Page 17 of Combust (Everyday Heroes 2)
“Not so fast.” He walks into the kitchen as Grady opens the drawer behind me and grabs the bottle opener. “Grant Malone. Nice to meet you.”
He extends a hand, which I shake. “Dylan McCoy.”
“You look like your brother,” he says.
I quirk an eyebrow. “Well . . .”
“Not like that.” He laughs when he realizes telling me I look like a guy isn’t exactly flattering. “I just meant coloring, expressions, and . . . okay, I’ll stick my foot in my mouth now.”
“No, it’s okay. I know what you mean. How do you know him?”
“We had a boys’ trip a few years back.”
“Oh. Okay. Well, it’s nice to meet you.” Grant looks at Grady and then back to me as awkwardness settles into the room.
My cell rings.
It’s loud and echoes off the granite countertops of the kitchen and from the ring alone I know who it is.
Jett.
My eyes flash to Grady’s as if I’ve been caught doing something I shouldn’t be when there’s no reason to feel that way at all.
He lifts his eyebrows as the ring sounds again, but I make no attempt to answer it.
“Don’t you need to get that?” he asks with a casual glance to the illuminated phone screen where I’m certain Jett’s name is plastered across the front of it. He looks back to m
e and lifts his eyebrows. “It might be important.”
I’m not sure why I feel like I’m being challenged to see if I’ll answer or not, so I stare at Grady, my own eyebrows raised to match his as my cell rings one more time before it goes to voicemail.
“Huh,” he murmurs.
“Huh,” I reply.
“Sure is a lot of huh’ing going on around here,” Grant says from where he stands in the doorway causing me to laugh nervously.
“I’ve gotta get back to writing songs about love gone wrong,” I finally say.
“Don’t forget to call Jett back,” Grady says as he grabs my cell off the counter and holds it out to me.
A part of me doesn’t want to take it. I want him to think I’m stronger than I am and that I’m not the least bit curious why Jett is calling me. I want him to think better of me than I do myself right now.
“Yeah, sure,” I reply and grab my phone from him. “You guys go have fun pounding your wood or something.”
“Or something,” Grady murmurs as his eyes meet mine one last time before I leave the room.
My mind’s still on him.
On how that’s twice in the past couple days he’s deferred to his sexuality to avoid talking about whatever plagues him.
The bad dream and his nakedness the other night.
His scars and the flirting today.
There’s definitely something beneath the sexiness of Grady Malone.
Question is, do I want to get invested enough to find out what?
