Chapter Seven
“I’d like the record to show that I’m a miracle worker,” Sunny said as he walked into Grant’s office, brandishing the tablet that he’d confessed he preferred to work on.
Grant sincerely didn’t care how Sunny worked as long as he kept doing what he was doing. Hewasglad to see that Sunny was wearing nail polish today, though. Grant had been afraid that maybe he’d lose the courage he’d found in asking overnight and decide against it.
Grant had spent enough of his life feeling like he had to hide who he was that there was no way he’d do that to anyone. Especially Sunny, who’d pulled him back from the brink of a nervous breakdown.
“You found somewhere?” Grant asked after a moment, realizing what Sunny was talking about. He wasalreadya miracle worker, he just kept getting better and better.
“I had to go through a few local connections, but yeah, I did.” Sunny grinned at him. “I have pictures for you to look at before I confirm anything.”
Grant sprung up from his desk and crossed the room to stand behind Sunny, eager to see what he’d found.
The first picture made him gasp. A cute little chocolate-box cabin sitting in a field of snow. It wasexactlywhat he’d been picturing when he’d had the idea.
Sunny chuckled. “It also has lake views, though I guess the lake’ll be mostly frozen,” he said. “Inside there’s a really beautiful hearth, three bedrooms, like you asked, a recently updated kitchen…”
Grant watched over Sunny’s shoulder as he scrolled through the pictures, resting a hand on Sunny’s shoulder for balance.
“It’s perfect,” Grant said. “Better than perfect.”
Sunny turned to grin at him, his eyes lighting up. He reacted sowellto praise that it was hard not to tell him everything he did was amazing.
Grant hadn’t realized how close they were until Sunny turned his head. Just a few inches between them, and Grant’s hand was still on his shoulder, warmth seeping into his palm through Sunny’s shirt.
His stomach bottomed out as he realized that he’d only have to lean in a little way to kiss him.
Hewantedto. In this one moment, when Sunny had given him everything he asked for and then some, he wanted to kiss him. He could feel the air between them crackling with electricity.
Sunny’s lips were so soft, and his smile was so pretty, and the satisfied little sigh he made over his first sip of coffee in the morning was etched into Grant’s brain. He wanted to make Sunny make that sound.
Actually, now that he was thinking about it, he wanted to do a whole lot more than kiss.
He’d known Sunny was pretty from the moment they’d met, but he’d been trying not to think about it up until now. This had caught him off-guard, too thrilled that Sunny had come through for him to tone down his joy.
Joy at knowing Christmas was saved, but also at just being near Sunny.
That was getting harder and harder to ignore. Sunny had come to Grant’s rescue at a time when he’d needed him most, and now Grant wasattached.
More than attached. There was something alotbigger than that going on here.
He could feel it happening, and he knew that would be a disaster for them, but he couldn’t make it stop. He’d known he had a connection with Sunny from day one, and maybe it was only the Friday of their first week, but he couldn’t help how he felt.
Panicked by that train of thought, Grant took a step away from Sunny, putting some more distance between them.
It was one thing to have incredibly inconvenient feelings, but it would have been another thing entirely to act on them. Grant was an idiot, but he wasn’t quitethatstupid.
“So… book it?” Sunny asked.
Grant nodded, his heart pounding in his chest.
The last thirty seconds had been an emotional rollercoaster, and he needed a few moments to recover.
“Yeah, book it. From, uh… maybe from the twenty-third? I was thinking about having people arrive on the afternoon of the twenty-fourth, but that means I have to go ahead to set up. Where is it?”
Sunny chuckled the same fond chuckle he always did when Grant got ahead of himself.
“It’s not too far out, actually. Maybe an hour and a half’s drive, once you get out of the city. Only an hour away from where my parents live, too. I didn’t know there were places like this so nearby when I was growing up.”
