Page 36

CHAPTER 36

Henry

The drive home was thick with unsaid words. Grayson kept switching radio stations, until I finally relented, turning it off altogether. I supposed it was time to rip the band-aid off and address the elephant in the Porsche.

“I can’t do this. This awkward silence. We need to talk.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Grayson said, not looking away from his attention on the road.

There was so much I wanted to say, but all I could settle on was, “I’m sorry I yelled at you.”

Grayson’s expression did not shift. “Yes, well. Cody has that effect on people,” he murmured.

“Is he your—”

“Was.”

Hope dared to blossom in my heart, but I needed to get things out. I could not be distracted by slivers of hope.

“I’m sorry too,” Grayson said softly as the GPS announced a turn.

I glanced at the map screen, reading the ETA. Thirty minutes.

I only had thirty minutes left with this man who I was certain was holding my heart hostage.

I wanted to tell him he couldn’t have it.

My heart.

Me.

But the truth was, he had it the moment he looked up at me from the bathroom floor of M’s Place. I just didn’t know it then.

But before I could even speak the words out loud, Grayson continued.

“I never meant for any of this to happen... like this.” He sighed. “I never intended to hurt you, Henry.”

Panic laced through me at his words, hope fighting for a chance to breathe.

But it would not win. Not that day.

“I never wanted things to be awkward between us,” I said, my heart in my throat. “Some friend I am, huh?” I said, blowing out a defeated breath as I looked out the window. I couldn’t look at Grayson, knowing the blow was coming.

“Is that what we are? Friends?” Grayson asked warily.

I couldn’t look at him, nor could I answer him. Not when I felt like the harsh truth of reality would smack me in the face.

“Because if that’s all you see me as, Henry, that’s... fine, but...”

I sat up in my seat, scooting to the edge as I waited for him to continue.

A notification popped up on the map screen, the electronic voice calling “Text from uncle Bob, would you like to hear?”

“No,” Grayson said coolly, turning onto the main drag into Jasper Springs.

I’d be home in ten minutes.

“But I’d hoped maybe we could be more than that. More than friends, I mean.”

The air fell silent.

Every nerve in my body stood at attention, that hope blossoming in my chest like a bad weed.

I wanted to be more than friends, too, but...

But I needed time. Everything had happened so fast, and...

“I can’t,” I said as he pulled up to the parking lot.

I wanted him to fight. To take my face in his hands and kiss me, like he had in the woods, and tell me I was a damn fool.

I wanted Grayson to rescue me from myself, but he wasn’t capable of that.

I needed to rescue myself, first, from the ghosts that haunted me.

Grayson didn’t do any of those things.

He only smiled softly, and said, “Okay. Just friends then.”

I opened my door as Grayson got out, unlocking the trunk. I grabbed my suitcase as he tapped away at his phone absentmindedly.

“Thanks for... the ride,” I said, turning to head down the hill to my apartment.

“Uh huh,” he said as he leaned against his car in that graceful, seductive way that made my cock twitch.

I hoped I was doing the right thing, protecting Grayson.

Protecting myself.