Page 63 of Falling Into Forever
“You’re sixteen,” he says through clenched teeth.
“Time,” Adam announces while pushing his glasses up his nose with his pointer finger.
“What?” Grady glares at every person in the room while Saylor doubles over laughing. It’s a sight that stops everyone in their tracks for a full thirty seconds, and a pride I’ve never experienced fills my heart.
Harrison steps forward, breaking us all from our shock, and lifts my arm like a heavyweight fighter who just won his match.
“Dante, one. Grady, zero.” Harrison steps to the right, partially blocking me. Is he also worried that Grady might charge me like a raging bull? While I appreciate the effort, Grady would bowl over the both of us without breaking a sweat.
Instead, Grady reaches for his back as far as his muscular arms will allow. But it’s Adam who plucks my pin from his shirt.
Grady’s eyes do something strange. They aren’t quite sparkling, but there’s humor in them that he’s trying to suppress.
“Fucking stupid games,” he grumbles, then stalks toward the door. I’m not the only one who noticed his voice was missing some of its usual bite, and we all stare at him with dumbfounded expressions on our faces. Before he reaches the door, he calls over his shoulder. “Be at the brewery tonight at seven, Thompson. We have stuff to…discuss.”
When I don’t respond, he turns with a smug expression. “Unless you’re a chicken,” he taunts. “Sassy, you too. Don’t want you missing book club again.”
“Ah, shit, Grady,” she grumbles. “That’s not fair.”
“Payback’s a bitch, my friend. See you both tonight.”
“What happens at the brewery tonight?” I ask. Harrison and Adam are still standing on either side of me.
“The ladies of Heart Lake meet for Sexy Sips and Scenes. The guys? Well, it’s supposed to be poker. But really, it’s a bunch of smack talk,” Adam says.
“Better wear your thick skin tonight, man. Grady will be in a mood for sure.” Harrison laughs. “And I’ll let you make up ghosting me by giving me front-row seats to the shit show.”
Guilt swamps me. “I’m…”
“Nah,” he says, smacking my chest with the back of his hand. “I read the books. I get it.”
Saylor’s head snaps up. “What do you mean, you read the books?”
“Come on, Sassy,” Harrison says with a flush to his cheeks. “You must know everyone’s been worried about you, right? So, when whispers of your story spread faster than cheap vodka at a bonfire party, we all read it.”
Her face pales.
“We’re all just glad you’re giving life another shot,” Adam says shyly.
Her mouth drops open.
She always did feel like an outsider in her own life. Maybe now she’ll start seeing how much people have always cared.
CHAPTER17
SAYLOR
“This is the worst idea in the history of ideas,” I say as Dante steps out of the bathroom in nothing but a towel. “Why are you naked?”
He stares down at himself, then back at me. “It’s hot as balls in there, Oscar. Why doesn’t the fan work?”
“I never got around to having anyone fix it. I normally shower with the door open to let the steam out.”
Naughtiness seeps from his every pore. “Don’t stop on my account,” he says with a sexy lilt.
My throat is too dry to respond, so I roll my eyes instead. It feels safer.
“Are you ready to go?” he asks as he crosses the room then digs into the suitcase he keeps propped against the wall.
