Page 32

CHAPTER 31

JILL

A s we walked Joey and LeAnn back to their car I couldn’t stop smiling. Grady hadn’t stopped touching me all morning, even with Joey’s glances—and sometimes outright glares. He’d held my hand, laid his on my thigh, or brushed the base of my back every chance he could. It was like he was making sure anyone looking knew I was with him. It made my heart race, but I told myself to knock it off. He was probably just messing with my brother.

It was distracting, though. So much so, I missed it when the three of them stopped short and I kept walking.

“What?” I asked, walking back to where they were standing on the sidewalk staring across the street. I followed their gaze and spotted it too. The old shoe store had gone out of business. I didn’t know how I’d missed it, but the storefront was completely vacant with a “For Rent” sign taking up nearly the whole showcase window. “When did that happen?” I asked no one in particular.

LeAnn shook her head. “I don’t know. I could swear I bought a pair of running sneakers there just the other day.”

“You know what would be great for that spot?” Grady said, and instantly my stomach lurched. “A bookstore.”

My glare slid over to him and suddenly I felt more related to my brother than I had all morning. We shared the same side-eye and as I leveled it at Grady he just grinned back at me.

“It’s pretty perfect, Jilly. You can’t deny it.”

“I think it would work so well,” LeAnn agreed, her enthusiasm grating, like the sound of styrofoam in my ears.

“It’s probably a crazy high rent, and that’s why the shoe store failed.” I was ready to walk on when Joey finally piped up.

“The shoe store didn’t fail.” All eyes turned in his direction. He sighed, crossing his arms over his chest as he slipped back into sheriff mode. “The owner’s wife passed away suddenly. He decided it was time to close up and move down to North Carolina to be with his kids.”

“That’s so sad,” LeAnn said, frowning at the empty store.

“It is,” Grady agreed, before taking a breath. “And kind of makes you think it’s time for the torch to pass to someone else.”

“So, I should open a shoe store?” I asked sarcastically, my irritation at being put on the spot getting the better of me.

“No.” He sighed patiently, stroking his hand down my arm. “I meant that it was time for someone else to pursue their dream in that spot.”

It was bad enough having Grady give me that hopeful look that made my heart twist, but to see the same look on LeAnn’s face just made it worse. Because as much as they thought I didn’t want to talk about my bookstore, the truth was, it hurt to talk about it.

I’d never wanted anything more in my life, but I’d never once had any hope I could make it happen. If anything, the one time I’d worked up the courage to talk to the bank about getting a loan, they’d made it abundantly clear that bookstores were a losing gamble and I’d be a fool to even try.

“It would get great foot traffic,” Joey said, offering his own vote of encouragement.

My throat got tight and hot, and I wanted to walk away and not think about any of this. But three people who cared about me were staring me down in the middle of the sidewalk, and the part of me that still wanted to go after my dream was pounding through me, demanding I give it another try.

“Fine,” I bit out, my anxiety mixing with excitement in an unsettling combination. “I’ll look into it.”

“Yay!” LeAnn squealed, clapping her hands like she’d just won at the rec center bingo night. “It would be so perfect.”

Looking longingly at the store, I had a hard time arguing with her. It was the right size, in the right spot, and with the right neighbors—a coffee shop on one side and a bakery on the other. It scared me how perfect it was.

Grady stepped up beside me, his arm slipping around my waist. “You deserve your dream, too, Jilly,” he whispered, the soft timbre of his voice vibrating through me, amplifying the hope sprouting in my heart. It felt scary. But it also felt so, so good.

It wasn’t really sneaking into someplace if you had a key, right? I told myself it wasn’t as I climbed the stairs in Grady’s parents’ house as the sun came up a week later. We’d had a great event the day before—despite the stupid camera he kept making me use—and he was technically allowed to sleep in as late as he wanted to today.

But I had other ideas.

Tip-toeing into his bedroom, I spotted him sprawled out on his back, the dark gray sheets tangling in his long legs like he’d kicked them around all night. He’d said the nightmares were better, so I hoped that wasn’t what had caused him to make such a mess of his bed.

I shrugged off my cardigan and maxi dress, dropping both to the floor as quietly as I could before slinking over to his bed. It was good he slept in the buff, or my plan might have been a lot harder to pull off.

Crawling across the wide mattress, I gingerly lifted the sheet from his waist, my mouth watering at the sight of his morning wood. Everything about Grady’s body seemed oversized, and his cock was no exception. My pussy clenched just thinking about how tightly it filled me up, and I had to swallow down the moan my memories of the last couple of days brought on.

Sidling up beside him, perched on my knees, I lifted his cock and kissed a line from base to tip, watching Grady’s ass flex as his body stirred before he did. I flicked the tip of my tongue against the notch in the head and his stomach flinched as he grew solid and long in my hands. He moaned when I took him to the back of my throat, his hand landing in my hair as if he was reaching to stroke himself in his half-sleep state.

“Wha—” He lifted his head to find me smiling up at him with his dick in my mouth. “Jill? What the hell?”

I popped off him loudly, his thighs bunching. “I thought you could use a less abrasive alarm today.” Licking down one side and then up the other, he watched me, his jaw working.

When I pulled him between my lips, sheathing my teeth and sucking tightly as I stroked him with my tongue he bowed off the bed. “ Fucking Christ .”

A turned-on Grady was like a shot of pure arousal to my core and I pressed my legs together to try and ease the ache. I pumped him with both hands, twisting gently as they followed my mouth up and down, up and down. It took no time before he was ripping at the sheets, throaty groans vibrating all the way down to where my mouth was suctioned around his length.

“I’m close,” he warned as I angled to hit the spot I knew he loved and sped up my pace. “Jill, I’m right fucking there.”

He tensed, his fingers tightening in my hair as he thrust up into my mouth, his senses going wild as he went over the edge.

“ Fuck, baby, fuck ,” he growled, bending up toward me, holding me on him for just a second as he came before he let me go and I pumped and sucked through every last tremor, his body quivering and red when I sat back on my heels.

He sucked for air, eyeing me from where his head lolled to the side. “Where the fuck did you learn to do that?” he asked, bewildered and sated, a sexy sort of adoration in his eyes.

“I read, ” I shot back, grinning wide as I wiped my mouth on the back of my hand.

A laugh barked out of him as he shook his head. “I love it. And they say book-learning is dead.” He reached for me, snagging my hand and yanking me across his chest. “My turn,” he sighed, licking his lips in a way that was so enticing I almost didn’t want to stop his train of thought.

“No time, hot shot.” I spun out of his hold, jumping to my feet and throwing my dress back on. “We’ve got a ferry to catch.”

Grady leaned up on one elbow, his eyebrows scrunching. “Am I forgetting something?” He looked around the room, even more confused than he’d been waking up with my mouth around his dick.

“No,” I sighed, perching on the edge of the bed, out of his reach since he was still giving me those fuck-me eyes. “I think we should go see your family.”

Old Jill would never have made such a suggestion; the idea of being an outsider at someone else’s family gathering enough to send my anxiety through the roof. But whatever nerves I had, they weren’t enough to stop me. And I kind of liked that.

I was a little worried I’d get a bad reaction to my suggestion, but Grady’s expression lightened until it turned into a beaming smile. “I’d really like that.”

Seeing him so excited made me really happy I’d risked it. “Good, then let’s get the hell out of here.”

After the lake tour last week, and his progress in the pool, I knew he was ready. He’d been noticeably better since telling me what had really happened the day of the near-drowning, and being around more people that loved and supported him could only keep that trend going.

As we boarded the Casco Bay Lines ferry with a crowd of tourists and locals alike, I kept hold of Grady’s hand. When I asked if he wanted to stay inside, he’d grinned at me like a little kid, eagerly tugging me up to the top deck. He put me against the rail and then bracketed me on either side with his strong arms, whispering into my ear the names of the other islands and places where he’d explored as a kid. It was fun seeing him so animated and by the time we off-loaded onto Peak’s, I wasn’t even nervous about meeting his family.

Almost .

My heart skipped a little when his mom opened the door, squealing with delight and then bursting into tears as she wrapped her arms around him. He grinned at me over her head, as if the reaction was embarrassingly over the top. But he couldn’t hide how much he loved it, not from me. Grady soaked up the attention in a way I never could, but it was really lovely to witness.

“And you remember Jill Jordan,” Grady said to both his parents once they’d greeted and fawned enough over their only son.

“Of course, Joey’s little sister,” his father said, looking at me with an innocent grin. Grady’s mother, on the other hand, pinged back and forth between us, awareness lighting up her smile with the same mischief she’d passed along to her son.

“Welcome,” she said, ushering us all off the front porch and into their gorgeous coastal home.

A natural stone fireplace sat between the living room and kitchen, with a small dining room off to the side that led out onto the back deck. The cedar shingles were aged from the salt spray and the house was filled with shells and nautical maps, worn drift wood and more smoothed round rocks than I could count. The whole place smelled of roses and all around were vases of white bouquets, petals dropping to the floor like sand dollars on a low-tide beach.

“We were going to have lunch down at Harborside, but let’s do lobsters up here instead,” Grady’s mom exclaimed, clasping her hands together with excitement.

“Mom, you don’t have to go to all that trouble,” Grady said as he took a seat on the wicker couch and patted the cushion next to him for me to join.

“Nonsense,” she groused. “It’s tradition anyway, and since you’re not here this year, this is the perfect afternoon to do it.”

Grady shook his head, but his smile told me he was far from put out.

“If I can help with anything, Mrs. Holloway, please let me know,” I said, sliding forward on the seat so I could get up to follow her.

She glanced at us, tracking Grady’s hand as he rubbed my back, before smiling at me. “It’s Carol, please. And I think we’re all set, but maybe you could help shuck a few more ears of corn?”

I popped up. “I’d love to.” I’d love to do anything so I felt less like a freeloader and intruder on what was clearly a very tight family that had missed their son terribly.

Grady took a hold of my wrist and tugged me back down beside him. “I’ll get the corn,” he said, smirking at me. “We can shuck together.”

The last thing I really wanted was to be left alone with Grady’s dad, but I didn’t want to make a scene, so when he winked at me I just nodded.

“Jill, you’re the mastermind behind this reading program, right?” his dad asked as soon as they were gone.

I laughed a little to myself, because Grady might have gotten his mischief from his mom, but he apparently got his penchant for embellishing from his dad.

“I did the book selection and coordination with the event sites. I’m not sure I’d called that masterminding, though.”

He scoffed, picking up his iced tea and taking a drink as he shook his head. “I certainly couldn’t do it,” he said, before holding up a hand and leaning forward. “Not to say that you aren’t capable of doing everything I do, and doing it better.” His smile titled off to one side as he laughed to himself. “Please don’t tell Lexi I said that. She’d have my ass.”

Now I really laughed, because I remembered Lexi as a sweet little kid who used to carry a stuffed sea gull around with her. It was hard to conjure the image of her giving her father grief.

“I won’t say a thing,” I reassured him. “Where is Lexi these days?”

“Ten feet behind you.”

Whipping around I found Grady’s little sister stepping through the screen door with a bowl of fresh corn in one hand and a plastic bag in the other. She was taller than I remembered and lacking the seagull, as I’d have expected.

“Oh, hi!” I said, feeling guilty even though I hadn’t said anything about her. I’d spent very little time with Adam’s family and it suddenly felt like it was probably pretty obvious I was not good with this stuff. Not that I was Grady’s girlfriend.

When Lexi went to sit next to me a whistle lit up the air and we all turned to find Grady sauntering over with a glass of iced tea in each hand. “Seats taken,” he teased his sister, bumping her with his hip as he slipped past her and reclaimed his spot.

Lexi chuckled ruefully, all too accustomed to her brother’s antics I was sure, before she plopped the corn and baggie on the table in front of us and grinned in his face. “Enjoy.”

After taking a quick sip of iced tea I dove for the corn. Anything to keep me busy and not forced to sit still while feeling entirely out of place. I wasn’t doing that bad, but Grady picked up on my agitation, taking my hand in his and pulling it into his lap while he carried on his conversation.

“So the doctor gave you the all-clear?” his father asked, his eyebrows up to his hairline and his mouth open in a quirky, expectant grin.

Grady nodded, but his eyes dropped to the lobster-trap table in front of us. “For the most part.”

I’d never seen Grady look like that, like he was trying to soft-touch news his dad didn’t want to hear.

“Well, I mean, you’re the fastest guy on the team on a bad day. So, even if you’re not one hundred percent, Blaise would be a fool to sit you out. And if you’re playing, you’re captain, there’s just no other conclusion that makes sense.”

I didn’t think he meant to, but Grady’s fingers flinched, his jaw working as he tried to hold his father’s gaze.

“We’ll have to wait and see. The vote happens the week of training camp. So, it’s anybody’s guess at this point.”

His father’s dramatic exhale was so loud it startled Lexi beside him. “Who else could they possibly pick?”

When he raised up his hand, looking from one face to the next as if asking any of us to offer a different name, an uncomfortable sense of unease knotted in my gut. He pinned Grady with a stare that I was sure was meant to be confident and encouraging, but looked more menacing than anything.

“You’re the only one who’s done the work, Grady,” he said, sighing back, smug satisfaction on his face. “This is your time. You’ll see.”

Grady nodded, offering his dad the fake smile I’d seen him wear at events and around press the whole summer. Warmth never reached his eyes and I wished there was something I could do besides hold his hand. He glanced over at me, his grip tightening when he saw my concern. And then he winked, silently telling me he was okay. Even though I was pretty sure he knew I didn’t believe him.