Page 71 of Sweet Temptation (Men of Honor 2)
Later that day, as Grace starts supper, I walk into the spare room and grab all my shit, moving it into hers since that’s where I’ll be sleeping from now on. Seeing the clean sheets on the bed, I pick them up and start changing the bedding. When I pull off her pillow a sketchbook falls to the floor at my feet. Picking it up, I stare at the open page.
“What the hell…” I mumble quietly.
The sketch is of some sort of cafe or bakery. It’s incredibly fucking detailed, right down to the soft yellow walls with pink tables and chairs. Even pictures of some ‘50s style uniforms are glued to it. The top of the page says… ‘A Slice of Hope With A Sprinkle of Grace.’
Jesus, did she draw this?
I get pulled from my thoughts when Grace walks in. “Hey, do ya…” she stops abruptly when she sees what I’m holding. “Where did you get that?”
I clear my throat, worried she thinks I was snooping or some shit. “I was making the bed and when I pulled your pillow off it fell out.”
She doesn’t look mad just… I don’t fucking know, embarrassed maybe?
“What is this?”
Shaking her head, she walks up and tries to take it from me. “Nothin’ it’s stupid.” I hold it out of her reach, “It’s not stupid. Tell me what it is.”
I wait patiently as she debates whether she’s going to tell me. “Remember when I told you that day Mama and I were supposed to be headin’ out of town for a bakin’ contest with our pies?” I nod. “Well the prize money was for $20,000. We had saved our whole lives to one day have that bakery there,” she says, pointing at the picture sadly. “It was our dream for as long as I can remember. We would sell and serve our pies along with other kinds of bakin’. Mama never made much money, but that $20,000 was gonna be enough with the some we had saved to hopefully start it up. But it never happened, as you know…”
My heart constricts fucking painfully at the sadness that washes over her face, at not only losing her mom, but her dream too.
She points at the top of the page, “Mama’s name was Hope. We wanted something with both our names so that’s what she came up with. A couple years ago, when I was missin’ her somethin’ fierce, I started drawing it out, pretending that I would actually have it one day, even though I knew I never would.”
Her cheeks turn redder with embarrassment and she gives me a small fake smile, “You think I’m crazy, don’t ya?”
Putting the book down, I stand up and cup her face. “No, Cupcake, I think you’re fucking incredible.”
Her fake smile turns genuine. Cupping her ass, I pick her up and kiss the shit out of her. Hoping to replace the sadness in her eyes with something else.
I’m having one of the best sleeps of my life when the blare of a cell phone goes off, pulling me from my deep slumber.
I feel Sawyer’s warm, naked chest shift under my cheek as he reaches over to answer it, “Yeah?” His sexy, sleep, gravelly voice has me burrowing closer into him, but soon I feel him tense. “Fuck me, is he all right?”
I shoot up and look at the clock to see it’s one am; I instantly realize that a phone call this late at night can’t be good. I look back at Sawyer, his green eyes bore into mine with concern and regret.
Oh no! My heart begins to thunder and my stomach sinks with dread.
“Yeah, we’re on our way.”
“Sawyer? What is it, what’s wrong?” my voice shakes from fear.
Not taking his eyes off mine, he sits up and cups the side of my face tenderly. “It’s Mac, Cupcake. We need to go to the hospital.”
“What! Why? What’s happened?” A second after I shout the words I jump out of bed and run around frantically tryin’ to get dressed.
My mind races with all the horrible things that could have happened to him as I throw on my clothes from the day before.
Car accident? No, it’s a heart attack, I know it. I told him that greasy food he’s always eatin’ was going to catch up to him. As I rush to my dresser to grab socks, I run full force into Sawyer…
He grabs my arms and gives me a little shake. “Grace! Goddammit, calm down. Are you even listening to me?”
I suddenly realize he’s been talking to me, but I haven’t heard a word of it. “Oh god, please tell me he’s all right, Sawyer?” I choke out.
He pulls me against him. “I don’t know all the details yet, Cupcake. Cooper is going to fill us in at the hospital but he said Mac is stable.”
Stable… That has my pounding heart rate settling a little.
Sawyer grabs my face so he can stare directly into my eyes, “Everything will be okay, baby. I promise.”
Leaning down, he presses a quick kiss to my lips. “Come on let’s go.” He laces his fingers with mine and pulls me out the door.
Please God, let Mac be all right…
I keep a tight hold on Sawyer’s hand as we race through the emergency doors. I immediately catch sight of Cooper by the nurses’ station. He looks terrible, his hair is disheveled and he’s covered in black stuff… like soot or somethin’.
His head snaps in our direction. As we make our way to him, I notice he has quite the gash on his head.
“Oh my gosh! Cooper, are you all right?” I rush up to him and wrap my arms around his waist.
He hugs me back but it’s strained. “Hey, Grace, yeah don’t worry about me, I’m fine.”
“What the heck is goin’ on? What happened? Where’s Mac?” I ask, steppin’ back to look up at him. My stomach sinks with the way he looks down at me. It’s now I realize, what I’m about to hear is much worse than I thought. And somehow I know that this has nothin’ to do with a heart attack and everythin’ to do with me- with Miguel.
