by Roma James
“What do you think he wanted this time?” I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me again.
I didn’t want to seem too eager for information. Ty and Jaeger would kick my ass if I blew our cover. But even though I needed to know what he was up to, I was also genuinely curious. Grace didn’t seem like the kind of person who would associate with a guy like Garrick Windram unless she had to, and the troubled look on her face only reaffirmed that thought.
“Probably the same thing he wants every time,” she said, sighing. “He either wants to get in my bank account or my pants, depending on the day. You came along before he could drop any hints about which one it would be this time, thank God.”
“What would he even do with the clinic?” Jenny asked. “I don’t even think he likes his own animals, let alone anyone else’s.”
“He’d probably just paint the place bright red and soak up the attention,” I said, grinning as both ladies laughed. “But seriously, that guy seems like an ass.”
“He is an ass,” Grace nodded. “And he doesn’t want the clinic—not to run it, anyway. He’s said he would keep me on for the day-to-day stuff and he’d just be a silent partner.”
Jenny made a face like she was going to be ill. “I can’t think of many things that I would hate more than having to work for him.”
“He would just be in it for the control. The power,” I said.
“Exactly,” Grace drew a heavy breath and then turned back toward the building. “And that’s only one of the reasons why I’ll never let it happen.” She nodded toward Jenny. “Another reason is because of what you said. He doesn’t care about animals. Not even his own. He said his horse got cut on a nail or something while he was traveling with her, but I don’t buy it.”
“Why not?” Jenny and I asked at the same time.
This was the kind of insight into the guy’s character that I was hoping for. He was obviously a scumbag. I could tell that much just by looking at him and from the way I witnessed him speak to Grace.
But the more I could find out about Mr. Garrick Windram, the better.
“I looked around the stall while I was in there with the horse. If there was a nail sticking out somewhere in there, I certainly didn’t see it.” She shook her head. “That’s not proof of anything in and of itself, though, since the cut could have happened somewhere else—even though that wasn’t how I took it when he said it happened while traveling. But the thing that really got to me was the cut itself. A nail would rip the flesh. The cut would be jagged, especially since the horse’s instinct would have been to jerk its leg away, right?”
Jenny and I nodded. I didn’t know a damn thing about horses—or any other animal, for that matter—but everything Grace had said so far made sense.
“That cut wasn’t jagged, though,” Grace continued. “There was no sign that the horse’s leg had been caught on anything. It was a clean cut, and it wasn’t a deep one.”
Now I was more intrigued than ever, but I couldn’t really see what she was getting at. “What do you think happened?” I asked. “If it wasn’t the kind of accident he described, what was it?”
“I don’t think it was an accident at all,” Grace said, flatly. “I think that cut was made by a knife. I think Garrick cut his own horse.”
My eyes went wide as Jenny’s audible gasp punctuated Grace’s words. “You think he cut his own horse?” she asked.
“But… why?” I added, not because I doubted Grace, necessarily, but because I couldn’t understand what would make a person do something like that—especially given the amount of money that man clearly spent on those horses.
“I don’t know why,” Grace confessed, shrugging. “Other than wanting an excuse to stop by here and check things out.” She nodded toward the pasture. “Maybe he thought I was turning the place into a biker bar and got worried about his potential future investment.”
I had to laugh in spite of the serious conversation we’d been having. And then, as if to emphasize her point, the rumble of motorcycle engines drew our attention to the gravel drive that ran from the clinic to Grace’s house—the same driveway we used to access our camp in the pasture.
For a moment, all talk of Windram and his horses was paused as Ty and Jaeger rode into the parking lot of the clinic.
“I figured we’d find you here,” Jaeger said, nodding in my direction once they had turned off their engines and were climbing off their bikes.
“We thought maybe you had gotten lost on your trip to town,” Ty added, grinning as he looked from me to Jenny before finally setting his eyes on Grace. “But I can see now that you just made a little detour. Not that I can blame you.”
Everyone turned to look at Grace. Her normally reserved manner cracked just a little at the attention, and I was pretty sure the slight flush in her cheeks wasn’t just from the Texas heat.
“We were, um,” she paused and absently pushed back a strand of hair that had fallen from the bun on top of her head. “Just… speculating about a few things.”
“Oh?” Ty asked. “Anything interesting?”
“Plenty,” I said, cutting in on what was starting to feel like a conversation that was just between the two of them. “But not enough to warrant a search party.” I gestured toward the two of them. “So, what’s up?”
“We wanted to talk about a few things with the doc, too,” Jaeger said, grinning. “Unless you spoiled the surprise before we could get here…”
Looking from Ty, to Jenny, to Grace, I could see the full range of emotions. Ty looked surprised and maybe a little irritated as he glanced over at Jaeger. Jenny and Grace both looked confused, but there was more to Grace’s expression than that.
Her eyes kept darting over to Ty, and I could see that the delicious pink color in her cheeks had only grown more prominent in the past few seconds.
Jaeger and I were clearly going to have to step up our flirting game.
“I didn’t spoil anything,” I said, finally. “We were talking about more important things, anyway.”
“I don’t know what anyone is talking about,” Jenny said, looking over to Grace. “Do you?”
“Not a clue,” she said, the beginnings of a smile playing at the corners of her mouth. “But this day keeps getting more and more interesting, that’s for sure.”
Ty, Jaeger, and I exchanged knowing looks. I couldn’t help but grin just thinking about the little surprise we had planned for Grace and the clinic.
“Maybe we could all go inside and talk for a few minutes,” Jaeger offered, turning his attention back to Grace. “Unless this is a bad time? We can always come back later if you’d like.”
“But we don’t want to keep you in suspense all afternoon,” I added, tossing her a wink.
The truth was that I couldn’t wait to see the look on her face when we told her. It was going to be great.
It was going to be beautiful.
“This is a good time,” Jenny said, before Grace could speak. “No appointments for another hour, at least.”
Grace shrugged, then smiled. “If Jenny says it’s a good time, that’s good enough for me.” She took a step toward the clinic door and motioned for us to follow. “And yeah, there’s no way I’d let you guys keep me in suspense for the rest of the day. Let’s go talk.”
“Perfect,” Jaeger said.
“I think you’re gonna like what we have to say,” Ty added.
I followed along, too mesmerized by the view of Grace walking away to pay any attention to those jokers. Even in that doctor’s jacket, she was hot as hell. That little hint of color in her cheeks had only accentuated the beauty that was already there, and it was all too easy for me to imagine the body that she kept hidden under all those clothes.
Swallowing hard, I tried to clear my head. I couldn’t be picturing her naked right now—not while we still had to carry on a conversation. Truth be told, I wanted to enjoy every moment of talking to her, too.
Because as hot as she was—and she was fuck
ing hot—I honestly enjoyed just being around her. If I had another chance to get one of those sweet little smiles from her, I wasn’t going to pass it up.
And if this conversation went the way I hoped, she’d be smiling again very soon.
Chapter 6 - Grace
I had no idea what to expect when the guys hinted at a surprise. A surprise was probably a good thing, though… right?
From the way they were all trying—and failing—to hide their smiles, and from the not-so-discreet glances they were exchanging, it had to be something good.
But what?
Was it something to do with Rambo? We had all been paying a lot of attention to him, so it was unlikely that anything had changed too drastically with his injuries—though I would have certainly been thrilled with that kind of surprise.
I could barely wait until we had all gone back to my office—a tight squeeze for the three brawny men, Jenny, and myself—before asking for more details.
“Okay,” I said, turning to face them once we were all inside the office. “What’s the big secret?”
I pulled out my chair to sit down but couldn’t. The way they were all looking at me made me feel anxious, or nervous, or something… but in a good way. It was like my stomach—no, my whole body—filled with butterflies, and like every single one of those butterflies were doing backflips.
“You sure you want to know?” Jaeger asked, a wide grin spreading across his face. “I mean, if you’re busy or something—”
“No, I’m definitely not too busy for this,” I said, interrupting his teasing. “You guys…”
All three men laughed, and even Jenny was smiling from ear to ear. Was she in on this, too? She had acted just as surprised and confused as I was in the parking lot, but maybe she was just playing it up.
“Okay, okay,” Ty said, holding his hands up in a mock surrender. “We don’t want to keep you in too much suspense.”
“Just a little suspense,” Cody said, throwing me a quick wink and making sure those butterflies kept going strong.
I had to admit that even though they were all three so different in looks and personalities, there was something uniquely attractive about each of them. They were all hot, to be sure, but in different ways.
Jaeger was probably the most conventionally handsome, in a bad boy sort of way. Ty had those gorgeous, intense eyes. And Cody’s quiet, sweet personality never failed to make me smile.
Then, of course, they were all tanned and toned and muscled. All of those years they spent as Rangers had clearly kept them in top shape.
“So, what we were thinking…” Ty paused, drawing out the moment with a grin. “Was that since you’ve gone way above and beyond for the three of us—and especially for Rambo—we wanted to do something for you as well.”
“I’ve only done my job,” I said, smiling. “That’s really sweet of you, though—all of you. But you really don’t have to do—”
“Yes, we do,” Ty interrupted.
“And we want to,” Cody added.
“We want to build you a kennel, Grace.” Jaeger said, then glanced over at Jenny and back again. “We heard you had been planning for one.”
For a few seconds, nobody spoke. Everyone was looking at me, and the room was completely quiet.
“Are you being serious right now?” I asked, finally breaking the silence. “A kennel? For me—for my clinic?” I looked over at Jenny. “Did you tell them about the kennel?”
“I just sort of mentioned that you had planned on building one, but…”
“But now we’re going to build one for you,” Ty finished.
“I went out today to make sure we could get the things we’d need,” Cody said. “And as far as I can tell, we’ll be ready to start as soon as you give the go-ahead.”
Looking around the room, I was completely shocked and overwhelmed.
Grateful.
Happy.
I couldn’t believe Jenny had told them about my kennel issue, but I couldn’t even pretend to be annoyed about it. I already knew that however it had come up in conversation, it had come from a place of love. She was amazing, not just as an assistant, but as a friend.
And the guys?
I didn’t even have the words to describe how wonderful they were, or how I wanted to take each one of them into my arms right at that moment.
“There’s no way I can let you just do that for me, though,” I said, finally snapping out of the happiness-induced daze I’d been in for the past couple of minutes. “Do you realize how much work that’s going to be? Not to mention how much it’s going to cost?”
“You don’t have to worry about that stuff,” Ty said, shrugging it off. “We want to do this.”
“And it’s a gift,” Cody said. “So, you don’t have to worry about how much it costs or how much work it’s going to be.”
They were all so, so sweet to make an offer like that, but I couldn’t possibly accept. This was way more than some token gesture of affection. The kind of kennel I’d need.
“No…” I shook my head. “I can’t let you guys take on a project like that. Not for free. It just wouldn’t be right.”
“You can repay us with dinner if you really want to,” Jaeger said, that cocky half-grin that I’d seen on his first day here reappearing. “I don’t think any of us would object to that.”
“Sounds like a fair trade to me,” Cody nodded. “Ty?”
We all looked over to Ty, who was standing with his arms crossed, an amused look on his face. His stare was still as intense as ever, though, and the way he waited several long seconds before he spoke—just looking at me, watching me—made me feel like he might be the only one in the room who could really see me.
It would have been really unsettling if I hadn’t known he was actually warm and kind and sweet under that smoldering stare.
Oh, and really, really sexy.
“I think dinner sounds like a really good idea,” he said, finally. “Is that something you might be interested in, Grace?”
I nodded, pausing to look at each one of them in turn before I answered. Yeah, I was definitely interested. No doubt about that.
“We can have dinner,” I answered, swallowing hard since my mouth had suddenly gone completely dry. “I’d love to. But… that still won’t be enough. I still want to do more.”
“There’s nothing else we really need, to be honest,” Ty said. “So don’t worry about—”
“No,” I said, putting a hand up to interrupt him before he could tell me not to worry. “It’s a big job, and I really appreciate the help. But I want to help, too. I can go this afternoon and finish the paperwork for the permit. Be sure to bring me the receipts for any supplies you buy so I can reimburse you. And when you’re finished, I’ll waive Rambo’s bill.”
“That’s too much,” Jaeger said.
“We can’t agree to that,” Cody chimed in. “This is supposed to be a gift for you, not for us.”
“Those are my terms,” I shrugged, crossing my arms. I could tell that I would at least have to pretend to play hardball if I was going to prevent them from going overboard to help me. “We help each other or we don’t have a deal.”
“I’m a fan of helping each other,” Ty said. “And even though I think we would all have rather done this for you without receiving anything in return, we thank you for what you’re doing. We definitely won’t forget this.”
I smiled and quirked an eyebrow. “Does this mean we’re on for dinner tonight?”
“Oh, we’re definitely on for that,” Ty said.
“We wouldn’t miss it for anything,” Jaeger added.
“Perfect.” I clasped my hands together. “I’ll see you all at six, then. Jenny, I hope you can join us, too. You know you’re more than welcome.”
“I wish I could,” she said, grimacing. “My son has a soccer game tonight, and I’m bringing snacks for the team. Feel free to bring me some leftovers for lunch tomorrow, though.”
“Done,” I said, wa
tching as everyone began filing out the door.
Cody was the last one out, but he paused and turned back toward me at the last minute. “Thank you for this, Grace. For Rambo, for dinner… everything. I knew you were a special lady the first time we saw you. I’m glad you proved me right.”
I felt my cheeks flush with heat and opened my mouth to reply, even though I was at a complete loss for words. He was gone and down the corridor before I could make my voice work again, though.
“Thank you,” I whispered, though there was nobody left to hear me. “All of you.”
My grandmother helped me carry the large serving bowls to the table. There was pasta, meatballs, sauce, and garlic bread. It was a simple meal, but one of my favorites. And even though I had been too distracted earlier in the afternoon to ask what the guys liked, I was pretty sure this had to be better than whatever they’d been eating around the campfire for the past few days.
“I hope you all like spaghetti,” I said, once Nana and I were finally seated next to them at the table. “There’s plenty to go around, so please take as much as you’d like.”
“Thank you, Grace,” Ty said, smiling warmly, his eyes sparkling. “It looks and smells so good.”
“Yes, thank you very much,” Cody said, waiting patiently as the large bowls of food made their way around the table. “I can’t remember the last time I’ve had a good home-cooked meal like this.”
“It’s been way too long since any of us have,” Jaeger added. “We really appreciate this. And thanks to you, too, Miss Amaya, for putting up with all of us tonight.”
We all looked over at Nana, who hadn’t said anything up to that point. She had been mostly quiet all evening, even before the guys had arrived.
I didn’t know what she was thinking, but I could tell just from her body language that she might be starting to warm up to the guys.
“You’re quite welcome,” she said, her lips turning up in a faint smile. “It’s not often that we get a chance to cook for friends.”
Friends.
I felt my eyes go wide, but tried to look down at my plate before anyone could notice. Friends was a pretty strong word for her, since she had been mostly convinced they were going to rob us blind and wreck the place just a few days ago.
