Page 44 of Keeping You

I keep my head down, paying attention to the dishes I’m washing. “She is.”

“I can see why you love her.”

I freeze and look over my shoulder to make sure no one else is around. The last thing I need right now is Hannah to hear that. She’s already set on running away. Hearing those words is just going to freak her out.

“Oh, Honey, she’s not here. Maybe she needs to hear that she’s loved. I have a feeling that girl hasn’t heard those words enough in her life.”

Mom’s hit the nail right on the head with that. I wonder if Lauren has ever said those words to Hannah. But I’m not surehearing them from me will do anything. Knowing Hannah, she’ll probably think I’m saying them as a way to manipulate or hurt her.

When we finish with the dishes, I head upstairs and change so we can head to the bar. When I come out of the room, my jaw drops at the sight of Hannah. She’s dressed in denim shorts that just cover her ass, a white tank top, what looks like one of my old flannel shirts unbuttoned, and a pair of Chloe’s cowboy boots. The image of her in nothing but those boots on my bed with them wrapped around my ears has me half hard.

Chloe gives me a smug look. “You like?”

I clear my throat. “Yeah. You look great, Hannah.”

I swear I see her blush.

“Thanks.”

Chloe links her arm with Hannah’s. “You don’t look half bad, brother. Why don’t we head out? We don’t want to miss any of the fun.”

I follow behind Chloe and Hannah, adjusting myself in my jeans as we go. I open the doors to the car for the girls, and we make our way into town. I haven’t been to Incahoots since the summer I turned nineteen. It’s usually packed in the evening, especially when they have live music.

I find parking right out front, and we head inside. The sound of country music hits my ears the second I open the front door. When my eyes adjust to the darker atmosphere, I take in the space. Not much has changed. There’s a bar spanning the left wall, a few shelves of liquor behind it. On the right wall, there’s a hallway that leads to the back office and kitchen. A stage sits against the back wall, with a dance floor in front and tables spread across the rest of the open space.

Chloe drags Hannah to a table in the corner with a few girls already sitting around it. I recognize one of them as Chloe’sbest friend Brinley. When we get to the table, Chloe introduces everyone.

“Girls, this is my brother, Grayson, and his wife, Hannah. These are my friends Brinley, Aspen, Lennon.”

Hannah settles at the table and is talking with the girls like they’ve been best friends for years. Brinley asks something, and Hannah holds out her left hand, and I watch as the girls fawn over her ring. It makes my chest swell with pride that I’m the one who gave it to her. The fact that she wears them all the time even though she didn’t want this marriage further inflates my ego.

I’m not even sure why I’m here, other than I knew I couldn’t let Hannah come to this bar with a bunch of guys who haven’t seen a pretty new girl in God knows how long.

I excuse myself from the table and head to the bar to order a beer for myself and Chloe, and a margarita for Hannah. As I wait for the drinks, a hand claps me on the shoulder.

“Well, lookie here. The Grayson Maxwell, back in Willow Creek. What are you doing here man?”

I turn and come face-to-face with Colby Miller. He hasn’t changed much since we were in high school. His blond hair is still slightly disheveled, and he’s wearing his patented smirk that got him a lot of action back in the day. Last I heard, he’d married his high school sweetheart, Felicity, and they were expecting a baby.

“Hey, man.” I shake his hand. “I’m just in town to spend the week with the family. How’s life?”

His smirk drops for a second before it returns. “Life’s life.”

The bartender places my drinks on the bar, and I grab them before saying, “It was good to see ya, man. I should get back to the ladies. I’ll see you around.”

He nods, and I head back to the table, dropping Chloe and Hannah’s drinks off in front of them before taking my seat. I barely pay attention to the conversation around me. I noticeHannah make her way through her drink quite quickly, and when Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!” comes blaring through the speakers, she’s out of her chair and dragging my sister with her. I watch as they laugh and dance to the music.

I flag down a server and order Chloe and Hannah each another drink and a Coke for myself. The two of them are having a blast.

When the drinks are dropped off at the table, they come over and grab them, Chloe stopping to kiss my cheek and say, “Great big brother,” before going back out with the girls.

When the music cuts out and the band takes the stage, I see the excitement written all over Hannah’s face. They start playing Brooks and Dunn “Boot Scootin’ Boogie”,and Chloe teaches her the dance moves. Hannah stumbles over herself a bit in the beginning, but she picks it up, and a smile lights up her face as she moves across the dance floor. They transition to “The Girls Gone Wild” by Travis Tritt, and Chloe moves smoothly into the tush push. Hannah watches her and eventually picks it up. She really gets into it, her hips moving with every beat.

The music changes, and people couple off and begin to two-step. Hunter Davis steps up and takes Hannah’s hand, pulling her in, and begins to dance with her. She smiles, but it’s not her flirtatious smile. It’s the same one she gives Liv and the girls. I sit back, not wanting to cause a scene, no matter how much I hate his hands on her. When he leans in closer to whisper in her ear, I’ve had enough. I don’t care if I make a scene. I don’t care if the entire town hears about it before breakfast. I want Hunter Davis’s hands off my wife.

Making my way through the crowd, I stop when I’m right behind Hannah. “Davis, I highly recommend you let go of my wife.”

Davis grins at me. “No way Grayson Maxwell is married to this gorgeous woman.”

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