Page 338 of Tormented Billionaire Romance Series

I look away from the window and back at Grace. “It feels like you’ve said something like that before,” I tell her.

“Did I?” she asks. “If I did, I’m sure I wanted to mean it. But I was still so—should I just go? It seems like you have a lot on your mind and it looks like I’m not helping.”

“No,” I tell her. “Stay.”

“Are you sure?” she asks. “Your face is all red, and there’s a vein above your brow that’s popping out to the point it’s starting to worry me.”

What I feel right now is played with and discarded. Any lingering guilt about not telling Grace everything from the outset is located in a part of my mind I can’t access right now. I’m considering keeping it that way.

“Yeah,” I tell her. “If you don’t mind, I’d prefer if you sleep in the guest room, at least for tonight.”

“Okay,” she murmurs. “There’s still a lot I’d like to talk about, but with the fight and the flight—huh. Usually, it’s one or the other—I’m dragging right now.” She says, “Do you mind if we pick it up in the morning?”

I know what she’s doing. She stays here tonight, and it’s going to be that much harder saying no to her tomorrow. Only, even as upset as I am, as frustrated as I am with work, and how angry and hurt I am toward Grace, I don’t think I could bring myself to tell her no now.

“That’s fine,” I tell her. “Get some sleep. If we’re going to talk in the morning, though, it’ll have to be pretty early. There are a lot of ducks I’ve got to get in a row, and it looks like every one of them is afraid of getting shot.” I chuckle. “Maybe I overextended the metaphor there, but you get the idea.”

“Yeah,” she says. “If I’m not up when you get up, wake me. I want to get it right this time.”

“And you have no interest at all in hearing what I was going to tell you in the restaurant?” I ask.

She winces and I’m not sure if it’s because I brought up the forbidden topic or if she moved wrong and aggravated one of the minor injuries all that makeup isn’t hiding.

“I don’t know,” she says. “It’s still a bit much for me.”

“Even if it would put your mind at ease, you don’t want to hear it?” I ask.

She shakes her head. “Maybe it sounds stupid, but I’d like to get my head totally straight about everything before we add too much more information to the mix,” she says.

“So, if it was that I was going to tell you I’m a serial killer, and I got all this money because I murdered the guy who was supposed to have this life?” I ask.

“I wouldn’t believe that,” she says.

Smirking, I say, “It’s good to know you have at leastthatmuch trust in me.”

“You know,” she snaps, “if you don’t want me here, you could just tell me.”

I hold my hands up, palms out, saying, “I’m just surprised, that’s all. Things at Stingray aren’t going so well, and I honestly didn’t expect to see you again.”

“So what do you want me to do?” she asks. “If you need me to go, I’ll go. If you’d like me to stay, I’ll stay, but if it’s just so you can keep making those comments and make me feel even worse than I already do, I’d rather just hear it from my sister.”

I’m ready to snap at her for comparing me to that thing she’s related to, but for the first time this conversation, I manage to keep my thoughts to myself.

“I want you to stay,” I tell her. “I’ll get over whatever this is. Maybe we should both just get some sleep.”

“I think that sounds like a good idea,” she says and starts walking only to stop halfway across the room. “Okay, I’ve never been here. Where am I going?”

“Down the hall,” I tell her. “It’s the fourth door on your right. Clean linens are in the closet.”

She walks off, and I just sit on the couch a while, savoring every moment of my utter confusion and frustration.

In the grand scheme of things, my anger is meaningless. Grace’s no less the person I want to spend my life with than she was before she walked up to me that first time at Rory’s. Just the way she was asking me if she should go or not, though, I’m asking myself if it’s worth it.

There are so many ways that she’s the same person I knew all those years ago, but time changes things, and not always for the better. She was quiet back then, but she was always so clear about what she thought and felt.

I guess it’s possible I never knew her well enough to get the whole story.

After a long time pondering my situation but coming no closer to any real insight, I decide to call it a night. I’m exhausted, and there aren’t that many hours before I have to be up again.

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