Lib Novel Page 22
The door slammed shut, and within seconds, I heard my sister’s voice.
“Aaron, baby, can you give us a minute,” she said softly.
Aaron looked between us, then at the shaker in my hand. He shrugged, kissing his fiancé on the cheek as he headed indoors. “Whatever you say, sweetheart.”
When the door slammed once more, I knew we were truly alone.
“Have they sent in reinforcements?” I said as I popped the top off the shaker. I hadn’t even bothered to pour it in a glass.
What was the point?
Giselle took a seat next to me, setting her hand on my thigh. “They just want to see you happy, Gray.”
“I am happy!” I yelled, but Giselle did not flinch.
“I think we both know you’re not. You’re afraid.”
I scoffed at her.
How dare she!
“I am not afraid of mom and dad…”
“Afraid of change, I mean,” she said.
I didn’t like the way her words made me feel, so instead, I ignored her, focusing on my drink left in the shaker instead. “Change is inevitable,” I murmured.
“It is. And it’s a good thing, you know.”
I looked at her with softness, her round face, her pristine eyes. She’d always been such a positive ray of sunshine, a believer in the most whimsical of things.
The exact opposite of me.
My parent’s words reverberated in my head, acting as if my age was some expiration date, and if I didn’t lock a man down in the next two years, I would be an old maid.
Or an old butler, technically.
“It’s okay to not be okay, Gray. It doesn’t make you a failure.”
“Is that what your therapist tells you, sweetheart?” I asked, and the minute I said it I regretted it. Apparently, I just couldn’t stop saying the wrong thing as of late.
“Grayson…” she moaned as I slammed down the cocktail shaker, getting up and putting some distance between us.
“I think I’ve overstayed my welcome,” I said, sliding my hand in my pocket.
“Grayson, don’t—”
“I’ll be fine, Giselle. Don’t worry about me,” I said, needing to get as far away from her and my pain in the ass family as I could.
It wasn’t like I lived that far away. I was practically right up the road.
In the solitude of my Porsche, I was finally able to breathe, to let out a frustrated breath before turning on the engine.
CHAPTER 14
Grayson
I’d had every intention of driving home, but somehow, some way, I ended up in the parking lot of M’s Place. And I just sat there, staring at the faint glow of the sign against the dusk, watching the doors like somehow they would have the answer. Which clearly didn’t make any sense.