Page 10 of Receiving His Mercy
“Travis, you’re glaring at her still,” Tyler warned.
“Yeah, well, I just don’t want her hurting Lacey’s feelings again.”
“Lacey’s thirty-six, not sixteen anymore, man,” Jace said. “You can’t intimidate or get rid of everyone that looks sideways at her.”
“Of course I can,” he said, then he went back to their original comment about no one being happy to see him. “And I’ll have you all know that plenty of people are pleased to see me. The subs at Whip It for instance.”
“They hide from you,” Clay said. “Well, except for the masochists.”
“The subs don’t hide from me,” he told them.
None of his brothers could look him in the eyes.
He refused to believe he was that grouchy that subs ran from him at Whip It.
“You’re getting worse in your old age,” Jace said.
Maybe he was. He was getting tired of . . . being alone.
Fuck.
He’d never really thought that before. But watching Lacey with Gray. Watching all of the employees of Black-Gray Investigations with their women . . . yeah, he couldn’t help but feel that perhaps it was time.
“I think it’s time I got married.”
After dropping that bomb, he walked away. He could hear his brothers calling after him, but his gaze had been caught again.
That really was a fantastic ass.
Too bad it belonged to Caren Stanford.
Oh, well, he’d never see her again so he pushed her out of his mind.
3
Caren walked into her small apartment in Dallas and shut the door, leaning back against it. She took several deep breaths, trying to calm her racing heart.
She was being ridiculous.
She’d known that she would see him at the wedding dinner rehearsal tonight. Lacey had made her swear that she’d come to the rehearsal and even though it had been hard, she’d known she had to do it.
Lacey had done so much for her. More than she would likely ever know. This was something small that Caren could do for her in return.
Her friend had always held onto her secrets. Lacey had listened when Caren had contacted her a while ago, even though she hadn’t heard from her in years. She’d taken her in when Caren had turned up on her doorstep seven months ago.
Seeing Travis today had stirred up old memories.
They can’t hurt you anymore.
You’re a grown woman not a scared little girl.
Caren forced herself to stand, and, turning, she locked the door. It had three deadbolts and was made of a thick wood.Her apartment was on the tenth floor and this building had a doorman.
Thankfully, Grammy’s money meant that she could afford to live somewhere like this. Her parents had tried to come for the money after her death, but Grammy’s Will had been ironclad. That was the first and only time her mother had attempted to contact her since she’d left when she a teenager. Probably wanting a share of the money.
Not happening.
Grammy left that money to her and she’d be upset if Caren let her parents have any of it.
