Keeping You Forever (A Harbor Love Series) (5 page)

 “Yeah I just had to get out of there. How did you get my number?” She thought for a second and tried to remember if she had given him the number but she knew she hadn’t.

 “Autumn gave it to me. I saw her as she was leaving for work and asked her if she had talked to you at all today, I told her I was worried about you because you left so fast and she gave me the number, said she wouldn’t see you until tomorrow probably.”

 The thought of him being concerned did something to her chest, it felt like a dull ache and she felt it all the way to her heart.

“That’s sweet of you Tyler but I’m fine.” She let out a sigh because she knew the truth, she wasn’t fine. Her heart was hurting, but she wasn’t going to tell him that, because he didn’t even know her and probably wouldn’t care. “I’m kind of busy right now.”

 She wanted to get back to her wine and bubble bath, but part of her wanted to stay on that phone with Tyler and let him mend her broken heart. “Never going to happen though” she thought.

“Grace.” His voice was a whisper now as he said her name and it made her chest ache again, she placed a soapy hand over her heart rubbing the dull ache away.

 “What are you doing right now that you’re so busy you can’t talk to me?”

  She looked around the bathroom. It was dark the only light was a few candles she had lit by the window sill and the moon light shining in. She didn’t want to explain to him that she was in the bathtub with a bottle of wine, trying to forget the heart ache of Denny Marshall but she hated lying so she told him the truth.

“I’m in the bathtub Tyler.” She sank a little further down into the water being careful not to wet the phone. “Tyler...” She thought he hung up because all she heard was silence.

“Yeah I’m here.”

 The thought of Grace naked and wet in the bathtub was driving him out of his mind. It was bad enough he thought about kissing her since the moment he met her, but being on the phone with her and knowing she was naked and wet in the tub did things to him and had his heart racing. He got up from his bed and walked over to the window looking down at her house. It was dark the only thing he could see was flickers of tiny light from the candles coming from a small window, the window to her bathroom. He didn’t know why she affected him the way she did, but he was feeling things at that moment that had him questioning himself and his self-control.

“Goodnight Tyler.”

 She hung up before he had the chance to say anything. He stood at the window looking down at the flickers of light.

 He didn’t know how much longer he was going to be able to fight the growing desire for Grace. He was going to try with all he had, because it was the last thing he needed at the moment, getting involved with someone right now wasn’t in his plans. With the way things were going, his heart and his head got the memo of ‘no women baggage needed’ mixed up and his head was winning the battle reminding him of her soft lips and curvy body, that he wanted to feel all over him.

  Two days seemed like a lifetime of not getting a glimpse of Grace. The night he called her was the last day he had seen her since their lunch date. She must have kept herself busy or was doing a good job of avoiding him because he hadn’t even caught sight of her coming home from work or leaving in the morning. If he didn’t hate waking up early he would have been up at five am just to catch a look at her before she went on her morning run.

 He wanted to see her and see for himself that she was ok. That night on the phone he heard something different in her voice. She sounded sad and distant, he wasn’t sure why but he had a pretty good idea. He was sure it had to do with her ex-boyfriend.

  She never told him the details, but he could tell by the hurt in her eyes that Denny just about ripped her heart out.

   Tyler was in no position to be mending anyone’s broken heart when his was just as torn apart. Being left at the altar, by your fiancé who you spent the last five years with was no easy pill to swallow. There was something about Grace that had him considering the option of throwing those plans out of the window and healing her broken heart one kiss at a time.

 
G
race sat in the airport waiting for Paige’s plane to arrive; she was excited to see her sister. It had been a long time since all three Carter sisters would be living under the same roof, even if it was just for three days. Paige moved to New York right after high school and never looked back.

 After Paige graduated from college she had even less time to visit. She found herself backpacking through Europe exploring the art culture and falling in love with Dominic, her Italian tour guide. When they moved back to New York she called Grace to tell her she had found the love of her life and her and Dominic were going to get married as soon as both of their lives were less hectic. Two years later they were both still too busy to plan a wedding but she told Grace that it wasn’t a big deal one day they would make time for it.

“And here I thought you would be jumping up and down to see me yet I find you here sleeping,” Paige said, as a startled Grace sat up looking at Paige.

“You’re here.”

 Seeing Paige made her feel a little better, the past few days she felt like she was a walking zombie. Restless nights of crying and still thinking of what Denny did to her was catching up to her.

 Both sisters hugged each other tight, Paige exhaled a long breath, she felt like she was home and all her worries were left behind in New York.

“Let me look at you. You look so different from the last time I saw you,” Grace said.

 Paige looked almost like Grace except she was taller and had green eyes. She had a lean figure and looked like she did Yoga every day. Grace smiled as she look at Paige, but her smile soon faded when she noticed the look in Paige’s eyes. They weren’t bright and filled with a love for life like they were before, something was different, and she knew it, she could feel it.

“You look amazing Grace you haven’t changed at all. Are you still killing yourself with those early morning runs?”

 Paige remembered her sister always running, she never missed a day unless she was sick, but it was obvious from her body that she kept up the running and took care of herself. She avoided eye contact with Grace, because she knew if her sister looked at her, really looked at her, that she would see that something was wrong and Paige had no desire yet to tell Grace what was going on.

“I’m so happy to be home I can’t wait to see Autumn. How is our baby sister?”

“Autumn is her usual self, you know her, optimistic and positive as always. She has really grown up, she is so excited to see you but she probably won’t be home until later tonight, she is working at Geddys.”

 Paige missed Geddys. She loved the great food, but most of all, the great atmosphere. She told herself she would stop by Geddys at least once before she went back to New York. “Let’s get my bags I am exhausted I need a bed,” Paige said, as they went to get her bags. “I still have a bed right?”

 Grace looked at her sister as she grabbed one of her bags and shook her head. ”No I’m sorry I turned it into my own personal library.”

        Paige stopped dead in the middle of the airport terminal and turned her head towards Grace, who was grinning.

“Gotcha, of course you still have a bed and your room. It’s exactly like you left it Paige I would never get rid of your room you know that. Just because you live in New York doesn’t mean this isn’t your home, you know that right? You are always welcome to come back home anytime and stay as long as you like.”

Those words meant more to Paige than Grace could ever imagine, because it was just what she needed to hear. It was what she was thinking about doing, but she was afraid to tell Grace the truth.

“You still have this death trap Grace? Why haven’t you gotten something newer is it even safe to drive this car?” Paige stood in front of Graces car shocked that it was still running. She remembered growing up and this car breaking down a thousand times on the way to school. She thought by now that Grace would have given up and turned it in for something better.

“It gets me to where I have to go.” Grace and Paige both looked down at the car with a look of pity for the poor car. It was good to them but Paige was right it was about time for something new before all the wheels fell off. On the drive home Grace asked Paige about her fun and exciting career in art. She brought up Dominic a few times but Paige quickly changed the subject, which had Grace’s motherly alarm bells going off in her head. Something was up, she knew it, and was going to get to the bottom of it, later.

“Home sweet home.” Grace said as she parked the car in the drive way and looked at Paige.

“It looks exactly the same. I can’t believe it’s been so long since I’ve been back here.” They both got out of the car as Paige looked at the place she once called home. She felt her heart skip a beat and her stomach fall at the thought of having to tell Grace what was going on. As they walked up to the house both sisters looked at each other, smiling and both feeling like this was the way it was supposed to be. They were greeted at the door step by Tyler. He had been waiting for Grace to get home and wanted to talk to her about the other day at lunch. When he didn’t see her car in the drive way he figured he would just wait, because if he left he knew he would miss her again and he really wanted to see her. Just from the sight of him Paige almost tripped over her own two feet, where on the other hand Grace just stood there wondering what he was doing here.

 “Hi Grace.” He stood up taking a few steps until he was standing right in front of her, making her pulse kick up a notch. He looked over at Paige who was almost drooling now at the sight of such a sexy man.

“I’m Paige, the middle sister,” she said, as she shook his hand.

 “I’m Tyler, I just moved in to the house up at the hill couple weeks ago. Grace, can we talk for a minute please?” his voice was low and devastatingly sexy the way he asked for a minute of her time.

“Don’t mind me I know my way around I’ll be inside Grace,” Paige said, giving her sister and Tyler privacy.  

“Tyler I really am sorry about lunch the other day, I had no idea Denny was going to show up like that, but I really can’t get into this right now  my sister just got here.”

  He didn’t need much of her time, he just wanted to make sure she was ok, and see with his own eyes, as he looked into hers for any signs of her not being ok. Looking into her eyes was trouble and he knew it, but something about her kept pulling him in and he was just about ready to go under for her.

 “I know your busy I just wanted to make sure you were ok, you seemed pretty upset when you left.” He took another step closer, putting them inches apart now.

 He was close enough to feel the heat coming off of her body. She took his breath away as he looked down at her, gazing into her eyes. He felt something in his chest that he hadn’t felt in a long time, the dull ache right in the center that almost brought him to his knees.

“I’m fine, really. You are sweet to be so worried but it’s nothing I can’t deal with on my own.” Grace wanted so bad to move away and go inside but it was like her legs had stopped working because she couldn’t move. Deep down she didn’t want to move away from him, she wanted to move closer, letting him wrap her in his arms and make the pain go away. But she knew it was never going to happen, because there was no way he could possibly want that.

 He looked into her eyes for another second, searching for something, but she was hiding it really well. Before he knew what he was doing, he pushed a strand of hair away from her cheek, letting the pad of this thumb slowly graze her soft skin. Grace felt a shiver go through her at his touch, and couldn’t help but stare at his mouth, wondering what it would be like to kiss him, even if it was just one time. He noticed her eyes on his mouth as he rubbed his thumb over her cheek again and he slid his fingers into her hair, moving his hand to the back of her neck, pulling her a little closer to him. He completely lost it and was going down, but he didn’t care anymore, he wanted to kiss her, he needed to kiss her and feel her soft lips on his.