Working It Out (22 page)

The way her expression
changed from worried confusion to something not nearly as positive made Seth
mentally kick himself yet again.

“How could you?” She gave
his arm a shove. “I really thought you were hurt. Why would you do that to me?”

Seth blamed his insecurity
and immaturity, with a little bit of mischief thrown in. “You’re not laughing,”
he said lamely.

She glared at him as
though she couldn’t believe he’d just said that. Which was completely understandable,
because he shouldn’t have said it—or faked a stupid injury either. He should
have apologized, or at the very least, asked for a do-over.

Grace opened her mouth as though
she wanted to say something then snapped it shut and looked away. Various
emotions crossed her face as she shifted positions and sat back on the grass. When
her eyes met his again, she didn’t look happy. “Do you have any idea what it
feels like to see someone you care about get hurt and not be able to do
anything to stop it or fix it? It’s the worst feeling in the world.”

Seth felt like a complete
heel, mostly because he knew exactly what that felt like and should have known
better. He’d watched Mike’s life slowly get sucked away and couldn’t do a thing
about it.

 Idiot.

Seth scooted closer and
reached for her hand. “I’m sorry. I really am. I only meant it as a joke and
didn’t think how stupid it would be.”

She peeked at him from the
corner of her eyes. “It was pretty stupid.”

“Dumbest joke ever,” Seth
agreed.

“You can say that again.”

“Dumbest joke ever.”

She nodded, saying
nothing. After a moment, her lips twitched and a snicker sounded. She
immediately covered her mouth with the back of her hand in a failed attempt to
muffle another snicker. Or was that a snort?

Seth leaned closer to make
sure it really was laughter and not the pre-curser to tears. Sometimes he
couldn’t tell the difference. “Are you laughing?” he asked.

She nodded, her eyes
bright with mirth.

Seth rubbed the back of
his neck then scratched his head, not understanding how they’d gotten from A to
B—not that he was complaining—but she didn’t make sense.

“I’m sorry.” Grace bit her
lips together, trying to keep a straight face. “You must think I’m bipolar or
something.”

“The thought did cross my
mind.”

She laughed. “So if I just
fell for the dumbest joke ever, what does that make me exactly?”

An answering smile tugged
on Seth’s mouth as he watched her continue to fight her laughter. “I’m going to
plead the fifth on that one.”

Grace reached over and
slugged him. “That’s for making me fall for the dumbest joke ever.” Then her
arms came around him in a quick hug. “And that’s for not being hurt.”

Before Seth had time to
react or return the hug, she hopped to her feet and started jogging away. He
suddenly felt cheated out of a moment that might have turned into something
more.

“Wait up!” Seth leapt to
his feet, realizing that he was once again doing the chasing.

Grace drove away from the
park and away from Seth feeling unsettled and frustrated. Other than the quick
hug and telling him that he was a good guy, she’d done nothing. She hadn’t apologized
for never returning his calls or asked him out. She hadn’t even set up another
time to jog.

By the time Grace pulled
to a stop in front of her apartment, she felt like a complete failure. She
frowned at her building. Dating and flirting used to come so much easier,
didn’t it? It had been so long that she really couldn’t remember.

Maybe she should just send
him a text. In three short sentences, she could apologize and ask him out. All
she’d have to do is hit send and wait. Done.

But Grace couldn’t bring
herself to do that, either. She would not resort to a text. She would not. Grace
would grow up, act her age, and do it in person.

Tomorrow.

But as the day wore on, the
unsettled feeling worsened to the point where Grace felt sick to her stomach.
She couldn’t eat or focus and even had to ask Cameron for help remembering a
certain exercise.

That was the final straw.

As soon as her last patient
before lunch left, Grace headed for her office and closed the door firmly
behind her. Before she could second guess or talk herself out of it, she called
Seth’s number. Her hand shook as she waited for the call to go through.

“Hey, Grace,” he answered
almost immediately. “This is a nice surprise.”

“Hey,” she said.

A short pause.

“What’s up?” he asked.

It’s now or never. Now
or never. Out with it!
“Do-you-still-want-to-go-out-with-me?”
Grace cringed at how fast the words came out.

“What?”

Her cringe deepened. Of
course she’d have to repeat it. Of course. It was like her penance for being a
wimp. “Do. You. Still. Want. To go out with me?”

He chuckled and lowered
his voice, as though he didn’t want to be overheard. “Of course I still want to
go out with you. But I thought you weren’t interested.”

“I wasn’t.”

“Wasn’t? As in past tense?”

“As in past tense.” Weeks
ago, in fact.

“That’s good to know.”His
voice sounded like a smile—the gleeful kind that appeared when things went
exactly the way Seth wanted them to.

Silence.

More silence.

Grace bit her lower lip,
wondering what she should say next. She hadn’t exactly thought this
conversation through very well. Was he waiting for her to ask him out or at
least make a suggestion? She frantically tried to come up with something, but
her mind drew one blank after another.

The silence became almost
painful.

Finally, Seth said, “Let
me get this straight. You called to tell me that you’re now willing to go out
with me, right?”

Grace felt lamer than ever.
“Something like that.”

“And you figured I’d have
the perfect idea for a date off the top of my head?”

Yes. No. Maybe. Argh.
Grace didn’t know. “You never seemed to have a problem with ideas before.”

Seth laughed. “You could always
ask
me
out, you know.”

She could. She should.
That’s what she’d intended to do, but—oh, why was this so hard? “In case you
couldn’t tell, I’m a little rusty at this.”

Another chuckle sounded.
“Let me put you out of your misery then. How about Friday night at 6:00? I’ll
pick you up, and we’ll do dinner and something else. That work?”

“Yes.”

“You sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“Okay then. See you
Friday.” His voice still sounded like a smile—an I’m-laughing-at-you sort of
smile. Grace suddenly wanted to crawl into a dark hole and hide.

“Oh, and Grace?” Seth
said.

“Yeah?”

“Looking forward to it.”

“Me too.” Grace slowly
lowered the phone from her ear, not sure what to think. The conversation had
gone nothing like she’d imagined it would, but it was over. And now she had a
date with Seth on Friday at six.

Anticipation began to
replace the unsettled feeling in the form of giddiness.

G
race opened
her
door to find Seth standing on her front porch. Butterflies flapped in
her stomach as she looked him over. Dressed in faded jeans and a sweatshirt
that had seen better days, he looked casual—too casual—especially compared to
Grace.

Seth eyed her up and down,
his mouth splitting into a lopsided smile. “You look gorgeous, as usual, but
you’re probably going to want to wear something else.”

Grace glanced down at her
black skinny pants and new red shirt—the one she’d purchased a few days before
in anticipation of this date. Other than the dress she’d worn at the auction,
Seth had only ever seen her in workout clothes, and Grace wanted tonight to be
different. Special. Not an old sweatshirt-and-faded-jeans type of a date.

Evidently Seth didn’t read
minds.

One by one, the
butterflies in Grace’s stomach stopped flapping.

She leaned against the
doorjamb and folded her arms. “You seriously want me to change out of this
fabulous shirt—which I bought specifically for this date, I might add, and
into”—Grace gestured to Seth’s ensemble—“something like that?”

His grinned widened as he
took a step closer, resting his hand on the doorjamb next to her head. He
leaned in close enough to make the butterflies take flight once more. “It
is
fabulous—especially on you. Which is why I’d hate to see it splattered in
paint.”

Grace frowned. Paint? What
did he plan to do, put her to work on another room at Magnificent Minds? No,
wait. Seth’s style ran more toward—her eyes narrowed. “You’re taking me paintballing,
aren’t you?” The last time she agreed to go paintballing—way back in high
school—her body had come away not only covered in paint but in bruises as well.
Those paint-filled bullets weren’t exactly soft and gentle.

“My ‘splattered in paint’
comment gave it away, didn’t it? Shoot. I wanted to surprise you.”

Grace should have expected
something like this. Planned for it, even. This was Seth, after all—someone incapable
of doing the predictable thing. “We’re really going paintballing?”

“Yes, and you’re going to
have a blast.”

“But what about your knee?”
Grace said, grasping at any excuse to cry off. It didn’t matter that he already
thought her overprotective.

Seth pushed away from the
door and leveled her with a look. “You’re not allowed to worry about that,
because this is a date, not a therapy session.”

Grace nodded, unable to
think of another reason why Seth should be the one to change and not her. What
was so wrong with a nice romantic dinner followed by a casual walk someplace
equally romantic, like the Graham Arboretum? She’d pictured Seth holding her
hand, putting his arm around her, and stealing a kiss or two or three.

Not turning each other
into works of abstract art.

That’s what she got for
making Seth plan the date. Come to think of it, he probably picked paintballing
on purpose as revenge.

Grace sighed and stepped
back, opening her door wider. “Feel free to wait in here. I’ll be a few
minutes.”

She returned to her room
and changed into some old jeans with a hole in one knee, as well as a thick
sweatshirt she’d received for running a half-marathon a year before. Although
Grace hated the thought of ruining her favorite sweatshirt, she hated the
thought of welts on her skin even more. This was the thickest sweatshirt she
had and would protect her better than anything else.

With a heavy heart, Grace
pulled back her hair, which she’d painstakingly curled into a ponytail, and
removed her favorite dangling earrings—the ones she saved for special
occasions. With one final glance in the mirror, she went to find Seth.

Grace pasted on a smile
and spun in a slow circle, showing off her latest, much less fabulous outfit.
“This work?”

“Cool sweatshirt,” Seth
said. “You sure you don’t mind getting paint all over it?”

Grace waved the comment
away. “What, this old thing?”

Seth pulled the door open.
“Don’t worry, I have an extra one in my car that you can borrow. It’s been
through a few paintball wars and is pretty thick.”

Grateful for his
consideration, Grace smiled. “Thanks, I’ll probably take you up on that.” Even
if this wasn’t the dream date she’d imagined, Grace would take it if it meant
spending time with Seth.

He drove out of the city
toward Tacoma, finally stopping at an adventure park, touting the best
paintballing experience ever. In the lobby, they ran into a group of people. Two
of them Grace remembered as Garrett and Owen from the wheelchair basketball
game and several she didn’t recognize. Seth made quick introductions, but Grace
didn’t commit them to memory. She was too worried about being the only one who
couldn’t remember how to load or shoot a paintball gun. Everyone looked so much
more prepared and excited.