Page 3 of Saving Grace
I wave him off, but his words pull Jett from her current fixation.
“Hey, Drew,” she says, her voice tentative as she eyes the glass in my hand. “Everything okay?”
The sentiment in her voice is a gut punch, but I do my best to ignore it. If I accept her compassion right now, I’ll spiral. “Just a lot on my mind,” I say as I gently swirl the brown liquid in my glass, wondering why I poured it to begin with. I quit drinking this shit eleven months ago.
“I’m always here to listen. You know that,” she says as the energy in the air shifts. Jace’s bulky frame moves towards us, his eyes immediately taking in the whiskey. Without a word, he reaches into the cooler under the bar and pulls out a soda, sliding it over and slipping the still-full tumbler from my fingertips.
“On that note, I’m heading back to work. Kelsey needs to duck out in a bit, and there’s a new frozen coffee recipe she wants me to try,” Jett says, already backing her way through the tables to avoid the impending confrontation. “Tell Noah I’ll see him at home when he finishes helping you.” She runs into a table corner but doesn’t flinch as she waves at us, her focus already on the little bookstore and café she and Jace’s twin own across the street. They opened it a few months ago, and the place has taken off. Kelsey runs the café side, creating off-the-wall coffee drinks and pastries, while Jett runs the bookstore and author services side.
Once she steps through the door, Jace turns his focus back to me. “Rough day riding ponies?”
I nod. “This heat is going to be the death of me,” I say before taking a sip of the cool drink in my hand.
Jace chuckles. “You’ve lived here your whole life and you still aren’t used to August in Georgia?”
I roll my eyes, my lips quirking up on their own accord. “Being used to it doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
The humidity has been its own version of hell lately. Imagine taking a hot shower and then putting on long sleeves and jeans without drying off first. That’s what Georgia humidity feels like.
“Well, look what the cat dragged in,” says another voice from the back room. I glance up to see Noah Slater, our other best friend and Jett’s boyfriend, coming from the back and drying his hands with a towel. His eyes slip between me and the glass Jace hasn’t emptied yet before settling on my face, studying me.
Noah isn’t one of many words. In fact, most of this town thinks he’s an irritable grump. Since Jett came into his life at the beginning of this year, he’s been much more pleasant, but his demeanor is still questionable at times. And he sees way too damn much. The dude reads people like his girl reads romance novels.
“Noah, cover the counter for a bit, yeah? My bartender should be here any minute.”
“Got it, boss,” Noah says as he falls into the regular routine of wiping down the bar. He’s an elevator mechanic but fills in whenever Jace needs help. Or when the ranch needs an extra hand. Or when Kelsey and Jett need help at the café. You get the point.
If he’s asking Noah to cover, it means he’s about to drag me out and demand answers. Answers that I don’t have. Panicking, I reach forward and snatch the glass from the bar and bring it to my lips.
Before the amber liquid can make contact with my tongue, fingers land on the rim, gently pushing it back to the bar top. Jace’s eyes burn a hole through me.
“Bro, what’s goin’ on?” he asks, his head cocked to the side as he studies me.
“Don’t know what you mean.” I look around the bar. Anywhere but Jace’s questioning gaze seems like a good option. There’s no crowd yet, but the regulars will start trickling in within the hour.
“Bullshit,” Jace shoots back. “Now, I wouldn’t care if you’d come in and asked for a beer. That’ve been fine. But you quit drinking for a reason, bud, and you know damn well I won’t serve you liquor. If this isn’t a cry for help, then I don’t know what is.” He starts to walk toward the back hallway where his office is, motioning me to follow.
“Forget it. It’s fine,” I mumble as I push off the stool, suddenly too nervous to talk to my best friend about the thoughts suffocating me. Before I can blink, Jace’s six-four body is blocking my path, his hand on my shoulder.
“Don’t do that man.” He shakes his head, messy curls going everywhere. “Don’t downplay. You came in for a reason. Let’s go talk about it.”
I flick my eyes to the door, still halfheartedly thinking about bolting.
Until Jace pulls out his best trick. He knows it, too, by the way he widens his stance, his arms crossing over his massive chest.
“Talk to me, or I call big brother in to get you talking.”
I internally groan at the threat of Declan getting involved in more of my shit and grudgingly follow Jace to his office. He stops at the kitchen window and hollers to the cook.
“Hey, Buck. Can you whip together some loaded fries for me? To go?”
“Got it, bossman.”
He slaps the counter in thanks and continues down the hall while I follow like the obedient little puppy I am, grumbling all the way.
“Jump off one roof at sixteen, and they baby you for eternity.”
Jace turns and gapes at me, his hand twitching. I know he wants to hit me but is scared of hurting my shoulder. The minute I’m one hundred percent cleared is the day Jace Riley lays me out flat.
