CHAPTER SIX
When my alarm went off at five the next morning, I regretted not agreeing to the move. I could’ve slept for another forty-five minutes. I stretched my arms over my head as I strolled to the kitchen, the tiles cold against my feet. Most people hated cold tile against warm feet, but I didn’t mind. Mainly because they woke my sorry butt up. I couldn’t remember pouring the water into the coffee maker or putting the coffee into the basket, but I must have because the smell of black gold wafted to my nose. That’s the best aroma in the morning.
My groggy head almost missed the sound of vibrating metal dancing across the granite countertop. I stared at the text for a minute, wondering if this was a dream or not. The phone vibrated again.
Come to the front door.
Carly, I know you’re awake. Come to the door. It’s important.
At this time in the morning, it better be important. When I got to the door and opened it, I realized my first mistake. Gracin’s eyes widened at the sight of me, then dropped slowly as he took in every inch of my exposed body. It wasn’t like I was naked, but the white chemise and black satin boxers weren’t exactly appropriate with a guy standing at the front door. So I wore it with attitude. I slammed my hands on my hips and winced when my phone crushed against the bone.
“What?” I kept my voice at a barely contained whisper.
Gracin shook his head, like he’d just remembered why he showed up at my house unannounced. “Nice hair.” He pointed at my wild locks. Static refused to let my strands lay flat in the morning. It was like my hair wanted to escape my head. “And nice clothes.”
I clenched my jaw and dug my fingers into my boxers. “Why are you here, Gracin?”
Instead of answering, he held out his cell phone to an open email. My mind wasn’t really focusing on the words. “Shipment” and “six a.m.” were the only ones making a lick of sense.
“Let’s go,” he said, slipping his phone out of my hand before turning on his heel.
“Wait a sec.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “You may not get this, but I’m still waking up. Just tell me what’s going on.”
Gracin strolled back toward the door. “We need to get to the train depot to pick up my truck.”
“Okay, I’m totally confused. How did you get here?” I dropped my hand and stared at him.
“I took a cab.” He moved his hands in front of my face. I swatted them away.
“Why didn’t you just take a cab to the train depot?”
“Isn’t that obvious?” I shook my head. “Carly, I don’t know how to get back to my cabin from the train depot. Duh.”
I wanted to laugh at the use of duh, but his logic baffled me. Wouldn’t it have been just as easy if I met him at the train depot? “Wait, don’t you have GPS?”
“Don’t use it.” He leaned in closer and whispered, “You’d be surprised how many people can tack you using your GPS.”
“Paranoid much?”
“Call it cautious.” His eyes dropped to my barely covered chest for a moment. “Oh, and get dressed. I don’t really think you should go out like that.”
My response was to slam the door in his face. Unfortunately, I woke up half of the house in the process. Luke ran out of his room wielding a miniature baseball bat with Dad fast on his heels. Mom and Miranda huddled together behind them.
“Carly! What the hell?” Dad yelled, fear making his voice quiver. “We heard a loud bang and the windows rattling.”
“That,” I emphasized, “was Gracin Ford pissing me off before I had my coffee.”
I stalked past them and headed toward my room. My phone buzzed in my hand.
Well?
I WILL BE THERE IN A MINUTE!!!!!! I responded.
K.
This guy was going to send me to an early grave. I changed quickly, glad my family left me alone. For all I knew, Dad was chewing Gracin a new one. Instead, when I came out of my room, fully clothed and still pissed, Gracin sat at the counter with a mug of coffee. Dad beamed beside him. I took Gracin’s mug and slammed the too hot liquid. The bitter brew slid down my throat like lava. Of course, he hadn’t sweetened it.
“Better?” Gracin arched his eyebrow.
“Not even close. Let’s go.” I put the mug in the sink and grabbed my keys.
Gracin said goodbye to my father and followed me to the garage. I hit the button to open the garage door, revealing the three vehicles parked inside. He headed for Dad’s Mercedes, and I walked toward the scooter. While I would’ve preferred the SUV, the scooter was all I had left in terms of transportation. Besides, Dad would never let me touch the Mercedes ever again. He’d made that perfectly clear after I put a dent in it. Okay, it was more like a crater in the back passenger panel and the removal of the rear bumper and it technically wasn’t my fault, but that wasn’t the point. The Mercedes was off-limits. It was the scooter or bust.
“I’m not getting on that thing.” Gracin pointed as I climbed on and started the engine. “It can’t possibly be safe.”
I tossed him the extra helmet, which was a glorified bicycle helmet, but it would do. The train depot wasn’t too far. Gracin caught it with both hands and held it in front of him like it was a bomb.
“I’m not kidding, Carly. There is no way I’m riding on that thing.”
Smiling, I pushed forward and the kickstand popped up. Gracin watched me pull slowly out into the driveway. I revved the tiny one-hundred-fifty cc engine, not bothering to glance over my shoulder. If Gracin wanted his truck, he had two choices: call another cab and go solo or get on my scooter. I heard the huff before I felt his weight behind me.
“If I die, I’m haunting you,” Gracin said just before I gunned it.
The scooter took off like a rocket when I opened the throttle. It couldn’t quite hit sixty miles per hour, but it had a surge of power if you gassed it. Gracin must have been surprised, because his arms wrapped around my waist like a straitjacket. His hands clenching the fabric of my shirt and the heat radiating off his chest as it pressed into my back almost caused me to careen off the road and into the neighbor’s yard.
The drive to the train depot usually took all of ten minutes, but the way Gracin kept tightening his grip during the corners prompted me to take a longer route.
I pulled into the lot and parked by the entrance to the offices. Dad and I had come here a few times over the last year and a half to sign off on equipment he’d had shipped in from New York. It had been cheaper to ship the theater’s new marquee by train than by truck.
Gracin climbed off the scooter and gave me the helmet with shaky hands. “Never again.”
I snorted back the laugh.
“Seriously, Carly. No wonder you wrecked your dad’s car.” He spun on his heel and sauntered to the office.
How much does he really know? I wondered as I waited outside. There wasn’t any reason for me to go in, so I sat on my scooter with his helmet pressed to my chest. He seemed to know all my secrets that weren’t really secrets. More like information I didn’t share with most people. What really bothered me was the way he stared at me, like he could look right through me. No matter what bullshit I tossed at him, he knew there was more to me than what I let him see. I hadn’t lied to him once, but everybody has bits of their lives they keep to themselves. Mine just happened to be less like bits, and more like entire pieces.
Gracin came out with a slip of paper after a few minutes. He disappeared around a crate at the other end of the lot and drove out in a black Nissan Titan. The diesel engine idled as the truck rolled toward me. After parking it, Gracin jumped out of the driver’s side with a huge grin on his face. Without saying a word, he reached out and helped me off the scooter. Not that I resisted. His happiness was normally an apparition, but it was so palpable at the moment that I didn’t want to be the one to take it away from him. He pushed the scooter toward the back of the truck and dropped the tailgate.
“What’re you doing?” I asked, putting my hands over his on handles. His fingers tightened beneath mine. “You can follow me back.”
“Don’t be absurd. We’re going the same direction.”
“Need some help?” a guy asked. He strolled out of the office, wiping his hands on a dirty towel. The guy was huge, nearly six-five with arms the size of Gracin’s chest. “I doubt you and your girl can lift it alone.”
Gracin pulled his hands from underneath mine. “Yeah, that’d be great.”
My face burned like embers in a dying fire, just under the surface and barely visible. Turned out the guy didn’t even need Gracin’s help. He lifted the scooter by himself and leapt into the bed, pushing the scooter all the way to the cab.
I just stood there, staring at both men. It was a sight to behold. They struck up a brief conversation about trucks as if they’d known each other all their lives. How did men do that? And where did prissy Gracin Ford learn how?
“You and your girl have a nice day,” the older man said as he shook Gracin’s hand again. He strolled back toward the office, tossing the dirty towel over his shoulder.
Gracin turned away from him and draped his arm around my shoulders. “Come on, my girl. Let’s go.” He opened the passenger door and helped me into the cab.
This entire episode had me dumbstruck. Well, that and I actually liked it when the guy called me Gracin’s girl. Oh, shit. This wasn’t good. No, not at all. I couldn’t get involved with Gracin Ford. He was arrogant, self-centered, and not even slightly interested in me. Not in the least. No, no, no.
Then again, he did want me to move into the hotel to be closer to him. But was that professional or personal? It was so hard to tell.
Gracin jumped into the cab, bouncing on the leather like a toddler with a new car seat. I glanced around the light gray interior. The fully loaded truck probably cost more than two years of college. Leather seats with butt warmers, a high tech albeit disabled GPS, Bluetooth, and when Gracin turned up the radio, one of the best sound systems I’d ever heard.
What surprised me more than anything was the voice of Hank Williams crooning from the speakers. I reached over and turned the music down.
“Seriously?” I pointed to the satellite radio station labeled “Classic Country.”
“Who doesn’t like Hank?” Gracin grinned as he reached for the dial.
I smacked his hand away before he could turn it up. An idea sprung into my head. It was five-thirty and the sun was about to break the horizon. When was the last time Gracin had sat and watched the sun?
“Let me drive,” I said, lifting my leg over the console.
It was Gracin’s turn to smack my leg away. “Not a chance in hell, Carly. I want to live.”
There wasn’t enough time to pout, but I still crossed my arms to sulk. “Fine, but we need to hurry.”
“Where?”
“Just drive and I’ll tell you as we go.”
Gracin put the truck in gear and followed my instructions. Ten minutes later, we parked on top of a bluff overlooking the lake. Technically, the sun was already up, but it hadn’t hit the top of the mountains yet. The pinks and oranges crossed over the sky, entangling with the lightening blue of daylight and the darkness of night. Sunsets were pretty, but nothing beat a sunrise over the Ozarks. They were so much more important. A sunset meant another day was over, a sunrise brought on a new day and new possibilities. Plus, almost everyone saw the sunset. Very few took the time to notice a sunrise.
Neither one of us spoke, but we didn’t need to. Gracin didn’t start the truck right away. I waited patiently for several minutes before enabling the GPS and programming mine and the resort’s addresses.
After a few more minutes, he started the engine and followed the GPS’s directions back to my house. He pulled into the driveway and jumped out. I waited a beat before climbing down. Gracin had dropped the tailgate and pushed the scooter toward the edge. Together we lifted it down with ease and rolled it out of his way.
We stood facing each other, still not saying a word. In that moment, I wanted to slide my hand around the back of his neck and pull him toward me. I wanted it so much I could almost feel his lips against mine. But wants were what usually got me into trouble, so I kept myself in check.
“Carly,” Gracin said. I waited for more, but he didn’t say anything.
“Yeah?”
He inhaled deeply, closing his eyes as if he needed the added strength. After a long exhale, he responded, “Thank you.”
Before a word popped from my mouth, he was back in his truck. He glanced at me through the windshield and waved.
I lifted my hand and waved back, feeling like something significant had just happened between us.
What, I had no idea.