Page 5 of The Corner of Heartbreak and Forever
“Grace knocked him off his game with her I’m-just-standoffish-enough-to-make-you-want-me act,” Amber said as she reached a hand down to pet the head of Reno, her golden retriever. Amber was epileptic, and Reno was her service dog. “But Gracie could knock anyone off his game.”
Grace softened at her sister’s words. She missed their unconditional love and friendships. It seemed to her that other than her childhood best friend, Sophie, who now also lived in New York, true friendships were hard to come by in the city. But she knew there was nothing like the love of younger siblings. Even when they were growing up and bickering over everything under the sun, her younger siblings still looked up to her like she held all the world’s answers. Little did they know that she looked up to them, too. Not that any of them, including her, ever had all the right answers. Decisions around the Montgomery home were often made late at night, with the seven of them huddled together and plenty of hot chocolate and laughter on hand. Sometimes there were tears, too, but no matter how sad one of them was over a breakup, bad grades, career woes, or anything else, they’d always had one another’s backs. Part of having one another’s backs was helping them find a bright spot in a dark moment.
And Sable was about to have a very dark moment for keeping news of Reed working on the house to herself.
Grace crossed her arms against her resurfacing anger. “Knock him off his game?” she said in response to Amber’s comment. “More like I annoyed the heck out of him.”
Sable and Amber both spun around.
“You’re here!” Amber, completely oblivious to the tension sparking between Grace and Sable, threw her arms around Grace, hugging her tight. Her seizure-alert necklace lay familiar and present between them. Pepper had developed the necklace when she was in graduate school and had since patented and sold it all over the country. It featured a button that Reno could push with his nose if Amber had a seizure and included an internal GPS system to alert family members and emergency services to Amber’s location. Their mother trained service dogs, and she trained each of the seizure-alert dogs she worked with to use the necklaces. Thankfully, the alert system had been needed only once, since Amber’s seizures were controlled well with medications.
Sable must have noticed Grace’s scowl, because she mouthed,Don’t be mad.
“When did you get in?” Amber asked.
“Late last night,” Grace said, surprised Sable and Brindle hadn’t already outed her for running off in a huff.
“I’m super excited about your class.” Amber’s hazel eyes sparked with excitement. “I’ve cleared out the office and brought in more seating for the lounge area in case you want to teach there. Thank you so much for agreeing to do this! It means the world to me.”
How could she burst Amber’s bubble by telling her she was going home? And really,whywas she running away from Reed? She was a big girl. She could deal with being in the same town as him for a few weeks.
“I’m looking forward to it,” she said honestly. It wasn’t the class that made her stomach flutter. “How many people have signed up?”
“Only four so far, but that’s a start.”
“It’ll be a nice change. I’m used to working with big casts and crews. Where is everyone this morning?” Grace glanced out the window, catching sight of Reed’s broad back as he tore wooden planks from their tethers and tossed them aside like toothpicks. Gone was the lean teen she’d fallen in love with. She’d noticed the breadth of his shoulders, his muscular chest, and his thick thighs when he’d been breathing down her neck. When he’d grabbed her wrist, there had been a moment, aconnection, so startling she’d been unable to breathe. No wonder her sisters were gawking. The man was built like a solid, intoxicatingly beautiful red oak.
“Mom’s at the store,” Sable explained. “Dad took Dolly and Reba to the park.” Dolly and Reba were ten-month-old golden retrievers their mother was raising to train as service dogs. “Brindle’s working on something for her drama class’s upcoming play, and Morgyn had to meet a supplier at her shop.” Brindle was a full-time teacher at the high school, and she also ran the drama club for the elementary school. Morgyn owned Life Reimagined, an eclectic store where she created her own fashions and accessories, as well as repurposed gently used items. “Brindle and Morgyn are going to the county fair later, and they’re coming by tonight to hear my band play. You’re coming tonight, too, girlie, so don’t even think about trying to back out.”
Sable tapped Grace’s shoulder, jolting her brain back into gear and reminding her that she was irritated with her secret-holding sister. But before she could get a word out, Reed reached over his shoulder, nimbly gathering his T-shirt, and tugged it over his head, unveiling planes of hard, tanned flesh. A collective gasp rose between them as he tossed the shirt aside. All his delicious muscles flexed as he picked up another plank and rested it on his shoulder. Grace’s fingers curled with the desire to touch him—confirming once again that it had been way too long since she’d been around arealman—andthat she had to get the heck out of Oak Falls.
She opened her mouth to try to capture all the energy coming to life inside her and aim it at Sable for keeping Reed’s presence from heragain, but her mouth had gone bone-dry.
“Girls! Give that poor man a break.”
Their mother’s voice cut through her Reed-induced trance. They spun around as their mother set two bags of groceries on the counter. Marilynn Montgomery was a strong woman. Some said it was from years of gardening, horseback riding, and training service dogs, but Grace thought it had more to do with raising seven complicated and often wild children.
“You’d think you were a bunch of horny teenagers the way you drool over that man.” Their mother pulled Grace into a warm hug, squeezing her longer than usual, giving her the extra love Grace hadn’t realized she’d needed until just then. “How’s my sweet girl?”
Hot, bothered, and frustrated.“Good, Mom,” she said, because she was pretty sure her mother wouldn’t appreciate the truth.
“We’re not drooling. We’re just making sure he’s working and not goofing off,” Sable said, turning to watch Reed again. “It was Grace who was trying to get him into bed, not us.”
Obviously Sable wasn’t going to make this easy. Maybe Grace would have to leave after all.
“Ugh, Sabe, you’re so raunchy,” Amber said, her cheeks flushing.
“Grace is the one who went out there half naked to flirt with him,” Sable pointed out.
“Grace?” Her mother’s brows knitted as she looked over Grace’s silk cami and pajama shorts. “You didn’t go out there like that, did you?” She poured a cup of coffee and shook her head. “Poor Reed probably didn’t know what hit him.”
Grace rolled her eyes. If her mother had known that Grace and Reed had once secretly dated, she’d never have hired him.
“I didn’t go out there to flirt with him. I went out to find out why the heck someone was making noise this early. I had no idea you were renovating. I thought Dad was tinkering again. Why didn’t anyone tell me?” Her father taught engineering at the community college and had summers off, during which he often took care of odd jobs around the house.
“Oh, honey.” Her mother’s gaze softened. “You have so much going on with your plays. Right after one gets going, you dive into the next, and you finally got some time off. I didn’t think it was a big deal.”
Sable suppressed a smile, and Grace knew her sister was thinking the same thing she was.Reed Cross is a very big deal.Sable dug through the grocery bag, trying to dodge the weight of Grace’s stare.
