Page 24 of Dangerous Secret

“You’ve got quite a feast there,” she said from where she sat at the kitchen island.

“Trust me, the guys will think this is just an appetizer.”

“What can I do to help?”

“Dinner ready?” a male voice said before Grayson could answer.

She glanced behind her to see two men coming in through the deck’s French doors. Cooper, the one she’d met, came in first, followed by a man she assumed was Liam. “Hello, Elmer,” she said, smiling at him. Where Grayson was clean-shaven, Cooper had scruff on his cheeks and chin, giving him a bad-boy look. With his handsome face, light brown hair and eyes the color of dark coffee, he was a man whom women would sigh over as he walked past.

“Harlow, it’s great to see you again.” He gave her shoulder a friendly pat as he walked past, straight to the refrigerator. He grabbed two bottles of beer, twisted the capsoff with his bare hand, then handed one to the other man, who’d stopped next to her.

“This is Liam O’Rourke,” Grayson said.

Liam smiled. “Nice to finally meet you, Harlow.” He glanced to where Grayson and Cooper stood side by side. “Who’s Elmer?”

While Grayson explained why Cooper was Elmer, she took the opportunity to study Liam. He had dark blue eyes and jet-black hair, and like the other two men, he was tall and broad shouldered. She was surrounded by male hotness. Lucky her.

Grayson glanced at her and winked, and there was a little flutter in her stomach, as if one tiny butterfly had awoken from its long slumber and stretched its wings. Although both Cooper and Liam were as lip-licking yummy as Grayson, it was Grayson who made her stomach feel funny.

She had mixed feelings about that. The part of her that had been crushed into submission and thought she’d never be interested in a man again rejoiced that maybe Anthony hadn’t permanently killed her libido. If her sole focus wasn’t on getting back her son, she would definitely like to see where this attraction to Grayson could go.

“Get your fingers out of there,” Grayson said, slapping Cooper’s hand away from the salad bowl.

Cooper snatched an olive and popped it in his mouth as he moved next to Liam. “If you’d feed us, brother, I wouldn’t have to be stealing food.”

“He has a bottomless pit for a stomach,” Liam said.

Cooper bumped Liam with his shoulder, Liam gave Cooper a noogie and Grayson sighed. “See what I have to put up with? They’re six-year-olds walking around in big-men bodies.”

She laughed. There was affection in his voice that toldher these men cared for each other. Fascinated by the dynamics of their friendship, she wondered how the three of them had come together. Grayson had been evasive when she’d asked, but maybe one day, he’d tell her their story.

Cooper grinned at her. “Run away with me, love. We’ll leave these losers behind.”

“Like she wants your ugly mug anywhere near her,” Liam said, stepping to her side. “It’s me you want to run away with, yeah?”

Grayson came around the island and bumped Liam away from her. “Clowns, the both of them.” He clapped his hands. “Children, let’s get dinner started.”

“Aw, Dad, you’re always messing with our fun,” Cooper said.

As entertaining as Cooper and Liam were, she liked Grayson’s steady calm, something she’d noticed about him. As everyone picked up a dish to take outside, it hit her that it had been years since she’d enjoyed an evening out with people she liked.

Their meal was delicious, the playful insults between the men flew, accompanied by much laughter, and all too soon, dinner was over, and it was time to talk. She wished she didn’t have to end such an enjoyable evening talking about Anthony.

“We wanted to bring you up to date on where things stand,” Grayson said. “You met Cooper, and I wanted you to meet Liam, too, because you might see both around Faberville. Liam’s spending a few days at the Pressley resort, picking up some golf games with the locals.”

“You’d be surprised at the gossip you can pick up on a golf course, especially in the clubhouse over a few beers after a game.” Liam grinned as mischief danced in his eyes.“Did you know the mayor’s having an affair with Alderman Rice’s wife?”

Harlow did not know that. “Seriously? She’s so holier-than-thou. Wow, you just never know about people, do you?”

“Truth,” Grayson said. “Anyway, if you see either of these clowns around town, pretend you don’t know them. Cooper’s looking into Dale Jenkins and his relationship to Pressley. If they’ve done to anyone else what they did to Miss Etta and George Pickens—”

“Oh, that reminds me. After you asked about them and then Dale Jenkins, I put the names together. George Pickens’s name wasn’t mentioned, but I remembered Anthony asking Dale if Etta Jankowski was going to cause them trouble. This was before we were engaged, when we had just started dating. We were at some event or another when that conversation happened.”

“Do you remember Jenkins’s answer?”

She shook her head, hating to disappoint Grayson. “I’m sorry, I don’t. We were at a fancy gala, and I was a bit overwhelmed. I’d never been to an event where everyone was so important and beautiful. My attention was more on what was going on around me than on what I probably thought then was a boring conversation.”

They’d dined outside on the deck, sitting at a round table with Grayson next to her. He put his hand on hers and squeezed. “That’s okay. It’s good to have it confirmed that Pressley and Jenkins were involved in stealing Miss Etta’s home.”

---