Batter of Wits (Green Valley Chronicles #22) - Smartypants Romance Page 0,40

face lifted, and those golden eyes touched on my face slowly, searching for any hint that I didn't mean it. "Just like that?"

"Just like that." I stood and held out my hand, which she looked at warily. "Official restart. I'm Tucker Haywood, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Grace's eyes got huge in her face as she stared at my hand, and I almost pulled it back. She swallowed roughly and I caught the flicker in her eyes as she came to a decision. It was as if her brain was built with subtitles, because her facial expressions were so clear, so obvious, everything she was thinking played across that face as if someone was typing them in all-capped, bold letters.

Grace Buchanan was nervous to shake my hand, and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why.

But she shored herself up, and slid her palm across mine, the cool strength in her fingers sent up a quick zap of lightning up my arm when she curled them around my own.

My skin wasn't smooth or soft, the palms rough and calloused, but hers was. And the difference between her skin and mine felt like a secret that I wasn't supposed to know.

Her mouth opened, and that sunrise-pink color stole up the finely carved features of her face. She wanted to tug her hand out of mine, but she didn't. It pulled away slowly, where she laid it carefully in her lap, her forehead furrowed slightly as she did.

"I think I made a mistake moving here," she said quietly.

I clenched my jaw at what those words did to my insides. "What makes you say that?"

She glanced up at the tree above us, the sprawling limbs coated with thick, green leaves. For a long moment, she didn't say anything, just let those wheels turn in her head as she studied the sky.

"Don't you ever just … feel the truth of something? Even if it doesn't make sense when you try to say it out loud?"

A surprised laugh came out underneath my breath. What she said wasn't funny, but it rang true and clear, the gong of a perfectly shaped bell. "Every single day."

Her face lit with surprise. "Really?"

Slowly, I took a seat on the table next to her, on the other side though, where our shoulders almost touched. "Are we keeping this conversation protected by the sanctity of the festival planning committee bond?"

Grace rolled her lips over her teeth, instantly smothering a real, true smile. I couldn't mourn the fact that I didn't see it, because her eyes twinkled happily as she nodded. My fingers itched to take the camera from her lap, just to see if a box made of plastic and metal and glass would capture the way that happiness made them glow golden and bright.

"You laugh, but it's serious. This is stronger than attorney-client privilege, and that's a rule that is one of the driving forces of my entire life," I explained.

"I heard you tell Grady you were a lawyer," she said. “You know, above the crippling pain of a twisted ankle.”

I nodded, charmed beyond words when she set her chin in her hand and watched me. She looked younger and softer when she did it, another side of her that I hadn't seen yet. "Just like my father is, and his dad was before him."

"Family business."

This time, I nodded more slowly, the weight of those two words settling like another rock tossed onto my back. "Oldest law firm in Green Valley. Not a day goes by where I don’t understand the importance of carrying on that tradition."

Grace remained quiet as she processed what I’d just said.

"You hate it," she observed.

The certainty in her words knocked the breath from my lungs. I hung my hands between my legs and let my chin drop to my chest. "I do."

For a few seconds, she was quiet. When she spoke, it was clear that she was choosing her words before she said them out loud. "Am I not supposed to know that? You look …" her voice trailed off. "You look surprised."

I ran a hand over my face and sighed heavily, even though there was a huge part of me that wanted to laugh in relief. "Surprised. Yeah, a little bit."

"Why?"

One word that held so much behind it. Suddenly, I felt like if I could properly explain to her why I felt like I was sitting naked in front of her, why her perceptiveness was completely terrifying, somehow I'd be able to