Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 99434 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99434 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
***
A few hours later, as the party was coming to an end, I watched from a distance while Gray spoke to Brian. The guys were playing horseshoes under the lights, and Gray had joined in. I suspected he’d done it more to spend time with Brian than actually wanting to play.
Quinn walked over and sat in the Adirondack chair next to me. “I take it you dumped Mr. Twist?”
It took me a minute to realize she meant Oliver. “Yeah. He’s a nice guy, but I realized when Gray walked back into my life that Oliver wasn’t it. Even if Gray turns out to be not it either…what I feel reminded me what it should be like.”
A loud yell brought my attention back to the game the guys were playing. Something good must’ve happened because Brian fistpumped into the air, and then I watched as he and Gray slapped a high five.
“The way to win my husband over is to be good at the silly games he likes.”
I turned to her. “And what does Gray have to do to win his wife’s approval?”
“Simple. Just make my girl happy and not sad.”
Harper came running from inside with her cousin and jumped onto my lap. “Aunt Layla, wanna play with my boxes?”
“Sure, pipsqueak.”
I wasn’t quite sure how to play with boxes, but I let the little tyrant direct me on the back deck until the game ended and the guys walked back over. Brian lifted Harper from the box she sat in and tossed her into the air. She squealed like a little girl should when her daddy plays with her.
“It’s late,” he said. “What do you say I put you and your cousin to bed, but I let you keep on the light and bring some of these boxes with you?”
“Yay!!”
He set Harper down, and she yawned, right on cue.
“Say goodnight and thank you to everyone for coming.”
Harper made the rounds, hugging all the women but keeping away from most of the men, as usual. I was rewarded with a giant, two-armed hug, and then she stopped and looked up at Gray, who stood next to me.
He crouched down to her eye level. “It was nice meeting you, Harper.”
“Thank you for the boxes,” she said.
She hesitated and then surprised the shit out of all of us when she jumped into Gray’s arms for a hug.
Quinn and I were still shaking our heads when Brian carried her to her room.
Gray whispered into my ear, and goosebumps littered my arms. “One down, one to go.”
He stood back up and began to unfold his shirtsleeves, which he must’ve rolled up while he was playing with the guys. Quinn elbowed me hard in the ribs.
“Oww.” I turned to her, and she bulged her eyes in the direction of Gray’s arms—his enormous, thick forearms.
God, I hope her analogy is true.
After the girls were in bed, Brian, Quinn, and I sat around in the yard with Gray, telling him stories about the three of us growing up. We laughed and had a few drinks. I thought it went a long way toward both of them warming up to my new… What is Gray? I suppose they’d warmed up to my new boyfriend. It was almost midnight by the time we decided to call it a night.
At the door, I hugged my best friend goodbye and promised I’d stop up to have dinner at her pub during the week. Brian and Gray shook hands, without the icy glare this time. When Gray embraced Quinn, she winked over his shoulder, right before giving me the thumbs up.
The thumbs up.
Of course Gray had to have turned his head at the exact same moment, but I couldn’t be sure if he’d seen it—until he turned around. The gleam in his eyes confirmed he hadn’t missed a damn thing.
The man had done the impossible in six hours—gotten a hug from the birthday girl and received the seal of approval from my best friend.
And I…
…I was about to get felt up in the car on the way home.
Chapter 18
* * *
Gray
A limousine waited at the curb.
“A stretch? Where’s your town car?” Layla asked.
I waved off the driver and opened the back door for her, without answering. She looked at me, still waiting for a response, as I settled beside her in the back row and pulled the door shut. I spoke to the driver, giving him Layla’s address, and ended with, “Take the long way. I’ll make it worth your while.”
I pushed a button on the overhead control panel, and the privacy glass began to raise. Once it hit the top, I tugged Layla from her seat next to me onto my lap.
“I believe I’ve won a bet, and I’m ready to collect my prize.”
The smell of her perfume, or maybe it was her shampoo, made me insane. I felt like a teenager about to cop my first feel of the hot girl I’d fawned over all year. Only I was a thirty-one-year-old man about to embarrass myself by coming in my pants.