Take a Chance

Harlow

It was three days later before I went back to Nan’s. Grant convinced me to come back to his place every evening. When he wasn’t working, he was with me, and sometimes when he was working he was with me. Like during tennis every day. Grant sat on the porch that wrapped around the main clubhouse. He drank coffee and worked on his laptop.

Adam got the hint. He would’ve been an idiot not to. Grant made it very clear, going so far as walking me to the gate and kissing me until I lost my breath before sending me to each session.

Today, however, I had to go back to Nan’s. I couldn’t move in with Grant. We had to get over this hurdle with Nan. This was my house, too. I also wanted to talk to Mase without Grant around so I had privacy if Mase wanted to ask me about Grant.

When Grant got a call to drive two hours south to check out a site for his dad, he wanted me to go with him. But I needed some space to think. I felt like we’d gone from taking things fast to super overdrive. My heart was having a hard time keeping up.

I knew the moment I’d given myself to Grant that I had deep feelings for him. Then he’d destroyed them. I had thought it would take a long time for those feelings to come back, or even resurface. But I was finding out how wrong I was. They were coming back hard.

While watching Grant brush his teeth this morning as I shaved my legs, I realized that this felt right. It was easy. And it scared me. He was making me picture a future for us. But what kind of future could I give him? Not the one I’m sure he always wanted. He wasn’t in love with me. Falling into the daily everyday details of life with him was dangerous. Before, I was worried about getting hurt. Now, I knew I was going to get hurt. It had gone too far.

And I didn’t know what to do about it.

I was hoping Mase had some wisdom to share.

Nan’s car was gone when I pulled up to the house, and I breathed a sigh of relief. This was good. Maybe she was gone on one of her trips. I headed inside and stopped by the kitchen to get myself a bottle of water before going up to my room.

My room was just like I left it. Nan must have told the house cleaner not to go into my room. Not that I cared. I didn’t have a messy room, just an unmade bed. I set my water down on the table and sat down.

Mase answered his phone on the second ring.

“About damn time I got a call from you,” he grumbled into the phone.

“Sorry. I’ve been busy,” I replied.

“Don’t need to know. I already got an idea of the busy you’ve been.”

My cheeks turned red. I hated thinking about what he’d heard on the plane.

“How are things?” I asked him.

“Working my ass off. With Jim down, I’m having to take up all his work. The man works hard. I wake up early and fall into bed late.”

“How much longer will he be in a cast?”

“Six weeks. I can handle it. Hard work never hurt me.”

The idea of Kiro’s only son working hard on a ranch in Texas wasn’t what the world would imagine.

“What about you? Nan eat you up yet?” he asked.

“No. I’m too tough for her. You know that.”

“Bullshit. She sees you with Grant and she’s going apeshit on your ass. He better be ready to make sure you come out without a scratch.”

“She knows, and he handled her. I haven’t seen her in a few days.”

“Good. Maybe she’ll stay gone.”

I hadn’t called him to talk about Nan. I needed guy advice. “Do you think it would be stupid for me to have feelings for Grant?”

He didn’t reply right away. I was worried he was about to say what I already feared. “I was under the impression that, for you to do what I heard on that plane, you’d already have feelings for him.”

“Well, yeah, I already had feelings for him, but I mean . . . you know, feelings feelings.”

Mase chuckled. “Are you trying to ask me if it’s smart for you to fall in love with Grant Carter?”

Well, yeah. “I guess,” I replied.

“No. It’s probably the dumbest thing you could do. But it’s done. You were in love with him when you decided to sleep with him. That’s who you are, Harlow. So you’ve done it. You need to be worrying about what you’re gonna do when this ends. How will you handle it?”

I sat there staring at the mirror in front of me. He was right. I had been in love with Grant for months. I didn’t want to admit it because it was pathetic. You didn’t fall in love in two weeks. But I had done just that. Then he’d left.

“I don’t know,” I said.

Mase grunted, and I could tell he was moving something heavy. “You pack your shit and come to Texas. I’ll handle the rest. That’s what we’ll do.”

I realized talking to Mase about this was pointless. I wasn’t moving to Texas and I wasn’t letting him seek revenge. “Never mind. I’ll figure this out. Thanks for listening.”

“I’m here, Sis. Anytime. Just call me.”

“I know. Love you.”

“You, too,” he replied.

I hung up and dropped the phone beside me. Where did I go from here?

I was in love with Grant. Full-fledged in love with him. I wanted him forever. I wanted to see his smile every morning. I wanted to know what it was like to be in his arms every day. What had I done?