"Yeah, well, you're a bunch of candy-asses for not being here when she arrived." Grady popped the top on the beer can.
Jimmy sat down. "We thought it might be better to let you two clear the air first."
"So . . ." Oliver arched an eyebrow.
Grady shot Oliver a lethal glare. "I agreed to give this thing a try only because I know we need her to not end up killing one another."
"Good point," Jesse said, giving Oliver a glance.
Grady took a swig of beer and pointed at Oliver. "If you ever do anything behind my back like this again I will kick your ass. I mean it."
"I understand," Oliver said, instead of handing Grady a wisecrack. "We're doing this for Mom. Everything else is just . . . meaningless."
Jesse handed Grady a slice of pizza on a paper plate. "Look, Grady, if you remember, none of us were happy about Arabella bolting."
Grady tilted his head. "Yeah, well, I remember that you guys thought I was guilty as hell."
Oliver raised his hands skyward. "I saw Arabella running out the door. She was crying. And then there was the naked chick. . . . Come on."
"Really? Well, maybe if you'd stopped her I could have fixed everything."
"I was a kid. And trust me, there was no stopping her. Jimmy tried."
Grady shut up because he knew they were right. "Okay, well, she wants rehearsals to start at nine tomorrow morning. Don't be late," he said to Jesse.
"I want us to have our game faces on," Oliver said. "None of this whiny crap I've had to put up with." He gave Jesse a look.
"Why am I the bad guy?" Jesse asked. "You're the one who's been a giant prick."
///
Jesse and Oliver started bickering, but Jimmy sat down closer to Grady. "You gonna be okay with this?"
Grady looked down at his pizza, trying to decide whether he was hungry or not. He was, but he wasn't. "Do I have a choice?" he asked.
"You do," Jimmy said. "That's really why we sent Arabella over first."
"This shouldn't have been done behind my back. I'm still pissed."
Jimmy sighed. "I get that, but Grady, you have to admit that we had to go into crisis mode. You haven't answered my question."
"It's not gonna be easy, but I can handle it," Grady said with more bravado than he felt. "Besides, I learned my lesson once. I won't be fooled again." He took a bite of pizza.
"So, she still thinks you cheated on her?" Jimmy picked a slice of pepperoni off Grady's slice and popped it into his mouth.
"I'm not going to talk to her about that night. All I care about is making a shit ton of money for Mom's foundation. Period," Grady said.
"Okay, just checking," Jimmy said, and clanked his beer to Grady's. "We'll get this thing done."
Grady nodded, but later, after his brothers had left and he was in his bed, he couldn't stop himself from thinking about that night. He made a promise to himself that he wouldn't give Arabella the ammunition to hurt him again. He'd never stop loving her; that was a given. But he'd be damned if he would ever let her know it.
CHAPTER SIX
THE ONE
There weren't enough peppermints on the planet to soothe Arabella's nervous stomach. She was on her fourth one when she pulled up to Grady's house in the morning. The half a bagel she'd managed to eat felt like a gym shoe rolling around in a spinning dryer . . . thump, thump, thump. "Ugh."
After she killed the engine, Arabella dug around in her purse for another mint, thinking she was going to have the freshest breath on the planet. "You can do this. You can do this," she chanted. Her stomach remained a nonbeliever, but she got out of the car anyway, not wanting to be late on her first day of rehearsal.
After popping the trunk, she retrieved her laptop and tote bag filled with various things she probably wouldn't need, but she liked to be prepared. With a jaw-cracking yawn, she wished she hadn't stayed up so late watching Heartbeat videos and going over her notes for the millionth time. She dearly needed some stand-your-hair-on-end coffee but wasn't quite sure how her stomach would react, and so she'd skipped her morning cup. Wine came in a close second in her mind, but it was too early for wine . . . wasn't it?
Arabella had never been a morning person to begin with, but this particular morning called for sleeping in. Of course, coming across shaving cream, aftershave, boxers, and various other personal items belonging to Grady hadn't been a stabilizing factor. She'd nearly slept in one of his shirts and then decided she was losing her mind.