“Got it,” I said, nodding. “Have a good break.” She smiled and then disappeared toward the back where I knew she would sit on a chair, drinking Diet Coke, and text her boyfriend for all fifteen minutes of her break.
I ran my tail off while she was gone, making my way from one end of the bar all the way to the other, making sure everyone got what they needed. The crowd was a little rowdier than usual, but as the summer wore on, it was to be expected.
When Roxanne returned, she was all smiles, so I figured her boyfriend had texted all the right emojis.
“I got this, Grace. Go ahead and take your break,” she said, still smiling.
“Thanks,” I said, placing my hand on her shoulder as I passed her and walked right into the break room. I never stayed in the building for my breaks, but instead took the opportunity to rest my eardrums. I grabbed the light jacket I’d brought with me and then headed out the back door.
There was a designated area for employees to smoke out back, but since it was late, there usually wasn’t more than one person on break at a time. I pulled up a crate and took a seat, letting out a large sigh, relishing the relative quiet.
It was disturbed by a drunken voice that came from nowhere.
“Here you are. I couldn’t find you at the bar, so I went lookin’. An’ here you are.”
I looked up to see drunken frat boy wobbling toward me.
Great. I hated dealing with the drunk college kids, and I definitely didn’t have the patience that night.
“Hey, what are you doing back here?” I stood up and took a step toward him, only to watch him stumble and almost hit the ground. I reached out quickly, catching his arm. “Whoa there, you all right? I think we need to go back up front and get Randy to call you a cab.”
“Only if you’re coming home with me,” he said, clumsily pushing me back against the building. The rough brick of the wall bit into my back where my shirt didn’t quite meet my pants. I tried to push him off, but even drunk he was stronger than me. His hands pinned my arms against the wall, just below my shoulders.
“Let me go,” I said forcefully, hoping that if I couldn’t pry my arms free, perhaps I could use my voice to intimidate him. I tried to pull free again, but all I accomplished was scraping my arms along the brick wall.
“Not so fast,” he said, moving his face closer to mine, the alcohol on his breath making bile rise in my throat. “You’re a tease.” His words were whispered but filled with anger. “You were practically begging me to take you home in there, and then you went all cold on me. How do I know you’re not playing hard to get now?” His face was moving closer with his words; there was now barely any space between us.
Before he could say any more crazy words, I drew in a deep breath and took the one shot I wasn’t even sure I had. I pulled my knee up as hard and fast as I could, and made contact right between his legs.
Drunken frat boy fell to the ground, groaning and clutching his crotch.
“Grace?” I turned to see Devon standing at the edge of the building, eyes bouncing between me and drunk guy on the ground.
“Devon?”
“Are you all right?” he asked, running over to me. “I went in the bar looking for you, but they said you were out back.” He glanced down, watching as drunken frat boy rolled from side to side. “Did you do this?”
My mind was whirling around, ricocheting from the scary feeling of being held against my will to the relief of putting the man to the ground, then to the shock and surprise of seeing Devon.
“What’s going on back here?” My eyes went to Randy, and even more relief flooded through me.
“This guy attacked me,” I said on a sigh, pushing the hair from my forehead, then leaning back against the wall, suddenly feeling very weak.
Drunken frat boy groaned again from the ground, then said, “You bitch.”
“All right, buddy, time to take a ride to the drunk tank.” Randy came over to the guy, rolled him to his stomach, and then pressed his knee into his back, winning another grunt from him. Randy then whipped out his cell and I heard him giving our location to—I assumed—the 911 operator.
“You all right?” Devon asked, coming to stand right in front of me, his hands cupping the sides of my face. He was exactly where drunken frat boy had been just one minute earlier, but his presence didn’t scare me. In fact, it soothed me. I leaned forward until my head rested against his chest and sighed as his hands slid around me, bringing me closer.
“I’m okay,” I said, shivering as I spoke the words. He pulled me even closer still, running his hands up and down my back. “I sure am glad you showed up when you did.”
He let out a deep sigh, then said, “Looks like you laid him out all on your own.”
“Yeah,” I said, trying to fight the tears that were welling in my eyes. I was feeling so much, and it was all boiling over.
“Hey, you’re all right. I’m right here.” At his words, I pressed in closer. When I saw red and blue lights flashing around us, I looked up. Then I heard Randy’s voice.
“Hey, lookie here, scumbag. Your ride showed up.” The guy struggled beneath him, but it was useless. The two cops hopped out of their cars and took over wrangling the drunk guy. They got him cuffed and then put him in the back of the vehicle. One cop focused his attention on drunken frat boy, and the other came over to me, notepad open. Randy stood watch over me, which I appreciated, but Devon never left my side, his hand running smoothly up and down my back as I recounted to the officer what had happened.
“I’m not sure what he was planning on doing with me, if anything, but I just reacted on instinct and kneed him. He fell to the ground and then Randy and Devon showed up.”
“He’s lucky you got to him before I could,” Devon said quietly.
“I reckon he is,” the police officer replied, not looking up from his notepad.
“I’m actually kind of sad I didn’t get a go at him,” Randy added, eliciting a laugh from the cop.
“So, here’s the deal. We’ll take him to the station and book him, let him dry out. It’s up to you if you want to press charges. At the very least you should get a restraining order, just to keep him from coming back here and bothering you. But the decision is yours. Since all we have is him physically assaulting you, that’s all the charge would be, even though we’re not sure what he was planning.”
“Do I have to decide now?”
“No, ma’am. You’ve got two years to press charges, but the longer you wait, the less likely the charges are to stick. If you want him charged, I wouldn’t wait more than forty-eight hours.”
“Okay.”
He flipped his notepad closed, but pulled a card out of a pocket in the front cover and handed it to me. “If you have any more information, feel free to call or e-mail me. He’ll be locked up for at least twenty-four hours.”
“Thank you,” I said, gingerly taking the card, then looked down at my body, realizing I had nowhere to put it. Devon slowly reached out and took the card from me, putting it in his wallet.
“You go on home, Grace. If you need tomorrow off, just give us a call,” Randy said softly, the smoothest I’ve ever heard his voice. “Take all the time you need.”
I nodded and tried to speak, but my words were breathy and had no sound. I was balancing on the edge of a breakdown, so I just kept nodding.
“Let’s go, baby,” Devon said, wrapping an arm around my shoulders, guiding me toward the front of the building where the parking lot was located.
“I need my purse,” I said suddenly, remembering it was still in my locker in the break room.
“I got it, Grace,” Randy said, disappearing into the bar.
I followed along with Devon, stopping when he came to the passenger side of his SUV. He opened the door and I climbed in without words or arguments. Randy brought him my purse and Devon climbed in, started the engine, and pulled out of the parking lot. I leaned my head against the window, watching the street lights pass by, and didn’t realize
he’d driven me home until he parked the car.
“Hey, you okay?” he asked, turning the car off.
“Yeah,” I said, even though I wasn’t sure. “Thank you for the ride,” I said as I unbuckled my seat belt.
“You’re welcome, but I’m not just dropping you off.”
“What do you mean?”
“You don’t really think I’m going to let you stay alone in your apartment the night some guy attacks you, do you?”
“You’re… staying?”
“Do you want me to go?”
It took me a moment, but I slowly shook my head. “No, I don’t.”
With that, he opened his door and came around to open mine. “Keys?” he said, holding his hand out. I dug them out of my purse and handed them over. He took them, then reached his other hand out to me and I took it. He led me to my door, opened it, then let me go in first. I took a few steps in and toed off my shoes, a little unsure of what came next. I didn’t want to be alone, necessarily, but Devon was the last person I’d expected to see that night.
“What can I do for you?” he asked gently, coming up right behind me, running his hands down my bare arms. His soft touch smoothed over the same spot that was now tender from the strong grip of drunken frat boy, and I pulled away before I could think not to. “Do you want to take a bath? Watch a movie? Read a book? What do you want?”
I took a few more steps inside, placing my jacket over one of my dining room chairs. I took in a deep breath, then let it out, my mind empty and racing all at the same time. The only thing I could think of was turning off my brain. “I just want to go to sleep.”
Devon held my gaze for a few moments, then stepped toward me, closing the distance. One hand came to the back of my head and pulled me in as he pressed his lips to my forehead.
“I’ll be here if you need me.” He said the words against my hair and I could almost feel them burrowing into my heart, making their place permanent there.
I twisted my fingers in the cloth of his T-shirt, holding him as close to me as possible. “Will you do me a favor?” I asked, too embarrassed by my request to look him in the eye.
“Anything,” he said earnestly.
“Come to bed with me.” I felt his breathing halt at my words, the rhythmic movements of his chest stopping, then starting up again. He pulled back and I let him go, expecting him to make some excuse to leave, but all he did was slip his shoes off, leaving them next to mine. He took my hand and led me back to my bedroom. He didn’t bother turning on the light, just walked to my bed and crawled in. He scooted all the way over to the other side, then held the blankets up in invitation.
I didn’t even think twice about it.
I climbed into the bed, lined my body up with his as he tucked the blankets around us, and sighed as I felt myself relaxing against him. His hand came up to stroke my hair, and his lips touched the side of my head.
“Sleep now,” he whispered.
So I did.
Chapter Twelve
Devon
I woke up before the sun streamed into the window and I selfishly took the opportunity to watch Grace sleep. She was beautiful, but she was troubled. Every few minutes the soft skin between her eyebrows would bunch up and I knew she was dreaming. I could only hope she wouldn’t remember the dreams when she woke up.
Eventually I slid out from under her, successfully trying not to wake her, and slipped into the bathroom.
When I walked back into the bedroom, I was shocked by her beauty. I shouldn’t have been; I knew how beautiful she was. But I’d never seen her so beautiful or vulnerable before. She was still asleep, on her stomach, her arms wrapped around the pillow beneath her head. Her hair was everywhere and her face was relaxed, the worry lines gone.
The image of her the night before, her body pressed up against a brick wall, fear in her wide eyes, flashed in my mind. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what had happened, and all I’d wanted to do when I saw him on the ground was beat the shit out of him. The only thing that stopped me was the look on Grace’s face—a look that said she’d had enough, that said she needed someone to support her in that moment, not avenge her. My need to comfort her took over, but I knew if I ever saw him again, he’d need an ambulance to take him away when I was through.
She was still in her clothes from work, and I was still in my jeans and T-shirt, but we’d slept all night that way. I pulled my phone from my pocket, checking to make sure there weren’t any messages, then I placed it on the bedside table and climbed gently back in the bed, trying again not to disturb her. I curled my body around hers, softly draping my arms over her waist, pulling her into me.
I didn’t know if she wanted me to sleep with her to make her feel safe, or just to keep her mind off what had happened, but there was no denying I felt a fuck of a lot better having her in my arms.
I knew there hadn’t been a chance of me leaving her alone the night before. I was fully prepared to sleep on her couch; sharing her bed had never even crossed my mind. But when she asked me to go to bed with her, I didn’t stand a chance. Not that I wanted to.
I faded away again, listening to her slow breaths.
“Devon.”
The soft whispers pulled me from sleep. Halfway between sleep and consciousness I felt the featherlight touches on my skin. Before I opened my eyes, I knew Grace was running her fingertip over my face.
“Devon, wake up,” she whispered again, and I could feel her breath on my chin. Then the minty smell hit me.
“I’m awake,” I mumbled.
“Where are the kids?” she asked urgently.
“With my mom,” I grumbled, then I shot my arms out, wrapped them around her, and pulled her into me, burrowing my face in her wild hair. “Go back to sleep.”
“I’m not tired anymore.” Her voice held an edge of laughter, and damn, I wanted to hear that. Especially after what happened the night before. If she was ready to laugh, I was prepared to be the one to make it happen. I flipped her over so her back was to me again, and pulled her to me, leaving absolutely no space between us. I rested my hand on her waist, giving her a tiny squeeze, and everything inside me lit up when I heard her laughter. “No tickling!” She was shrieking and laughing, trying to wiggle her way out of my arms.
Finally, when she was out of breath and smiling, I stopped, but still held her close. Her breathing slowed, and every few moments a rogue giggle slipped out of her, but she didn’t try to pull away or make me let her go. She relaxed into me, running her fingers softly up and down my arm.
“Devon?” she finally asked.
“Yeah?”
“Why were you at the bar last night?”
I let out a sigh. I’d known this part of the conversation was coming, I had just originally thought we would have had it the night before. Grace rolled so she was facing me, but put a little distance between us. I wanted to reach out and obliterate it, but I let her have her space.
“You blew me off, and I wasn’t prepared to let you go. So I went to find you.” I said the words as though they were evident. Self-explanatory. And to me, they were. She’d pushed me away without a reason, and I wasn’t prepared to take no for an answer. “Somewhere along the line, something got between us, and I’m not sure what it was. But I was sure that if I could talk to you last night, I could make it go away.”
I reached out and tucked away a piece of her hair, gently looping it behind her ear, never breaking eye contact. Her hair was impossibly soft and I wanted to thread my fingers through it, feel it slip between them.
“I knew you’d be at work, and I remembered the name of the bar, so I asked my mom to watch the kids overnight and I went looking for you.”
I watched her eyes change, watched her retreat back into her mind, insecurity painting her face.
“Hey,” I said, bringing my hand to her cheek, trying to get her to look back at me. “Don’t run away from me. I’m right here. What happened between those two text messages that changed yo
ur mind about us?” Her eyes met mine again, but her teeth were worrying her lip and her eyes still looked unsure. I trailed my thumb down her cheekbone, trying to coax the words from her. Finally, she spoke.
“I moved to Fairbanks with my husband right after we graduated. We agreed we’d go wherever the first job offer came from. Jeff got an offer first, and I was a substitute teacher for a few years before I got my job. During the first summer we were there I took a job as a receptionist at a salon. Shelby, my best friend since middle school, had just graduated from the beautician academy and I got her a job where I worked. She made a good name for herself and started doing makeup jobs outside of the salon.”
Grace grew quiet, as if she were contemplating the next part of her story, and I couldn’t figure out how any of it had anything to do with us.
“Since Shelby is also a model, she did some work with local photographers. Turns out, she worked with Evie and they were also friends. Still are, in fact.”
I had to admit, that information caught me off guard, but it still didn’t give me the insight I was looking for.
“Anyway, she just happened to call yesterday while you and I were texting and we got to talking, and she eventually figured out that the Devon I was dating was the same Devon her friend Evie had been, um, involved with.”
Slowly the pieces were falling into place, and the light was growing brighter and brighter in my mind. Her eyes fell away from me again, to look down at her hands, which were fiddling with some imaginary piece of lint. I watched her turn back inward.
“Grace,” I said, wanting to physically take her face in my hands and make her look at me, and only stopping myself because I knew she was in defense mode. “I don’t know what Shelby told you, but Evie and I were never together.”
“I know,” she whispered, but as soon as the words were out of her mouth her eyes snapped up to meet mine. “Actually, I don’t know, because you didn’t tell me. And that’s what really bothered me.” Her eyes darted back and forth between mine and it looked as though she were gathering her courage, like she was building up some sort of strength. It was both exhilarating and terrifying to watch, because I knew whatever she had coming, she was aiming for me. “Listen, my ex-husband did a number on me, and in the end I looked like a fool. The last thing I wanted was to go through that again. So yes, anger was my first reaction to learning that you’d had some sort of romantic thing happening with the woman I’d spent a day at Disney befriending. The woman who is like an aunt to your kids. And listen,ˮ she said, holding up a hand in front of my face when I tried to interject. “I like Evie, I can see why you’d be attracted to her, not to mention she’s one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. So I can’t blame you there. It just made me feel really foolish not to know. Like it was a big joke everyone was in on, except for me.”
The Presence of Grace (Love and Loss #2) Page 10
