“Don’t judge it until you try it. It’s quiet, it’s private, and I don’t have to listen to my neighbors.”
“Still not liking apartments, I take it.”
After Grayson scanned a card on a pad near the gate and waved to a guard, he drove through.
“Hate it. My home is my escape, the place I get to relax and just be me. I want it to be comfortable.”
Our definitions of comfortable clearly differed greatly if he thought the giant monstrosity we parked in front of was it.
“Do you have a family stashed away in there you didn’t tell me about?” I joked when we made our way to the front door.
“Nope, there’s nobody living here besides me. I don’t enjoy living with other people.”
“So you didn’t mean it when you asked me to be roomies?”
He’d asked me to move in with him in New York every time he came out to visit Humptulips. But since I didn’t want to leave Willa behind with Garret, I’d always declined, no matter how much I wanted to take him up on it.
The front door swung open, and he gestured me inside. “Oh, I meant it. You’re the only person I can stand to be around 24/7.”
Words left me when I took in the grandeur of his mansion. A white marble staircase was in front of me, the ceilings in the entrance hall at least three stories high.
This was too much, and I couldn’t hold back, choking on the laughter I tried in vain to keep in. “Julius Caesar called. He wants his villa back.” My words came out garbled since I couldn’t stop laughing.
This was the flashiest and most over-the-top house I’d ever been in. And it absolutely wasn’t Grayson.
How did he end up here?
He made his way down a hallway to our right, and I followed, my eyes flitting from mahogany trimmings to gilded mirrors and chandeliers.
“Don’t make fun of my villa. The marble columns will grow on you. It just takes a few months. If you’re impressed by this—and I can tell how much you secretly love it—wait until you see the rest.” He winked at me, not in the least offended by my obvious distaste for his house.
We stopped at a kitchen the size of a basketball court. The enormous windows overlooked the giant backyard and manmade lake. “Help yourself to whatever you want. I’ll be back in ten.”
I spotted a coffee machine and went to work.
Grayson came in exactly ten minutes later, fiddling with his tie. “If you want to grab something on the way, we should be okay—”
He stopped talking when his attention snagged on the two travel mugs I’d just finished pouring and was adding creamer to. He didn’t like sugar—at least he hadn’t the last time I’d made him coffee.
I closed the lids and handed him his mug when he was within reach. He gaped at me, then at the mug before taking it. “You made me coffee?”
“I don’t think I can function this early without it. I only put a dash of creamer in, but if you changed how you have your coffee in the last five years, add something else.”
He took a sip and smiled. “It’s perfect. You always had the perfect creamer to coffee ratio.”
“It’s not that hard, you know.”
“You say that because you know exactly how much to put in.”
I grinned at him over the rim of my cup. “You’re the only person I know who consistently screws up his own coffee.”
“One of the many reasons I need you in my life.” He lifted his cup. “Good coffee.”
He made me feel all sorts of confused, and I needed to put a stop to it before I declared my undying love for him. “Let’s go or we’ll be late.”
“You hungry? There’s a bagel place on the way to the studio.”
“Sounds perfect.”
