“I’m not.”
“I know.”
He said the words with such arrogant authority that Grace glared at him. “I wish you wouldn’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Act as though you know or care. I’ll talk to my brother.”
“When?”
Grace’s skin burned. “When I’m ready.”
“You’ve been home almost a week, seems to me like you would have had plenty of opportunity to tell your family what’s going on.”
“Stay out of it,” she warned.
“Or what?” He chuckled. He was toying with her. As usual. “Ah, Princess, you’re about as wound up as a spinning top at the moment.”
“No thanks to you,” she fired back and crossed her arms.
He smiled again. “By the way, you owe me a dance.”
Dancing? After what had happened on the beach she had no intention of falling into his arms again. “You don’t have a chance of getting me on the dance floor.”
“Things have a way of changing,” he said and gently took hold of her elbow. “As we discovered earlier.”
The kiss. The touching. The insane desire that had taken hold. Of course he’d remind her about it. “Don’t imagine for one minute that we’ll be repeating that craziness anytime soon.”
“Are you sure about that, Grace?”
She stuck out her chin. “Positive.”
“Such confidence,” he said in that vague, annoying way of his. “So, about that dance?”
She clung to her resolve. “No.”
“I could beg and embarrass you.”
Grace refused to react. “You mean embarrass yourself. And surely there are other women here you can try to charm the pants off other than me.”
He laughed and she hated that a few people looked in their direction. “Is that what you think I’m doing, Grace? Trying to get your pants off?”
She cast him a sharp look. “Try your best, Hot Tub.”
He grinned at her attempt to antagonize. But she knew he would win out. She’d called him the ridiculous name for a decade because he’d installed a huge spa bath at the house he’d built and her brother teased that it was to impress women. She hadn’t liked the idea then. and she liked it even less now.
“Are you throwing down the gauntlet, Grace?”
“Not at all.” She managed to pull away and put some space between them. “I’m…tired,” she said and shook her head. “Too tired to play games.”
“Then tell me what’s going on with you. If you do I might be inclined to leave you alone.”
Exasperated by his persistent badgering, Grace threw up her hands. “So, what do you want to know?”
His gaze narrowed. “Why you’ve come back for so long this time?”
“Because this is my home.”
He clearly didn’t believe that for a second. “Last I heard New York was your home, Grace. Crystal Point was the place you couldn’t get away from fast enough.”
It was a direct hit. She knew what he meant. Her career was the reason she’d left Crystal Point—the reason she’d put an end to their relationship all those years ago. She’d been overwhelmed, crowded, hemmed in…everything she didn’t want to be. Leaving had been her salvation. And her career had panned out exactly as she’d dreamed it would. Until the car wreck that had changed her life.
Grace’s back stiffened. “You know why I left. I wanted…I wanted…”
“Bright lights, big city.”
She stilled. Quiet stretched between them, like brittle elastic. The music seemed to fade and Grace experienced a strange tightening behind her ribs. “It was never that simple.”
“Yes, it was, Grace.” His voice was velvet-smooth, his expression unreadable. “You knew what you wanted. What you didn’t. And who you didn’t.”
She looked into his eyes. It sounded so black-and-white. But nothing was simple anymore. And she didn’t have the courage to admit the truth—that she’d gone to New York to make her parents proud and become everything they’d hoped she would become…or that now she’d come home to save her life.
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