Page 46 of Trusting Fate (Hope Falls: Brewed Awakenings 2)

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She’s home.

Those were the words that popped in Easton’s head as he came around the corner of the bar and saw Grace’s SUV parked in front of the B&B. The same funny feeling that he’d had this morning when Eli had dropped him off and he’d seen her vehicle returned. He was nervous to see her.

Was this going to be a regular occurrence?

Would he always feel nervous when he was about to see her?

In twenty-four hours, this woman had entered his life and disrupted his peace. She’d knocked him off balance. And if they were chosen to compete in the reality show, he had a feeling that her effect on him would multiply not diminish.

He wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

Despite the freezing temperatures that he’d just walked a mile home from Evan’s house in, he felt warm all through his body as he opened the front door. Easton hadn’t known exactly what he’d been expecting but what he saw in front of him wasn’t it.

Grace was curled up in the leather reading chair sitting in front of a roaring fire with her computer on her lap. Her hair was piled on top of her head. She was wearing a sweatshirt, sweatpants, and fuzzy socks. Her face was scrubbed clean, and she was wearing glasses.

If he’d thought she was adorable when she’d mouthed words before asking him about the reality show, that was nothing compared to this. His heart swelled in his chest at the sight.

She looked so soft. So vulnerable. So innocent.

It was such a stark contrast to the persona she presented most of the time.

It was sort of a punch in the gut and knocked the wind out of him.

“What?” she asked when she looked up. “What’s wrong?”

He was technically dating her so he knew that he could tell her how beautiful she looked, but their situation was so...unique, he didn’t want to step over any boundaries or make her feel uncomfortable. He felt like taking things slow, like molasses slow, was the only way he and Grace had a shot at anything real.

She had walls up, and from the little bit he knew about her history, he understood why. If she was ever going to let him in, he couldn’t break down the walls like the Kool-Aid man.

“How was dinner?” he responded, ignoring her question.

“Good.” She sat up straighter in the chair. “How was your dinner? Did you tell your family about the show?”

“Yep.”

“What did they say? Did you tell them we were…together?”

He could tell that she was nervous about his response. She’d asked him not to mention that they had an arrangement and he’d agreed because it was no one’s business but theirs. But he could see that she was nervous that he might have gone back on his word and told his brothers the entire story.

“My brothers didn’t say a lot. My cousin and sisters-in-law had more to say.”

Grace waited and he could see that she wanted details. So he gave them to her. He told her how excited Deanna, Kenzie, and Shayne had been. How they were already acting as if they’d gotten cast because they didn’t think there was any possibility that they wouldn’t. How Deanna had asked him if they were going to have a showmance and he had to ask her what that even was. And he told her that he told them he’d never met anyone like Grace before and he was happy.

Both of those things were the most honest statements he’d made the entire night.

She was quiet after he made that admission, so he asked, “What about you? What did your sisters say?”

“Audrey and Viv remembered you from Evan and Shayne’s wedding, so I think they were more shocked than anything. Ava was concerned…but I think that had more to do with me quitting my job and selling my condo on a whim.”

Easton wondered if there was more to that than she was saying. He sensed that she might be second guessing a lot of her decisions lately, including things heating up between the two of them in the SUV. In the back of his mind, he’d had a nagging question that he wanted to ask her. One that might explain why she had insisted that they take anything physical off the table.

“Are you having any regrets?”

* * *

“Regrets about what?”Grace asked, not sure what he was referring to.

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