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Everyone else gathered on the other side of the island bench to watch Grayson work. He looked a little uncomfortable at all the attention, which, you know, was pretty fucking cute.
“This looks like it would pair well with a…” Wolfe said something in French I didn’t understand, but whatever it was, it had Grayson quirking an eyebrow at him.
“Well, it would!”
Grayson tilted his head, indicating the cellar tucked next to the fridge. “There’s a footstool there that Belle can use, too.”
“Got it.” Wolfe came back with a very fancy looking bottle of wine and the footstool for Belle, making sure she was set up before he opened the wine.
Grayson mixed the pasta ingredients in the bowl, then turned to Belle. “You want to try it?”
“Yes, please!”
“Here you go then.” He moved the bowl closer, so she could reach it. She shoved her hands in with so much enthusiasm that a cloud of semolina blew up from the bowl.
Esme gasped, but Belle only giggled. “Sorry ‘bout that.”
“That’s okay. Just take it a bit easier. Like this.” Belle concentrated fiercely on Grayson’s instructions and when she tried again, he said, “Yes, exactly like that. Well done.”
If I wasn’t mistaken, this looked a lot like hero worship. Lucky for Grayson, I knew just what to say to set it in concrete. “You know, Belle, Grayson still has the drawing you made for him.”
“Really?” Belle hit Grayson with a starry-eyed look. “For real?”
“Uh, well, yes. It’s a wonderful picture.” Grayson looked like he wanted the ground to open up and swallow him whole and maybe he was blushing a little?
“How about Stef and Esme take a glass of wine and relax out on the balcony while we get this done?”
“In the way, am I?”
“Something like that.”
“I’ll go, but only if you give me a kiss first.” I ignored Florian and Tiana’s retching sounds and went on tiptoe to give him anotherhard kiss on the lips. Maybe I felt a twinge of regret that we weren’t completely alone right now, but that was outweighed by how fun it was to see him like this. “Alright, my little jam tart. It’s just you and me, and all the NSFW details from your honeymoon.”
Esme followed me onto the balcony and sat down. “If you think for one fucking second we’re going to talk about my honeymoon, you can think again!”
“What? Why? Was it really terrible?” I sat down opposite her, sipping my wine with a cheeky smile on my face.
“Har har. I’ll fill you inafteryou tell me what this is between you and Grayson.”
That had the teasing smile fading away. “Well, I don’t really know.”
“Obviously, I saw you two at the wedding and I thought he was just looking after you because you were sick.”
“He was.”
“Then the same with the beach house. Which was a pretty big deal, because Wolfe said as far as he knew, Grayson has never taken anyone there.”
“That’s right.”
“And I wasn’t quite sure what you were doing here this afternoon, instead of being home in Esperance. But now, I’m like…”
“Like what?”
“I’veneverseen this side of him. He’s not…”
“Scary? Intimidating? A grouchy asshole?”
“Um. Yeah.”