Page 20 of Keeping You

I hold my hand out, palm up. “Phone please.”

He grabs it, unlocking it with a questioning look before placing it in my hand. I open his texts and find the person I’m looking for.

Grayson

You and me, naked party tonight 6pm.

The moment I see that the message has been delivered, I delete it and hand him his phone back. He looks at it, doesn’t see anything, and pockets it.

“Your turn. Truth or dare?”

I clasp my hands in front of me as I stare at him. “Dare.”

“I dare you to shove as much food as you can in your mouth, let me take a pic, and post it to your Instagram.”

I look down at myself and then back at him. A mouth full of food and the most ridiculous outfit plastered all over my Instagram for the world to see is not how I thought this would go.

I reach for crackers, cheese, and salami and stuff as much as I can in and hand him my locked phone. He opens the camera and takes a picture. He’s grinning from ear to ear as he looks at my phone. I reach over and grab a napkin, disposing of the grossfood because there is no way I was going to be able to chew and swallow that.

He hands me back my phone and watches as I post it with the captiondares at the beachwith the wave emoji.

We play a few more rounds. As the sun starts to set and the breeze off the water turns cooler, I start to shiver a bit. Grayson notices and wraps an arm around me, pulling me in close. The smell of his cologne mixing with the heat from his body is intoxicating. If things were different and we didn’t have the history we do, I’d be wrapping my arms around him and straddling his lap as I go in for a kiss.

I hate that we have this negative history. I wish everything could go back to the moment before I walked into that stupid closet and saw them together. But it can’t.

I wiggle out of his hold and put some distance between us. Today has not worked out how I had envisioned. I thought my outfit would make him not want to go out, and when that didn’t deter him, I figured I would suffer through the next few hours and go home and curl up with a good book. Of course, Grayson had to go and fuck it all up, because part way through I actually started enjoying myself.

I kicked myself when I was intrigued about the fact that when he was in high school he always thought he’d go to university for, what he now calls a boring job, accounting. Accounting is far off from being a doctor. I chickened out when it came to asking him what changed it all and made him chose medical school. I knew he has a younger sister, but I didn’t know she’s what he misses most about being home in his small town of Willow Valley.

The way he talked about his sister and their town had me wishing I could go and visit, but that’s not something Grayson and I will do. This isn’t a real marriage.

When the sun finally sets beyond the horizon, we pack up the basket and blanket and head to the car. We take our time drivingthrough the city before returning home. I’m halfway down the hall to the bedroom when he reaches out and grabs my wrist.

I turn back and stare at where he holds me. Goosebumps have scattered up my arm from the touch.

“Thank you,” he says, and my eyes move up to his. “Thank you for the date.”

I nod and move into the bedroom, leaning against the door as I shake my head, trying to process the events of the day.

CHAPTER 8

Grayson

Before today, I never would have called myself a masochist, but spending the evening at the beach with Hannah has me rethinking that. When she came out in that ridiculous outfit, I did a double take, but it wasn’t going to stop me from taking my wife on a date. Our game of truth or dare went better than I thought it would. I needed to find some way to get her to engage with me. I’m not going to lie, having her move out of my hold when she was cold hurt, but I wasn’t going to push the matter. I need to show Hannah that the idea she has of me isn’t the real me. At least not anymore. I know she’s not going to believe anything I say, so I have to show her. That means patience, no matter how much it kills me.

I change into gym shorts and get settled on the couch. I scroll through my phone until I’m bored. When I look up, I see one of Hannah’s books sitting on the coffee table. I pick it up and run a finger over the colourful tabs she has on the pages. I open it and start reading. I’ve never been much for reading, but these tabs have me interested.

It’s a romance novel, which doesn’t surprise me one bit, but this one seems dark. It starts out with a guy texting the wrong number and becoming obsessed with the woman on the other end. I make it about thirty percent in before I decide to go to sleep. I make note of the chapter so I can pick up another day.

I’m woken by the sound of crashing cupboards. I rub my eyes groggily as light streams in through the windows of the living room. I continue to listen to Hannah very loudly moving around the kitchen when I hear her huff. I sit up, and she has her hands on her hips staring up at the top shelf where I keep my water bottles. I take her in before she places her hands flat on the counter and tries to haul herself up. She’s unsuccessful. That area of counter is too small, with the stove right next to it on the right and the fridge to the left. She continues to stare, and before she can decide to find another way, I stand and make my way to her, reaching around her and grabbing a bottle down for her and placing it on the counter.

Her body is stiff as I hover behind and over her. She may be five-foot-seven, but she’s still short compared to my six-foot-four frame.

I move so my lips brush against the shell of her ear and whisper, “All you had to do was ask.”

Goosebumps erupt down her arm as she shutters.

“Thanks,” she whispers, and I take a step back before turning and heading to the washroom.

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