"Grady . . ." she said again, and being with her here, in the place where he wanted her more than anywhere else, was suddenly overwhelming.
"Sorry . . . I need to go to the bathroom . . . to . . . you know."
She nodded silently, and he rolled to the edge of the bed and stood up.
In the bathroom, Grady looked at his reflection and then splashed cold water on his flushed face. Despite everything, he wished he could tell Arabella how much he loved her and that he couldn't even bear to think about the day she was going to leave again. He wanted to spend the night with her in the house that was supposed to be theirs and not his. But he couldn't hide out in the bathroom forever, and since he was nude, escaping through the window wasn't an option unless he wanted to chance driving home naked. Damn. After a few more heavy breaths, he dug deep for courage and opened the door.
Arabella had changed into little cotton short-shorts and a pink T-shirt, which made her look cuter than imaginable. "Are you hungry?" she asked lightly, but he could tell she was feeling emotional as well.
"Starving." He tugged his shorts on but left his shirt off, knowing she liked to see his bare chest. She might not trust him, but he could damn well get some satisfaction out of making her want him constantly. Even after all these years, he still knew what drove her wild. A kiss to the tender part of her neck, a nip at her earlobe, a featherlight caress up her legs. "Want me to fire up the grill?"
"I grilled the chicken earlier, but I drank a few glasses of wine in the bathtub instead of eating," she said rather sheepishly. "How about a couple of salads with sliced chicken on top? I've got honey-mustard dressing. The kind we like," she said, and then looked away.
"Still my favorite," Grady said with a smile. They remembered so much about each other, and even back when they'd first been together, they'd tried to please each other with little, simple gestures, noting likes and dislikes. Grady knew her favorite flavors, colors, preferred brands. She feared heights and spiders, and could not watch horror movies. "Sounds really good. I'm sure it's cooled off enough that we could sit on the back deck and hear the ocean," he said lightly, but the unspoken words hung heavily in the air.
"Lulls me to sleep at night." She smiled softly. "This house is just perfect. Did you have a hand in designing it?"
"Every step of the way, down to the last detail."
"Well, you did an excellent job," Arabella said brightly, but something flickered in her eyes, making Grady want to tell her that every detail, from the colors to the window placement, was meant to please her.
"Thank you. I'll never sell it. This house means too much to me."
Arabella nodded. "I feel the same way about my granny York's little brick house. My father is getting remarried and is going to sell it," she said sadly.
"In Cincinnati?"
Arabella nodded.
"Are you going to buy it?"
She lifted one shoulder. "I've invested all I have in Hip, Hop, Health. So . . . I don't know."
"Oh." Grady knew how much she had loved her grandmother, and that house had been her sanctuary. He wanted to tell her right then and there that he would make a phone call and buy it, if she wanted him to. How would she react? Maybe if he just made a discreet call to her father?
"So, you'll move back in here after the concert?" Arabella asked.
"What? Oh . . ." Grady shook his head slowly, still stuck on her grandmother's house. "No, like I said, I just come here occasionally. And I enjoy having my brothers over to the family house by the pool. We've got so many memories there. Another perk of doing the reunion concert. Even though we live so close to one another, we didn't really hang out all that much. This concert has brought us back together in more ways than one."
"I get that, but it seems like such a waste to have something this pretty sit empty so often."
"You're welcome to stay here whenever and as often as you want to." Like . . . forever.
"Thank you," Arabella said, and looked at him for an unguarded moment. He saw such need in her eyes. . . . Could it be that deep down she still loved him too?
But what was love without trust? Didn't those two things go hand in hand? He knew that her father had given her reason to be wary, but still. . . .
Grady walked closer to her, suddenly needing her to know the truth once and for all. "Arabella, about that . . . that night."
CHAPTER TEN
IF YOU STAY
"No." Arabella stood on tiptoe and silenced Grady with a gentle fingertip to his lips. "We can't go there, Grady. There's too much pain associated with that horrible night and I just can't handle it. We've made our truce and it's been working for us."