Page 89 of Wicked Minds
27
GRAYSON
For the first time, my palms are sweaty as I pull up outside the nursing home. Nerves churn in my stomach. Fear of what I can expect when I go in there keeps me sitting in the car long after parking.
“You can’t avoid her,” I tell myself. “You’re all she has.”
Hell, she’s all I have.
I don’t even have the guys anymore. That dumpster fire has exploded into a full-on rager. We’re no longer talking at all. I can’t even explain it… theragethat came over me when I realized they’d ditched me forher.
They’re constantly fucking with her these days. I can’t walk across campus without seeing Logan draped all over her or Royce sending her secretive little smiles. It’s sickening. Infuriating. Leaving a bitter taste in my mouth and an overwhelming urge to storm over there and rip her away from them.
This feeling is like a venomous vine, coiling tighter around my heart until I’m suffocating on it. Yet, I’m helpless to stop it.
That’s why I followed her the other day, needing to get her alone. Needing to... I don’t even fucking know—fill my veins with her. Get that fix so I could put my head on straight again, andremind her that she can fuck my best friends but it doesn’t stop her from wanting me.
The reminder of how it felt to be encompassed in her orbit, her fruity scent flooding my senses and wet heat clenching desperately around my fingers have my jeans growing uncomfortably tight right now, and the steering wheel creaks beneath my grip as my eyes close and I try to gather myself.
Too much time has been spent fantasizing about that, thinking about her… with them.
My teeth grind.
I’m losing my fucking mind. What am I even doing? Sitting outside Gran’s nursing home sporting a hard-on as I daydream about a girl who accused me of… What exactly? She fucking wanted it. I know she did. I might have been half out of my mind, spinning out from what Gran had said and then finding her so at home in my kitchen, but Iknowshe wanted it. The bitch just can’t admit it to herself.
Anger licks along my veins, mixing with that unrelenting desire for her body and forming a toxic, potent blend that is going to be the death of me.
Needing to stop thinking about her before I whip my dick out in the middle of a public parking lot, I snap my eyes open and take a steadying breath before climbing out and walking into Sunnyside Nursing Home with laden steps.
“How is she today?” I ask the nurse at reception, recognizing her as the one who responded to Gran’s cries last week.
“She’s been well settled since your last visit. You know she can get confused sometimes and say things she doesn’t mean.”
“I know,” I say defeatedly.
“Unfortunately, these are all signs of her condition worsening,” she says as sympathetically as she can.
“You’re saying she’s going to keep thinking I’m my father and freaking out.”
Her lips are pressed tight. “I’m guessing the two of them don’t have a great relationship.”
I bark a caustic laugh. “You heard her accuse him of murdering my mom.”
“You have to understand, Grayson, that doesn’t mean anything. She could be disassociating her feelings toward your father with something she’s read in a book or seen on TV. Memories are confusing for her, and sometimes they blend together.”
“I get that, I just…” I sigh dejectedly, and she reaches out to squeeze my hand. I stare at the warm gesture, momentarily stunned. When was the last time someone comforted me in such a way?
“I know. It doesn’t make it any easier.”
“It doesn’t.”
“She’s in good form today and is in the TV room. Why don’t you go spend some time with her.”
I give her a wane smile before sauntering off. At the threshold of the TV room, I pause. Several other residents are here, some watching the television while others doze in their chairs. I spot Gran sitting by the large bay window and cautiously approach.
“Hi, Gran.”
She doesn’t look away from where she’s staring out across the manicured lawns of the nursing home.
