Page 87 of Trusting Fate (Hope Falls: Brewed Awakenings 2)

The drive usually took him about five minutes. Today he was walking through the front door of the B&B in under two. He took the steps two at a time and entered Grace’s room as quietly as he could.

When he entered the room, he saw Grace was sound asleep in her bed. Well, not sound asleep, she was softly snoring. Audrey, who was sitting in the corner chair reading stood and tiptoed out of the room. He followed her.

After he shut the door as quietly as possible, he turned to Grace’s sister. “Thank you so much for staying with her today. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t.”

Yes, he did. He would have stayed his ass with Grace and the house wouldn’t have gotten staged.

Audrey smiled. “If I hadn’t been able to, then Ava or Viv would have. And if we couldn’t I’m sure Kenzie or Shayne or Deanna would have. That’s the best part of having so many people around that love you.”

He nodded and exhaled a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding. He’d forgotten what that felt like. Sure, the people he worked with in the field looked after one another, but they didn’t love each other. It was different.

“Do you want me to stay a little bit so you can eat or take a nap? I can stay the whole night with her,” Audrey offered.

“No that’s okay. I’m good.”

Easton didn’t want to eat, and there was no way he was going to sleep. All he wanted to do was make sure Grace was okay.

“Okay,” Audrey grinned.

He walked Audrey down the stairs and when they got to the door she turned and gave him a hug that he hadn’t even known he needed, before saying, “If you guys need anything, just call.”

“I will.”

Once he saw that she was safely in her car, Easton shut the door and headed back upstairs. He quietly opened the door and walked, as lightly as his six-foot frame would allow him to, over to the chair that Audrey had been sitting in.

When he lowered down into it and looked at Grace, for the first time all day he relaxed. He was exactly where he needed to be. Cleo, who was curled up next to Grace looked up at him and for a second he thought she was going to come and curl up on his lap, but she just licked her paw and settled back down next to Grace. At first he felt a tinge of disappointment, he could use a little Cleo love. But then he realized they were both exactly where they needed to be to take care of their girl.

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