Arabella frowned, looking closer into the mirror. There were fine lines around her eyes, and her figure was more rounded than when she was younger. She gave her butt a glance and shrugged. She wasn't one to obsess over getting older, and had thought her granny, with her lines and wrinkles, was stunning and that advanced age had a beauty of its own. But it was only human nature that she would wonder what Grady would think when he saw her after all these years. Right?
///
"Well, guess I'm about to find out." After giving her shirt a tug, she squared her shoulders and sent Oliver a text message that she was on her way.
A stern pep talk rattled through her brain the entire way to Grady's house. But when she pulled her car into the circular driveway, she nearly lost her nerve. With a groan, she put her hand over her gurgling stomach and dug through her purse for a peppermint. She sucked on the small candy disc, glad for the comforting flavor. Her stomach had given her trouble when her parents would argue and her granny had always had peppermints on hand to soothe the ache. To this day, Arabella never left home without a handful of mints in her purse.
After a deep breath, Arabella got out of the car and stood on wobbly legs. "This is seriously stupid," she said, angry with herself for having given Grady the power to make her so damned nervous.
Determined to pull herself together, she put her cold hands on the warm metal of the car and gazed over at the house. The off-white stucco and tiled roof was typical for Florida, and while it was pretty, with an abundance of manicured landscaping, the house wasn't on the grand scale that Grady Heart could most likely afford. But Arabella remembered that Susan Heart had kept her sons in check and made every attempt to keep them humble, which was not an easy task for a mom of a wildly popular boy band. If the tabloid stories were true, Susan might not have totally succeeded, but Arabella recalled that the brothers didn't flaunt their wealth. Grady had said that his mother made sure that the bulk of their money was invested for the future.
Arabella tried to stop the thoughts racing through her head, but failed. She wondered what explanation Grady had given his mother for her disappearance. Had he told her the truth? Honesty seemed to be important to the Heart family, another reason Arabella had been shocked when she'd caught Grady in bed with a naked girl. She might have paused to listen to his pleas of innocence, but it was damned difficult, since Grady wore nothing more than a towel and a shocked expression. And her news . . .
Don't go there.
For a wild moment, Arabella hoped this was a dream, because she suddenly found herself at Grady's front door, not knowing how she got there. She didn't remember walking down the brick sidewalk and up the front steps. But her cell-phone alarm didn't buzz, and she didn't suddenly wake up in her bed in LA, so she must really be here, standing at the door with her fingertip poised to ring the doorbell. After a few heart-pounding moments she pushed the round button and had to force her legs not to turn around and bolt back to the car. Instead, she clutched her big purse in front of her like a shield and stood there with a wildly beating heart.
Relief washed over Arabella when no one answered the door. Perhaps she'd come too late and rehearsals were over? Then she could leave. Maybe she should go around to the back of the house? Nibbling on the inside of her cheek, she fished her cell phone out of her purse and looked for a reply from Oliver, but there was none.
Should she ring the bell again or hightail it back to her cozy beach cottage? She desperately wanted to run away, and yet she stood there, uncertain.
Perhaps this was all just one big mistake after all went through her head and ping-ponged around. Maybe Grady had found out she was coming and put an end to the offer. Good!
No, not good. Arabella thought of her grandmother's house. Her failing business! Working with Maxine and drinking corn-silk tea . . . ugh. Gritting her teeth, she reached up and pushed the button harder, as if that would somehow make someone answer the door. But just like with elevators, that didn't do any good whatsoever.
After a couple of minutes, nervousness evaporated into anger. She hadn't traveled all the way across the country to be ignored. "Okay . . ." Arabella dropped her phone into the deep cavern of her purse and decided she should walk around the side of the house to investigate the situation. Hopefully, there weren't going to be any vicious guard dogs or a security system of some sort. Maybe I'll be scooped up in a net and dangled from a tree, Arabella thought with a nearly hysterical giggle.