The Borrowed Boyfriend (21 page)

Deb addressed Carla and Bruce with a purposely blank expression on her face. “Looks like you woke up hungry.”

Carla ran a hand through her orange hair and shot a sideways glance at Bruce, who lifted his beer and said, “Yup.”

“So!” Carla said, changing the subject. “Allison and Grady, tell us! What’s on the menu for tomorrow?”

Allison and Grady exchanged looks because, honestly, they hadn’t talked about it. Allison had been so intent on keeping her foot out of her mouth, their obligation had slipped her mind. “It’s, uh…”

“A surprise,” Grady offered. “And be prepared, everyone. It will be tasty!”

Allison’s friends nodded, appearing pleased as they continued chomping on their pizza.

Carla grinned at Allison, her cheeks still flushed from…whatever. “You really picked a great guy.”

“Uh-huh,” Queenie agreed.

“Absolutely.” Deb lifted her glass of wine. “Here’s to Grady!” She studied him with sympathy. “Thanks for putting up with all of us.”

“Yeah, and not running for the hills,” Bruce added with a chuckle.

“He did go cliff-diving though,” Brevard observed, and everybody moaned.

Queenie snapped to attention. “You shouldn’t make light of that.”

“It’s okay,” Grady said. “Because it’s true.”

“At least he was diving for
you
.” Carla pointed at Allison. “Now, that’s true love.”

Allison’s face steamed. Was it her imagination, or did Grady purposely avoid her gaze?
 

Bruce broke out in another rendition of “Hero” and Carla elbowed him.

Grady glanced around the table, smiling at everyone but Allison. “It’s an honor to be here, and it’s been great getting to know all of you.”

“You sound like it’s coming to an end.” Patrick took a sip of wine. “We still have half the week here.”

“And there’s always Italy!” Deb said, raising her hand. “Let’s not forget about next year. It’s not too soon to plan for it.”

Allison wasn’t sure she was ready to think about next year. She was already getting nervous about next week. After Grady and Kate had their talk, she and Kate were bound to have some sort of confrontation. Since Allison wasn’t the confrontational type, she hoped it would go smoothly. Without a lot of yelling and screaming. Kate could get loud that way. Luckily, Kate had never turned her bad temper on Allison. But given the circumstances, that could very well change.

If Allison could stay focused on what might happen beyond that—her and Grady being together—then maybe that would make any interim discomfort tolerable. The trouble was, Allison had a strange sensation in her gut, and it felt suspiciously like fear. She’d been so drawn to Grady and had begun to hope for a relationship, but since she’d said that “love” thing he’d been acting differently, like it was too much too soon. And it probably was. Maybe Allison was wrong anyway. She’d never really been
in love
. Had never once succumbed to that delirious emotion she’d read about in books and seen portrayed in movies. She’d actually started to wonder if the whole thing was a myth.
 

Still, a secret part of her heart held out hope that someday she too might find
the real deal.
Grady O’Brien was the real deal, she just knew it. Allison didn’t need an app or a website algorithm to help prove that; she sensed it way down deep.
 

When Bruce went to retrieve more booze from the kitchen, Grady leaned toward her and lowered his voice. “You okay? You’ve been awfully quiet today.”

“Yeah, fine,” she whispered back. “Just thinking.”

His blue gaze washed over her. “Me too.”

Allison wondered if she should apologize for seeming to rush things, but decided that even mentioning the topic again would make it worse, so she pressed her lips together and kept mum.

Bruce returned and handed Grady a beer, then began a lively discussion about the oddest emergency room admissions he’d ever seen. Everyone else had their own stories about some bizarre injury they’d endured or knew of befalling someone else. After a while, they were on to sports, before Queenie dragged the conversation back around to the latest outlandish fashions. When Deb checked her watch and exclaimed, “Wow, it’s almost midnight,” everyone was stunned. Cleanup was easy and they all mutually decided to call it a night. For the past few nights Allison had looked forward to having alone time with Grady. Now she found herself dreading it.

Was Grady going to tell her he’d thought the whole thing through and that one week with Allison was enough? Maybe he needed a breather after his bust-up with Kate, rather than rushing headlong into another relationship? Allison couldn’t deny that thinking was sound, even though it gave her a horrible knot in her stomach. If Grady didn’t want to follow through immediately, he’d probably never follow through at all. It was just like when a guy says
I’ll call you
without actually taking your number. But Grady had her number, didn’t he? At least, in the figurative sense. He knew just where Allison stood because she’d worn her heart on her sleeve.

Well, if that’s what Grady was going to say, then Allison would just have to suck it up and deal with it. This whole week at the beach had been a fantasy world anyhow. She had a business to run back in Marydale, and it was one that sorely needed her attention. Things hadn’t been going well at Bella Fortuna Wine Designs, and she’d been researching ways to reorganize without cutting staff, since hers was a small operation with only five employees.
 

Every single one of them depended on their jobs to get by. She employed two designers, a bookkeeper, a marketing manager and a personal assistant. Though Allison did most of the lead artwork herself, she had the other artists tweak her ideas and, when she got stuck, present concepts of their own. If she had to make cuts somewhere, it would be most logical to consolidate those two design jobs into one. But Phillip was a single dad and Kayla had just announced she was expecting her first child. How could Allison possibly choose between them? She knew she couldn’t.
 

Allison had to do something soon. She just didn’t know what.

Chapter Thirty

“You’re deep in thought,” Grady said, closing the bedroom door behind him. “You’ve seemed that way all day.”

“I was just thinking about work,” she said, happy to steer the conversation away from anything personal. Like her
love
life. Yeesh.

“Your company? Bella Fortuna Wine Designs?”

“Yeah.”

“You haven’t talked much about it. I’ve been meaning to ask.”

They were out of Grady’s wine and too tired for more drinking anyway. Allison sat down on the bed and sighed. “I suppose I’ve been trying not to think about work.”

Grady sank down in the chair. “Yeah, I’ve been kind of avoiding that too.”

“I thought Total Wines was planning some big expansion?” He looked caught out before she reminded him, “You were telling the others about it, the first day.”

Grady slapped his forehead. “That’s right. We are.”

“What does that mean, exactly? Buyouts? Acquisitions?”

“A few.”

Allison’s face fell in a frown. She knew all about those. Firsthand.

“If you’re worried about the companies we take over, I already told you—”

“I remember your speech.”

“It wasn’t a speech, Allison. I didn’t write it out and rehearse it.”

“Touché.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re very quick with a comeback, aren’t you?”

“I’m not the only one.”

She haughtily raised her chin. “No matter what you say, I can’t believe it’s always good for the little guy when big business moves in.”

“Always? No, maybe not. But ninety-nine percent of the time—”

“That’s an inflated statistic.”

“Says who?”

Allison couldn’t keep the hard edge from her voice. “Says me.”

“And here I thought we’d come all this way.” Grady’s eyes flashed. “What makes you so bitter, Allison? What is about
big business
that you detest so much? At first I thought it was me that you disliked, that it was personal. But I’m starting to sense it’s a whole lot more than that.”

She stared at him flatly. “My parents, if you must know, ran a bookstore. It was put out of business by the big chains.”

“I’m so sorry. When was this?”

“Nine years ago this spring.”

“That must have been tough on your family.”

“It was hard on all of us, but hardest on my mom.” She turned away as her eyes stung. Allison willed herself not to cry. She didn’t want Grady’s sympathy. In fact, she was beginning to believe she wanted nothing from him at all. Why did she have to give in and let herself become attracted? It had all been just a game from the start. A hugely fabricated production, and she and Grady had been the stars. Now those stars were crashing and burning. The foreboding she felt was overwhelming. Like something really, really bad was about to happen.

“What about your mom?”

Allison steeled her emotions and met his eyes. “She died, Grady. She’d had cancer and it came back. The stress of the bookstore folding was too much. While my dad helped support the business, it was really my mother’s endeavor. She put everything she had into it until…”

“Oh, Allison.” Grady stood from his chair. She held out a hand to stop him as a tear rolled down her cheek.

“Please. Stay where you are.”

“But this is all wrong. I want to hold you.”

“No, you don’t,” she snapped. “Your loyalty’s to Kate.”

“For now, yes. But just for the next three days, until I have the chance to tell her.”

Allison vehemently shook her head. “I don’t want you if you’re not free.”

“But Allison, you’re not making sense. I’m telling you I’m going to be free! As soon as possible. On Saturday.”

“And then what, Grady?”

His eyes glistened. “I thought you knew.”

“One step at a time, right?”

Grady blew an exasperated breath and raked his hands through his hair. “What’s wrong with one step at a time?”

“You’re putting on the brakes.”

“For here? Well, yes, I am. I explained all that. I thought you were okay—?”

“I didn’t mean ‘for here’! I was talking about the future.”

“What future?” His voice rose, apparently louder than intended. Then a sharp, penetrating silence followed.

There. He’d said it, and it was exactly what Allison had been fishing for. But instead of feeling gratified, her heart broke into a million tiny pieces. How foolish she’d been…hoping he might be her forever guy. Grady wasn’t any sort of Mack truck. He was just a Greyhound bus on its way out of town.

Chapter Thirty-One

Grady had a hard time sleeping and it had nothing to do with being on the floor. He had so many things going through his head, it was difficult to know how to sort them. At least now he understood more about Allison’s beef with big business, and his soul ached for her, losing her mother so young. Grady could only imagine the toll that had taken on her family, and on Allison, as well. Still, likening what had happened to her parents with his dealings at Total Wines was like comparing apples to oranges. Grady was intent on helping smaller companies strengthen their operations via allegiances with his. He didn’t aim to shut any place down or put people out of jobs. Allison had it so wrong, but the more he tried to convince her, the less she seemed to listen.

And what was that slap in the face about the future? Could Grady be faulted for wanting to take things slowly? He’d already laid his heart on the line and explained fully about his arrangement with Kate, including his intention to break it off. Not only that, Grady had opened up about Meg. Now he found himself questioning the wisdom in that.

Maybe he’d been more swept up in the illusion of this week at the beach with Allison than he should have been. Being around her friends, who totally bought into their couple act, only made the ruse seem more real. But it wasn’t real, Grady reminded himself. Everything that had gone on between him and Allison had been a big, fat lie.

Okay, not everything… Grady recalled the heat of her stare this morning. He’d brought his hand to her cheek and his heart had pounded so vigorously he’d feared it would beat through his chest. He would have given anything to hold her. The whole world to kiss her. Had he only been deluding himself when he’d thought she’d felt those things too?

In just a few short days, he and Allison had been through so much together, including their harrowing escape from serious injury—or worse. Perhaps the experience had bonded them somehow. With Grady serving as Allison’s rescuer, he’d subconsciously grown protective, and had begun to think of her as his. To imagine what his life might be like with her in it. But permanently? Allison had thrown him for a loop by even hinting at it. She couldn’t possibly have known he’d secretly thought of it himself. The future certainly wasn’t anything couples discussed this soon in the game. He and Allison hadn’t even had their first real date!

Grady grumpily fluffed his pillow and rolled onto his side. The remnants of the fire burned low, softly shedding purplish-golden light from its dying embers. First, Meg had kicked him in the gut, then nothing about his situation with Kate had seemed right. Now, Allison was asking too much. To top it all off, Allison had made her disinterest in dealing with large corporations patently clear. Grady could forget about any attempts at buying out Bella Fortuna, and would just have to come up with an alternate plan for his foreign expansion when he got home. It wasn’t like he didn’t have options; there were other label suppliers he could investigate. Yet none of their products would appeal to the savvy European market the way that Allison’s could.