With a sniff, I pull the still half-full bag toward me. “This bag looks stuffed to the brim with what I suspect to be junk. What did you bring?”
She slaps my hand and, with a smile, pulls the bag back to her. “Don’t be impatient.”
Her happiness is always infectious, so I sit back and wait for her to announce everything she has in the bag. She reaches in and pulls out my favorite truffles and holds them up. “Sweets to get you started because,” she rolls her eyes, “we all know dessert should always be first.”
I giggle at her and then she sets the aforementioned cheese and crackers on the counter with her nose wrinkled in distaste, “Only because I love you and want you to have what you like.” She cocks her eyebrow. “But those are all for you because I got me…” She reaches in and pulls out her favorite cheese and a box of crackers and holds them up.
Still wiping my face clean, I smile and stretch my neck to see what else she has in her bag of goodies. She reaches in again and quickly pulls out the DVDForest Gumpwith Tom Hanks. He’s my favorite actor and I’ve forced her to watch every movie he’s been in with me.
“We are going to get loaded with this wine.” She sweeps her hand to the bottles on the counter. “While we watch Mr.Gump run like a fool because of a broken heart, all while eating junk food until we make our stomachs hurt.”
No one in this world could make me as happy as Thal does, well, except for maybe seeing Gray walk through my front door. My smile is genuine now and I hop off the bar stool. “Let me go pee and blow my nose. I’ll be right back.”
By the time I’m walking back down the hall from the bathroom, I hear voices, and they are not Tom Hanks. As I come around the corner, I practically skid to a halt when I see Gray standing in my doorway and Thal standing with her hand still on the knob.
My heart immediately starts pitter-pattering in my chest and my stomach flips.
He looks totally out of place, like someone cut him out of a picture of a farm and posted him in a picture of a city.
His eyes snap to me and I see the pain of the past few weeks move across his face. Frozen in place on the other side of the kitchen island, I put my hand on the barstool as a shield and make sure the back is perpendicular to the edge of the counter as I suck in a deep breath.
He’s hot as ever, with his Henley tucked into the front of his jeans behind his belt buckle and his tattered ball cap pushed back a little. He’s got his thumbs hooked in his pockets and in one hand he is holding a pretty cream-colored envelope.
Thal turns to me, her eyes wide, and says, “You never told me he was drop-dead gorgeous. Girl, why’d you even come back here?”
Gray’s eyes, which are locked on mine, flicks to Thal and back to me. He lifts his hand to hold up the envelope wedged between his fingers and steps into the apartment to lay it on the island across from me. “Wedding invitation from Mason and Sloane, she made me promise I would beg you to come.” He lifts one side of his mouth, but thesmile doesn’t reach his eyes and falls just as quick.
“You personally brought a wedding invitation half-way across the country?” Thal hangs her hand on her hip and looks from Gray to me before pointing in his direction. “That’s dedication.”
I still haven’t moved, I thought he hated me. I don’t know what to think or feel, I keep flip-flopping between extreme happiness and worry that I’m getting my hopes up. Surely, he wouldn’t come from Oklahoma just to drop off an invitation.
He steps up to the counter across from me and sets his hands on the cool marble. The color of his eyes is more green than brown right now, and they are focused on me. “I’m sorry about what I said. I was angry, emotions were high, and I never should have said any of that.”
Echoes of his accusations flit across my mind, making me suck in a breath.
“Thing is.” He looks down at my hands gripping the stool and back up. “Since you left, I’ve been miserable, and all I can think about is seeing your beautiful smile every day.”
The only reaction from me is a tear slipping down my cheek.
He grabs the bill of his hat and scrubs his other hand through his hair, another sexy move I’ve seen him do dozens of times that I’ve missed. Setting the hat back on his head, he says, “I’ve come here to ask you to go on a date with me.”
My eyebrows go up my forehead and my mouth clamps closed for a second. “A date?”
He nods his head. “Yes, I want to date you. Since you left, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and what has become glaringly clear is that my life is damned empty without you in it, so I will take what I can get. It may be hard being in different states, but maybe we can take turns flying back and forth every month. The wedding is in a couple of months and summer festival is coming up, and then in the fall is thecounty fair, and maybe I could take you to a couple of BBQ places that serve the real thing. You can let me know what you think.” His eyes search mine as I take in what he just said.
Gray never leaves his horses. Or his family.
He came here for me.
Taking a second to process what he is saying, I look down at the counter. But he keeps going. “You can show me the best of LA. Maybe the equivalent to the blue whale or the largest frying pan. Or something.” He trails off with the last couple of words and when I look back up, I can see just how out of his depth he is.
He’s nervous.
But he’s doing it anyway.
For me. My chin quivers, and more tears are rolling down my cheeks.
“Girl, if you don’t say something, I’m going to start flirting with tall, muscular and perfect here for myself.” Thal’s voice cuts into the quiet.
