Page 44 of Stuck with the Grump

I nodded, biting my bottom lip before shuffling closer to his side. Clarke’s arm wrapped around my body, pulling me in tight. His fingers drifted up and down the base of my back, his breathing slowly lulling me closer to sleep.

“Do you think you’ve already found your person?” I asked, my heart catching in my throat.

Clarke looked at me, his eyes warm as he pressed a quick kiss to my cheek. “I’m not going to answer that because it’s just going to hurt the both of us when you leave.”

My heart skipped a beat as I looked at him. “That doesn’t sound good.”

He chuckled, his fingers continuing to drift. “It is, and it isn’t.”

“You’re not going to tell me what that means, are you?”

Clarke laughed, turning to kiss me softly. When he pulled away, his eyes were sparkling but there was something else lingering behind the sparkle. Something I knew he wasn’t going to tell me about.

“It’s better if we don’t go there right now.”

I nodded, rolling back onto my back and staring at the ceiling. “It’s hard to think that we get to go home soon. What are you going to do?”

“Don’t know yet. Maybe flip a couple more businesses, make more money, spend more money, continue to wonder who I’m living for.”

“If you could do anything, what would you do?” I asked. “If you could get on a plane and go anywhere, where would you go?”

“I’d take you anywhere in the world you wanted.”

I shook my head, smiling though there was an ache in my chest. “You can’t say things like that and expect me to not want to jump your bones.”

“Are you sure you aren’t the senior citizen here?” Clarke asked, his tone teasing. “Who even says that they’re going to jump somebody’s bones anymore?”

I laughed and reached across him for the bottle of wine, taking a long sip before kissing him. Clarke’s hands gripped my waist as we lost ourselves in each other.

20

CLARKE

Theworstthingaboutsunrises was the dawning of a new day. When I was trapped in the lake house with Leigh, we had barely seen a sunrise, and everything had been good. Happy. We were away from the outside world and spending time with each other in a way we would have never gotten a chance to before.

“Want to go into the town today and get a coffee?” I asked as Leigh stumbled into the kitchen, her hair a mess and a lazy smile on her face. “You know, before we have to come back and pack up this big mess.”

“Yeah,” Leigh said with a sleepy smile, rubbing her eyes. “A coffee would be amazing. Do you think they’ll have chocolate croissants?”

“Only one way to find out.”

Leigh’s grin grew as she scampered out of the room and down the hall to get ready. I was already dressed and spent more time lingering in the kitchen, wondering what would become of us.

Would we still be friends? Would she call me to talk about her day? Would we pretend as if nothing had ever happened between us and move on with our lives?

The smart thing would be to let her go. She could find a man her own age who was still experiencing the same stages of life that she was. They could build a future together and she wouldn’t be tied to a man who had her name dragged through the mud. And I wouldn’t have to figure out how to explain to my best friend that I was in love with his sister.

She deserved better than me.

When she left, I would walk away from it. I would let her go and live her life the way she wanted. There would be no holding her back or checking up on her. She could be entirely herself without having to worry about the paparazzi following her because she was with me.

Letting her go was the best thing I could do for her.

“Are you ready?” she asked when she came back out of her room.

“Yeah. Let’s go see what happened to the town during the storm.”

When we got to town, Leigh was quick to find the coffee shop. She didn’t waste any time directing me down streets I hadn’t driven much in years. As we drove, I wondered why I had spent so much time away from the lake. I had houses all over the world but there was something about returning to a place that had once been home.

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