Page 47 of Falling Into Forever
I immediately hold up the bottle in my hand. It says Red Reid-er, pale ale.
“I don’t drink much these days.” He’s staring out at the lake as he says it, so I’m able to study his profile. He’s still the same Grady I knew, but different somehow. Sad, maybe.
We sit in silence for a while, long enough to make me uncomfortable. “You come by a lot?” I tried to sound casual, but the jealous nature of the question is undeniable.
He turns to me with his bottle hovering over his lips like he’s frozen in time as he studies me. After a brief pause, he takes a sip. He never takes his gaze off me until he wipes his mouth with the back of his hand.
“Sassy and I have an understanding that’s none of your business.”
My hand tightens around the beer bottle, and I’m afraid it will shatter.
“Listen, Grady. Our history is—complicated.”
He surprises me when he turns suddenly to face me. He leans against the pillar, and I push back against the one opposite him. At least six feet separate us, but it’s still not enough space.
“Is your future going to be too?”
“Our…” My mouth hangs open while I figure out what I want to say. “Honestly, I don’t know.” I run my hand through my hair. “I have no fucking idea.”
He’s quiet and thoughtful as he watches me.
“Would you have come back if you’d known?” he asks quietly, almost hesitantly.
“Did you know?” I accuse. Grady and I weren’t friends, and granted, I cut off everyone from Hope Hollow when I left, but if he knew? If everyone knew? Why didn’t they do something to intervene?
Unless, maybe, she wasn’t hurting over us as much as I was. But that’s not what she said in her book. That’s not the impression I got when she cried herself to sleep in my arms.
Endless possibilities run rampant in my mind. My thoughts are so loud that I almost miss Grady’s next words.
“Not until her last couple of books,” he admits. “We probably should have known—youprobably should have known.”
Fuck you, Grady Reid.
“Well, I know now.” My frustration is at an all-time high, so the words are harsh and angry.
“Now you know,” he agrees amicably. “But what are you going to do about it?”
I stand abruptly, and he shakes his head, then takes his time to rise with me.
“That’s not really any of your business,” I say.
“Sassy is my business, Thompson. She has been since the night I found her at The Landing.”
The Landing?
Those words hit like a throat-punching, stopping my breath.
The Landing is where Shannon’s car went over the cliff.
“She’s struggled and fought for herself for years. Don’t fuck that up. You can’t ‘test the waters’ with her…”
“I don’t need you lecturing me on Saylor.”
He lurches forward until we’re toe to toe.
“This isn’t a game, dipshit.” The muscles in his forearms flex at his sides, and he deliberately takes a step back. “She’s stronger than she gives herself credit for, but losing a love like yours once already almost crushed her. I don’t want to see what happens if she suffers another loss like that.”
“You sound like you’re talking from experience.” I try to keep the sarcasm out of my voice, but my emotions are messy and I’m all over the place. Frustrated, I look him in the eye and infuse my words with as much compassion as I can. “Sorry. I mean…”
