The Borrowed Boyfriend (18 page)

“What do you mean?”

“Never mind. That doesn’t really matter.” Grady shook his head. “What does is that I never told Kate about Meg. And I’m definitely not sleeping with her.” His lips twitched and that old sparkle returned to his eyes. “Maybe
she
thinks I’m gay?”

Allison mulled this over, trying to remember if she’d ever seen Grady and Kate appear affectionate, exchange hugs or kisses. To her surprise, the answer was no. It hadn’t stood out for her one way or another, as some couples were simply more private in their displays of affection. Now Allison understood that Grady and Kate hadn’t been amorous in private either.
 

The revelation was mind-blowing. Was Grady and Kate’s relationship even more of a sham than Grady and Allison’s? She approached this gingerly, but her curiosity was getting the better of her. She wanted to understand how far Grady and Kate’s relationship had gone. “Didn’t she ever, you know, want to? I mean, did she ever…?” Allison stopped when she felt herself turning red.

“Suggest it?” Grady said. “Only once, but then she blew it off and acted like she was joking. It didn’t matter to her, she said. Kate wasn’t ready for a physical relationship any more than I was. Maybe she has her baggage too. I never asked. We didn’t share with each other that way.”

Grady’s confession answered so many questions Allison had been harboring in her heart. On the surface, his relationship with Kate appeared to be no more real than his short-term arrangement with Allison. Viewing this from the outside, Allison might have judged Grady to be someone who enjoyed playing the boyfriend role. But looking at his face, she knew that was wrong. He was hurting and conflicted, probably much more than she knew. The words came out on a breath. “So the condoms weren’t for you.”

Grady stared at her earnestly. “No.”

“That begs the question—?”

“Exactly.”

Allison lay back in the bed while Grady reclined on the floor, both of them staring at the ceiling. What on earth had Grady done? He might as well have gone ahead and told Allison he had plans to take over her company too! Grady hadn’t meant to get into that whole sorry story about Meg, but when Allison had looked at him with those big blue eyes, he’d found himself opening up to her. In truth, it had felt good to get that long-buried secret out in the open. Now, Allison knew the real deal about him and Kate too. What must she think of him? That he made a habit of playing the pretend boyfriend, like it was some kind of second job?

“Grady,” Allison asked quietly. “Do you think Kate’s really in California?”

He blinked at the thought. There was an option he hadn’t considered. When he’d started putting together the idea of Kate buying birth control, he figured she’d been planning a tryst with someone in San Francisco. Maybe there wasn’t any conference at all. How was Grady to know?
 

What a perfect way for Kate to test the waters with someone else, and what an ideal method for getting rid of Grady in the meantime: send him to Maine with Allison. That was just like Kate, to be conniving when she just as easily could have admitted their arrangement was no longer good for her by suggesting they call it quits.

“You’re thinking she used us?” he asked Allison.

“I…just don’t know.”

Grady thought hard about this, but he didn’t know either.

“I mean, it might have been convenient—if she was planning to see somebody else—to have you out of the way.”

“But why go to all that trouble? Why not just dump my sorry tail?”

“Maybe Kate wanted to hedge her bets, in case the other situation didn’t work out.”

In a scary way, Allison had a point.

“Besides,” she added a bit mischievously. “I’ve seen your tail, and it’s
not
sorry.”

Grady turned to her agape. “I don’t believe it.”

“What?” Allison asked with mock innocence, but she was blushing madly.

“You were flirting with me.”

“Was not,” but there was a little lilt in her voice that contradicted that.

“Allison Murphy,” Grady said, putting on his best Irish brogue. “I’m surprised at you.” He quirked a grin. “I might even tell my grandmother.”

“Ha!” Allison grabbed an extra pillow from beside her and lobbed it at him. “You will not!”

Grady reached out and grabbed the pillow in midair before it could smack him in the head. He couldn’t believe his luck. Allison was actually starting to like him. Grady didn’t know how his spirits could feel so light when the previous conversation had been so dour, but all at once he was floating on air. He sleepily glanced around the room, spotting Allison’s robe on the chair and more of her clothing strewn across the floor, but those things hardly seemed to matter anymore. Nearly losing your life really put a little bit of domestic disarray in perspective. Grady hummed softly to himself, thinking he’d take Allison’s room chaos any day if that meant she was sleeping safely beside him.

He reached up and turned out the light, only to hear Allison demand, “Give me back my pillow.”

Nope. He was holding it tight and keeping it with him the whole night through. More than anything because it smelled like her. “Good night, Allison!”
 

He thought he heard a tiny huff and then the sound of her rolling over.

She was starting to like him all right.

She was starting to like him
a lot
.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Allison woke to Carla’s jubilant cries. “Woo-hoo! Pajama Day!”
 

She sat up quickly, the room coming into focus. Oh yeah, she was at the beach.
With Grady
. She spied him standing by the front windows and her heart melted. He might be going out with Kate at present, but from the way he’d spoken last night he was reconsidering that. Theirs didn’t sound like an ideal relationship anyway.
 

Grady noted she’d risen and nodded out the window. “Can’t get that in Jamaica,” he said, grinning. Allison slipped out from under the covers and hurried over to see.

“Oh my, Grady.” Magical white flakes danced through the air as snowdrifts banked against the dunes, now capped white like the faraway waves. “It’s gorgeous.”

He gave her a warm perusal, then spoke, his eyes never leaving hers. “I couldn’t agree more.”

Allison tried to think of a snappy comeback, but all her energy was focused on his mouth, and how heavenly it would feel meeting hers. Not this morning, or even today. But someday… Yeah, someday, once the thing with Kate was straightened out.

Grady’s cell buzzed on the dresser and he viewed it with annoyance.

“Don’t you want to check that?”

“It’s probably Kate,” he said. “I texted her earlier to ask about the weather.”

“In San Francisco? That’s clever.”

He lifted his phone and scanned the message. “‘High of fifty-five and sunny.’” He shrugged. “She could have gotten it off a weather app.”

“That’s true.” Allison thought for a minute. “But either way, she’s there and we’re here.”

“Wherever
there
may be,” Grady added.

“Well, there’s no way to know until we get home, is there?” Allison said lightly. “That is, unless you want to call her sooner and—”

“No,” Grady said firmly. “The discussion I have with her needs to be in person.”

“Then I have a suggestion,” Allison said, mustering her courage. “Why not forget about Kate for today? I mean, not
forget
forget. Just not worry.”

A slow grin spread across Grady’s handsome face as he slid open the top dresser drawer and dropped his phone into it. “Consider it done.”

Allison couldn’t help but giggle. “My, you’re compliant this morning.” She rolled her eyes in an exaggerated fashion. “
So
much better than yesterday.”

“You’re being a little less bellicose yourself.”

Her eyes widened. “Bellicose? Ha!”

Grady gave a low chuckle. “Doesn’t matter, Allison. I like you either way. Both ways, actually.”

Once more, he’d rendered her tongue-tied. Grady was so full of compliments this morning she didn’t know what to think, other than that he was starting to fall for her. Could she dare to hope?

He leaned forward and asked in a husky whisper, “What’s a pajama day, anyway?”

“It’s a snow day for adults!” Allison grinned happily. “We stay in, make popcorn and hot chocolate, build a fire and play games!”

Grady slowly stroked his chin. “All that in one day, huh?”

“Queenie, Deb, Carla and I have been holding them since college.”

“Do boys get to come?”
 

“If you mean the boys here, of course.”

Grady mouth tipped up in half a smile. “I’m in.”

They decided to freshen up and join the others in the great room. Allison made a move toward the bathroom and winced, nearly toppling over. Grady steadied her shoulders in his hands. “Hey, whoa. Are you all right?”

“Still sore, I guess. In my arms and shoulders mostly.” He loosened his grip, but didn’t let go. He apparently was still worried she might fall. “But my legs are achy too.”

“It’s no wonder you hurt all over. Your body was under a lot of stress and that roll wasn’t exactly gentle.” He shot her an apologetic look. “Sorry about that.”

“You don’t need to apologize for saving me, Grady. I’ll always be grateful for that.”

“I know what might help,” he said with growing enthusiasm. “A nice hot bath. We’ve never properly put that claw-foot tub to use.”

Heat flooded her face at the thought of them in it together. “What are you suggesting?”

“A bubble bath for you! I think I saw some bath salts in there. They were on the rack by the towels.” Allison had to agree that a bubble bath sounded soothing. The tub was there for the taking, but so far she and Grady had only showered in it using the updated tub-to-shower conversion.

“That’s not a bad idea, actually.” Allison massaged the back of her neck and Grady dropped his hold.

“Good, then it’s settled,” he said. “You go on and get started. I’ll fetch some coffee for the two of us. After all, it’s my turn.”

“Grady…” she said with a flush. He couldn’t possibly intend to bring it to her while she was bathing?

Grady chuckled in understanding. “No worries, Allison. Your modesty’s safe with me. I’ll ask Carla to take it to you. She’s obviously awake.”

“Yeah, but…” The idea of sipping her morning coffee in a hot bubble bath while snow swirled down outside sounded heavenly. But wouldn’t Carla think it strange that Allison’s own boyfriend couldn’t bring it to her?
 

“But what?”

“That might look weird. Don’t you think? Won’t she wonder why you can’t bring it yourself?”

“You know, I’ve been thinking about that. This whole pretend boyfriend thing.”

“What about it?”

“Given everything we went through yesterday and my confessions to you about Meg and Kate, do you really think it’s necessary we continue—?”

“Yes,” she broke in adamantly. “I do.”

“But your friends are such nice people, I’m sure they’d understand. I’m also starting to feel a little bad about deceiving them.”

Nooo.
What was happening here? Grady couldn’t back out of their deal now. It was true her friends had accepted him and that was great all around. But what a desperate fool she’d look like if they discovered the truth. Allison was enjoying feeling a part of the couples group—for the first time
ever
—and she didn’t want Grady to ruin that for her. Was their arrangement really so untenable to him? They only had a few more days left.
 

“Grady, I’m sorry about what happened with Meg, really I am. What she did was inexcusable and I can understand it taking a while to get past that.”

Grady furrowed his brow.

“Okay, more than a while. A long time. She was horrible, she was, and I’m sorry about Kate too. Neither of us is sure exactly what she’s up to, and I understand it doesn’t look good. But I don’t know how owning up to our ruse in front of my friends could make things any better. In fact, that would make things a billion times worse.”

“Worse? For who?”

“For me,” she admitted hoarsely.

“I see.” Grady’s features softened. “Look, Allison, I don’t want things to be any more uncomfortable for you than they have to be. I thought that maybe by telling the truth, and getting things out in the open, the rest of the week would be less difficult.”

“But admitting to my friends that I’ve been lying to all of them?” she asked with incredulity. “I don’t see how.”

“I just thought the stress of pretending might soon take its toll. I mean, look at you! You’re so beat up from yesterday, you can barely walk. You need to rest and regroup. Be yourself rather than—”

“I am being myself,” she told him. “In fact, I’ve never pretended to be anyone else. What you see is what you get, Grady. You can take it, or leave it.”

Silence stretched between them as snow thudded against the windows.

Grady reached out and gently cupped her cheek in his hand. “I think you know what my answer is.”