The Mind (The Reluctant Romantics #1.5) (8 page)

He cracked open a beer and handed it to me. I enjoyed the cold liquid as it went down my throat and sunk further into the cushion of the seats that held us upright and facing each other.

“Rose, you will be an accomplished surgeon. There has got to be something else that you want for your life. Don’t you want more?”

And just as I’d convinced myself I wouldn’t confess what my heart held sacred, I bent. “I want what my parents have.”

“Your parents?”

“They are my ideal. I look at them and see so much love in their faces. It’s one of those things you have to see to understand. They could be in a full-blown, raging fight and you can still tell they are ridiculously in love and have been since they met in their twenties. It’s amazing what they have. I don’t expect that for myself, but if you want to know what I really want it’s that. It’s an unrealistic standard.” I shrugged my shoulders and he leaned in.

“Done.”

“You can’t really think that about us.”

“Why not? You aren’t as smart as you think you are in
this
sense, Rose. You might be a brilliant doctor, but I know better when it comes to
this
.
”

I shook my head in argument. “Why are you so intent on forever with me?”

He looked at his lap on an exhale before he turned his heavy gaze to me. “Because that’s what my heart told me the second I looked at you. And for the first time in my life, I’m letting it lead the way.”

He didn’t give me a chance to absorb or respond before he started rattling off his house plans. “So I figure we will build the house, a one-story where the shed sits. A huge, one-story ranch, what do you think?”

I burst out in laughter as he carried on with his mindset without so much as pausing. “It’s your house.”

“Indulge me,” he challenged, exhaling a puff of smoke. There was something so alluring about him in that moment that it took me a second to find words.

I scanned the lot and realized the shed was the perfect place to start. There were a few trees cascading over the pond and more an acre or two behind from the shed.

“Behind the tree line, a large ranch, huge kitchen and living space, large bathrooms are a must. At least five bedrooms and a study so I can read.”

“What else,” he urged as he listened intently.

“No pool, just a huge dock for fishing and swimming.”

“My thoughts exactly. Keep going.”

“No pets except for these.” I pointed to the ducks circling our float and laughed as Grant had to swat one away to keep it from snatching the joint from his fingers. He took the last of it in his lungs and threw it over as I swallowed another sip of beer, getting lost in my own imagination.

“A fireplace—three of them, in fact—one in my study, one in the bedroom, and family room, and they have to be stone and very large.”

“Done. What else?” He was quickly becoming excited with each word I spoke, and I felt myself growing more involved in his game than I intended.

“An arboretum around the tree here with comfortable, oversized chairs. It has to lead to a huge patio with a stone fire pit and grill. And a matching stone waterfall.”

“Where is all this coming from?”

“My dad is an architect.” He sat straight up in his inflatable seat and gave me a million dollar smile.

“No wonder you are so thorough. You must have grown up in some house.”

“I did. It’s the most amazing house, really. Yours will be amazing, too.”

“Sounds like it. You need more sunblock.”

He grabbed the bottle, made his way towards me, and began to rub it on my shoulders. I closed my eyes at the feel of his fingertips on my skin.

“It will be exactly what you want. When can I meet your dad?”

I jerked out of my daze and met his eyes.

“Absolutely not!”

“Why? I’ll be a perfect gentlemen, I promise.”

“Look . . .” I pushed him away and grabbed the bottle for myself, rubbing the rest of what he’d left into my thighs and stomach. “This was just for fun. I don’t even know your last name, let alone know you well enough to take you home to my parents.”

“Foster is my last name. What else do you want to know, Rose Whitaker, with two siblings, and two living parents that have been married for almost thirty years? You’ll graduate with your doctorate in medicine in December.. You’ve only loved one guy and he cheated on you your first year of med school with—” he paused, making quotation marks with his hands “—‘that skank Marie Johnson,’ who he married and has two kids with. You hate soggy cereal and people who scrape their teeth against their fork. You need more sex in your life and you need me.”

I sat back in the float with what I was sure was a gaping mouth and a question in my eyes.

“Jennifer is all about cold hard cash.”

“Ask
me
! Don’t go digging around in my personal life asking questions that no one has a right to know unless I want them to. Ask me.” I was furious, though I knew the main reason was because he brought up my ex. It wasn’t that it still bothered me about his cheating. It bothered me that
Grant
knew he cheated on me, but I wasn’t sure why.

“I’m sorry.” He passed his beer from one hand to the other looking down at it, refusing to meet my hostile eyes.

“You should be. Now you will answer everything I ask.”

“Fine, shoot.”

“Why is this thing between us so important to you?”

“When I saw you, I knew you were the only thing that could make life bearable again. I have no brothers or sisters, and all my friends are married with kids or are relentless bachelors. I don’t want that to be me. Not anymore. I can’t explain it any better. I knew I was just bullshitting with Rebecca and I—”

“What? Her name is Rebecca?”

“Yeah, why?”

I wanted to flee, but had nowhere to go. I was trapped on the pond with him and I was suddenly terrified. I knew better than to believe this was just a coincidence; my mother had been pointing signs out to me my whole life and my father wholeheartedly agreed with every single one. I had dismissed their belief in fate at times, as it was too unrealistic for me.

“What’s the matter, Rose? I’m sorry I talked about Rebecca. I told you—”

“Don’t. Don’t say that name.” Rebecca was the name of the woman that drove a wedge between my parents and the mother of my half-brother, Paul. My mother had fled Texas after my father had broken her heart badly and he had married Rebecca. My parents reconciled fourteen years after my mother left during a chance meeting at a motel she once owned. There were an incredible amount of signs that led them back to one another. The story, though I believed every bit of it, was unbelievable. Against all odds, they had found and kept their happiness for all these years.

I looked to Grant, who was eyeing me suspiciously. “You believe in it, too.”

“In
what
!” I was becoming hysterical with each passing second. Downing my beer, I got up to jump in the pond.

“Rose, don’t freak. It’s okay. Just talk it out with me.”

“It’s nothing but a huge coincidence, Grant.”

“What is?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” I dove in and felt the cold water take away the heat from my limbs. When I surfaced, I exhaled and slowly let my good sense fall back into play. It was just a coincidence. Nothing could possibly ever be this cut and dry. “God, this feels unbelievable,” I murmured, sifting the water through my hands.

I heard the water splash next to me and felt his arms come around me as I cleared my eyes.

“I love it here, and you feel unbelievable.”

“Grant, this—you and me—it’s too fast, too much. Are you trying to scare me away?”

“I’m more scared of not saying how I feel, of not telling you I want you, of not taking the chance with you, and begging you for the same.”

“God, that’s some amazing line.”

“I want you,” he said as water cascaded around his perfect features. “I’ve had enough years of doing the wrong shit, and being with the wrong women. I took one look at you and a thousand memories we hadn't made hit me in waves. I can’t explain it and it may seem fast to you, but to me, it’s as natural as taking my next breath. Maybe I’m full of shit, maybe you’ll prove me wrong, but so far everything inside me says the minute I saw you I was done with the unknown and my life had just started. Call it impulse and heartbeat in tune for the first fucking time in my life. I’m going after something I feel in my gut is right.”

He pulled away from me, the sudden absence of his warmth all too noticeable. He watched me for a beat and then submerged himself under the water before he pulled himself back onto the float. He resumed his seat, popping another beer as I noticed his jaw line harden, but I refused to cater to his tantrum. This was too much, and it was ridiculous for him to think that I would just go along with it all without thinking it through or getting to know him better.

“I’m not giving up,” he said, cutting his eyes at me as I remained in the water. “I might be a little ticked off with myself right now, bearing my soul to you like this, saying all these things I never thought I would say to a woman and making a damn fool of myself, but I’m not giving up.”

“I don’t know what to say, Grant.”

“Stay with me, here, today. That’s enough.”

I pulled myself onto the island in the center of the pond. Soon after, we dropped the serious discussion and began splashing around with the ducks and at each other. We argued over the radio as I switched it to a rap station. Grant protested profusely until I started rapping to him, fully involved with arms and the swivel of my hips, keeping him entertained. An hour later, the sun started to drop behind us and I was buzzing heavily as my eyes started to follow Grant’s every move. I could feel my hunger building as he spoke about his home in Tennessee and how he couldn’t wait to be back in Texas permanently. In exchange, I told him stories about Dallas and me, and the torture we put our parents through growing up. He listened attentively and laughed as I told him about the first time Dallas and I got drunk together.

“So we pull up to the drive-through window, and the shots we’d just had suddenly hit us
hard
.”

“Drinking and driving?” Grant said with an authoritative tone.

“
Actually
, Judgey McJudgerson,” I growled out as a slow smile spread across his face, “we didn’t make it that far. The drive-through was in the same shopping center as the bar. So, yes, I drove drunk all of six feet, and at about two miles per hour. Are you going to let me tell you this story?”

“Go on then, baby,” he urged in a thick southern drawl, lifting a beer to his lips with a grin.

“Anyway, we were hysterical by the time we made it to the window, and I actually passed it as it opened and the guy there was set to greet us. He caught on to us immediately as I stuck the car in reverse and had to back up to reach the window. Dallas was laughing so hard she peed her pants right there. I was trying my best to console the guy in the drive-through as he voiced his concern for our safety. Anyway, I had already decided to park and call a cab after we got our food, but before we pulled away the guy at the window had to make sure he voiced his concern again. ‘Ladies, are you sure you’re okay to drive?’ I lifted my hand and waved him off with an ‘Oh, we’re fine. Really, don’t worry.’ And just as I said it . . .” I paused my story as I snorted, “. . . I put my foot on the gas and we went backwards! I’d never taken the car our out of reverse!” I started howling as I recalled the look of sheer terror on the man’s face. “There was no one behind us, thank God, or it would have been worse. And I
did
park right then and called a cab while Mrs. Pissed Pants ate my food and hers.” Grant was eyeing me with a huge grin on his face. “But that’s us, you know. That’s how we are. It was my twenty-first birthday and my sister got drunker than I did. And before you lecture me, I haven’t had a sip and got behind the wheel since.” Grant nodded as he looked at me, still chuckling.

“We are nothing but trouble when we are together, but we can’t do a damn thing without the other. She and I are like fraternal twins with a bigger age difference. We just don’t work or feel right without the other. That’s the way it’s always been. What sweetens our future is that we’re going to build something together.” I looked up to see Grant watching me. I felt the goose bumps spread across my skin and let out all my air. God, he was beautiful. I tried to hide how much he was affecting me as I went on. “They named her Dallas because my mother hated the city. Well, and this state. After what she and my father went through to be together, Dallas is what sealed the deal...the city, not the sister.”

Good Lord, captain obvious, could you sound any more ridiculous? God, am I drunk now? I’m totally babbling and he’s letting me.

“They named me Rose due to my mother’s love of her yellow roses. She has this fantastic garden filled with them. And the yellow rose is ironically our state flower, did you know that? Don’t take my beer away.”

Grant burst out laughing as he nodded at my half empty beer and gave me a wink. “I won’t take that one, I promise.”

Our eyes danced over each other as he spoke next. “The only person I was ever that close with was my dad,” he said softly. “So, I get it. I do.” He told me of how at the age of six he started working on planes at an airstrip close to his father’s house. His dad couldn’t afford daycare and his mother had just left them, so he brought Grant to work with him every day. I watched him as he animatedly told me the story of the first time he flew with his father. Unable to control myself any longer as I watched Grant’s lips move and consumed by hunger for him, I stopped him mid-sentence when I unhooked my bra and let it fall. The condoms I’d forgotten I had stashed in my bra hit the floor. He lifted his brow in amusement until his saw my panties fly through the air before hitting him in the chest.

I could feel the sunburn on my shoulders but ignored it. I was hungry and he was the solution. Leaning back against the edge of the float, I dipped my head in the water, wetting my hair then smoothing my hands over it. He watched the water cascade over my nipples that were already hard in anticipation.