My steps falter as I’m rounding the bench. Grayson doesn’t miss a thing.
Straightening, he steps into my space, grabbing the plates from me, his fingers brushing mine and making electricity spark throughout my body. “Allow me.”
I pause, watching him trail out onto the deck, Bambi close behind him on his heels because hello, she’s a golden retriever. Once there’s food around, that’s their only loyalty.
But something’s changed within Grayson. He’s more…
I wish I could put my finger on it. Blunt isn’t the right word. Perhaps assertive?
“I thought you said you were hungry?” he calls from the deck.
Scoffing, I emerge seconds later. “Impatient today, are we?”
“On the contrary, I’m a very patient man.”
Taking a seat across from him, I pick up my fork. “You’re being cryptic, Crawford.” I bark with laughter. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you inhaled too much mulch.”
Grayson rolls his eyes, shoveling in mouthfuls of lasagna. He’salready halfway through his serving while I take my first bite. That man eats like no other. His body needs the fuel as an athlete, but knowing something and witnessing it are two separate things.
Wiping his mouth on a napkin, he leans back. “We have a home game next week. Are you able to come?”
That makes me pause. “Of course I can. It’s part of our agreement.”
A muscle ticks in his jaw.
Bambi lays her head on my lap, leaving a small trail of drool, but even that can’t distract me from the pitiful eyes she uses to beg. “Just one,” I whisper, sliding a piece of lettuce onto the floor. But by the way she sniffs the piece of lettuce, gingerly eating it and then flicking those little dots for eyebrows in the direction of my plate, she was hoping for some lasagna.
“We should go on another date,” Grayson suddenly declares, making me choke on my mouthful of food.
Once I find my breath again, the piece of lasagna finding the right hole to go down, I sip my water, my eyes never leaving Grayson’s as they spark with humor.
“I see I’m not the only one prone to choking,” he teases.
“At least I tried to save you. You just sat there like a buffoon smirking at me.”
Grayson throws his head back on a laugh, the cords in his neck straining.
Glowering, I snap, “What’s so funny? You want me to choke and die?”
He shakes with laughter until he finally lifts his eyes. “God no, Bella.” He clicks his tongue. “If you want to know the truth, if I got up and touched you, I wouldn’t be able to stop. Figured you’d like me right where I am with that being the case.”
My lips part.
Did he…?
He’s not even blushing. Where has this side come from?
Grayson goes on as if his sudden declaration hadn’t fazed him in the slightest. “Let me take you on a date next week when I’m home for a two-day stretch.” He winks. “For the arrangement, of course. That’s part of thedeal, isn’t it? I get a date once a week, and it’s been nearly a week since the last one.”
“Y-you do,” I stutter, wondering what the hell has gotten into Grayson Crawford and yet loving it all the same.
It’s as if that kiss snapped the shy man out of him and all that’s left is a cocky hockey player who knows what he wants. I should be disturbed and yet I can feel heat coiling throughout my body.
If he keeps going like this, he’ll find my lips against his by the end of the night.
Grayson stands, taking his finished plate—which, when the hell did he get the time to scoff that down while making my stomach flip?—and coming to stand above me. He bends low, brushing his lips against the shell of my ear, making me shiver.
“We have a lot of catching up to do, Blaze.”
