Saving Grace (28 page)

"Were you dropped on your head as a baby or did your mother just throw you against a wall?"

"Grace, you're so beautiful I just want to kiss you right now," he stalked closer to me.
Oh crap, I was going to have to knock Tucker out in my kitchen
. I balled my
fists tight,
both of them.

"That's enough Tucker, leave her alone," Shane's voice cut in behind me. "You just don't know when to quit while you're ahead do you?"

Tucker's eyes widened, "Dude, I'm trying to help her," he jabbed his index finger at me. "She's the most unemployed person I know and I was trying to help her out by offering her a job."

Shane leaned his back on the wall and folded his arms over his chest, "And don't forget
offering
naked lunch breaks in your office."

Tucker stormed out of the kitchen, "You can't have all the beautiful girls Shane, it's not fa
ir. I'm going out to the bar to hang out with
Bliss;
you guys are boring the shit out of me!
"

Shane looked at me and laughed, "Oh, and to answer your question, I think his mother definitely threw him against the wall.
And I fucking love that your hands are balled into fists about to bash his face in.
" He grabbed the soda that Tucker left and
helped me bring the bag of
half-popped
popcorn and some
bowls of
chips
into the living room.

Before Conner started the third movie,
Silence of the Lambs
, I ran to use the bathroom. As I walked into the
hallway,
I could feel the temperature drop and the hairs on the back of my neck tingled. I opened the door to Gabriel leaning against the wall; eyes ablaze, "Do you think having a babysitter everywhere you go will stop me?"

I slammed the door
i
n his face. I walked back into the living room and Lea gave me a curious look. "Can you
...
um
...
come with me into the bathroom for a minute?"

She arched her brows and nodded her head.

Gabriel wasn't there when we went inside.
Interesting
. I think I may never
want
to
pee alone again.
I told Lea, and of course being my best friend, she agreed.

The last thing I
remembe
red
was the ending credits to the next movie and Shane laying a soft blanket over me as I curled into a ball on the chair.
I had the best dreamless, Gabriel-less
sleep
of my life
.

I woke to the sound of rain pelting against the old glass panes of my living room window at nine in the morning. The room was
lit only by the soft glow of the cloudy sky that peeked through the open curtains. Sleeping bodies lay around the room
,
quietly snoring. Shane was on the chair across from me, his head leaning back, eyes closed. His shirtless chest
rose and fell slowly with each sleeping breath.
It was hard to look away from him.

Alex was stretched out across the couch hugging a pillow and
Brayden
was on the floor next to him. I wanted to ask these guys to sleep here every night so Gabriel would leave me alone.

The light in the kitchen was on
and I sm
elled my favorite morning aroma
:
coffee
. Ethan was sitting at the table with a giant brown paper bag full of fresh bagels. He was slathering one with butter when I walked in. "Hey you," he smiled looking up at me. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I was never sick," I replied laughing back at him.

"Everything okay between you and Shane now? Doesn't look like you two are trying to kill each other anymore," he asked as he placed a plate in front of me. "I just bought them, they're still warm and you need to eat. I'm starting to see right through you."

I poured myself a mug of coffee and sat at the table with him, completely ignoring the question about Shane. The last
thing
I needed was for Ethan to make fun of me for being one of those
stupid girls
that fall all over Shane's feet. Choosing a plain bagel, I sliced it open and buttered it. I cut it in half and dunked it in my coffee
and
then took a bite.

"You dunk your bagel?"

"
Yeah,
I could dunk just about anything in coffee or milk, don
't knock it 'til you try it
,
"
I smiled, mouth full of food.

He laughed his deep bellowing
laugh, dunked his own bagel in his coffee,
and took a bite. "Umm...pretty good," he laughed.

The sharp
ring of the doorbell
interrupted our conversation
, thank God, because I didn't want to hear anything Ethan had to say about Shane.

I heard Shane's voice talking to someone at the front door. I dropped my breakfast and walked out into the hallway to see who was at the door.

Shane stood in
the
front doorway, eyes brilliantly blue against the cloudy background of the street behind him. Two muscular men were carrying in what looked like a piece of boxed up furniture. "Down the hall last door on the left," Shane was explaining. Um, that would be
my bedroom
.
Why was he sending strange muscular men into my bedroom with giant boxes?
Not that a girl should be complaining about that...

Noticing me in the doorway to the kitchen, Shane's face lit up with the most amazing smile I'd ever seen on him
. Oh crap, I'm so far gone my knees are weak
.
"You have a delivery," he smirked as he strolled over to me.

I could still hear Alex snoring in the living room. "But, I didn't order anything," I explained.

Shane grabbed me by the waist
and planted a soft kiss on my temple, "Yeah, but
I
did."
He directed me back into the kitchen, hands stills holding onto my hips, "Finish your breakfast."
My waist tingled when
h
e
took his hands away.

Ethan nodded to Shane when we walked back into the kitchen, "Bagels," he grunted. "We were just
going to have
a nice little discussion about you," he winked in my direction.

Why was it that it was such a joy in all my friend's lives to be so much in my business?

Shane paused and his eyebrows
raised
, "Do I even want to know?"

Ethan's smile widened and he sat back folding his arms
behind
his head, taunting Shane. "Probably not, dude." He smirked at me and asked, "Hey, you're going to the show tonight right
?"

"Ugh, I don't really want to," I groaned.

Ethan gave Shane a weird look and Shane just shrugged.

"What the hell is
all the banging?" Alex yawned as he walked into the kitchen with
Brayden
following. "Bagels! Damn I'm staying here tonight to
o
,
if we
get breakfast every morning
!"

"I got the bagels,
dilweed
," Ethan laugh
ed. "And I bought them for Lea
and Grace to thank them for letting us stay here."

Alex gave me a little puppy dog smile, "Oh yeah, thanks Grace. That was the first night this whole week I've slept."

Brayden
sighed, "Well, I'm definitely going to stay here until those crazy girls leave, I can't take much more of the partying."

"You guys are always welcome to stay here," I said.

One of the muscular guys who went into my room came into the kitchen, "Excuse me, sir?"

Shane jumped
up, walked the gentleman into the hallway,
and disappeared for about twenty
minutes while we all laughed and finished our breakfast. Within five minutes of watching
me,
I had all the guys dunking their bagels into their coffees.
Ethan leveled a stare at me, "I guess we'll continue our discussion later."

When Shane came in all the guys looked to him waiting.
Okay, what the hell is going on?

A huge smile broke out across his face, "Okay boys,
bring
her in!"

I was then carried,
YES CARRIED
, by Ethan,
Brayden
and Alex (who I swear copped a feel of my boobs) into my bedroom, which was newly furnished with a brand new cherry wood sleigh bed and dresser. I was thrown onto the bed. Did I mention it was king sized? And had new sheets and a pale pink comforter on top.

"Surprise!" the idiots yelled.

My band chipped in and bought me a new bedroom set.
Holy crap, I'm the luckiest girl in the world.

We sp
ent the rest of my day, the five
of us,
my band, my friends, my boys
, jumping on my bed and singing along to Shane and I playing guitar.
So far,
best day ever
.

Around three o'clock, Shane disappeared into the kitchen and thirty minutes later the smell of onion and peppers frying wafted through the apartment. Alex,
Ethan,
Brayden
and I
,
eyed each other and ran for the kitchen. Shane stood in front of the stove pouring a can of dark red kidney beans into a pot and stirred.

"Yeah, bro!" Alex cheered. "Is that your chili I smell?" He ran up behind Shane and looked into the pot. "
Woowhoo
, Shane's showing off
his cooking skills
, and we're reaping the benefits!"

Lea came home from work with handfuls of shinny glittery bags from her favorite clothing store
.
I knew I was going to get in trouble with something in one of those bags, Lea and I always bought each other clothes when we shopped alone. "Holy delicious aroma, Batman! What is that smell?"

It was the best damn chili I'd ever tasted.

Shane sat next to me and stole glances at me the whole time. When he was finished eating
,
he leaned back against his chair and hooked his ankle around mine under the table. Every now and
then,
he would lean a little closer to me and touch his hand against mine under the table. My heart swelled every time he did, but I also couldn't help notice that he
went out of his way to hide every time he touched me from the others. And I sat there and thought back to all the other times he touched me, it was always like that, he hid it from the rest of the band. Even when we went out with Conner and
Lea,
he hadn't kissed me on the dance floor, only in the dark living room when everyone was asleep. Even waking up with him yesterday, when everyone was there, all he did was whisper things into my
ear;
he made it always look so innocent.
The only person who had ever witnessed anything was Lea.

After dinner
,
Brayden
and Alex left to help Vixen4 set up for the show. Lea and I took turns showering in the back bathroom and
honestly,
I don't even want to know how the guys got ready.

As soon as I stepped out of the
shower,
she was in my face, "Did you sleep with him? What's going on?" she squealed as she jumped up and down wrapped in her towel.

"Almost, but someone interrupted us when the pizza came
,
"
I scolded.

"Oh, sorry. Wow, I thought you guys looked a little flushed." She narrowed her eyes at me and pursed her lips, "Wait, so what happened with Bliss? Didn't you say...?"

I ran the towel through my hair and brushed the tangles out. "I didn't ask him." She gave me a disgusted face and I sighed, "Lea, do I really want to
know exactly what happened?
He had to have slept with her
,
he's Shane
. Yes, I was beyond pissed at him. But then
,
he does crap like stay with me for three days, holds me all night and buys me a new bedroom set. I'm so confused my damn head is spinning."

We wrapped ourselves in our robes and I let her drag me into my room where my bed was piled with
shiny
new clothing bags. "What do you think you're going to do?"

"Crap, Lea
,
I have no idea. Part of me wants to run away from him so it doesn't hurt when he stops the attention. But a bigger part of me is scared that Gabriel is going to do something crazy and I
end up really only having a week left
, and
Lea, I want to spend every last minute with Shane."