Chapter 4
The month of June was crazy for Grant. Reagan bringing home her older boyfriend could certainly have gone better. Added to that was the fact that Grant never expected to find a woman that turned him on and turned him upside down simultaneously. He spent the month confused about his own feelings, a state he was not very happy about. However, hewashappy when Reagan said she was coming down over the long weekend in July—without Hudson. Instead, she was bringing Davis for a visit. The only reason Grant wasn’t offended by Davis was that he was totally and completely in love with Luna, and everyone knew it. Luna swore she would never date him, but Reagan was positive that all it would take was time and a nudge in the right direction.
“Soon, I think. Don’t you think so, Davis?”
He grinned at her, an optimistic look on his face. “I hold out hope, as always.”
Grant thought the kid was too skinny to be attractive, but he wasn’t in the market for twenty-one-year-old dudes, so what did he know. “She sounded pretty sure about her feelings, Ray. I don’t think time or distance or whatever is going to change that.”
Reagan shot him a look. “I disagree, but that’s beside the point.”
Grant took the hint and stuck his hand out to the boy. “It’s nice to meet you, Davis.”
Davis wasn’t sure what to make of the siblings, but he was glad to be invited for a visit, regardless. He was tired of their boring college town when Luna wasn’t in it. He had to sleep on the couch, but he figured it was a small price to pay to be with the nonjudgmental crowd.
“What are you majoring in?” Grant asked as they sat down.
Davis looked sheepish. “Art Appreciation.”
Grant’s eyebrow went up. “What kind of job will you get with that degree?”
“Oh, nothing. I’m going to be a paid intern at my family’s company. They insisted I graduate from college first just so I had a piece of paper to hang on their wall. They never specified what I was to study, hence Art Appreciation.”
“Because there’s no way to make a career out of that,” Reagan interjected.
“I could open a gallery or I could be a private art broker. I could be an agent for artists.”
“That actually makes sense,” Grant said.
Davis sighed. “Except that I’m expected to work for the Healy Company. Not working for them would see me cut off from my allowance and inheritance. Which would suck.”
“You . . . have an allowance?” It was something Grant couldn’t wrap his brain around, really. Once again, he wondered why Reagan wasn’t the one with this guy. He was closer to her age, he was insanely wealthy, he would see her taken care of for life . . .
“Yeah, and I spread the wealth, so it would affect more than just me if I was cut off.” Davis sat back and propped a foot on the opposite knee. “I figure the least I can do is share what I have since I know I’m spoiled.”
“Sounds good.” Grant looked over at his sister. “So how is Luna?”
“She’s good. Planting corn or weaving or some such hippie shit.” Reagan laughed. “She gets tons of outdoor time over the summer.”
“I wonder what she’ll do when she graduates and has a job to stick with.”
“Well, her summers will still be free, so I imagine she’ll go home,” Reagan told Grant.
“Oh, that’s right, she’s going to be a teacher.”
“And I’ll be stuck pushing papers and working through the summers,” Davis complained.
“Cry me a river, sweets,” Reagan said sarcastically.
“Yeah, yeah.”
The three of them made up the couch for Davis to sleep on. He was surprisingly non-bitchy in Grant’s opinion, for someone who admitted to being spoiled by the finer things in life. He pitched in with the chores and never complained. He paid when they went out to eat and wouldn’t dream of them turning him down. When they all went in Reagan’s car to watch fireworks, Davis carried the bag of crap Reagan felt the need to bring. Grant was impressed and continued to lament the idea that this guy wouldn’t be his brother-in-law. Grant was sad to say goodbye at the end of the long weekend.
He worked like crazy for the rest of July. He didn’t see Alex, and he figured that was for the best. He was focused on the job and on his friends. He made more of an effort to spend time with them, and not just the time Brent spent giving them free tattoos. Grant wasn’t pinching pennies quite as tightly as he used to which meant more money for going out. He was determined to lose the old man moniker if it was the last thing he did. The guys ribbed him for suddenly being interested in having a life, but he took it good-naturedly.
It was near the end of July when he saw her again. She came in early one morning wearing a miniskirt and a tank top that showed most of her assets. Alex looked around and realized she was not the only customer. Her face fell as she realized she’d calculated incorrectly.
It wasn’t in her nature, tracking a man down and having sex with him in public. While the bar had been a coincidence, she couldn’t deny she’d been hounding him at work. There was something undeniable about him that she craved when she was alone. She had no choice but to go back, to seek him out and see if he felt the same way. She wanted to do things with him that weren’t in her plans. Things that she’d never done, or thought of doing. It was the way he looked, the way he carried himself, the way he didn’t fall for her shit. Alex couldn’t help running and hiding after their escapade in the bar bathroom because she felt ashamed. The problem was, it didn’t matter how hard she tried to stay away from him; she couldn’t keep him out of her mind for more than a few seconds at a time.
