Page 11 of The Trouble With Attraction (Rock Canyon, Idaho 6)

Eric could feel the dude trembling in his grasp. “Sorry.”

Erick practically threw him back and he and his friends stumbled out the door. Eric didn’t meet Gracie’s gaze as he started gathering glasses, didn’t want her to read too much into his behavior. It was no secret that he wanted her, he’d made that plain the night of the Sweetheart’s Dance, but when she’d started dating that pussy Jake Paulsen, Eric knew that whatever he’d thought was there was one sided.

It had been a major topic of conversation in Rock Canyon, Gracie and Jake. How all it took was a good man to tame such a wild child, but Eric couldn’t believe it. Gracie wasn’t wild, she was just…

Beautiful? Sexy? Sassy?

She was uninhibited, and he couldn’t understand how someone like Jake would ever make her happy. The guy was as interesting as unbuttered toast. She needed someone who would challenge her, stroke that fire inside until it engulfed her and her man, someone—

Someone like you?

Eric didn’t have that high of an opinion of himself, but he at least would let her be who she was.

No matter how annoying she could be.

Finally, Grant closed the doors and leaned against it with a heavy groan. “The next time you come up with some brilliant money making idea, I’m going to kick your ass.”

“I’d love to see you try, little brother. Why don’t you knock off? I’ll clean up and close out.”

Grant glanced around the place, at the glasses and trash everywhere and then his gaze settled on Gracie. With a sly grin, he winked at Eric. “Fine by me. Gracie, want me to walk you out?”

Eric was ready to choke him. “She’s fine. Get lost.”

Chuckling as he went out the back, Gracie watched him disappear before turning those gorgeous moss green eyes his way.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you wanted to get me alone.”

Eric put more glasses in the dishwasher bin. She wasn’t wrong; he did want to get her alone, but he wasn’t going to try anything. It was one thing to go after Gracie when she was available, but he didn’t poach other men’s girlfriends.

“I just wanted to thank you for stepping in tonight. I know I’m not one of your favorite people.” She snorted. “I’ve said things to annoy you, you’ve pissed me off—”

“Your gratitude is getting a little lost in the insults,” she said.

“My point is, you really saved my ass tonight. I owe you.”

Eric waited for her to say something snarky, but she just pressed her lips to the rim of her glass and took a sip. He couldn’t help staring at those glossy pink lips as her tongue slid out to lick away any traces of foam. Eric’s dick stiffened against the fly of his jeans and he shuffled his feet painfully, fighting the urge to reach down and adjust his hard on.

Finally, she finished her glass and set it away from her. “It’s fine. Honestly, I was just trying to keep Mike and Gemma from talking.”

“What do you mean?”

She poured another beer, hardly meeting his gaze. “They think there’s something going on with us and they like to give me shit.”

“What makes them think that?” The fact that whenever you’re in the room I can’t stop staring?

“I think it’s because we fight and argue. They think it’s foreplay.”

Eric pulled a beer for himself, and leaned across the counter. “I don’t screw attached women.”

Did she actually move closer on the bar? “Well that’s not much of an excuse anymore as

I’m no longer attached,” Gracie said. “Jake and I broke up.”

Eric paused, setting his beer down. “Is that an invitation?”

“No, just being honest. Lord knows words going to travel fast.” Downing her second glass, she shook her head with a grimace. “God, sometimes I hate small towns.”

Eric could do without people always being up in his business, but he loved Rock Canyon and couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. “So, you finally woke up and realized good old Jake is about as interesting as a stick?”

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