"And you just asked me about trust?" she asked with a frown that he wanted to erase.
"A moment of insanity. Look, all of this is just difficult to process. You blindsided me. It just seems . . . out of the blue."
"Why? Jimmy simply helped me put things in perspective. I just lifted a big burden off my chest and it felt pretty damned good until you ruined it for me." She scooted over to the edge of the bed and then reached for her clothes. He could see by the set of her back that she was pissed. Well, he might as well go for broke.
"You don't need to buy your grandmother's house."
With her clothes held in front of her, she stood up and whipped around. "What?" she asked, but he could see by the look on her face that she'd already guessed what he was about to say.
"I bought it for you as a Christmas gift."
"A house?" She clutched her clothes harder. "Who does that?"
"Not just any house. The house that meant so much to you. Surely you can't be angry? You should be thrilled that I didn't want you to lose it."
"You can't tell me what I can't or should be or do."
"Come on, Arabella." Grady stood up and pulled on his boxers and jeans. "It's not like that, dammit, and you know it."
"Really?" Arabella shook her head hard, making her hair fly around. "I work for everything. I don't want things given to me."
///
"Well, get used to it."
"That's so . . . sexist!"
"It's me loving you," he said, but she didn't seem to have heard him.
"I'll buy the house back from you," she said hotly.
"That's ridiculous."
"Oh, now I'm ridiculous?" She began getting dressed so violently that she started staggering around, cursing her head off when she looked up and saw her thong dangling from the paddle fan. She jabbed a finger in his general direction. "You're the ridiculous one here," she shouted, and tried to put both legs into one pant leg, nearly falling over.
"Arabella, calm down," Grady said, and then remembered a second too late that telling a woman to calm down was like adding fuel to a fire. Oh God . . . he could nearly see steam coming out of her ears. Should he run and duck for cover?
" ‘Calm down'!" She put her sweatshirt on inside out and backward, not even bothering to search for her bra, which was located at her feet. "Are you serious?" She shot daggers at him, and damn, she was somehow turning him on. "Ha, ‘calm down.' "
"Well . . . yeah," he said, and she fisted her hands on her hips, staring at him. "Look," he said, taking a step toward her, but she backed away.
"No, don't even touch me."
"Wow." Grady stopped and took a deep breath. "Explain what's going on here, because I'm pretty much clueless."
"What's going on here is that I decided to eliminate stress. To scratch off the things that were bothering me and to make what matters most go right to the top of the list." She demonstrated by making a big X in the air and then pointed upward. "And you robbed me of that."
"What?"
"I wanted to buy my grandmother's house." She tapped her chest. "Me."
Grady raised his hands skyward. "Now you don't have to. And you didn't have to sell your business either!"
"I did!" She stomped one foot and cringed.
"Why?"
"I just told you! Don't you see?" She pointed to her eyes.
"See what?"
"I put you on the top of my damned list!" she shouted, deflating Grady's anger. In two long strides, he was standing next to her and pulling her into his arms. She put her head against his chest and he could feel the warm dampness of tears.
"Bella . . . please don't be mad at me for buying the house. I did it because I love you."
She sighed and then sniffed. "'Kay."
"Ruined my Christmas surprise, though. I'll have to come up with something else."
"It was going to be pretty difficult to wrap, anyway."
Grady laughed lightly. "I'd planned on a big red bow on the chimney. Your mom wants you home for the holidays. She was going to decorate the house. We had plans. Well, she had plans. Lots of them."
"Oh, so she knows?"
"Well, yeah, and of course your dad too."
"So it was one big conspiracy?"
"I'm afraid so." He hugged her closer. "Don't get mad at me for asking, but can we still save Hip, Hop, Health?"