He glanced around. “Actually, no. I do sleep here, but I’m renovating a place outside the city where I spend a large portion of my free time.” A proud grin plastered on his face.
“Hey, Arch has this same frame. This is your family?” He smiled and nodded. The picture showed a large family. Three women and a man stood behind him, and eight children ranging from baby to teen surrounded them. “You’ve got quite the extended family, GrayBaron.You and Arch have such regal names.”
He grunted, uncomfortable with talk about his family. I changed the subject. “How far is the house you’re renovating?” It couldn’t have been far, unless he stopped going recently. Since the day we met, it seemed like he was always within arm’s reach.
“About thirty minutes from here.” I followed him into the kitchen where he grabbed a couple bottles of water. The kitchen was decorated like the living room—bare. “I haven’t been out there since before I met you though, there’s too much going on with our current case. That’s the way of it. When I’m done with the case, I probably won’t take another one for a few weeks. I’ll use that time to go play at the house for a while.” He handed me a bottle.
“Are you renovating it by yourself?” I took a long drink of the cold water. I hadn’t had anything to drink since my juice at breakfast.
“Mostly. I’m no good with wiring, so I contract it out. Arch is the plumbing genius. Any plumbing issues wait for him to be able to get out there. Wes is a good all-around handyman; he helps me quite a bit.” We returned to the living room as he spoke.
“I’m having the hardest time imagining you three swinging hammers and installing pipes! I need to see for myself.”
“We’ll all go out some weekend soon. You can tour my dream home. It’s where I hope to raise kids one day.” His voice was low and excited. His future family meant a lot to him.
“Sounds great. I’m in.” I began to imagine how gorgeous little Ellie and Gray babies would be.Oh, no. No babies yet.I didn’t even know where they came from. I couldn’t even choose a guy; I certainly couldn’t be entertaining the idea of starting a family with one. “I’m in for a date. Not the kids. I want kids, but…”Shut up, Ellie.“I’m going to stop talking now.” My face burned bright red.
Gray busted out laughing. “Cool.” He changed the subject. “Come over here and behold the marvel of my comic collection.” I snickered at his pun while he opened the door to a spare bedroom filled with tables. Meticulously labeled boxes with what universe, book, and issues they contained lined the tables.
I opened the closest box to find a man dressed in a black costume. He had lots of muscles and fought a man dressed in purple. “I know this one! I’ve seen a lot of these movies. They’re good.”
“He’s one of my favorite characters. Feel free to browse the boxes. I’m going to go change into something more comfortable since I won’t be going to work today.” I barely noticed him leave the room. I was engrossed in reading the sides of the boxes for any other reference I recognized.
I found several and was three pages into one about my favorite superhero movie when he returned. He changed into a red and black flannel shirt, dark boot-cut jeans, and black motorcycle boots. His hair was still pulled back and braided. He looked like a cowboy biker. I mentally ordered my jaw not to hit the floor.
I forced my eyes to the comic. I didn’t want to be accused of staring. The words and pictures on the page blurred as I snuck another glance. He turned away from me and rifled through one of the boxes. The view from behind was even better. I took a deep breath and faced away to remove the temptation to stare.
“Something wrong? You sighed.”
“Nope! No. I’m fine. Just fine. Reading about, uh, this one here…” My words faltered as he walked around to my front. His elusive tattoo peeked from beneath his shirt.
He peered into my eyes and put his hands on my arms. His eyes moved to his watch. “Crap. I didn’t even think about how late it is. I bet you’re starving. Let’s order some lunch.”
“Sure! Sounds good.” My voice, too high and cheerful, didn’t sound like me. I couldn’t stop peeking at his biceps under the flannel material. I’d never been a shallow person, at least I didn’t like to think I was, but if Gray dressed like a cowboy biker all the time, I’d definitely have a harder time choosing. I’d be hooked.He said they all prefer flannels. Oh, hell.A hormone-riddled teenager would’ve had better control. Being around all the sexy man hotness messed with my maturity levels.
We moved into the living room, and he pulled a file folder out of a desk drawer in the corner. “I’ve got menus for anything you can imagine. Being downtown, everyone delivers. What sounds good?”
“Anything, really. Subs, Chinese, Mexican, you name it.” My stomach rumbled.
“If you want Mexican, I’ll cook for you one day soon. My mother was born in Mexico. I can cook better than most of the restaurants in town.”
“Mmmm, sounds heavenly. My dad loved authentic Mexican food, and I do, too. He always told my mom he was lucky shewasn’tMexican, because if she were, he’d weigh three hundred pounds. Then she’d slap him and make him tamales.”
“I won’t try to beat your mom’s tamale recipe.” He chuckled. “We’ll make a different authentic Mexican dish one day. How does chicken mole sound?”
“Perfect.” We picked out a sub shop and ordered sandwiches and chips. While we waited, I snooped through his Netflix watch list and found many of the same shows on my own queue. He wasn’t a big book reader like Wes, but we could at least watch a TV show together.
We’d both been binge watching the same show about a group of female prisoners. After our lunch, we spent the rest of the afternoon watching the latest episodes. The show contained a significant amount of adult content, and I blushed several times in the course of the afternoon. Watching a lustful scene with my potential boyfriend in the room ate at my nerves.
One particularly uncomfortable scene caused me to peek at Gray out of the corner of my eye, curious if he felt as awkward as I did. When I realized he was giving me the side eye, I started to giggle.
“What’s wrong with you?” Gray laughed at me when I couldn’t reply because of my giggles. He paused the TV. “Is this show too much for you?”
Once I quieted down, I realized he’d moved close to me. “No! I love it. I’ve never watched such a racy show with someone I…” I trailed off. “You know what? Never mind, I’m fine.” My smile was forced and wooden. I didnotwant to explain myself.
“Someone you what?” he asked.
“Someone I’m attracted to.” There, I said it. I hoped he was happy.
