Page 8 of The Corner of Heartbreak and Forever
She threw in Trace Jericho’s name just to get a reaction from Brindle, because what fun was it to have younger sisters if she couldn’t taunt them every once in a while? Brindle’s response came immediately.Solo. I told you we’re done! We’ll talk tonight. Xox.
She and Trace had beendoneat least a dozen times in the last year alone. Grace set her phone aside. She was excited to spend time with her sisters, even if she’d rather it was at her parents’ house, where they wouldn’t have the noise of Sable’s band to contend with. Amber wouldn’t be at the party. Like Pepper, Amber had never enjoyed rowdy crowds. Grace had always thought her parents were crazy to have seven children so close together, but her mother claimed that it wasn’t children that made life difficult; it was the parents’ inability to give up certain aspects of their own lives in order to care for them.
She glanced across the property to the barn, where she’d spent her youth mucking stalls and helping care for the dogs her mother trained. She’d never regretted escaping those chores for life in the city, even if she loved the animals.
She watched her mother working with one of the dogs she was training in the field by the barn, and just beyond, their horses, Sonny and Cher, grazing in the pasture. She thought about what her mother had said about her not being assoftas she used to be and wondered again if she’d become too harsh. She was definitely different than she used to be. More refined, she liked to think, not the workaholic ice queen Sable claimed she’d become.
She caught sight of Reed walking toward his truck, his T-shirt tucked into his back pocket. When she’d seen him last night, she’d been so conflicted that she was tempted to run home to New York and jump into the arms of her very hot, very interested neighbor, Jasper Lennox, just to prove to herself that she didn’t want Reed Cross. She’d gone out with Jasper twice, and he’d been a gentleman from the moment he’d opened the cab door to the second he’d kissed her good night with too much tongue and not enough…something. She never could put her finger on exactly what was missing from any of the men she’d dated over the years, but something wasalwaysmissing. She had yet to find a man who held her intellectualandher sexual interests. But she knew that being with Jasper wouldn’t prove that the rampant heart thumping and the lust searing through her veins was all a farce.
There was no denying that Reed Cross was sex on legs, with magnificent muscles and a perfect dusting of dark chest hair, the exact opposite of the waxed and manicured actors and metrosexuals she was used to. Reed was handsome, but even if he had gained weight or come back marred in some way, she knew she’d feel the same way she did right now, because he wasn’t just good-looking. He still owned a piece of her heart.
Surely those frenzied emotions were just the remnants of first love that every woman felt when they saw the first guy they’d ever fallen in love with. Right? As desperately as she wanted someone to take her to heaven and back, she was pretty sure Reed shouldn’t be that person.
She watched him place his tools in the back of his truck and grab a water bottle from the cab. He tipped his head back and drank it down. She couldn’t help imagining his warm lips on hers. What would it be like to tangle with all that masculinity? Maybe Sable was right and she had acted a little witchy, but wouldn’t any ex-girlfriend after a guy told her he’d never—ever—leave his hometown, and because of that, she’d been forced to end the relationship, only to find out less than a month later that he’d taken off for what looked like forever?
She looked down at the stack of papers beside her and realized she’d been working for nearly eight hours. Wasn’t she supposed to be visiting with her family and fitting in work here and there? A shiver ran down her spine with the realization that she just might be the workaholic Sable accused her of being. Did that mean she’d become an ice queen, too?
The way her insides thrummed at the sight of Reed, she didn’t think there was anythingicyabout herself. But there was no way she’d do anything more to solidify that image in her sister’s mind.
Or in anyone else’s.
Grace needed to prove to herself that she wasn’t an ice queen. She could flirt with the best of them. She was aproat flirting.A goddess of flirtation.
She gathered her scripts, determined to prove Sable wrong, and traipsed across the yard. Who better to practice flirting with than Reed? She knew he would give her the positive reinforcement she needed, and after the way he’d leered at her, there was no chance of being rebuffed.
Or was there?
The closer she came to him, the faster her heart raced and the more she wasn’t buying her own lie. What if he turned her away? A man like Reed probably had half of the townies after him. Younger, prettier women dressed in stupid Daisy Dukes and cowgirl boots, with perfect little bodies and sweet dispositions.
She slowed her pace, trying not to think about Reed with other women.Of course he’s been with other women.He’d probably already made his way through at least a dozen of the women in town. Girls she’d grown up with. Why wouldn’t he? All men really wanted was to get lucky.
That thought made her a little nauseous—and jealous. Mostly because Reed had never been that way, but also…the idea of him in another woman’s arms bothered her far more than she liked.
She stopped walking when she was close enough to see every dip and groove in his six-pack abs. When he lowered the water bottle, their eyes met—and held. His blue eyes were as dark as the night sky, and the intensity in them held her captive, making her feel naked and strangely feminine at once. She was a cutthroat producer, able to work in a man’s world without feeling intimidated. She was strong and professional and hadn’t thought of herself as anything remotely close to feminine since…we were together in high school.
She looked down at her summer dress, suddenly wondering why she’d chosen it. Was it because Reed had always insisted she was feminine? Did she look toocountry bumpkin? Oh, no. Now what craziness had infiltrated her brain? She was worried about what she was wearing for the benefit of Reed?
Intimidation trampled through her, unfamiliar and uncomfortable, as Reed’s stare continued to burn a path between them. Maybe she was an ice queen, because she was melting beneath the heat of his smoldering gaze. He took a step toward her, and her nerves took over, shattering her determination.
This isn’t failure, she told herself. She knew how to flirt. She just didn’t want to flirt withhimafter all.
At least that’s what she told herself as she spun on her heel and hurried away.
Chapter Four
REED SAT ACROSS the dinner table from his aunt Ella and uncle Roy, in the house where they’d raised him. It was a simple three-bedroom rambler, far from extraordinary in any way, but it felt much larger and full of love in ways no other home ever had. Reed’s mother, Lily, was Ella’s sister and had died in childbirth. His father, Frank Gilbert, had abandoned him to Roy and Ella as a baby. Although Reed had lived with Roy and Ella since he was two days old, his aunt and uncle had always hoped Frank would return, and for that reason he’d always called them Aunt Ella and Uncle Roy rather than Mom and Dad. Reed had only seen his real father once. He was four years old at the time, and the only thing he remembered from the visit was the scars on the back of one of Frank’s hands and forearm. When Reed was nine years old, after years of hoping his father would claim him, he desperately wanted tobelongto Roy and Ella. To be a Cross, not a Gilbert. To shed the sadness of his past. Unable to have children of their own, they had been thrilled to adopt him, though by then the endearments of aunt and uncle were already ingrained. But that didn’t mean Reed thought of them as anything less than his mother and father.
Reed was glad he was there for them now, as Roy recovered from his heart attack. But being there came with a heavy dose of guilt for leaving all those years ago and not visiting often enough. Some might say catching his girlfriend and business partner in bed together was the worst thing a man could endure. Reed knew otherwise. It had been a blessing in disguise, the catalyst to sell his business and return home to rebuild his relationships with his relatives. He’d thought it was odd that he’d felt worse about selling his business than he had about losing his girlfriend, but after seeing Grace, he knew he’d never been in love with Alina.
He was done making any more half-hearted attempts at filling the emptiness in his heart.
“How’s the Montgomery job going?” Roy asked. He was getting stronger every day, but Reed knew it was killing him not to be healthy enough to handle the renovations himself. For as long as Reed could remember, Roy had worked from sunup until well past sundown, and he had never failed to take his wife out every Saturday night. He’d also made time to teach Reed about building, renovations, historical preservation, and everything in between, while doling out important life lessons. They’d tossed footballs, reviewed school projects, and talked about everything from dating to his father—a sore subject for both of them.
“She’s a beauty of a house.” Reed speared a piece of steak with his fork, thinking about the headstrong look in Grace’s eyes as she’d pranced across the grass in that pretty little dress. He’d been sure she was going to give him a hard time, until she’d turned tail and scurried away.
His uncle arched a gray brow. “And?”
And he’d wished shehadgiven him grief or said something.Anything.Reed shrugged. “Nothing. It’s not that big of a job, although I did find some sheathing that needs replacing. It’s a gorgeous porch.”
