Page 68 of New Girl in Town
My fingers tightened on the letters in my hand. I knew what he was trying to say. “I miss you too.”
Grant went still, his eyes moving over my face like he was committing the moment to memory. He swallowed and took a step closer, so close that I could feel the warmth of him through my clothes.
I licked my lips and his eyes dropped to my mouth. I knew he was remembering what it had been like to touch each other. You didn’t forget something like that.
“I miss you too,” he said. I felt the brush of his fingers against the back of my hand.
“Aurora, I—“
“Hello dearies!”
Mrs. Reynolds’s cheery voice rang through the foyer and the tether of heat pulling us closer and closer together snapped. We sprang apart and looked to the stairs, where the elderly woman descended with a smile on her face.
“What are you two up to, then?” she asked, hitting the bottom step and taking in the scramble Grant and I had went through to put space between us.
“Nothing,” I nearly shouted.
“Mail.” Grant pointed at the bank of mailboxes behind.
Mrs. Reynolds snorted and tossed the scarf she carried around her neck. “I see,” she said, giving us a knowing wink before turning to Grant. “Thank you so much for dinner last night. It was lovely, Grant. Just lovely. I’m sorry about Bianca—the girl is very headstrong, you see.”
Grant blushed and ducked his head. “I, ah, can see that.”
I cocked my head to the side and asked, “What’s she talking about?”
“My granddaughter has had a crush on Grant since he blew into town,” she informed me. “Just puppy love, but it can be trying. Grant is so good to put up with it.” She patted his cheek as she walked by and then stopped to look at us once more. “You two are a lovely couple.”
“No, we aren’t—” I began, but Mrs. Reynolds gave a flippant wave of her hand.
“Dear, I’ve seen the way you look at him, and the way you were just looking at him says otherwise.”
I felt my face warm, and I wished that the ground would open up and swallow me at the wink she shot me. “Enjoy the day, you two. I’m off to bunko. Ta!”
Grant waved and gave a good-natured “See ya, Mrs. Reynolds.” I furrowed my brow and lifted my hand in a half-hearted wave. What did she mean, how I looked at him? Was still looking at him…
I shifted, knowing she was right. Things had been getting tense before she showed up.
“Ta...I think?” I said in farewell, deciding that the elderly were a menace. I gave Grant a sidelong look and saw that he was smiling and looking at me with that same soft-eyed look that made my knees weak.
Maybe asking him to hang out wasn’t the best idea. For a moment I’d forgotten my hurt, confusion, and reason for wanting to put space between us. It was so easy to get lost in the moment with him, and I turned to him, fully resolved to not ask him to spend time with me.
Before I could, he beat me to the punch.
“What are you doing today?” he asked.
“I don’t know yet,” I said. I’d woken up late, and I’d been working so hard on the new art installation that I didn’t have a single thing on my agenda besides that.
“So, about hanging out...” He lifted an eyebrow and inclined his head to me.
I crossed my arms while I willed myself not look at him in whatever way Mrs. Reynolds claimed to have seen me do. “What about it?”
“How does dinner and a movie sound? My place at 6 tonight?” Grant rocked back on his heels and gave me a shy smile. It was just a slight turn of his lips, and it shouldn’t have set my heart racing at the speed of light, but it did.
Which resulted in my heart speaking for me before my brain even had a prayer of stopping it.
“Sounds great.”
