Page 20

Kylie scratches her arm. “Do you think we could go to the pool after dinner?”

“Uh, I dunno, kid?—”

“Come. We’ll ask Mama.” Max grabs his sister’s arm and drags her back to the house. Kylie keeps looking at me as he takes her away.

I chuckle.

She’s the spitting image of Lillian, so I’m sure she has Grayson wrapped around her little finger.

Grayson returns with a big smile. “Dad is coming over for dinner.”

Shock washes over me, and I rub at the back of my neck. “Should I leave? Seems like a family thing...”

“Youarefamily, Logan. Dad was over the moon when I said you’d be dining with us.”

“He was?”

I never thought that Samuel Whitlock liked me very much, but then again, he doesn’t know how I’ve defiled her daughter.

“Let’s go see if Lillian needs help with dinner.”

I follow Grayson back to the house, into the back door of the kitchen where Lillian is cutting up tomatoes and peppers.

I inhale, and delicious aromas flood through me. “Smells good already.”

She grins. “That’s the roasted chicken. I’ve learned a lot about cooking in the past few years.”

“Those cooking classes we took helped a lot,” Grayson says, and she elbows him. He winces. “Not that your cooking wasbad, it was just...”

“It was bad,” Lillian admits flatly, and I laugh.

I don’t remember laughing this much in years, and I’m grateful that I’ve reconnected with Grayson.

I’m glad he got his happy ending, even if I didn’t.

Grayson wraps his arms around Lillian’s waist, leaning down to kiss her on the shoulder.

“You’ll distract me, and I’ll burn the chicken. Get out of here.” She pulls away and shoos us out.

Grayson chuckles. “Time for a pre-dinner drink, I think.”

He leads me upstairs into his office, which has a bar on the corner.

“Whiskey, neat?”

I nod, and he pours me a small glass which I nurse. I definitely don’t want a repeat hangover.

“The kids are curious about you.”

I look up from my drink. “About me?”

He nods. “I talk to them a lot about you.”

I snort. “Do you tell them I was a bad boy?”

He smiles. “Not exactly. I just tell them you’re my best friend.”

My heart swells. “I’m sorry I haven’t kept in touch.”