Pierce My Heart (Women of Willowbrook Book 1) (9 page)

“Hey guys! Manny, Rocco, I didn’t know you were coming too. When did you show up?” she asks tall, dark, and handsome and the wall of muscle respectively as she pulls back, but her second question is directed at Rocco.

“Not too long before they showed up. How you doin’, Gracelyn?”

Jesus.

Rocco’s voice is like silk, dripping caramel and topped with whipped cream.

It’s ridiculously hot and Grace has trouble hiding the fact she agrees if the dark pink tinge to her cheeks is any indication.

My befuddled mind hits new heights.

I thought for sure by the way she’d thrown herself at the man in the middle (whose name I
still
don’t know but refuse to ask for) that she was with him, but here she is blushing over Rocco.

Don’t get me wrong, he’s way hot. So hot most girls would need to hit the nearest mall for a new set of undies at his voice alone, but he isn’t
him
.

Like a moth to a flame, my attention zeroes in on him. Again, he has another annoyed look on his face, this one bouncing back and forth between Grace and Rocco. Green starts to creep back into my line of sight when he must feel my eyes. His slice to mine, right as those thoughts of jealousy play along my face. The look of annoyance vanishes and his lips tip up in a small smirk.

“I’m good, Roc,” is her shy response.

“She’s just helping my girl adopt a dog,” Evan throws in, walking towards me and swinging an arm around my waist.

I look over at her to see she has a flirty smile aimed at Manny.

Evan’s always liked her men a little on the wild and exotic side, and Manny looks like he fits the bill to a T.

“You find a dog?”

My skin buzzes at the sound of his voice while I look over at him and nod.

“Shoot, I’m sorry. I got distracted out there and then by these guys I forgot you’d decided. Let me grab a leash and I’ll take Juliet up front so we can finish up and you can take her home.”

Evan and I take a synchronized step back out of her way as she walks over to the cage (we’d mastered the art of walking with our arms around each other years ago, it was second nature now) and grabs a leash that’s hanging on the other side of the clipboard.

Grace unlocks the cage, leash in her hand, before slipping in and clipping it on to Juliet’s collar so she can lead her out. Instead of Juliet following behind, she comes straight to me and butts her head up against my legs. Had I not been hanging on to Evan, she would’ve almost knocked me down with her excitement.

“Juliet, come on girl,” Grace instructs, but she isn’t moving.

She sits down on my feet, looking first from me to Grace, like she’s stating that I’m hers and she isn’t moving unless I do.

I take my arm from Evan’s waist and softly rub her head, scratching lightly behind her floppy ears. She squints her eyes, like she isn’t willing to close them and lose sight of me, but it feels so good she can’t help it. Her head leans into my hand as her tongue licks along my wrist and I fall in love.

She feels me move and opens her eyes to see what’s going on, but all I do is kneel down in front of her to give her more scratches.

If I had ever had a dog before I would’ve realized the chances of what was about to happen, but I didn’t.

The next thing I know I’m on my back, Juliet standing above me licking my face, and I’m laughing too hard to do much to stop her.

“Oh, no! Juliet, stop,” Grace squeaks, rushing over to pull Juliet off.

She manages to pull the dog off, but can’t keep her more than a few feet from me. I sit up, still laughing as I wipe the slobber off my face when a large, tan hand appears in my vision. I tilt my head back and I’m met with a smile, clear as day, that has my heart skipping a beat.

I wipe my hand on my jeans before sliding mine in his.

I’m
not
prepared for the launch up.

I mean, I knew he was strong, but I figured there’d be a strain or at least I’d need to pull my weight to help.

Nope.

I’m yanked (literally) off the floor, and am so caught off guard by it that I slam into him, taking us a step back before he steadies us. My hands find their way to his biceps while I try to steady myself, and as soon as I make contact all I notice is the feeling of steel beneath my hands. My fingers flex of their own accord and the hands he has on my waist and hip follow suit sending shivers through my body.

I look up into his face and my breathing becomes labored.

He has that look on his face again. The same as when I was in his hands outside, but this one is slightly different. I can’t put my finger on it, though. I only know that it’s way intense (and as intense as it was before, that’s saying something) and still ridiculously hot.

“God, I’m
so
sorry. She’s never done that to anyone before. Are you okay?”

I shake my head and look for the voice.

Grace is standing next to us, Juliet straining against the leash to get closer to me, but Grace is managing to keep her at bay. The strange excited look on her face as she looks at us has me a little worried, though.

Smiling, I look down at Juliet before looking back at her. “I’m fine. She was just excited. Weren’t you, girl?” I coo down to Juliet, whose tail goes from tame to crazy.

My smile gets wider and brighter.

I feel pressure on my waist.

Tilting my head back, smile still firmly in place, I look up at him.

A soft smile graces his face as he brings his hand up from my hip and slides his thumb along my bottom lip. My smile vanishes and I suck in a sharp breath as my eyes flutter and I hit tunnel vision.

“Got a great smile, sweetheart,” he says quietly.

“I, uh, thank you,” I stutter on a blush, leaning into him only to freeze when I hear a snort.

Realizing we’re far from alone, I do a quick scan of the room.

Everyone, even the dog, looks like they’re smiling at the scene. I drop my arms, pull back and drop my head down, but not before I see him shoot an annoyed look at Evan—the source of the snort.

“So, um, what do we need to take care of so I can take this girl home?” I ask, looking at Grace.

“We just need to go out in the lobby and fill some paperwork out, get you the starter kit and that’ll be it,” she answers.

“Do you mind if I walk her out?”

Juliet seems to like having me close, but it’s as much for me as it is for her.

She’d help keep me steady and distracted.

I’ve never,
not ever
, reacted this way to a man. Especially one who used such a generic line on me. I don’t need a man who has ‘player’ written all over his beautiful face in my life.

I’ve had enough assholes for one lifetime.

Grace smiles and hands over the leash before heading towards the door that leads back to the lobby. Juliet and I lead; who follows in what order I’m not sure, but I don’t need to look back to know he’s close.

I can
feel
it.

Grace walks around the counter, motioning for me to stand in front, before she starts piling papers that I need to fill out.

“It’s all just a bunch of information so we can do a check-in in a few days to assess how everything’s going. Though, I suspect it’s pointless in this case—the two of you have already bonded,” she says, shining her smile down at Juliet before turning it to me.

My phone starts to blast out Rod Stewart, so I drop the pen I picked up and dig around in my bag to grab my phone.

“Hey, Dad,” I answer, not even bothering to confirm it was him.

“Hey, baby girl, what’re you up to?”

“I’m just running some errands with Evan, getting some things for tonight,” I tell him, leaving out Juliet.

I’ll give them that surprise by bringing her over.

“I heard you were making Robby those brownies. He hasn’t shut his trap about them all day. If I’d known you were taking orders, I would’ve put my pecan pie in,” he laughs.

I grin.

“Wait, why’s Robby over there? I thought we weren’t supposed to be there till 6:30?”

“You’re good, baby girl. Robby just came over to grab some tools.”

“Why didn’t he just grab them from the site? Wasn’t he over there this morning?” I ask, staring out the window.

Since Robby started taking on more responsibilities with the business to make the actual takeover smoother, he’d been making stops on the weekends to take a look at any sites they had going on. Just to make sure things looked kosher.

“Don’t know. Just know he came over bragging to me and Nate about the brownies, then asking for some tools.”

I roll my eyes.

I’m sure he’s just rubbing Nate’s nose in the fact he’s getting treats. No matter their ages, they were always doing that shit.

“I’m
sure
that’s what he came over for. Is Maddy there too, or did he come alone?” I wonder through my laughter.

“Nope, just him.”

When he doesn’t say anything more I prompt, “Did you need anything else, Dad?”

“Just called to let you know next time I better be gettin’ a pecan pie while those boys get shit, you hear me girl?”

At this, I choke on my laughter, cough a couple times to cover it and smile into the phone.

“Yeah, Dad, I hear you. I’ll see you all tonight. Tell Nate, Robby, and Mom hi for me. Love you, Dad,” I tell him, my voice still shaking with laughter.

“All my love, baby girl. See you tonight,” he tells me, his voice soft, though it always went soft when he was telling any of us his love.

Hitting the red button, I stash my phone in my back pocket and bring my head up only to be met with staring.

Pushing a chunk of hair behind my ear a little self-consciously I ask, “What?”

No answer.

Rocco turns back to Grace, Evan hadn’t been staring, and while Manny had, it had just been at Evan.

He’s
still looking at me, though.

I fidget a minute, unsure of why a phone call with my dad pulled that kind of reaction from him, before moving the few steps away I’d taken for the call back to the counter.

“Nate and Robby?”

“My younger and older brothers,” I answer him.

Not because I want to, but because a part of me has to.

And, it would be rude to ignore him.

I grab the pen and start to fill all the paperwork out. Grace asks while I’m writing what colors I’d like; I ask her what they have. From the choices she lists, I pick a dark red collar and matching leash.

Neon colors just aren’t my thing.

By the time I finished filling everything out I swore I had carpal tunnel, that’s              how much paperwork there was. It’s cool that they want to make sure their animals were taken care of, but by the third time I filled everything out, I was ready to order a stamp with all my info on it.  

“What site?”

My head swings his way at his question, a confused look on my face. “What?” I ask.

“You mentioned something about a site to your dad. What kind of site?”

I stare at him for a beat, trying to figure out what’s going on and why he’s so interested.

When he just stares at me with a blank face, I give up trying to figure it out and make a choice.

“Construction. My dad owns Pierce Construction. My older brother, Robby, is starting the process of taking over the business. More responsibilities, overseeing his own sites, all that jazz now that my dad’s semi-retired. And when I say that, I mean he goes to the sites to give my brother and all the guys shit but still deals with most of the clients face-to-face, at least until he decides to fully retire. Then he’ll just go give everyone shit. My brother is worried about not doing the business justice, so on Saturday’s he hits the sites they’ve got going on and checks in on things just to make sure everything’s running smooth.” I pause, take a breath, and continue. “Robby stopped at their house, most likely to brag to my younger brother, Nate, that he got me to make him brownies because even though they’re twenty-seven and twenty-one, they’ll never stop trying to one up each other. My dad was telling me that next time I have to make him a pecan pie and that they get shit. Figuratively, not literally. That’d be gross,” I mutter with a scrunch of my nose.

When I finish talking he has (surprise) another weird look on his face. This one is one of disbelief mingled with the something I can’t put my finger on.

What he finds so hard to believe I don’t know and I’m not about to get into it.

I look at my watch, see I only have six hours to get me and Juliet home, make the brownies, wait for the cooling period before adding the other stuff and doing a quick warm up in the oven, get ready, and then get us loaded up to head to Mom and Dad’s.

I technically have plenty of time, but knowing me I’ll get distracted or something will happen and I’ll end up running late, so I need to get my butt moving and hit the road.