Page 47 of Lovers at Seaside
Last night, after they took a walk around the pond with Christmas, Parker had spent an hour on the phone with her agent. Grayson was looking forward to spending time with her in her world and sharing that part of her life, despite his distaste for the celebrity lifestyle. They had planned on traveling back to LA when he was done with the railing, but after her phone call she’d told him she had to leave next week to attend meetings for the role she hoped to get in the new film, and reality came rushing in. He had to stay here and get this railing done if he was ever going to get back to finishing the work for CCF. The designs for the last two sites, Texas and Georgia, loomed. The sooner he completed the work, the more settled he’d feel, making it easier to deal with their schedules and living arrangements.
He carried the red-hot metal to an anvil and picked up a hammer, thinking about what his future with Parker really looked like. Eventually Parker would be filming on location, even if she didn’t get this role. Very soon their lives were going to be even farther apart.
Grayson focused on hammering the metal, forming it into the image he’d created in his mind. If only life were that easy.
“You wanna fess up about whatever’s got your briefs in a knot?” Hunter asked. “Or are we going to pretend you’re not chewing nails?”
He stopped the hammer midswing and met Hunter’s gaze. “It’s nothing anyone can fix.”
“Try me.” Hunter leaned against the drawing table and crossed his ankles, casual and cocky as could be. Probably where Grayson had learned it.
“Okay, sure.” Why not? Grayson clearly didn’t have the answer. Maybe Hunter would. “I want to be with Parker. Her life is in LA, and traveling to film on location all over the world. Except for the travel for the foundation, my life is here. I can’t see a way to make those two things come together.”
Hunter shrugged. “Why not?”
“What do you meanwhy not? She lives across the country. It’s not a weekend drive.”
“And…?”
Grayson clenched his teeth against the urge to throttle his brother. “And I’ve got to work. She’s got to work. What should we do? See each other once every few weeks?”
“No. You’d never last.”
“No kidding.” Grayson went back to pounding the metal.
“Have you talked to her about it?”
Grayson shook his head. “Can’t. There’s no answer, so what good would it do?”
“I don’t know. Maybeshe’llhave an answer.”
He set the hammer down and moved the metal aside so he could pace. “She’s been through so much already. The last thing she needs is to think I have any expectations of her changing her life for me. I’m the man. I need to make the sacrifice if I want to be with her, but, man, do I hate it out there. Something about that area rubs me the wrong way.”
His cell phone vibrated, and Parker’s name flashed on the screen. He opened and read the text.Christmas misses you. But I don’t. Nope. Not at all. And I didn’t spray your cologne on my wrist so I could smell it all day, either. It attacked ME.
He read it again, consumed by the intensity of his love for her and wondering how he’d manage to be away from her for a day, much less a few weeks.
He lifted his eyes to his brother. “Iloveher. She’s it for me, Hunt. I think about her day and night. I want to give her everything she’s ever wanted—family, stability, kids. Whatever it takes to fill her heart so full she never longs for a single thing. I really believed we could take this day by day and the answers would come, but I’m so lost in her, I can’t even think rationally enough to figure it out.”
“You know what Pop would say?” Hunter said. “Levelheaded decisions have no place where women are concerned.”
“So, what are you saying? I’m overthinking this?”
“What would you tell me if I came to you with this dilemma?”
“To figure it out and make it work.” Grayson paced again. “Maybe I am overthinking, which is exactly what I told Parkernotto do. But still, there’s no clear answer.”
“The answers are never clear. You know that, Gray. After we lost Mom, all of us reacted differently. The answers, the way we got through it, were also different. Look at Matt. He still hasn’t really dealt with it. There’s a reason he’s never here.” Hunter knelt by the iron rods again and began picking through them. “You never know what’ll come up, so just deal with it the best way you know how as it comes.” He lifted his eyes to Grayson. “Aren’t you the one who taughtmethat?”
“Probably. I’m wicked smart.” He smirked.
Hunter shook his head. “Apparently wicked dumb, too, if you need me to remind you of your own advice.” He held up two different-length rods. “Help me get this under control, will ya?”
Grayson crouched beside him. “What are we looking for?”
“I saw your drawings of a gazebo with Parker’s name on it. I’m assuming we need supplies if you’re building her one. I thought I’d get started on the ordering, seeing as you’re too busy being lovesick to think straight.”
Grayson had sketched the gazebo for her yard. Now it looked like she might need two—one for Wellfleet and one for Los Angeles.
