“There you go. There’s that pretty smile,” he said, drawing his thumb over her lower lip. “Tell you what. I’ll bow out of tonight with good grace and let you enjoy the evening with your family alone, if you agree to go with me to Sunday dinner.”
“With good grace?”
He crossed his arms, his eyes twinkling with pure mischief. “If you refuse again, I’m going to pitch a fit like a toddler in a toy store when his mom says no,” he joked.
She couldn’t help herself. She giggled, covering her mouth with her hand. “I’m tempted to say no just so I can see what that tantrum looks like.”
He didn’t share her humor. Instead, he hit her with something so sincerely sweet, she felt herself melting again, despite all the shit rumbling inside her. “Please, Wren.”
She wanted to say no.
She needed to say no.
But when Grayson hit her with that please…
“I’ll think about coming Sunday,” she said, refusing to add one more lie to her tally. “But tonight, I really need to?—”
“Spend time with your family. I totally get it. Just so long as you’re there, sitting beside me on Sunday. Gonna need your promise on that, little bird. It’s the only way I can make the ultimate sacrifice and give you up for one whole night.” He held up his finger. “Just one night.”
The teasing note in his voice was almost her undoing. Because there was no denying he believed there was a future for them.
She didn’t share that belief. And not just because she was messed up and losing hope of ever being able to have sex with a man.
Grayson hadn’t mentioned his family’s legend to her. Not once. Which made her even more certain the world hadn’t shaken for him the same way it had for his brothers.
She wasn’t sure what that meant, exactly, because she wouldn’t let herself dwell on it too hard. Every time she spent more than a few minutes considering it, she started to fear that Grayson had given up on waiting for the lightning strike and was just settling for her.
“Grayson,” she started.
“Promise me, Wren.”
She sighed. “You’re impossible.”
“And you’re coming on Sunday,” he stressed.
She could, should, keep arguing, but she needed him gone, needed space to breathe and think.
Oh, who the hell was she fooling? She was going to fall apart.
“Fine.”
His face lit up and guilt twisted in her gut. “Say the words ‘I promise.’”
“I promise.” She was batting a thousand on lies this morning, so why stop now?
He leaned down and kissed her forehead, the tenderness behind the gesture almost breaking her.
“I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She didn’t have it in her to pick another fight, so she merely nodded.
Then she watched in silence as he headed for the living room, which was where they’d both left most of their clothing.
The moment he was dressed, he left, and the apartment felt enormous.
Empty.
She walked out to the living room, locked the door, then slid to the floor. The first sob escaped before she could stop it. She curled into herself, a tiny ball on the floor, as she tried not to remember, tried not to see it all again.
