My skin prickles and I rub my arms.
Walking them to the door, I explain that I’ve always lived alone and that there’s no sense worrying about something that’s highly unlikely. Rexy leans in and hugs me. It takes me by surprise, but then Maeve does the same thing. “It was so nice meeting you. Please let us keep you,” Maeve says.
