Page 40 of Grace on the Rocks

He didn’t.Excepthe did.

“Why are you hiding up here with me?”

Grace opened and closed her mouth in a way that madeBryanhear schoolyard taunts ofCodfishandTangle-Tongue,and he studied his dirty hands instead of her.

“Good question,” she finally said, and promptly climbed down off the roof, slamming the door as she went inside.

“Is it a contest?Areyou trying to out crabbit each other?”Lùcasasked.

Bryan hung his head. “Idon’t know.Thewoman just gets under my skin.”

The boy nodded. “Iwent to school with a guy like that.”

“Aye?Whatdid you do about it?”

Now it wasLùc’sturn to hang his head. “Gotsuper mad wae it and boked on his shoes at the end of term do.He’soff toSt.Andrewsin the fall, so at leastIwon’t have to see him around much longer.”

“Might not go away forever,”Bryansaid, becauseLùcaslooked so sad about it. “Whydon’t you head home?Comeround tomorrow.We’llmount the rest of the damn things.”

“The old-timers are going to hate it even more thanCaitdid.”

“Reckon they’d prefer it if we could paint them up withMacNeiltartan?”

That made his cousin laugh out loud. “Ayeprobably so.”

“Would ruin them of course.Thenthey really would be nothing more than an eyesore.”

“Give it a few years,”Lùcasreplied. “There’llbe all kinds of skins, just like you can get for your mobile.”

He probably wasn’t wrong, butBryandidn’t have to like it.Hetossed his gloves at his cousin as the kid disappeared off the roof still laughing.

ChapterEleven

Despite being snarky with her host about it,Gracehad intended to let herself be dragged out to whatever beach-side stageWesleywanted and to dance barefoot until long past when the sun should have set in a normal, less magical land.

But whileWeswas painting her nails,Gracehad sat down at her keyboard and a different kind of magic took flight.Wordsbegan to flow for the first time in almost a year.Ifin the morning they’d been a trickle, this evening they were a veritableFallCreekFalls, pouring out so quickly she almost didn’t have time to worry about whether they were therightwords or not.Theywere words, and evenGracecould see the value in getting them down on paper.

Thus engrossed, she nearly jumped out of her skin when a bowl of mouthwatering fish stew was placed at her elbow.

Wearing her skinniest jeans and knee-high boots,Wesoffered a sunny smile. “It’shappening!”

“Give me ten minutes to change,”Gracetold her, running a hand through her messy hair and shoving her chair back from the dressing table.

Wesley shook her head, pressingGracefirmly back into her chair. “Idon’t want to interrupt.Thisis good.”

Grace glanced back at the ancient laptop. “Itprobably isn’t.It’sprobably flaming hot garbage.”

Wes shrugged. “Gottabe shit on the page before you mine it for truffles, isn’t that what you always say?”

“Is it?”Graceteased.

“You know it is.Sokeep churning out that shit, babe.”

“You really don’t mind going out alone?”

“Gray,Iam an only child.Ibroke up with my boyfriend soIcould finally go places alone again.Andbecause he was bad in bed, but partially the other thing.I’llbe fine.”

Grace studied her.Weswas one of those wonderfully underrated friends.Howmany others would have been content to tag along on this last-minute trip and then spend so much time on their own?Shewas a true, loyal… horny friend. “You’regoing to look for your mysterious sweater guy, aren’t you?” she asked.

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