Page 151 of Really Truly Yours

His palms lift.

“And don’t act all innocent, either!”

Both of his eyebrows angle up. “Okay…but you kinda got me in a box here, Syd.”

I can’t let him get to me or wiggle off the hook. “Me being sick? Do you really think that’s what I wanted to discuss the first time I met your parents?”

His mouth pulls to the side. “How are you, though? Are you feeling alright?”

I stomp the floorboard. “That isn’t the point!”

“Yeah, but I’m worried. You didn’t eat much. Do you have your medicine, because if you don’t—”

I brandish my finger. “Don’t you dare offer to pay for it!”

He stares, dropping whatever argument he had planned with a sigh. “Fine.” But he peeks again, a quiet question lingering.

This is drastically unfair, him turning those puppy eyes and that…face…on me. “Yes. I have my medicine.” For all the good it’s doing. “Now, focus, Gray. I don’t like my personal business, my gut health, for crying out loud, being discussed!”

He watches his fingers tap the steering wheel.

“Aren’t you going to say anything?”

“Sorry, I’m stuck on the fact that you said first time a minute ago. You know, about meeting my parents. That’s a positive, I think.” With his mouth slowly starting a twitch, he gives me a…yes, I’m going there…sexy grin.

“Gray!” I toss my hands in the air.

The vacant restaurant becomes a safer focal point. Its siding is weathered and perhaps damaged from the last hurricane to blow through. The windows hide behind sheets of plywood.

Could be the damage is simply too much to correct. The structure might be leveled and a shiny new one thrown up in its place.

Tears water my eyes. Sometimes, damage can’t be undone.

Gray strokes my hair, brushing it from my shoulder. “You’re one-hundred-percent right, Sydnee. I was out of line.” His sigh is heavy. “I tend to be an open book, so I guess I approach things differently. And I guess I’m also a bit impulsive sometimes.”

I snap around. “Ya think?”

He laughs, but not in a way I feel dismissed. “I truly am sorry. I’ll do better, I promise.”

“Thank you.” Looking down, I tug at my fingers. “And one more thing. Your parents are nice, but I’d rather ride with Tripp and Avery tonight.” I cannot imagine being alone with his parents, much less, Chelsea. “If that’s an option?”

A hint of disappointment drifts behind his smiling eyes. “Done. I’ll call them from the house. Will you still wear my jersey tonight?”

I give in and let my fingers graze his cheek. “Of course, I will.” Gray is amazingly sweet and well-meaning.

He also needs to be jerked up short once in a while.

He lays his palm over my hand, pressing both to his face. “Are we good now?”

The lowering, silky tone tips off the woman in me. “We’re good,” I whisper.

“Fantastic. Because I can’t wait another second to kiss you, Sydnee Lou.”

I touch my forehead to his. “Then don’t.”

∞∞∞

A manicure? And a pedicure? I hate to be a total rube, so I keep to myself the fact this is my first ever of either of those things.

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