Page 58 of The One You Want

“You’re persistent, has anyone ever told you that?” he asked, grinning and breathless as he towered over me on thefloor.

All of a sudden, the laughter died in my throat. Because Grant was right there, inches above me, close enough that I could feel the warm heat of his big body, a body that was currently hovering over mine, close enough to touch without really eventrying.

He stopped laughing too, staring down at me. His eyes suddenly looked dark, the way they had at Owen’s bar the other night, and my breath caught in my throat, eyes drawn irresistibly down to his lips. He lowered his face, just a fraction of an inch, and a swelling of anticipation like I’d never felt before rose up inme.

And then he winced in pain and let out a loud roar. “Jiminy Christmas!” he shouted, twisting up and off of me. “What wasthat?”

The source of his anguish was immediately apparent when Ernie hopped down off hisback.

“Your cat clawed me!” Grant shouted, turning around so I could see the angry red lines on the back of hisneck.

I knew I should apologize, should check to make sure he wasn’t bleeding, offer up a washcloth or an icepack or something. But I was laughing too hard to do any of thosethings.

“Did you…did you just say…did you just sayJiminyChristmas?”

He scowled at me, which did nothing to lessen myamusement.

“I was raised not to curse around women,” he muttered, and I laughed evenharder.

“Oh, my God, what else do you say?” I asked. “Pleasetellme.”

He watched me laugh for a moment until a smile tugged up the corner of his mouth. “My mother always used to say goldarn. Gol, Jenny. She couldn’t even saygosh. And she would take away my allowance if I ever saiddang.”

I couldn’t stop smiling. “I can’t decide if that’s ridiculous or reallysweet.”

His expression was soft. “She was pretty great. I used to make fun of all that stuff but now I just really missit.”

I froze. I had never heard Grant mention his mother before. He talked about a sister fairly often, and his dad came up more than once when discussing farming, but never hismom.

“Did shepass?”

He nodded, jaw tightening. “When I was seventeen. Caraccident.”

I gasped, slapping a hand over my mouth. “Oh my God, I’m sosorry.”

He shrugged. “It was a long timeago.”

Not that long. “You were so young though,” I murmured. Way too young to lose aparent.

“It was worse for Tori,” he said, looking up to meet my eyes. His were dark and filled with a sadness that felt oddly familiar to me. “My sister. She was onlyfourteen.”

I closed my eyes. “I can’t even imagine. For a girl to lose her mom at fourteen…” I murmured, chestaching.

I felt Grant’s hand on my knee. “You lost your mom a lot younger than that,” he whispered, and Istiffened.

I opened my mouth to argue, to remind him my mom was still out there, healthy and fine, but something stopped me. My mom might still be alive, but that didn’t mean I hadn’t lost her. She left me when I was four, went off to a different continent, passing me off to busy, usually inaccessible grandparents. I had only seen her a handful of times since then. I couldn’t even remember the last time she’dcalled.

“Are you close with your dad?” I asked, knowing I wouldn’t be able to hold it together if we stayed on the subject of ourmothers.

His eyes were understanding when he answered. “Pretty close, yeah. He owns an apple orcharddownstate.”

Right. He had mentioned that once before. “Is that where you grewup?”

“Nah. He worked in an office when I was a kid. Something with accounting. He didn’t buy the orchard until Mom died.” He cleared his throat. “My grandfather was a farmer. Corn and soybeans. My dad grew up on a farm and always swore he wouldn’t do that kind ofwork.”

“But he changed hismind?”

Grant nodded. “I think after Mom he just needed to be busy. And there’s nothing like farm work for keeping your body and brainoccupied.”