The Perfect Stroke(47)

“No, Ida Sue. Just bringing River and dropping him off. Petal said she was coming here for dinner to meet Grayson’s girlfriend,” I hear the other guy answer.

This place is chaos because I hear doors open in the background coming from the living room. A couple more people come in through the kitchen door at the same time while White still kisses my hand. The naked kid is asking Ida where Terry is.

But I’m frozen because I heard the sheriff’s words. I’ve been feeling out of my depth and not talking a lot, but before I can stop myself, my mouth picks now to finally work.

“Cammie’s coming here?” I squeak because I really can’t handle that.

“Who is Cammie?” the sheriff asks.

“I hope to fuck not,” the older man joins in.

Then, I hear the voice I’d been wanting to hear ever since I first stepped foot in this crazy house. “White, what the fuck are you doing with CC? Drop her hand right now!”

Gray’s voice rings louder than anyone else’s, and the room goes quiet. My eyes automatically go to him. How is it that the man is better looking now than he was just six days ago? That doesn’t seem fair.

“What? She was cut. I was just giving her first aid. She seems to be having a little trouble breathing now. I’m thinking a little mouth-to-mouth is in order,” White says, giving me a wink. I’d laugh if I wasn’t scared that Cammie was coming here. In all of my planning of how exactly I was going to tell Grayson off, the possibility of Cammie showing back up wasn’t in them.

“If you don’t get away from my woman, you’ll be sucking your dinner through a straw,” Grayson growls. My heart trips inside of my chest. His woman?

“Your woman? I don’t see how that can be since you’re engaged to Cammie!” I yell at him.

“Engaged to Cam—? What in the hell are you talking about? I wouldn’t be engaged to that snake if my life depended on it,” Gray growls back, walking towards me. He jerks White’s hands away from me. “Back the fuck off, White,” he growls quietly. White grins, but nods his head and looks back at me with a wink.

“We’ll catch up later, darlin’,” he says before getting up.

“Not if you want to keep your face as pretty as you think it is,” Gray growls. He’s towering over me and I feel at a disadvantage, so I stand up to face him. “Now what the hell are you talking about with Cammie? Have you lost your damn mind?”

“She seems to think you are engaged.”

“She what?” he yells, and the anger and surprise in his face makes me feel a little better. I shrug when he looks at me, expecting me to explain further. I’m suddenly not sure what I’m doing here. “I’m not engaged,” he grumbles, his hand coming up to touch my hair.

“She says you are,” I argue, jerking away.

“Woman, I just left your bed a week ago,” he argues, and he doesn’t say it quietly. My face heats as I hear the whispering and laughing around us.

“A week is a long time for a player,” I tell him stubbornly.

“Not the way you wring a man dry,” Gray says, and the laughing becomes almost as loud as the red on my face.

“Gray!” I snarl.

“Everyone out!” Gray yells. No one leaves. “You either leave or you’ll see me fucking my woman on the kitchen table.”

“If my child says that word one more time, I will cut your peter off so you can’t touch your woman again!” a girl’s voice yells from the door.

“I got a peter!” the blonde child yells. “It pees!” he yells, then proceeds to show everyone.

Let me tell you, nothing breaks the tension like having a child piss on the kitchen floor.

Nothing.





“What are you doing here, Cooper?” Gray asks me ten minutes later. It took him ten minutes to clear out the kitchen and make sure his nephew’s mess had been cleaned up. Speaking of which, he managed to pee on Gray’s boot. I like that kid; he’s got style.

“I came to tell you that you’re an asshole.”

“You traveled all the way from Kentucky to tell me I’m an asshole?”

“I was mad.”

“Because I’m supposedly engaged to Cammie Riverton?”

“She said you were,” I defend, resenting the way he’s starting to make me feel… stupid.

“She’s fucking nuts,” he growls. Well, I can’t argue with that.

“So you’re saying you didn’t ask her to marry you?”

“I don’t want to marry anyone!” he growls, and I ignore the fact that that feels like a slap in the face. I mean, I’m not looking for marriage either, right?