Page 45 of Blame It on the Bikini
"It does sound interesting," he said.
"Is that a yes?"
"Yes."
"Great. I'm excited. I'm going to do more research so that I know exactly where we should go and what we should look for."
"We'll talk about it tomorrow."
"Okay. Goodnight, Grayson."
"Goodnight," he murmured as he finally did what he should have done a few minutes earlier: go up the stairs and into his apartment. But he couldn't be that unhappy about setting up another adventurous outing with Lexie. He'd missed talking to her the past few days. And maybe he needed to stop working so hard to stay away from her and just enjoy the time they had before he left, because it was all going to end in a little over two weeks.
Lexie was still excited about her upcoming trip to Joshua Tree when she woke up Friday morning. She told herself it was just about the photographs, but she knew it was also about Grayson. She'd missed talking to him the past few days, and while she was sorry Ben had roughed him up the night before, she was glad that the incident had brought them back together.
But before Sunday, she had work to do, and she needed to concentrate on that. While most of her time was spent on her photography business, she also helped her aunt with random issues around the building. To that end, she opened the billing portal and realized their newest tenant had not yet paid his rent. He still had a day to go, but she was concerned. So, she headed over to her aunt's apartment a little after nine.
"It smells like a bakery in here," she said as Josie opened her door.
"That's because I've been baking," Josie said, her cheeks flushed, a streak of flour across her forehead.
She followed her aunt into the kitchen as a timer went off. While her aunt liked to bake, she was surprised to see her pull a batch of cookies from the oven while there were already two pans of brownies cooling on the counter. "Are you participating in a bake sale?"
"No, but I have friends who need sweets."
"Like…"
"Serena and Brad. They love my oatmeal raisin cookies, and with the new baby, they could use a little sugar for those late-night feeds."
"That's a good idea."
"And my friend Joan is going through chemotherapy, so I'm going to drop her off some brownies this afternoon. What brings you by? I heard about what happened last night outside of Kaia's apartment. I ran into Ben this morning, and he apologized for shoving Grayson into the wall when he thought he was a stalker."
"That was not good," she said. "I came in from the parking lot with Kaia, and we heard shouting. I couldn't believe it when I saw Ben had Grayson pinned against the wall. Every time I think we're convincing Grayson how great we are, something happens to change that picture."
Her aunt gave her a small smile. "Life has a way of surprising us. Ben said Grayson wasn't hurt. But was he angry?"
"He said it was no big deal. But that seems to be his go-to phrase."
"Well, I hope it wasn't a big deal. Is that why you came by?"
"No. I was checking the rents, and I noticed our new tenant still hasn't paid."
"It's not the fifteenth yet," her aunt said with a dismissive wave, as she started moving the cookies from the pan onto a cooling rack.
"Well, it's not a good sign that he's waiting until the last day."
"It's not a sign at all. If he doesn't pay by tomorrow, then we can talk about it."
"No one has seen him around. What's his deal?"
"He's a busy person and also very private. But I'm sure he'll slowly integrate into our community. You just have to give him time. Look at Hunter now. He was once the mystery man everyone was wondering about."
"Yes, but we all knew he'd been injured on duty, and he was healing. We don't know anything about Jax Ridley."
"I know you're curious, Lexie. But I promised him privacy, and I'm going to stick to that."
She frowned at her aunt's words. "I'm not just anybody. I can keep a secret, you know."
