Page 49 of Trusting Fate (Hope Falls: Brewed Awakenings 2)

Her hands were steady as a rock as she typed back one word.

Grace: Accept.

After she pressed send she took a deep, cleansing breath. That word had a double meaning. She was accepting the offer yes, but also accepting what she actually wanted in life.

As she was setting the phone back down on the counter it vibrated in her hand. She picked it up expecting to see a congratulations message from Gary for the sale. And it was a congratulations text, but it wasn’t from Gary. It was from Frankie.

Frankie: Hi, this is Lauren’s assistant Frankie. I want to be the first to welcome you to the Home Sweet Flipping Home: Virgins vs. Vets production! You and Easton will be receiving your contracts shortly and the passwords to log into the Flipping Made Easy program. Congratulations!

Grace reread the message. She was on the show. Easton was on the show.

They were on the show.

She rushed out of the bathroom and saw that Easton’s bedroom door was open and he wasn’t in it. So she hurried downstairs.

“Easton!” she called out as she got to the bottom of the staircase. He wasn’t in the front room, so she ran to the kitchen.

He wasn’t there either.

No, no, no.Where had he gone this early? She started to call him but realized that she didn’t have his phone number.

She was definitely going to need to get that.

She turned to head back upstairs when something on the deck caught her attention. It was a sweatpants covered leg sticking straight up in the air. He’d talked about doing yoga out on the deck yesterday, but they’d spent the afternoon working on and submitting their audition.

“We’re on the show!” she said loudly as she crossed the kitchen and opened up the French doors.

When she did, she saw that Easton was not alone. He had a female friend. A feline female friend. There was a cat beside him in, no joke the exact position as he was. She was pretty sure it was called downward dog but this tabby with a perfect winged eye that YouTube beauty gurus would kill for was nailing the pose.

“Who’s your friend?” Grace asked, knowing that he hadn’t arrived with any pets.

It turned out Viv was right again. Easton was a pussy magnet.

* * *

Easton stoodfrom the downward dog position and felt every cell in his body come to life as he drank in what he was seeing. Grace was standing in the doorway and she looked like an angel. A really sexy angel. Her hair was damp and hanging over her bare shoulders. His eyes traveled lower to the cleavage that was spilling over the white towel secured tightly between her breasts. The cotton material clung to her curves, highlighting her hourglass figure, the hem stopping just a hair above mid-thigh showcasing her long, toned legs.

He knew that she had spoken to him, but his brain must have been too busy processing what he was seeing to bother registering the words that she’d said. His caveman DNA was overriding his listening and comprehension skills.

All he could think about was how badly he wanted to pick her up, throw her over his shoulder, carry her up to his room, throw her on the bed, strip her of that towel and worship her naked body. There was a buzzing sound in his head, and it had nothing to do with the fact that he’d just stood up from his downward dog position. She was causing the white noise he was hearing.

“Easton, did you hear me?” her voice cut through the static in his brain and his eyes traveled back to meet hers.

He shook his head. “Sorry.”

“I asked, who’s your friend?”

He glanced next to him at the tabby who he’d met this morning when he came out to have a cup of coffee. She looked a little thin, so he’d fed her some tuna. Since then she’d become his shadow.

He’d almost started calling her that, Shadow, but he’d opted for Cleo instead.

“This is Cleo, short for Cleopatra.”

Grace smiled and walked toward the cat with her hand extended. “Hi, Cleo.”

Cleo hissed as she turned her back to Grace, flicked her tail in the air and stepped closer to Easton, brushing against his legs and purring.

“Fine, I didn’t want to meet you anyway.” Grace turned her attention back to Easton and he could see that Cleo’s shun had done nothing to dampen the excitement shining in her eyes. “Did you get the text?”

---