Page 39 of Trusting Fate (Hope Falls: Brewed Awakenings 2)

All of the color drained from her face, and she slapped her hand over her mouth. “No, I didn’t.”

She appeared horrified, and he felt bad that he’d pointed it out, so he didn’t argue with her. He quickly agreed, “Okay.”

“Yes, I did,” she reasoned, her hand still covering her mouth. “How would you have known I did that if I didn’t do it?”

At this point Easton wasn’t sure if she was talking to herself or him so he just remained quiet.

She lowered her hand and took a deep breath as she straightened the already straight papers stacked neatly in front of her. “I haven’t done that since law school. It was something that was pointed out to me when we were doing mock trials. I worked really hard to break that habit.”

He could tell that it bothered her that it had crept back up. Just like it had bothered him that he’d been nervous, jealous, and done a stalker sniff.

It seemed they both brought things out in each other that they weren’t particularly fans of.

“It doesn’t matter.” She squared her shoulders. “The reason I wanted to talk to you is because I’d like to cash in my IOU.”

He felt his left brow lift. “Your IOU?”

“Remember last night, when we…you know… after we…” She gestured her hand in a rolling motion.

“Got each other off,” he filled in the blank.

“Yes.” She cleared her throat and he saw the pink flush on her cheeks darken. He liked this side of Grace almost as much as he liked the side of her that had told him so boldly what she wanted and how she wanted it.

“After that we were talking about the tree and how crazy it was that it fell. You said that you owed me one because I saved your life.”

He had said that. He’d been sort of joking at the time, but he had said it.

“I’d like to cash it in.”

Easton couldn’t tell if Grace was serious or not, but he was very intrigued to find out. “Cashing it in already. That was quick.”

“I know, but an opportunity has come up and I can’t do it alone. I need a partner.”

A partner?He liked the sound of that. He liked it a lot.

“A partner for what?”

* * *

Grace hadn’t beenthis flustered since her first interview at the law firm. She’d been twenty minutes late due to an accident on the 405 and had forgotten her briefcase at home which had her résumé and other papers that she needed in it. She’d been a complete mess then and she was a complete mess now.

The difference was, the circumstances were what had caused her to be flustered then. Now, it was the shirtless man sitting across from her. She’d seen his body up close and personal last night but seeing it from a distance was an entirely different ballgame.

He looked Ryan Gosling in Crazy, Stupid, Love when Emma Stone accuses him of being photoshopped hot. No, actually, he looked even hotter than that.

“Grace, a partner for what?” he repeated.

“A reality TV show.” Grace knew this was where she might lose him. Reality television was a very polarizing subject. Some people loved it. Some people hated it. From the research she’d done on Easton, she doubted he was a fan. She waited to try and gauge his reaction, but he didn’t have one, so she continued. “I went to meet with Lauren this morning to look at property, she and her husband Ben are realtors who have a realit—”

“I know who Lauren and Ben are. Home Sweet Homeand Home Sweet Vacation Home are my mom’s favorite shows.”

“Oh okay, good.” Grace figured that would only help her case. Easton was clearly close to his parents from the way he spoke about them last night so his mom loving the shows had to work in her favor.

“Well, they are casting a new reality show called Home Sweet Flipping Home: Virgins versus Vets.” Grace pushed the PR packet over to Easton so he could look through it as she filled him in on the details of the show and then ended by saying, “I want to do the show, but I can’t do it alone. Other than filming the obligatory segments for the show, you won’t have to do anything else. I will do everything. Design. Budget. Dealing with the trades and general contractor. Everything. I just can’t do it alone. I have to have a partner.”

He pointed at the paper. “It says here that they want couples, siblings, exes, childhood friends, people with a shared history. We met yesterday.”

“Yes, I know.” This was the part Grace was the most nervous about. She took a deep breath. “I did some research on that. Statistically, couples do the best on shows like this. My original instinct was exes, I figured people would tune in to see the drama unfold, but apparently people like love stories more than breakups. Who knew?”

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