The Rules Regarding Gray (19 page)

“No! No, of course not, Ian.” Her mother beamed at him. “We were just so worried.”

“We know you’re looking after her,” her dad commented as he clapped a hand on his shoulder.

Gray caught herself shaking her head, and as she looked over at Jasper, he was staring at the ground, shaking his head subtly too. He looked up to her, and he swallowed over a lump. He looked so lost and completely vulnerable it broke her heart, and all she wanted was to reassure him. It was so wrong that he should be made to feel this way in her home, and her eyes felt warm and wet at the very notion that he could be hurt by her own parents.

“I’m going to go,” he said quietly.

She had no intention of stopping him, because he had every right to want to be away from this, but then Ian descended on him and her parents followed suit.

“Stay!” Ian exclaimed. “Let’s sit and visit for a while. I assume you told them what good friends you and Gray are.”

Jasper didn’t respond. He just watched her, his eyes nearly sad. She bit her lower lip, and he shook his head subtly again.

“You must stay, Jasper,” her mother chimed in as her father agreed. “I’m so looking forward to getting to know you better. Any friend of Gray’s is a friend of ours.”

Her parents were ready to like him now that they weren’t suspicious of his relationship with their daughter. Odd, they seemed to like Ian more
for
his relationship with her, but the mere notion that there could be anything untowardly between she and the intimidating looking man with his unique look, and it was cause for alarm—not to mention a few passive aggressive inappropriate comments.

She wanted him to say no, not because she didn’t want him there, but because he didn’t deserved to have to be there. But he nodded his head, and he glanced at her as he took a deep breath.

They ended up in the living room, and after Ian thrilled her parents with his talk of being important, the focus shifted to Jasper who was sitting silently by.

“So, Jasper. Tell us, do you have a girlfriend or a wife?” Her mother could be nosy with the best of them when she wanted to.

Jasper’s eyes glanced to Gray’s quickly, but then he shook his head. “No, I’m not—”

“Jas is what I would consider the quintessential bachelor,” Ian offered with an amused smile. “He’s not interested in long-term commitment, if you know what I mean.” Ian winked at her mother, and Gray gritted her teeth.

Jasper stood then taking a deep breath as he moved. But when he smiled it was kind—strained, but still kind. He looked at her parents. “I really do have to go. It was nice to meet you both. I’m glad you’re here for Gray.”

Her chest was seizing up, and she needed so much to be alone right then so she could fall apart. There was so much well restrained pain in him, and she didn’t know why she was the only one in the room who could see it.

Jasper looked at her then. “I’ll see you soon,” he said quietly, and she nodded stiffly.

He ignored Ian as he walked by, but Ian hollered after him. “Perhaps dinner at my house before Ron and Viv leave to go back to Boise.”

Jasper paused, turning back. He looked at her, and she tried to smile. But she was humiliated. She was humiliated by the entire situation and what she knew it was doing to him.

“Sure. Sounds good.” And then he was gone.

She sat there in a stupor as Ian chatted with her parents, and fifteen minutes after Jasper left, she finally stood up.

“Dear, do you need help?”

“No, Mom. I just need to go to the bathroom. I’ll be fine.”

She managed to hold it together until she made it to the bathroom and closed the door behind her, and then she fell apart. Her tears fell as sobs racked her body. She sank to the side of the bathtub, covering her mouth to stifle the sound as her chest shuddered and her breathing lurched. It hurt. All of this hurt so fucking much. They’d put a stop to this to avoid the hurt. So, why the hell did every part of her body ache as though it was attached to the ache she felt in her heart?

* * * *

Gray made it through the evening without any more breakdowns, and she even smiled and enjoyed talking to her parents about their trip, but once they were settled into the pullout bed in the living room and she was in bed, her thoughts returned to Jasper. She stared into the dark for what felt like hours, and when she finally rose, she held her cell phone precariously in her hand as she slowly made her way to the bathroom.

She closed the door, and then she sat on the side of the bathtub. She dialed and waited, her heart beating fast.

“What the fuck do you want?” he said, but she could almost see the smirk on his lips.

She smiled. “To know if you’re okay.”

He was silent for a moment. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

“I wish I was there with you right now,” she commented.

He hummed. “That would be inappropriate, wouldn’t it?”

“Not for that reason,” she corrected quietly.

He was suddenly quiet, and he let that silence draw out. “And what would you be doing here then?”

She closed her eyes, imagining him standing in front of her. “Apologizing to you in person. Wrapping my arms around you. Touching you in all the most innocent places I could to let you know how sorry I am.”

She heard the quietest lurching breath from him but nothing more.

“Jas, I’m so sorry… Everything just seemed to fall apart there for a while, and I feel awful about the way my parents were with you—”

He took a deep breath. “Don’t be sorry. They were just worried about you and startled to see someone they don’t know with their daughter in a less than—”

“We weren’t doing anything wrong.”

He chuckled, but it was quiet. “From their perspective it probably seemed like we were. Your foot
was
behind my head after all,” he commented wryly. “Which by the way, thanks for cracking me in the back of the skull. I have one hell of a knot now thanks to you.”

She laughed quietly, finally releasing some of her tension. “Yeah. I guess it could have looked bad to them.”

“
Could
have looked bad? I could have leaned over and eaten your pussy, sweetie. Yeah. It looked bad. And I don’t pack quite the same first impression as your dear boyfriend does.”

His voice didn’t sound the least bit offended or bitter as he said that, but it didn’t mean it didn’t leave a bitter taste in her mouth.

“
I
liked my first impression of you,” she said softly.

“And what was your first impression of me?”

She hummed. They were flirting with that line again. But at least they had a few miles between them this time. “You were dark and mysterious. Cool and calm. You were intriguing.”

He chuckled warmly. “I like that. My first impression of you was that … you had small tits, and I wanted to stick my tongue up your tight little ass.”

She gasped, and then she clapped her hand over her mouth.

He laughed again. “Sorry. Too blunt. You know I’m known for it.”

She coughed and cleared her throat as she tried to recover from that, but when she finally did, she quipped back. “That’s not an impression. That’s an urge, nothing else. Shallow and meaningless really.”

“Fine. I didn’t know what to make of you in the theater that first day, but by the time I hung up the phone with you in the middle of the night that night, I liked you. I just liked you. You have a way of making me want to talk, of making me want to be open and vulnerable with you. I’m not used to that feeling.” His voice was quiet.

She bit into her thumbnail as she listened.

“But I like it. Because it makes me feel okay about myself. And that’s a struggle sometimes.”

She didn’t know what to say to that. “I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t or shouldn’t feel okay about yourself.”

“Thank you.” He was quiet for a moment. “So I learned something about you today.”

“Is that so?”

“It is so. I learned your last name is Ellis.”

She laughed. “And I learned yours is Drees. I like it.”

“I was thinking the same thing of Ellis.”

There was a sudden knock on the door, and she yelped.

“Gracelynn, are you in there?” her mother’s voice hollered through the door.

“Just a minute, Mom,” she responded.

Jas chuckled. “Busted. How about I say good night now, and you stay quiet, so your mom doesn’t know you were talking to that dark and mysterious man that scared her this afternoon? Good night, Gray. Sleep tight.”

Click.

She smiled for a moment. “Come in.”

Her mother opened the door to see her sitting on the side of the tub with her phone in her hand. She took in the sight of the phone, and she tried to smile. “Do you always take your phone to the bathroom?” She stepped through the door and closed it behind her.

“Sometimes.” She said nothing else.

“Were you talking to that man?”

“Why would you assume that?” This might just piss her off.

“I don’t know. Something about you two.” Her mother was eyeing her suspiciously.

“We weren’t doing anything when you walked in.”

Her mom leaned against the bathroom counter. “I believe you.”

Gray shrugged, leaning down and grabbing both crutches in her hand.

“But that’s not what I was referring to.” Her mom pinned her to her spot with her eyes. “I’m talking about the way you act around one another. It’s…” It was her mother’s turn to shrug. “Well, I don’t know what it is.”

“I’m tired mom. I should—”

“You have a boyfriend. Ian seems like a nice man. Well educated. Good job. I thought you were crazy about him. We were crazy about him for you
because
we thought you were crazy about him.”

She sighed in exasperation. “The package a person comes wrapped in can be deceiving. It says nothing of what’s underneath.” She pushed herself up to stand.

“Am I to assume you’ve discovered what lies beneath a different package—one that’s perhaps a bit less conventional on the outside?”

Gray rolled her eyes. “You can assume whatever you like. I love you mom, but this topic is off limits.” She started for the door then, but she paused as she reached it, looking toward her mother. “You and Dad are better people than I saw today. I know you were startled, but please don’t ever treat one of my friends so poorly again.”

Her mother’s eyes shifted to the ground in front of her, and Gray walked out, slowly creaking her way back to bed as her mother stared at the floor.

Chapter Seventeen

“Hi, G. It’s Jas.”

“Good Sunday to you.”

“And to you as well.”

It was their routine. Every Sunday he’d pick up the phone and call his grandmother for their weekly chat, and every Sunday she’d answer the same way. She was the only family he had, at least the only family who cared to speak with him or acknowledge him.

“Why do you sound tired, G? Did I call too early?” It shouldn’t be. It was nearly eight-thirty in the morning on the west coast, and he knew full well that on any given day she’d already walked two miles at this point, had her allotted two cups of coffee, and probably made her first purchase of the day from the Home Shopping Network.

“Oh, I’m just fine now. Don’t you worry about your G. I’m eighty-six after all.”

“You are not. You’re eighty-nine, you old woman.”

She chuckled. “It’s the dementia.”

“You’re sharp as tacks.” She
was
too. He sighed. “Fine. You’re allowed to be tired.”

“Thank you. Now, how about you tell me why
you
sound tired.”

“I’m not tired at all.”

“Something’s wrong, though. I can tell.” She could be as blunt as him. “Things all right at the bar?”

“Yep. Just fine.”

She hummed. “Money problems?”

“Not at all.”

“Well then, it
must
be a girl problem.”

He laughed. What he didn’t do was disagree with her. There was no point. She’d been catching his lies from the time he was a child, and she didn’t let him get away with it anymore now than she did when he was thirteen.

“Yeah. Something like that.”

“Tell me about her.”

He took a deep breath, flopping down on his bed in the apartment above Graystone. “She’s incredible. The other man in the picture is not.”

She hummed, but this was a troubled one. “Jas, please tell me you’re not involved with another man’s woman?”

He winced, trying to figure out how to answer this one.

“Oh, Jas—”

“It’s not like that. It’s … complicated. But … what it amounts to is that she’s my friend. And she’s in a relationship with another man. And… I don’t want her to be.” He exhaled deeply. “And I don’t think she should be.”

“Well, I’m not so sure you want to be with a woman who can’t see that she’s in the wrong relationship. What’s this other man like?”