Page 118 of Worth the Risk

I nod. My first and only indication to anyone other than Zoey that I’m in love with Grayson. And that simple gesture is such a relief.

“Okay. That’s the first step.” She winks before turning serious. “Now, should I guess he’s the reason you look downright miserable when I mentioned Haute?”

I stare at her and tell myself not to talk, but my lips speak anyway. “I’m leaving soon.”

“Uh-huh. And you don’t want to leave?”

My smile is soft as I fight back the emotion. “I don’t know how it happened.” And I don’t. I’ve tried to pinpoint when Grayson Malone became more than just a hot dad in a contest I was running and became someone I fell in love with—God, even thinking those words surprise me—and I can’t.

“No one ever knows how it happens, Sidney. It kind of just creeps up on you and then subtly hits you everywhere at once.” I laugh despite the tears welling in my eyes. “Did you have a fight?” she asks.

I sigh because I still don’t know what we have. “Yes and no. We fought. We made up. We admitted this was more than just a thing . . . but we never went beyond that.”

“And what does he say about you leaving? Are you going to try to make things work—oh. Oh.” The expression on my face must give everything away, because the shocked look in her eyes and her sudden epiphany tells me she gets it. “You haven’t told him, have you?”

I shake my head. “I don’t know how to.”

“Sidney.” It’s a scold. It’s shock. It’s compassion.

“One minute we were nothing, just a little fling to have some fun—and the next minute he’s telling me he wants to try to figure this out. Take each day as it comes. When I tried to tell him, he cut me off with his own apology.”

“You have to tell him.” The foreboding in her voice has nothing on how I feel and what I fear inside.

“I know. Communication doesn’t seem to be our strong suit.” I shake my head, using the cop-out, which is nothing more than a bullshit excuse.

“Love is a bitch, ain’t it?”

“You can say that again.”

“Let me ask you this, if he were to ask you to stay, would you?”

“I don’t know.” The answer is automatic, and yet, my head and my heart don’t match up on this one.

“What would it hurt to try it and stay? I can find a spot for you here. You’ve done a hell of a job so far, so I know you’re good for it.”

“But I have a life back home.”

“Do you?” She angles her head and studies me for a moment. “Do you really want to go home to an empty apartment at the end of every day when you’re so very used to going home to him?”

“That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it?”

“Why did that woman over there tell the other woman that you’re leaving soon to go back to San Francisco?”

In an instant, Luke’s words yank my attention away from Grayson and the camera crew currently interviewing him.

Panic ensues. The kind that has your body shaking and sweat beading and heart pumping.

“That’s where I live,” I say, trying to remain calm.

“No, silly. You live here. In Sunnyville.” His brown eyes search mine in a way that makes me want to crawl into the corner and hide.

“You’re right. I do live here. But I also have a home in San Francisco, which is where I lived before I came here.”

“So, are you going back there or are you staying here?”

Grayson’s laughter with the reporter for E! News filters our way. “For now, I’m staying here.” I’m lying to a kid. Bold-faced lying.

“But when the contest is over?”