Page 55 of Fish out of Water
Chapter Twelve
Grant
THE LOGISTICS OF my plan to take Julia home with me were still a little sticky, but at this point I was just rolling with the shit that kept coming my way.
It was one thing for Vito’s place to get hit. It was another thing for them to go after her.
I should have left the money out like I normally would have. Then this would all be over and things could be back to normal.
Except normal meant that as soon as Vito came across another idiot with a stupid idea this would all happen again.
“I’m sorry.”
Julia sat in the passenger’s seat of my car looking a little shell-shocked. “It’s not your fault.”
It was my fault, though. “I shouldn’t have stayed at your place last night.”
“You couldn’t stay at your uncle’s.” She said it like her place was the only option I had.
As far as she knew that was true.
But Julia was about to discover I had one other option.
And she might not be as forgiving.
In ten minutes we were turning onto the street where I lived.
Two more and we were pulling into my driveway.
I didn’t usually bring women to my home.
For a multitude of reasons.
But here I could keep Julia safe, and considering it was my fault she wasn’t, I owed her that.
One of Julia’s brows slowly climbed up her forehead as she leaned forward to stare out the windshield at the house I bought two years ago when I decided it wasn’t enough to metaphorically leave my old self behind. “You’re a bougie bitch, aren’t you, Grant?”
“Shut up, Banana Pants.” I pressed the button to open the garage door on the modern ranch I’d completely renovated, and slowly pulled inside.
Julia climbed out as the overhead door lowered into place, closing us into the space.
My space.
The only place where the real me saw the light of day.
And I was about to give her a peek at it.
I tipped my head toward the door leading inside. “Go on in. I’ll grab our stuff.”
I didn’t want to be there when she saw it.
When Julia realized I was not the man she thought I was.
She hesitated a second, but eventually walked to the door and quietly went in.
I took too long getting our bags from the trunk, trying to give her plenty of time to react to what she saw so that maybe it wouldn’t hit me like a punch when I saw her face.
Finally there was no time left. No excuse to keep hiding from the reality I always faced.
