Nipples, hard.
“Dammit!” She clapped her hands over them. “It’s like they’re broken!”
Josh let out a low laugh. “They just like me more than your other parts.”
She didn’t know about that. Her other parts liked him, too, a lot.
He got up much more slowly than she. Naked, of course. The man didn’t have a single ounce of self-consciousness in his entire body. Not that he needed to. “What are you doing?” she hissed. “Put some clothes on!”
“Christ, woman.” He appeared to be holding his head onto his shoulders. “Shhh.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Your head didn’t seem to hurt so badly a little while ago.”
“The brain is motivated to avoid pain by seeking pleasure.”
“The brain, huh? Because I’m pretty sure the body part that was seeking pleasure sits quite a bit lower than your brain.”
He let out a low laugh, but it was weak. Softening, Grace slid her arms around him, trying to guide him back to the bed. Not a hardship, since he was warm and sleek and hard.
Everywhere.
The hardest part of him was poking her in the belly. Seemed her ni**les weren’t the only things broken.
Looking both amused and pained at the both of them, he extracted himself from her grip and strode butt-ass na**d to the sweats on the floor, which he pulled on. “What’s up for you today?” he asked.
“The usual variety of jobs. Tomorrow I have another interview.”
He froze for a beat. “Seattle?”
“Yeah,” she said, more than a little distracted by the way the sweats sat so low on his hips. “You have a few more nanny applicants.” It was her turn to pause. “One of them is Sarah Tombs, Mindy’s sister, from the florist shop. She’s going to an online college and is looking for a way to work part-time. I could check her out if you’d like.”
“That’d be great.”
She nodded. “The other is Riley.”
“Amy’s Riley?”
“Yes. She’s taking college classes in the mornings,” she said. “She needs a job for the afternoons or evenings. She loves kids, she loves Toby, and more importantly, he loves her.”
Josh said nothing to this as he pulled on a T-shirt, his muscles bunching and unbunching in a way that made her lose her train of thought again. When he finally spoke, it was a complete subject change. “I heard you picked up a few more clients.”
“Yeah, it’s getting totally out of hand. Mindy brought me her paperwork. In grocery store bags.” She shook her head. “What is wrong with people?”
He smiled. “Lots.”
The smile made her want to hug him, and maybe love him up some more. Stupid smile. She backed to the door. “I’ll be back in time to get Toby.”
“We’ll be okay today. Do what you have to do.”
“You’re not going to work?” This had her heart stopping short. “You’re not better.”
“I’m fine. Just not fine enough to treat people.”
She looked him over carefully. He had shadows beneath his eyes. His brow was furrowed. His mouth was tight. He was holding it together—the guy clearly knew no other way—but he was feeling like shit. She shook her head. “I’m going to cancel the floral deliveries—”
“No. Don’t.”
“You’re—”
“Fine,” he said finally. “I’ll pick up Toby from school and take him to the pier. We’ll play arcade games and eat crap.”
Aw. She pictured it, Toby running around in hog heaven, and Josh trying to find something to eat that wasn’t a hot dog. “You’re a good dad, Josh.”
He didn’t have any obvious reaction, but she knew him now and felt his surprise. Had no one ever told him such a thing? The thought made her heart melt. And it wasn’t the fleeting kind of melt either. It was the kind that made her want to burrow into him and make him feel good some more. In lots of ways…
Which in turn reminded her that she was this close to a job—finally—and he was this close to getting a nanny, and then this time with him would be over.
And when it was, there’d be no reason to see him. At least no reason that didn’t involve doing what they’d both said they didn’t want to do—have a relationship.
Chapter 23
The best drug is chocolate.
The next day, Grace had her Seattle interview and got on the road heading back to Lucky Harbor. Her passenger was a big, shiny, fancy file folder with a formal offer and all the big, shiny, fancy benefits that went with it.
It was a really good offer. It didn’t involve shoe boxes filled with receipts, modeling various body parts, or doggie poo. It didn’t involve grumpy paraplegics or terrifyingly adorable Jedi warriors. This job would be all checks and balances, spreadsheets, and detailed analysis programs for a midsized bank with growth potential.
No messy emotions.
Now it was just a matter of deciding if she wanted it. This thought was so disconcerting that she had to pull over and stare at herself in the rearview mirror.
Of course she wanted the job. It was a good salary and had full benefits. It was what she’d been aiming for, and it would make her family proud.
But it also meant walking away from all the things and people who’d come to mean so much to her.
The break’s over, she told herself firmly. Fun was fun but it was time to follow through on her life plans. Past time.
She headed to the pier. She’d called Sarah for a preliminary nanny interview. They were meeting in twenty minutes at the diner. She was halfway through town when she saw Anna on the sidewalk, wheeling furiously along, steam practically coming out of her ears. Grace pulled over and got out of the car. She could tell Anna had been crying, but since she didn’t have a death wish, she didn’t mention it. “What are you doing?”
“What does it look like?”
“Well, it looks like you’re on a mission to kill someone,” Grace said. “And since you won’t look good in an orange jumpsuit, I thought we could discuss.”
“I’d totally rock an orange jumpsuit.”
“No one rocks orange. Talk to me.”
Anna rolled her eyes. “You even sound like him now.”
Grace sighed. There was no hurrying a Scott, ever. “You getting in the car or what?”
Anna took a moment to swipe the mascara from beneath her eyes. “Yeah. Sure.” Once she got into the front seat, she looked at the folder Grace had set on the dash. “What’s that?” she asked, opening the file without waiting for an answer.
“Hey, that’s private,” Grace said.
“Holy shit, they’re going to pay you a buttload,” Anna exclaimed, eyeballing the bottom line on the offer. “What is it you do again? Add up other people’s money?”
Grace sighed. “Something like that.”
“I want a job that pays this.”
“Get a degree.”
“There you go, sounding like my brother again.” Anna flipped through the papers for a moment, thoughtful. Silent.
“I’m interviewing Sarah at the diner. Want to help?”
“I guess.”
Inside Eat Me, Jan brought them iced tea as they met with Sarah and her nice, neat, freshly printed résumé. She was local, and everyone liked her. She had a list of references a mile long, and she could start immediately.
It was a no-brainer.
After Sarah left the table, Grace looked at Anna. “So?”
“So what?”
“What did you think?”
“She’s like Mary Poppins,” Anna said.
Yeah. Dammit. She was perfect. Far more perfect than Grace. Which was not the point, she told herself. She’d never meant for this job to become anything more than a temp position on the way to the Real World.
“You look annoyed,” Anna said. “You’ve been looking for someone to replace you for weeks. Why aren’t you doing the happy dance?”
“She’s talking about getting married to her fiancé. She’ll be too busy with wedding plans to play with Toby.”
“She said they’re planning on eloping.”
“Exactly,” Grace said. “Which means she’ll just up and go away for two weeks. Toby doesn’t need that kind of disruption; he’s had enough.”
“So hire Riley.”
“Yes, but Riley’s so…young.”
Anna stared at her, then laughed. “Let me get this straight. First you can’t find a viable candidate. Now you’ve got not one but two, and you don’t want either?”
“I didn’t say that.”
Anna shook her head. “You really are as nuts as I thought.”
“Pot, kettle,” Grace said. “Now tell me what the hell you were doing wheeling down the highway like a Formula One driver minus a racetrack.”
“You first. Tell me why you’re not happy about your job offer, the one any normal person would be celebrating already by now.”
They stared at each other, at an impasse.
“You first,” Anna bargained with the same talent as her brother. “And then I’ll tell you.”
“Uh-huh,” Grace said. “And I’d totally say yes, except you’re a weasel and a non-truth teller—”
“Non-truth teller?”
“Nicer than saying liar,” Grace said with a shrug.
“Okay, fine.” Anna shifted in her chair. “Today was the day.”
“The day…”
“With Devon,” Anna said. “The day I agreed to finally…you know. Do the deed.”
“Oh.” Grace’s stomach clenched. “And? Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I really thought I was ready. I’m twenty-freaking-one.”
Grace held her breath. Tell me you didn’t go through with it…
“I got there,” Anna said. “To his place. And it was still his same stinky, old bedroom with the huge bong in a corner and the posters of Megan Fox on the walls, and no pillowcases on the pillows…”
Pig.
“I mean, I don’t know what I expected,” Anna said. “I guess I thought somehow it’d be romantic and special. You know?”
“I do know. And it should be romantic and special. What happened?”
“I changed my mind.”
Grace let out the breath she’d been holding. “It’s okay. It’s okay to change your mind.”
Anna lifted a shoulder, then shook her head. “Devon was all pissed off about it.”
Tell me I have a reason to call the cops and have his ass arrested. “Did he hurt you?”
“No. Of course not. I wouldn’t let a guy hurt me.” Anna’s voice caught. “But he was a total jerk about it. Wouldn’t give me a ride home.”
Asshole. “So you took your wheels to the highway?” Grace asked. “Why didn’t you call someone, Josh or me?”
“Josh’s at work.”
“He’d have come anyway,” Grace said. “And you know it. And I would have as well.”
“Without killing Devon?”
Tough question. “Okay, so Josh might have struggled with that, but you can call me, Anna. Always. I’ll pick you up no questions asked and take you wherever you need to go. Well, except the one place you actually want to go. I don’t have enough credit on my Visa to get us to Europe, sorry. But I do have a full tank of gas, which gives us about two hundred miles in any direction.”
Anna rolled her eyes, but she also almost smiled. “I still want to go to Europe.”
“I’ve heard this song.”
“And then after Europe, I figured out what I want to do with my life. Other than driving the people in it crazy.”
“Anna.” Grace covered Anna’s hand with hers. Anna’s was calloused and strong from spinning the wheels on her chair. As strong as the woman it belonged to. “There’s no need to stop something you’re so good at.”
Anna snorted.
Grace smiled at her, then let the amusement fade. “You know you can do whatever you want, right? Climb mountains, cure world hunger, rule the universe?”
“I want to work with people like me. Help them, like, adjust. I know,” she said quickly. “I know I’m mean and obnoxious, but that’s me. That has nothing to do with my legs not working. I think I’m pretty damn well adjusted when it comes to that.”
“I agree,” Grace said quietly. “So you want to be a counselor? A therapist?”
“Psychologist. Specializing in obnoxious teenagers.” She smiled. “Who better, right?”
“Nice,” Grace said. “You’d probably have to lose the scowl, maybe turn on your self-editor, but nice. Really nice. Do it.”
“It’s just that I’ve said that I’d go to school like a million times over the past three years, and every time Josh got me all admitted and registered and everything, and I’ve flaked.”
“So don’t flake,” Grace said.
“I can’t tell him. He won’t believe me. He’s lost faith.”
“Anna.” Grace shook her head. “He’s never lost faith in you. Have a little faith in him.” Because Anna wasn’t looking sure, Grace went on. “You’re a born fighter. So fight for what you want.”
Anna nodded, then smiled.
“What?”
“Your turn. You have to tell me stuff now. About your job offer.”