Page 110 of Grumpy Darling

“How was your early morning jog?” Reed asked.

“Jog?” Gray replied.

I subtly elbowed him, and he quickly corrected himself. “Oh yeah, it was great. We both really needed the fresh air.”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “I love to jog.”

Parker laughed but quickly covered the sound with a cough as he gave my clothes a critical look. I was wearing the same flowery pink dress as last night. The only difference was I now had Grayson’s red Devils sweatshirt over the top. It clearly wasn’t jogging attire.

“But today I felt more like a walk,” I quickly added, as if that would help to explain my outfit. “We both did.”

“Well, it’s a lovely morning for a walk,” Danny agreed with a smirk, before turning to Gray’s mom. “Remember when we used to go for early morning walks together, dear?”

I couldn’t decide if Gray’s dad playing along made this better or worse. It was obvious everyone knew we were only just getting home from the night before.

“A walk, huh?” Amy asked.

“I’m sorry!” I blurted, unable to contain my guilt. “We were out all night!”

“Paige,” Gray muttered.

“But we were stargazing, and we accidentally fell asleep. We were being good, I promise. It really was an accident.” Clearly, I had no hope of ever holding up under torture.

Danny laughed into his coffee. “It’s okay, Paige.”

Amy shot him a look and he quickly cleared his throat.

“I mean, it’s not okay to be out all night, and we’re very disappointed.” He glanced back at Amy, as if he was checking for her approval.

“Yes, very disappointed.” She nodded in agreement, but her expression and her words didn’t match up at all. “Just don’t do it again, you two.”

“We won’t,” Gray and I agreed in unison. It felt like we were getting off far too easy.

Everyone returned to their breakfast, the boys still smirking into their cereal, but Amy’s attention remained on us. “Paige, your mom messaged this morning to let me know she’d landed. I think she’s concerned she hasn’t heard from you yet today.”

The news my mom was back made me grimace; I only hoped the reaction wasn’t too noticeable. My phone had died yesterday evening, so I probably had a dozen missed texts from her updating me on her travel arrangements.

I wasn’t ready to go back home, especially after last night. But Amy had at least given me the perfect excuse to leave the room.

“Thanks for letting me know,” I said. “My phone’s dead, but I’ll go charge it now so I can text her back. I should probably start packing too.” Dreading what was next but happy to escape the kitchen, I made a quick exit and dashed upstairs.

Once I reached Cammie’s room, I plugged my phone into the charger and started gathering my things while I waited for it to power back on. The more I thought about packing, the less I wanted to go home. Especially when I was facing a grilling from my mom about why I’d missed my career meeting and what that meant for my future. I was floating so high on the fluffy cloud Grayson had placed me on, I wasn’t ready to come back down to earth.

“I think they might be on to us...”

I smiled and turned to find Grayson leaning against the doorframe.

“Oh no, you think so?” I feigned surprise. “How could that have happened?”

Gray laughed and walked into the room. He wrapped his arms around my waist and nervous jitters leaped in my chest as I gazed back at him. Even though things had changed so much between us since last night, being in his arms felt like the most natural thing in the world.

“What are the other spies going to say when you get back to MI6?” he asked. “First you squealed while sneaking into the house, then you took one look at my mom and told her everything.”

“One: I slipped. That could happen to anyone. Two: your mom’s a master interrogator.”

“Master interrogator? Really?”

“Okay, fine, I’d make a terrible spy. But I wasn’t exactly dressed for stealth mode.” I gestured toward his bright red sweatshirt.

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