Flare Up

by Shannon Stacey

  “I feel like telling her I want her to move in with me is the right move,” he said.

  You just do what’s right for you, son. If you’re meant to be together, it’ll be what’s right for both of you. His dad’s advice echoed in his mind.

  “All I can say,” Gavin said, “is that I don’t think Wren intends to go anywhere. And if she did, her address isn’t going to make a difference. You’re already all in, dude. If she took off tomorrow, it wouldn’t hurt any less because she lives with Patty.”

  Just the thought of it made his stomach hurt. The first time had hurt so badly he didn’t think he could survive it, but he hadn’t seen it coming. This time, he’d had to really open up to let her back in, so the betrayal would be even more painful.

  “I don’t think she’d do it,” he said. He wanted to say he knew she wouldn’t, but total denial of the possibility wasn’t the right answer. “But you’re right about the address, I guess.”

  “Have you tried dropping hints? Try to feel her out without actually putting it out there?”

  “You mean besides lingering at her door and looking as pathetic and lonely as possible while I slowly walk back to my Jeep?” He laughed. “Not really.”

  “They can’t read our minds. And while that’s definitely a blessing about ninety-nine percent of the time, it does mean we have to communicate our feelings once in a while.”

  “I’m going to think about it a little bit longer. Make sure it’s not an impulse triggered by being in New Hampshire with her—which I don’t think it was—and then I’ll probably bring it up.”

  “Of course you’re going to think about it.” Gavin rolled his eyes. “Now, are you actually going to hit this bag some more or are we just going to stand here and talk all day?”

  * * *

  Wren was exhausted. The weekend in New Hampshire followed by working both jobs today because she’d taken the time off had wiped her out, but Grant showing up to drive her home had been a nice boost.

  But then Gavin had called. He and Cait had been out doing some errands and then Aidan had called him because he needed somebody to shoot pool with and it turned into a bunch of them stopping into Kincaid’s “just for a few minutes.”

  Nursing her one and only drink for the night—and even that might have her napping under a table, as tired as she was—she sat at a small table in the back with Cait and watched the guys argue over their game of pool. She wasn’t even sure what they were arguing about, since she didn’t know how to play, but it seemed heated in a good-natured way.

  “So, is my mother driving you crazy yet?” When Wren laughed and shook her head, Cait smiled. “To be honest, I know I told you we’d all keep our eyes out for a decent, cheap apartment, but she loves having you there so much, it’ll probably be almost as hard on her when you move out as it was when I did. And, really, you’re probably going to move in with him anyway.”

  She’d leaned forward when she said the last bit and dropped her voice to barely more than a whisper, but Wren still glanced at Grant to see if he’d heard. He didn’t seem to have, thankfully, so she whispered back. “Probably. At some point.”

  Then she sat up straight and took a sip of her beer. “I actually really love living in Patty’s house right now. She’s like a second mom to me, and having a younger brother is fun. He tried to show me how to play his video game the other night and I was awful and he started yelling at me about some guy hiding behind a truck on the screen and then Patty was yelling at him to stop yelling at me.” She laughed. “I feel like part of the family more than a friend renting the guest room.”

  “Because you are part of the family,” Cait said, raising her glass to clink it against Wren’s.

  Warmth that had nothing to do with the alcohol spread through Wren and she was thankful she wasn’t quite tired enough to hit the weepy stage. It felt incredible to be part of this family, and she knew it wasn’t only because of Grant. She may have met Cait through him, but they were developing a friendship of their own that was probably one of the best Wren had ever had.

  Grant rolled his eyes at the other two men and then walked over to their table. He pulled up a chair, which he sat on backward, and propped one arm on the back while the other draped across Wren’s shoulders.

  “Whatever you ladies are talking about has to be better than listening to those two.”

  “How do you feel about vegan food?” Cait asked.

  “Okay, maybe not.”

  “No, seriously. I found this great restaurant that—”

  “Nope.”

  “Grant,” Wren said. “You might like it.”

  “I like steak.” He shrugged. “And herbed potato croquettes, as it turns out.”

  Cait pulled up a picture on her phone and showed it to him. Wren laughed at his expression when he saw it, because he was clearly battling between liking what he saw and wanting to be stubborn.

  “Okay, that looks good,” he admitted reluctantly.

  “Just because it’s vegan, doesn’t mean it’s not good,” Cait said.

  “I’d like to try it,” Wren added.

  He made a low growling sound in his throat. “You guys could try lunch there. Or a girls’ night. You all like going out together.”

  “It’s more of a date night kind of place.” Wren leaned closer and gave him a smile. “I like date nights with you.”

  His expression softened, and Wren felt a twinge of guilt for using his inability to resist her to get her hands on the seitan cutlets she’d seen on the website link Cait had sent her.

  “Then we’ll go,” he said, his gaze locked with hers. “I guess I’ll try anything once.”

  “Why don’t you try telling this idiot how to play pool?” Aidan called over. “Or come take over for me so I can go visit my wife at the bar?”

  “I’m good,” Grant said.

  “You’d rather sit on that chair than take over this game so I can go see my pregnant wife?” Aidan shook his head. “I thought you were a good guy, Cutter.”

  Grant laughed, but he stood up. “You’re such an asshole. Hey, Wren, you want to learn to shoot pool?”

  “Not really.” She was probably too tired to hold the stick up, but when he gave her that aw, come on look, she set her drink down and stood. Apparently she couldn’t resist him, either. “Just for a few minutes.”

  Cait stood, too. “I’ll take over for Gavin, so you don’t have him barking at you from across the table.”

  “I wouldn’t bark at Wren,” Gavin said, but he handed the cue to Cait. Then he winked at Wren. “You should know we just like the part where the women bend over the table.”

  They all laughed, and then Grant did his best to show her how to play the game. She was competitive, so she didn’t like not being able to do it, but her hands were small and she had a lot of trouble controlling the cue once she decided to make her shot.

  But she kept trying until both guys winced at a bad hit. Grant walked over and kissed her, using the distraction to take the pool cue out of her hand. “If we rip the felt, Tommy might throw us out.”

  She tried to stifle a yawn and failed. “Right now, being thrown out of here isn’t much of a threat.”

  “We’ll get out of here.” He was about to put the cue stick back on the rack when Aiden reappeared with a soda and a basket of nachos.

  “You lose already?”

  Grant flipped him off. “We’re heading out. Wren had a long day and we’ve all got to get up for work tomorrow.”

  “I’ll let you know when we can get away for a double date night,” Cait said.

  Gavin groaned. “Tell me it’s not the vegan place.”

  “I’ll make it up to you,” Cait told him, and Wren couldn’t tell, but it looked like her hand might be on his ass.

  “I’ll try anything once, I guess.”

  “Good answer,�
�� Grant said. “No rush on scheduling that, though. We haven’t been here, all four of us together, enough times yet.”

  Wren slid her arm around Grant’s waist. “I can’t wait to try those seitan cutlets, though.”

  His fingertips slid under the hem of her shirt, just enough to touch skin. “I guess we don’t have to wait. Whenever.”

  She stood on her toes to reward him with a quick kiss. “I’ll make it up to you.”

  * * *

  After they’d said their goodbyes, they went over to the bar and Wren grabbed their coats while Grant waited for Lydia, who was probably out back, to show up at the register.

  His mind was running through the possible ways Wren could make it up to him in bed, so he wasn’t really paying attention to the far corner of the bar, where Tommy and Fitzy were holding court, until he heard him speak.

  “You gonna stick around this time, girl, or what?”

  Grant froze as Tommy’s voice carried across the bar. The man was talking to Wren, but he may as well have been talking to everybody at Kincaid’s. He’d brought her here for some company and a beer—which he was currently paying for—not to be interrogated by a guy who wouldn’t know a functional relationship if it bit him in the ass.

  But Wren just gave Tommy an easy smile. “I plan to.”

  Tommy gave her a long look, and Grant braced himself for the words that might come out of his mouth. If he got too disrespectful, he was going to have to say something, and that could get ugly. Grant didn’t want ugly. Not only was he Tommy Kincaid—father and father-in-law to a lot of his friends—but they made good burgers. And when he wasn’t insulting Grant’s girlfriend, he genuinely liked the guy.

  “I’m glad to hear it” was all Tommy said when he finally spoke. “You pretty up the place.”

  “Thanks, Dad,” Lydia yelled from the hallway to the kitchen. “Oh hey, Grant. You calling it a night already?”

  “Yeah, we’ve got plans.” Plans to go to bed, judging by Wren’s sleepy expression.

  “Anything fun?”

  “No, we made plans to be boring and not fun at all.” When she paused in the act of handing him the slip to sign to give him a look, he chuckled. “Hey, I meant to ask you earlier, but I swear you never stand still. How’s the baby?”

  She laughed and put her hand over her stomach, which still looked pretty flat to Grant. “So far so good.”

  Then she knocked her knuckles on the wooden bar and winked.

  Once they were outside, Grant took Wren’s hand and they walked slowly down the block to where he’d parked.

  “I’m sorry about Tommy,” he said. “He can be an ass sometimes.”

  “He can. But I bet under that crusty shell, he’s worried about you.”

  “Maybe. I mean, I know he cares about us all in his own way, but that doesn’t give him the right to call you out like that. It was rude.”

  She laughed. “Sometimes I think he doesn’t really know how loud he is.”

  “All the Kincaids are loud. When Jackson was born, he had a cry that was probably just a few decibels shy of shattering glass.”

  “It’ll be fun, Lydia and Jamie having babies around the same time.”

  He laughed. “Yeah, you can say that because you won’t be trying to fight fires with the sleep-deprived dads of those two babies.”

  After unlocking the Jeep, which he’d remote-started once they were in sight of it, he helped her in and went around to the driver’s side. As he got in, he was struck by the sudden visual of trying to hoist a very pregnant Wren into the passenger seat.

  That wouldn’t really work. And her car was ancient. If—when—they had a baby, he wanted them so wrapped up in safety cages and airbags nothing could hurt them. They could trade hers in toward a newer family-friendly and very highly safety rated model.

  “Grant?”

  He shook away the thoughts and climbed into his seat. “Sorry.”

  “You looked a million miles away. What were you thinking about?”

  Looking into her blue eyes, he almost said it. I was imagining you very pregnant with our first child and shopping for a minivan.

  “Oh, nothing,” he said out loud. “Talking about work made me think of something I need to do. That’s all.”

  “You were smiling.”

  “With Aidan and Scott having babies, I was thinking—” At the last second, he chickened out again. “It might be fun to have a baby shower at the house for them when it’s almost time. Just the guys.”

  She smiled. “That does sound fun. If you need any help planning it, just let me know. And...I’ll call Olivia.”

  Laughing, he put on his seat belt. But then he realized they hadn’t talked about what came next. “So, where to?”

  She rolled her head against the seat to look at him. “I’m exhausted. And you have to work early and I have to do laundry in the morning, so I should probably go home.”

  Every time she said home and didn’t mean his apartment felt like a fresh papercut to the heart, but he smiled and put the Jeep in gear. “I thought you were going to fall asleep at the table if I didn’t get you out of there.”

  “I might have.”

  He reached out and took her hand as he steered one-handed through the narrow back streets to Patty’s house. It didn’t take long, but he was still surprised Wren didn’t nod off on the way.

  He’d hadn’t overheard much of her conversation with Cait while Aidan and Gavin were arguing about some stupid rule they ended up searching for on their cell phones. But he’d heard a little bit.

  I actually kind of love living in Patty’s house right now.

  He should leave it alone for now. Not for too long, but Wren had had a tough go when it came to family and if being with Cait’s family was making her happy—maybe even healing some old wounds—he could wait. Did he like Wren leaving his place to go home? Or dropping her off like they were teenagers out on a date? Hell no. But he loved seeing her happy, relaxed and laughing about Patty making sure she ate well and bickering with Carter.

  His resolve to leave it alone faltered, though, when he pulled into Patty’s driveway. He left the engine running and walked around to help Wren climb down, and then walked her to the door.

  “I’d invite you in, but I think Patty’s still up and she’ll want to chat and I’ll never get to bed.”

  He smiled, brushing her hair back from her face. Then he leaned down and gave her a long, slow kiss that left him with an ache he knew would be with him until he saw her again.

  “Get some sleep,” he said softly.

  “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” She sighed. “And see you the day after. Be safe tomorrow.”

  “Always.” He kissed her again, and then gave her a nudge toward the door. If he had his way, he’d stand on the step kissing her all night. Or at least until she got tired of kissing in the cold and agreed to go home with him.

  “Goodnight,” she said as she slipped inside.

  Grant shoved his hands in his pockets as he walked back to the Jeep. Nope, definitely not going to be able to wait much longer, he admitted to himself. He wanted Wren with him, in their home, where she belonged.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “You’re in a good mood this morning,” Sadie said when she unlocked the salon door to let Wren in.

  “I haven’t even said anything yet.”

  “I could see your smile from across the street, and I bet you can see the bounce in your step if you look at your tracks in the snow.”

  Wren laughed and put her bag in the cubby with her name on it. Then she hit the button on the Keurig to brew herself a coffee to take to the desk.

  She was definitely in a good mood this morning. On a whim—or rather because it had been in the back of her mind for months—she’d gone by the bookstore she’d worked at before getting that first phone call from B
en. They opened an hour before the salon, so she’d taken a deep breath and gone inside.

  The owner had been surprised to see her, to say the least. Rhonda had been kind to her, and it meant a lot to Wren to finally apologize for disappearing and leaving her in the lurch. She told her everything because she deserved that much, and she left feeling a lot lighter, emotionally. And Rhonda had told her to come in anytime, which was good. She’d fallen in love with the bookstore as a customer, before she’d worked there, and she couldn’t wait to go back and browse the shelves.

  And in the days since they’d returned from New Hampshire, Wren had felt a shift in her relationship with Grant. She didn’t want to jinx things by even thinking it, but she couldn’t help wondering if they’d be having a serious conversation about their future soon. She got the feeling he really didn’t like having to say goodbye to her and watch her go home, so he might ask her to move in with him soon.

  As much as she loved living with Patty and Carter, she was pretty sure she’d say yes. She’d loved living with Grant more, and Patty and Carter weren’t going anywhere. She knew she’d not only be welcome to stop in any time, but Patty would insist on it. Not that she was thinking about moving in with Grant, because she’d hate to jinx it.

  “Maybe I should date a firefighter,” Kelli said. “If they put that kind of smile on your face.”

  Wren nodded, then took a sip of her coffee. She’d been slowly letting bits of her private life come out as she got to know the women. They didn’t know a lot, but they did know she had a firefighter boyfriend.

  One who made her smile. A lot. Even more than bookstores did, which was no easy feat.

  “I dated a firefighter once,” Barb said. The nail tech was the quietest of the women in the salon and spoke even less than Wren did. “He did not make me smile like that.”

  They were all laughing when Sadie unlocked the front door, where the first two clients of the day were already waiting.