pony, touched up her makeup, and put on coordinating jewelry.
It took her all of twenty minutes, she noticed, glancing at her alarm clock as she left her room. Impressed with herself, Grace figured she’d better let Quentin know she was ready to go since Emily would be there any minute. “I’m ready to go, Quentin, Emily will be here soon.” Carefully, she took one step after the other, and slowly descended the stairs. It was easy to picture herself tripping and tumbling to the bottom, and end up having to spend the rest of the night in bed.
When her feet were clacking safely on the wood flooring, she felt sure enough to lift her eyes. Startled, she skidded to a halt, and said, “Oh … I didn’t know you were already down here.” His eyes were wide, his stance frozen as he gaped at her for a split second before clearing his face and closing his mouth.
Quentin put both hands low on his hips, turned his head, and cleared his throat. “Uh, yeah … I’ve been down here for a little while.” Grace chuckled to herself and then noticed how dressed up he was as well. He was wearing a white pinstriped button-down shirt, sleeves casually rolled to his elbows, and a pair of black slacks. Quentin smirked when he caught her assessing gaze. He turned and headed toward the garage.
And of course, thinking like that had her mind rushing warp speed through a wormhole to the time when she was against the gym door, and he was against her lips. A twinge clenched in her stomach, and her heart skittered as it picked up in pace. The quick jerk of Quentin’s head in her direction was all Grace needed to know he was reading her loud and clear. As if that wasn’t bad enough, her cheeks warmed to some pathetic shade of red. Ugh!
Quentin smirked. “What’s the matter, Grace?”
She grimaced. He wasn’t a Guardian. He was the freaking devil. Too frustrated for words, she narrowed her eyes at him, blew an exasperated breath through pursed lips, and hurried out the front door. If she was going to turn all shades of red and sweat in the air-conditioning, she might as well wait outside. It just made a heck of a lot more sense to sweat out there.
For once, Emily was right on time. Grace settled in the passenger seat next to her, uncomfortably eyeing her cast, but thankful to be out of the heat.
Emily gave her a once-over. “Wow, you look great! You didn’t get all dressed up for me, did you?”
“I couldn’t think of any other way to get you to notice me again.” Grace tried to push out a pout from her bottom lip.
Emily flipped her visor down, applying more lip gloss that suspiciously smelled like cinnamon. “You know you’ll always be my gal.”
“I know.” Grace flashed her a smile, and then looked from her lips to her cast once more. “What’s wrong?”
“Well, now I’m feeling totally underdressed. It was bad enough I couldn’t find anything to wear to go with this freaking cast.” Emily’s gaze grazed over Grace’s attire again. “I know it’s not for me, so who is all the hotness for?”
Grace looked down at herself. “You really think so?”
Emily’s head bobbed up and down. “Oh, yeah. Whoever all that’s for…” she said with a quick sweep of her eyes, “…doesn’t even have a chance.”
Satisfied, Grace played with the pendant hanging from her neck. “Good. I have a date later.”
Emily gave Grace a sideways look. “I’m not that stupid. I knew that getup wasn’t for shopping.”
Grace knew as soon as she told Emily who the date was with, she’d hear a big fat “I told you so.” “Darius.”
“I knew it!” Since one of Emily’s arms was broken, Grace wouldn’t get the finger…which was the only positive to the cast.
Grace continued to play with her necklace. “Knew what?”
“I knew you were into him. Plus, I heard you two were pretty cozy at the party last night.” Emily waggled her eyebrows.
Grace bit down on her bottom lip, trying to hide a smile. “We were not. We were just like…talking.” With all the people drunk around the fire, how could any of them see past their own nose, let alone see how cozy they were?
“Whatever, denial’s a river in Egypt.”
Grace tried to keep from laughing out loud. “Thanks for the geography lesson.” Breaking out in a full-out, belly-rumbling laugh, Grace found it almost impossible to speak as the