back up at home. But this kiss wasn’t for you. It was for him, and judging by the look on his face right now, it worked like a charm.” He smiles then pulls me in the direction of the car.
I wake in the middle of the night and need to use the bathroom. I unwind myself from Grayson, grab my phone to use as a flashlight, and crawl out of bed to find my way to the toilet. I turn on the screen and see that I have a text. I swipe the screen and am surprised to find that’s it from Jimmy.
Jimmy: I saw you tonight. You’re looking beautiful. What do you say to meeting up for dinner sometime? I know I have a lot of explaining to do.
I roll my eyes and delete the message. Fuck him. Does he really think I’m going to fall for that line of shit? I use the bathroom and go right back to bed, where I snuggle up against Grayson.
It doesn’t take long for me to fall back asleep, but when I wake a few hours later, my phone is dinging. I pick it up and see another text from Jimmy.
Jimmy: Cora, I’m sorry for all the pain I caused you. I’ve been thinking about you for a couple of weeks now and I really miss you. I want to see you. Please, can we have dinner?
Again, I roll my eyes and delete the message.
Grayson stirs next to me and pulls me closer to his chest. “Good morning.”
“Morning. You slept in,” I point out.
He laughs. “Yeah, I do that from time to time when I’m up all night making love to a beautiful woman.” He presses his lips just under my ear and it makes my smile spread across my face.
He leans in to kiss me and my phone rings. “Ignore it,” I say, thinking it’s Jimmy, but it keeps ringing, so I grab it and silence the ringer, noticing that it isn’t Jimmy. It’s Harley. Oh well. I’ll call her back later. I drop the phone onto the table and turn back around to pick up where we left off. He wraps his arms around me and moves his lips to mine. We kiss for a total of 10 seconds before the phone is vibrating.
With a sigh, I pull away and grab the phone to see Harley’s name again. I wonder if something’s wrong. “One sec,” I say, answering it.
“Harley, is everything okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she says, making me growl. “I just figured you were probably lost in one of your marathon trainings, and I wanted to invite the two of you over for a cookout later.”
“Are you kidding me?” I ask, now annoyed rather than worried.
She laughs. “Yes, and if you don’t agree, I’ll just keep calling.”
“What if I turn my phone off?” I ask.
“Well, I have to run to the store to get food anyway, so I can just stop by your place.”
“Ugh.” I look up at Grayson. “Do you have any plans for the day?”
He frowns out of confusion but shakes his head.
“Do you want to come with me to my best friend’s cookout?”
He smiles. “I’d love to.”
“Good!” Harley says, hearing his response.
“What time?” I ask.
“Five o’clock. See you then,” she says, hanging up.
I shake my head and drop the phone onto the bedside table, then roll back over to wrap my arms around him.
Twelve
Grayson
It takes us all day to pull away from each other, but we finally manage it and go for a shower. After getting cleaned up and dressed, the two of us load up in the car and make the drive over to her friend Harley’s house.
Cora gives me the rundown on her as we drive, telling me that she’d always been the single type until she started up a random fling with a guy she’d met in a bar. Apparently, they fell in love, got married during a drunken night in Vegas, then decided to stay together. She’s pregnant now and they’re about to start building a new house. I don’t know much about the man she’s with, Foster, but I’m sure I’ll get to know both of them today. And I couldn’t be any happier that Cora invited me to come along with her. If she’s starting to introduce me to her friends, then maybe this is getting more serious after all.
We pull up to a house and she leads the way to the door. She knocks twice, then just opens it and