AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She raises a brow. “Do I need to have a talk with him?”
Oh, God. I have no idea what to say to that, so I just laugh. The elevator arrives empty, and we step on it together.
She fills the silence of the car. “For some reason, I always saw you ending up with my Spencer. Even way back when. There was always something about you even when you were much younger that told me you had a good head on your shoulders.”
“Thank you for saying that. The truth is that I always had eyes for Grayson. He was my first crush.” And my first bang, but I refrain from telling her that.
“How adorable is that? And now you two…” She trails off. “Well, I don’t know what it is, but I saw him looking at you when you were holding the baby, and…” She doesn’t end that sentence, either, and I’m dying to know what the ending is.
“And?” I prompt. I can’t help myself.
“I’ll be honest with you. He’s never brought a girl around before. But when I saw him looking at you, I had the strangest feeling that he’d be next. Not Spence, who just got engaged. Definitely not Ash. But Gray.” She shrugs a little. “There’s just something about the way he looks at you. He’s never looked at anyone like that before.” Her eyes get a little misty, and I think mine do, too.
I want to tell her the truth about how I’m falling for him and he will never see me as anything other than his best friend’s little sister, but I can’t make myself form the words.
The elevator opens to the floor with the cafeteria, leaving the conversation behind us as we focus on the reason why we came down here.
But her words echo in my head. He’s never looked at anyone like that before.
Maybe there’s a chance for that happy ending for us after all.
Chapter 39: Grayson Nash
Risks Versus Regrets
It feels like an ambush…like she’s been waiting all day to get me alone.
As if it wasn’t bad enough that she decided to accompany Ava down to the cafeteria.
“What are you doing with that sweet girl?” my mother asks me when it’s just the two of us.
I excused myself to the restroom shortly after Asher and my father arrived, and my mom said she had to go, too.
And now here we are, standing in an empty hallway near the restrooms, and I really do have to go take a piss, but now I have to answer to my mom. She raised four boys who all ended up playing football professionally. If you think this woman can’t take every single one of us on, you’d be wrong.
“We’re just having fun,” I say, my tone more defensive than it should be.
“The way you were looking at her when she was holding Josephine was more than fun.” She raises her brows pointedly.
“I don’t really want to talk about this with you, Mother, and I have to use the restroom.”
“She’s young, honey. And she looks at you like you’re her everything.” Her voice is quiet as she ignores my words.
“It’s complicated.” I lower my voice and sigh. “We’re faking it for the press for multiple reasons. She’s Beckett’s little sister, and I know she has feelings for me, but I also know my track record, and I don’t want to hurt her.”
She closes her eyes and shakes her head as she purses her lips. “God, we really messed all four of you up.” She draws in a long breath. “Your track record is meaningless, okay? If you like her—or more, whatever it is you might be feeling—you’re doing more harm than good to both of you by pretending you don’t.”
“She said something similar,” I admit.
“Then take the chance, Grayson. It’s better to live with risks than regrets, don’t you think?”
“Do you regret marrying Dad?” I ask. My voice sounds like a little kid’s as I ask the question.
“Oh, honey,” she says softly. She squeezes my bicep. “No. Not for a second. We were very happy for a long time despite the things I swept under the rug, and we wouldn’t have the four most important people in my life if I hadn’t spent all those years with him.”
I nod as I consider all that. “Okay.”
“I guess what I really want you to hear is that whatever happens, it’ll turn out okay.”
