CHAPTER 3
RYAN

 

What the fuck are you getting yourself into?

I’d already impersonated myself as her boyfriend to her dick manager, so now I had to make my cover believable.

My crew had no idea I’d be taking Grace out on a date. Sooner or later they’d find out and I’d have to tell them it was my ploy to get inside information for our operation from an unsuspicious source.

Grace.

Of course, that’d be complete bullshit. Seeing Grace’s manager behave the way he did lit a fucking fire inside me. I was practically two seconds away from knocking his teeth in, and that would send our operation down the toilet.

I could see clearly from the expression on Grace’s angelic face that he made her uncomfortable. I wanted to send him a message to step the fuck down, and posing as her boyfriend was the first non-violent thing that came to mind.

Today was the day after my run-in with Grace. I left Jason a home-cooked meal, plenty of movies, and a stern warning that he was not to leave the house or have any of his friends over.

Practically all the kids in our neighborhood were trouble.

I told him to call me if he needed anything and he rolled his eyes and rushed me out the door.

I typed Grace’s address into my phone. She wasn’t far from me. Maybe a ten-minute drive. I rode through town as the sun began to set, thinking about where I could possibly take her.

There weren’t many nice places to take a woman like Grace. Though it had been eight years since we’d last seen one another, I knew that Grace still deserved to be treated like a queen. She was beautiful, smart, and a single mom.

If I was going to take her on a date, I wanted her to enjoy herself.

I’d leave it up to her, but nothing in this town suited the kind of date I wanted to take her on.

I pulled into her driveway and saw her standing on her porch. She smiled and came walking toward me and I couldn't take my eyes off her. She was wearing a beautiful little summer dress that showed off her ample cleavage and clung to the dip in her waist.

Fuck, it’s gonna be hard to concentrate on dinner.

“Right on time,” she said.

“No man should keep a beautiful lady waiting.”

“You know, you used to call me that all the time in high school.”

“It was true then, and it’s true now,” I said.

I backed out of the driveway and got us on the road. I turned onto the main road leading into town and caught a whiff of her perfume. It wasn’t the same sweet Victoria’s Secret scent she wore as a kid. Now she wore a clean scent with very subtle floral notes like a grown woman should wear.

I took deep breaths to try and tame my cock.

Because it was itching for her already.

“Any idea of where you might want to eat?” I asked.

“The buffet’s always good,” Grace said.

“I’m not taking you to belly up at a buffet looking like that, woman.”

“Then—what about that sushi place? Do you like sushi?” she asked.

“Guess I’m going to find out,” I said.

We pulled into the parking lot and were whisked away to a booth in the back. I ordered a beer and Grace had a cocktail stuffed with fruit.

Fuck she’s beautiful.

Even in the dim light her features were vibrant. I couldn't get over how those dimples still called to my lips, and how her eyes still drew me in after all these years.

I wanted to run my fingers through her hair and pull her lips to mine like I used to.

“So, who’s watching your daughter tonight?” I asked.

“My mom,” Grace said.

“How’s she doing?” I asked, trying to keep my voice even. Grace’s mother had never liked me, and the feeling had been mutual.

“She’s good. Perky as ever. Still a morning person, which I still don’t understand.”

“You’ve never enjoyed the rising of the sun,” I said.

“If you’ve seen it once, you’ve seen it all,” she said.

“Not really. You ever see the sun rise over the ocean on the West Coast?”

“Have you?” she asked.

“I’ve been to a few places.”

“Like where?” she asked.

“California. Michigan. Kansas.”

“I was supposed to travel,” she said. “But life had other plans for me.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

I watched her heave a heavy sigh before she took a sip of her drink.

“Gotta be drunk for this story?” I asked.

“Might as well be,” she said. “You know I went to Texas for college after high school.”

“Yep. I remember,” I said.

“Well, I met a man stationed at Dyess Air Force Base.”

“Ah, landed yourself a military man.”

“I did. We got pregnant with Harper and figured we might as well get married. I was able to get on his insurance so my pregnancy and delivery were covered and he was given extra bonuses to help when was deployed.”

She sounded like she was trying to explain herself to me.

“I’m not judging you, if that’s what you think,” I said. “You sound like a good mother.”

“And he was a good father.”

“Was?” I asked.

She nodded, a pained look crossing her features. “He had one last deployment before he was eligible to get out of the service. By that time we had actually fallen in love and he couldn’t take being away from Harper and I. He had decided that when he came home from that deployment, he would be done for good.”

“He didn’t come back, did he?” I asked.

Grace shook her head and I felt my stomach sink for her.

“Then the rest is history. I moved back to Tell City to raise her near family, got a job at the bank, blah blah blah.”

“Don’t do that. No blah blah blah. That’s your life. It might not be glamorous, but when is it ever? You’re taking care of your kid and raising her around the only family she’s got. That tells me what kind of a mother you are,” I said.

“I hate that Harper’s never gonna have memories of her father , though. She was only seven months old when he died.”

“You’ll get to tell her that her dad was a hero. Every kid wants their dad to be a hero, Grace.”

I sure as hell wanted mine to be one.

“How is your dad, by the way?”

“About as good as an inmate with a forty-year sentence can be,” I said.

“Forty years?” she asked.

“That’s what you get when you knock off eight banks,” I said.

“I’m so sorry. That can’t be easy on you guys. How’s Jason?” she asked.

“Smart as a fucking whip, Grace. He wants to be a Forensic Psychologist when he goes to college. You know he’s already placed out of regular science classes so he’s taking college-level Chemistry? At sixteen.”

“You know you could’ve done something like that.”

“Nah. I had Jason to raise. He was only eight when I graduated high school. I couldn't go off to college like you did.”

“A lot of good it did me. I got pregnant, married, and didn’t graduate with any semblance of a degree until two years ago.”

“But you did it, and that takes a lot of work. Especially with a career and raising a daughter. You’ve grown into a wonderful woman, Grace. Stop with the self-degradation.”

“What did you do after high school?” she asked.

Shit. Here come the bullshit lies.

I was used to lying to everyone in my life, but Grace was another story. This wouldn’t be easy, but I knew what I was getting myself into by agreeing to take her out on a date.

“Construction,” I said. “Pays decent and I started saving for Jason’s college.”

“It must have been really tough for you guys after your dad went to jail. I mean, this isn’t exactly a metropolis. People had to have been talking. I wished for a long time that I could have stayed and helped you through it,” she said.

I shook my head and smiled sadly. “No, you had a life to get to. We did alright. We moved away for a while to get away from the scrutiny. I didn’t want Jason hearing the things people were saying about our dad.”

“Do you guys see him regularly?”

“We try,” I said.

Our sushi came to the table and Grace’s eyes lit up. The way she used her chopsticks to eat her food made me laugh. It kept falling apart on her and she’d stick her tongue out to try and catch it. It was funny and a complete turn on at the same time.

I stuck with my fork while she struggled, and soon she gave it up altogether.

“I don’t know how people can eat with those things,” she said.

“I’m not sure why you kept trying,” I said.

“I always told myself I’d learn to eat with them, so I keep trying, but I sure don’t know how people get full off those small little bites they pick up.”

“Here,” I said. “Use this.”

I picked up her fork and wiggled it in front of her face as a smile crossed her lips.

“Give me that,” she said.

I relaxed back into my seat and I settled my foot against hers. She didn’t make a move to pull back and I could see her cheeks flushing.

What a beautiful color it was. Her creamy skin tinted with a blush that gave her thoughts away.

But reality quickly set in.

If this bank heist was going to go off without a hitch, I needed to make sure she was safe. I wasn’t going to let her get caught up in what we were about to do. That meant finding out her schedule, so we could plan around it.

“Do you usually have Fridays off?” I asked.

“Hmm?”

“Fridays. Are they your usual day off?” I asked.

“Oh, yes. Fridays and Saturdays. I’m the only one that takes the Sunday shift.”

“You guys are open on Sundays?” I asked.

“For truncated hours, yeah. But my boss takes Saturdays and Sundays off, so one of us has to be there for the six hours the bank is open for business. I take that day, and it’s a nice break from having to work around Lionel.”

“Have you told anyone about him?” I asked.

“I don’t really have anything to tell. He makes me uncomfortable, but he’s never made a move on me. Sexual harassment policies are like restraining orders. Something has to physically happen before it can be reported and dealt with accordingly.”

“Total bullshit,” I said.

“Welcome to being a woman in the workplace.”

“A real man controls himself. I mean, I’m sitting here in front of you right now and I’m not trying to hop down your throat.”

“You saying you wanna lose control with me?” she asked.

“You’re the only woman I’ve ever lost control with, Grace.”

I watched a small smile twitch her cheek as those sweet dimples started to indent in her skin.

“Guess I must look pretty good in this dress.” she asked.

“It would look better on the floorboard of my car,” I said, with a grin.

“Brings back high school memories.”

“But the oldies are always the goodies.”

We finished up our dinner and I drove her on home. I wanted to ride around with her all night, with the windows down and the wind whipping through her hair, like the good old days when shit wasn’t so complicated.

But she had a daughter to get back to and a life to keep living and I had to make sure Kenneth and I planned this damn robbery with zero loose strings.

“I had a great time tonight,” Grace said.

“I did, too,” I said.

The moonlight against her skin beckoned to my fingertips. I lifted my hand to cup her cheek, allowing my thumb to trace her dimple. Her eyes dipped to my mouth and I closed the gap between us, guiding her rosy red lips to mine.

Before I knew it, my arms were wrapped around her as our teeth clattered together.

She moaned into me, arching her luxurious body into my muscles. I gripped her ass, allowing her dress to drift up the backs of her legs. She tasted like sweetened alcohol and memories of the past. Our noses pressed together so tightly I couldn't breathe. I inhaled her, our tongues battling for dominance as I pressed her into the railing of her porch.

Her legs spread for me, allowing me to sink closer to her as our lips parted.

I wanted more, and I knew she did too. She was grinding against my thickening cock and her hands were tangled in my hair. Her nose nuzzled against mine as my hands fell to her thighs.

But I couldn't have her.

I couldn’t take it any farther than this.

“Goodnight, Grace,” I said, with a whisper.

Then I stepped away and strode for my car before I changed my fucking mind.