Chapter Twenty
Sunny looked up as he heard a knock on the door, his stomach still tied up in knots after getting caught.
He hadn’t wanted to cause Grant any problems. He was happy to stay quietly in the background while they both figured out what they wanted.
Now, he’d gotten them busted, and then ran away to leave Grant to face Julia alone.
Guilt didn’t quite cover the magnitude of how bad he felt about it, but his first instinct had been to get out of the way. No one could yell at you if you weren’t around to hear it.
“Grant?” he asked, unwilling to face anyone else right now.
He owed Grant an apology. It would have been better to get that over and done with than wait.
“Yeah.” Grant opened the door a little way, sticking his head through. “Can I come in?”
Sunny nodded, hugging the pillow he’d grabbed when he sat down on the bed.
“You didn’t have to run away,” Grant said kindly. He didn’t seem mad, which was nice. Sunny wasn’t sure he could have handled that.
The door clicked closed behind him as he approached. Sunny watched him walk over, sit down on the bed, and then extend a hand to rest on Sunny’s knee.
It was one of the most comforting gestures he’d ever been on the receiving end of. Sunny felt himself let go of a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.
“I wasn’t ready to face your wife,” Sunny confessed.
“Ex-wife,” Grant corrected. “Who likes you, by the way.”
“She does?” Sunny raised an eyebrow.
He’d expected her to be suspicious of a newcomer who was, from her point of view, squirming his way into her family. Getting close to her ex-husbandandher daughter.
Although, now that he thought about it, that assessment wasn’t fair. Julia seemed like an entirely reasonable person, and she’d already found someone else after Grant. He had no reason to think she wouldn’t give him a chance.
He’d just been afraid. Afraid of losing Grant because his family didn’t like him, or didn’t want him around.
“She does. She says you’re sweet. And that you seem like a good person. And that I deserve to be happy.”
“I make you happy?” Sunny asked.
He wasn’t entirely sure how Grant felt about him yet. There’d been hints, signs, and even some heartwarming conversations before now, but Sunny didn’t know where they stood with each other, right here and now.
“Oh yeah.” Grant smiled warmly at him. “You have no idea. You didn’t know me before you met me.”
Sunny turned that thought over in his head. He wasn’t entirely sure what that meant, either, but it definitely sounded like a good thing.
As long as Grant was happy.
“You make me happy, too,” Sunny said, reaching out to cover Grant’s hand on his knee with his own. “I’m sorry I ran off. I didn’t know what to expect.”
“No apology necessary,” Grant responded, flopping down on the bed so his head was by Sunny’s hip.
Sunny couldn’t resist reaching out to stroke his hair, smiling to himself as Grant closed his eyes and leaned into his touch. If he’d been a cat, he would have purred.
“I wish I knew a better way of handling this,” Grant said after a moment. “You and the rest of my family, I mean.”
Sunny swallowed. “I understand,” he said, heart sinking.
Whatever the two of themwanted, Grant’s family--his daughter--had to come first. Sunny knew that.
