Before he could make good on that escape, Wren glanced up at him. “So what’s your biggest pet peeve?”
Grayson didn’t even need time to consider his answer. “Being lied to.”
This time, Wren didn’t stumble, she came to a full, abrupt stop. She was suddenly frowning and studying his face so hard, he was starting to feel like he was her algebra final.
He held her gaze, somewhat confused by her response, so he saw when something subtle shifted in her expression.
“You had that answer ready to roll,” she said, somewhat hesitantly.
Grayson shoved his hands in his pockets, trailing behind her when she continued walking. “Yeah. I guess I did. When it comes to relationships, I seem to be a magnet for girls who lie. I dated this girl, Dara, one summer about six years ago. She was Jenny Perkins’ college roommate. Dara’s folks were doing some big six-month cruise, so rather than go home for the summer, she came to Gracemont and stayed with Jenny’s family. She and I hit it off instantly. We dated for nearly three months, and for most of that time, I was trying to figure out how to keep the relationship going long-distance because man, I really thought she might be the one.”
Wren had stopped walking and was now leaning against the shelves. “What happened?”
“End of the summer came, and I laid out my plan. She and Jenny were at JMU, so it wasn’t like they were going to be on the other side of the country. Harrisonburg is only about an hour-and-a-half drive, so I told her I could come see her every other weekend, and she could come stay with me during holidays and stuff. She was studying to be a schoolteacher, so I told her it would be easy for her to find a teaching job around Gracemont after she graduated. That was when she cut me off and said she had a boyfriend at school.”
“She had a boyfriend?” Wren exclaimed, so aghast, he was touched.
“Yeah. Which was news to me because she never once mentioned him. Apparently, they’d decided to take a break from their relationship for the summer. One summer to sow their wild oats and do whatever they wanted.”
“And she wanted to do you?” Wren asked, wincing when she realized how that sounded. “I mean?—”
Grayson chuckled. “Yeah. She wanted to do me. Which I honestly would have been fine with, if she’d said it couldn’t be anything more than casual. But she constantly told me how great I was…even said she loved me.”
“That’s awful,” Wren breathed.
“Yeah, it was. I’d been thinking forever. She’d been thinking summer hookup.”
However, it wasn’t the broken heart that bothered Grayson the most in the end. It was the fact that she’d lied to his face every single day they were together.
“The worst part is, that wasn’t the biggest lie a woman has ever told me.”
Wren grimaced. “It wasn’t?”
“That honor is held by Staci. I met her on one of those online dating apps. She lives in Leesburg and we went out for four months.”
“Were you thinking forever with her too?”
Grayson shook his head. “No. I had a lot of fun with Staci, but I’d figured out by month four that things between us weren’t going to go the distance. I was going to say that to her on what I thought was going to be our last date.”
Wren tilted her head, hanging on his words.
“That was when she told me she was pregnant.”
Wren’s eyes widened. “Oh my God.”
“Oh yeah. Talk about a shocker. We hadn’t slept together more than a handful of times, and I’d always worn a condom. She seemed thrilled, started talking about the two of us getting married. At first, I was floored. But then I realized something seemed off. I asked her if she’d been to see a doctor yet, and she said no, said she’d only taken a home pregnancy test. I told her that I wanted to go with her when she went, and she waved off the idea, saying I didn’t need to. When I drove her home, she invited me in. I refused, because my head was reeling and I just wanted some distance to think shit out, you know?”
“That makes sense,” she agreed.
“That was when she started acting even weirder, pulling out all the stops to seduce me. Saying how great it would be, since I didn’t have to use a condom anymore.”
Wren made a soft sound that told him she knew exactly where this was headed.
“I made up a lie about needing to be up early the next morning, then told her to let me know when she made the doctor’s appointment.”
“I’m guessing she wasn’t happy about that,” Wren mused.
“She called and texted—well, sexted—daily, blowing up my phone, constantly trying to entice me back to her bed. Finally, I just came straight out and said I wasn’t sleeping with her again until after we’d seen the doctor. Because my Spidey senses were tingling hard at that point.”
