by Liz Isaacson
Her pulse.
Chapter Twelve
Gray glanced at his phone, expecting it to be Wes again. They’d just spoken for a few minutes, but Wes had said he’d call him back later, once he’d made it back to his house with his new wife.
Gray could scarcely believe Wes had gotten married on a beach in Maui, without anyone there to witness it in person. He supposed watching a live feed of the wedding counted, and Gray had asked Mom if she’d minded. She said she hadn’t, and in Gray’s experience, Mom said what she really thought.
But it wasn’t Wes’s name on the screen.
Elise.
His heartbeat tripled, and he glanced up to see where Hunter was. He’d just picked his son up from school, and he couldn’t talk to Elise right now. He swiped the call toward the red button, and it stopped buzzing. His nerves didn’t though, especially when Hunter came out of the bathroom and said, “Dad, can I make a grilled cheese sandwich?” and Gray’s phone started ringing again.
Elise again. Something was afoot.
“Sure, son,” he said. “I have to take this, okay?” He didn’t wait for Hunter to acknowledge him. A grilled cheese sandwich would give him ten minutes alone. He practically ran into his bedroom and closed the door, quickly swiping the call on so it wouldn’t go to voicemail.
“Hey,” he said, feeling out of breath and more than a little frantic. “What’s up? Why are you calling in the middle of the afternoon?”
“Why am I calling in the middle of the afternoon?” she echoed. “Let’s start with a different question—why did you tell Wes we were dating? I thought we weren’t telling anything like that.”
Gray’s face felt so cold. “I didn’t…tell him.” He closed his eyes in a long blink, because his brother wasn’t stupid, and he’d obviously read something into Gray’s words.
“Yeah, you sound real sure of yourself,” Elise hissed, and she sounded like she’d stuffed herself in a closet to make this phone call. “They’re here, and I told Bree I’d help her pack. So I’m walking down the hall with her, and there’s Wes—fresh off the phone with you, for the record—and he’s all, Elise are you dating Gray?” She made her voice deep on the last sentence, and Gray actually smiled.
“That was a great impression,” he said.
“Gray.”
“What did you tell him?”
She groaned, and Gray had a feeling he wouldn’t like the answer. “I told him of course not, and I scampered down the hall and into my room. This is a disaster.”
“It’s fine,” Gray said. “Just go out there and admit it.”
“Admit it?” Her voice went up in pitch. “Then I’m going to look like a liar. I am a liar. What did you say to him?”
“I knew he’d gotten in,” Gray said. “So I just called to see how the trip was. He said it was great; I asked him if he was loving married life; he said yes.” Gray exhaled, because he still held a bit of trepidation about getting married again. What would Hunter say? Would he really like Elise if she were his step-mother?
“And then I asked about the celebration he wanted to have, when that might be.”
“And?”
“He said close to Valentine’s Day, Elise. He mentioned something about how Bree wanted to plan something amazing, and she wanted to come meet my parents before the actual celebration so when they had the party, that wouldn’t be the first time.”
She said nothing, which prompted Gray to keep talking. “So I told him I might have plans close to Valentine’s Day, and that got his questions going, and I said I had to go, but he’s not stupid.”
“No, he is not.”
“He knew about the…thing over Christmas.” Gray leaned his head back into the hard door behind him. “And apparently, he and Colt were going to stage some sort of intervention on me when he got home from Hawaii, and anyway, I told him nothing. He’s just really smart.”
“And now I have to tell him.”
“Does it really need to be a secret?”
“Gray,” Elise said, her voice placating but strong. “You’re the one who wanted it to be, and I quote, on the down-low. Remember?”
“Yes,” he said, and he knew why. If everyone in the family knew about his crush on Elise, they’d talk about it. And that meant Hunter would find out.
Gray sighed. “Elise, I’m going to talk to Hunter right now. He should hear about us from me.”
“I agree.”
“I didn’t mean to be secretive,” Gray said. “I’m just…overprotective of him.”
“Ah,” she said. “At least you’re being honest now.”
His defenses went up and so did his eyebrows. Then they immediately pulled down into a frown. “What do you mean?”
“You said you wanted time to see how things went before you told Hunter,” she said. “To protect him. But really, you’re overprotective of him.”
Gray pressed his teeth together, not knowing what to say. He wasn’t sure if he liked that Elise had picked up on that nuance, or if he’d prefer she didn’t. He also wasn’t sure if he liked that she had put him in his place, when he was so used to doing that to others.
“Yes,” he finally admitted. “I’m overprotective of him, because of something that happened in the past.”
“Dad?” Hunter asked through the door.
“I have to go,” he said, practically jumping away from the door. “Can we talk tonight?”
“I literally have nothing else to do,” Elise said, and while her acidic voice scorched his ears, he simply said, “Great, thanks. Talk later,” and hung up.
He pulled open the door to find Hunter walking away from him. “Yeah, bud?”
“The bread is moldy.”
“Okay, let’s go get some more.” He smiled at his son like he hadn’t just had a semi-argument with his hidden girlfriend in another state. When Gray thought about Elise like that, in those terms, his stomach swirled and stormed. He had to talk to Hunter about dating.
“Hunt,” he said as he swiped his keys from the hook by the garage door. “I need to talk to you about something.” He went first into the garage, trying to gather his thoughts. He reminded himself that he’d had plenty of adult conversations with Hunter. About his mother. About girls. About sex. About being a good person and making the right choices, even if they weren’t popular.
He could tell his son about his girlfriend.
Still, he waited until they’d both gotten in the truck and he was backing out of the garage. “While I was in Coral Canyon this last time,” he said, his voice scratching a little. “I ran into Elise Murphy.” He shot a nervous look at his son. “Do you remember her from Uncle Colton’s wedding?”
“Yeah, I think so,” Hunter said. “She helped with the music with us, right?”
“Right,” Gray said. “Well, I…went out with her while I was in Wyoming, and we’re….” He swallowed, mentally commanding himself to just say the dang word. “Dating. We’re dating now. I’m seeing her. She’s my girlfriend.”
He’d said so much more than just one word. Nervous, he looked at Hunter. “Is that okay? I mean, how do you feel about that?”
Hunter looked at Gray, his face open as he contemplated what Gray had said. “I think it’s great, Dad,” he finally said. “I told you it was okay for you to date.”
“I know,” Gray said. He didn’t need his son’s permission to date. “But it’s just me and you, and I don’t want you to think she’s more important. Or that—well, I don’t know what you think. I need you to tell me.”
“I don’t think anything, Dad. If you like her and want to go out with her, you should.”
Gray looked at his son, sure there was a trick going on. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” Hunter looked out the window on his side of the truck. “And what if I liked a girl, Dad? What do you think I should do?”
Gray dang near slammed on the brakes, his immediate reaction to demand who in the world Hunter could possibly like. Thankfully, he didn’t, and he reminded himself that Hunter would
be twelve in only six weeks. “Well, it depends,” he said, his voice very cool. “Does she know you like her?”
Hunter shook his head no.
“And you don’t just want to tell her,” Gray mused. “Because you’re in sixth grade, and that’s weird. So….” He honestly had no idea what advice to give his son. No one had written a pamphlet or a manual on how to talk to your son about his first crush.
Gray panicked a little, thinking maybe this wasn’t Hunter’s first crush. Maybe Gray had missed that in his own busyness or his own personal relationship with Elise.
“Valentine’s Day is coming up,” Gray said, seizing onto the idea as he passed a billboard advertising a dozen red roses for twenty bucks. “Maybe you could get her something. A stuffed animal or something.”
“Do girls like stuffed animals?” Hunter asked.
“I honestly have no idea,” Gray said, looking at Hunter. The tension in the truck broke, and Gray chuckled with his son.
“What did Mom like?” Hunter asked, and the honesty in his voice struck Gray’s heartstrings.
“Mom liked chocolate,” Gray said, sifting quickly through his memories for some good ones of Sheila. “And expensive jewelry. And a dinner she didn’t have to cook.” Not that Sheila had ever done a lot of cooking. “So I’d put chocolates on the counter in the morning when I left for work, and I’d send something to her during the day—earrings or something—and then we’d go to dinner that night.”
“Did you take me?”
“Not usually, bud. You’d go stay with Grandma and Grandpa on Valentine’s Day.”
“Are you going to go back to Wyoming to see Elise for Valentine’s Day?”
“I haven’t decided yet,” Gray said. “Uncle Wes might do his wedding celebration close to that time, and maybe Elise will come down here.” He glanced at Hunter. “What do you think of that?”
Hunter shrugged. “It’s fine with me, Dad. Honest.”
Gray turned into the parking lot at the grocery store, and he told himself not to look at Hunter. To play it cool. “So what’s this girl’s name that you like?”
“It’s no one, Dad,” Hunter mumbled.
“Oh, it is too,” Gray said. “I’m not going to know who she is or anything.”
“Yeah, you know who she is.”
Gray pulled into a parking space and looked at Hunter with surprise streaming through him. “I know her?”
“Her family goes to church with us.”
“There’s a lot of people who go to church with us.”
“Her dad is the preacher,” Hunter said, looking away. The tips of his ears turned red, and Gray wanted to gather him close and tell him that liking a girl was normal. Natural. Kind of exciting.
“Molly Benson?” Gray guessed, because the Bensons had four daughters, but only one close to Hunter’s age.
He didn’t nod. He didn’t deny it. Hunter just got out of the truck and said, “Let’s go get the bread, Dad.”
Gray scrambled after his son, reaching him and slinging his arm around his shoulders. “She’s cute, bud. You don’t need to be embarrassed.”
“I’m not embarrassed,” Hunter said.
“Oh, well, good.”
“But if you embarrass me in front of her….” Hunter shook his head and didn’t finish.
“How can I embarrass you in front of her?”
“You say stuff, Dad.”
“I do not,” Gray said.
“You will,” Hunter insisted. “Next time we go to church, you’ll be like, ‘hey, Molly, that’s a pretty dress,’ or something, and then she’ll look at me like I’m the creeper.”
Gray burst out laughing, though had he known talking about girls would get his son to say so much at once, Gray would’ve done it earlier. “So I can’t tell a girl her dress is pretty?”
“No,” Hunter said. “You can’t.” He gave Gray a glare. “Just forget it, okay?”
“Yeah,” Gray said. “Okay.” They went inside and got the bread, along with a few other things, and soon enough, they were back in the truck, headed home.
“Maybe she’d like chocolates too,” Gray finally said, as if their conversation hadn’t stopped at all.
“Yeah,” Hunter said. “Maybe.”
“I’ll get you some cash,” Gray said. “And I’ll drop you off at the pharmacy, and you can get her what you want.” He looked at Hunter. “Okay?”
Hunter nodded, though he still didn’t seem super happy. “Okay, Dad. Thanks.”
“Okay.” For once, Gray felt like he’d just scored a major parenting win, and he smiled to himself. “Now help me make a plan for what to get Elise for Valentine’s Day. She does know I like her, by the way.”
Chapter Thirteen
Elise stewed in her emotions all afternoon and well into the evening, despite being surrounded by her friends. After calling Gray and practically getting hung up on, she’d marched across the hall and helped Bree pack a bag.
She had not answered Wes’s question, and Bree looked at her with questions in her eyes. “I don’t want to talk about it yet,” Elise had said.
“Fair enough.”
Even packing a couple of suitcases for Bree had taken a toll on Elise, and she felt fragile inside and out. One wrong gust of wind would shatter her carefully placed smile. One wayward look from Colton would bust her wide open.
So it was a real shame when she loaded up in her sedan and followed Wes and Bree over to Colton’s house for dinner. Annie had apparently made a big feast to welcome them home, and while Elise normally loved eating what Annie made, tonight she only felt like a fifth wheel, bumping along behind her friends.
But she made it through the meal with that fake smile on her face. She contributed to the conversation, though every buzz of anyone’s phone sent her heartbeat into aftershocks. If anyone noticed how she flinched with every text sent or received, they didn’t say.
“All right,” she said as Annie got up to put on the coffee. “I have a long drive.” She stood and smiled around at everyone. So happy. Happy-happy Elise. “Thanks for dinner, Annie.”
“Oh, you can’t go yet,” Colton said. “We haven’t heard anything.”
“Nothing to hear,” she said over her shoulder, quite coldly too. If she was lucky, Gray would wait to call until she was in the car. The clock ticked closer to nine, and she hadn’t realized how late it had gotten.
“I can tell you’ve been smiling this plastic grin at me for hours,” Colton said. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Elise practically growled the word. She continued into the foyer to get her coat. The little black number reminded her so much of Gray, and she felt like she was cinching herself into the coat, strangling off all her air.
“It’s Gray,” Bree said, following them too. “I know it’s Gray, Elise.” She looked at Colton, and they were the two best friends Elise had ever had. “Wes talked to him when we got back. Wes said he didn’t come right out and say he was dating Elise, but that was definitely the vibe Wes got. So he asked her about it.” Bree cast a look at Elise. “She clammed right up and scurried into her bedroom for a few minutes.”
With every word she said, Elise lost a little bit more air. “I’m standing right here,” she said. “I hate it when you guys talk about me like I’m not even here.” She sucked at the air, needing to get outside right now.
She yanked open the door, the blast of cold hitting her in the face and practically knocking her backward. Undaunted, she continued outside anyway. She couldn’t breathe too deeply out here, or she could get brain freeze—or solidify her lungs in a single breath.
“Elise,” Colton said. “Would you just wait?”
“I told you the rules when it came to Gray,” Elise said. “We’re fine. I’m not talking about him.”
“Ah, so there’s a we’re,” Bree said, clearly still following Elise as she went down the steps.
She spun back to the two of them, and Colton nearly ran into her he was so close. “And I told
you not to talk to him about me too, remember?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Colton said automatically. “I just…you’re upset, and I don’t like it when you’re upset. It upsets me.” He placed both hands over his heart. “Let us help you.”
“You can help me by staying out of my personal life,” she said. “If I want or need your help, I have your number.” She glared at him, and then switched that look to Bree. She didn’t want to have anything between her and Bree, though. The woman had literally been Elise’s savior when she’d first arrived in Coral Canyon.
She deflated and sighed. “Can we just…can you guys just let me deal with this? I promise I’m not some fragile flower that can’t do anything.” She felt dangerously close to crying, and she did not want to be nasally when Gray called. She had a feeling she’d need to have all her wits about her, and her sternest voice in place too.
Bree nodded and enveloped Elise in a hug. “We really do love you and want to help,” she whispered.
“I know.” Elise thought the best way anyone could help would be to offer her a room for the night. Just the thought of driving through the darkness back to the cabin made her queasy. She shouldn’t have agreed to dinner. She shouldn’t have stayed so late.
Bree stepped back, and Colton took her place. “If he hurts you, Elise, just tell me. I know where he lives, and I’ll take care of him.” The fierce protectiveness in his voice made Elise’s defenses crack, and she held onto him for too long. Then longer.
Finally, when she thought she might not cry or break when she stepped back, she released him. She could only nod, and then she turned and got in the car. It was far too cold to stand around outside conversing, that was for sure. Yet Bree and Colton stood at the end of the sidewalk, sans coats, while Elise backed out and drove off.
She kept both hands on the wheel as she drove, the heater blasting to warm the interior of the car. She stared straight ahead so she wouldn’t imagine being swallowed whole by the absolute darkness around her.
Up, up, up the canyon she went, and Gray didn’t call. She’d just pulled into the carport when her phone rang, and she hurried to put the car in park and reach for her phone. Gray’s name sat there, and Elise cleared her throat before swiping on the call.
