Chapter 27 Ruby
I woke up with a pounding headache the next morning. The shower was on, which meant Grant had already woken up. I sat up in bed when he stepped out of the bathroom.
“Damn, I woke you up.”
I yawned. “Yeah, but that’s not a problem. I’ll go back to sleep eventually.”
“You can do that?”
I nodded. I was one of those people who could sleep on command.
“I need to go to the office, babe.”
I yawned again. “Pity. I don’t have to be at the restaurant for another few hours. Could definitely use company.”
Grant looked uncharacteristically not put together. Then again, he was wearing yesterday’s clothes. And I wasn’t very careful when I took everything off him last night.
He sat at the edge of the bed, kissing my forehead. Last night, he hadn’t wanted any sexy time, to my astonishment. He literally just held me until I fell asleep.
“How are you?” he asked for what felt like the millionth time .
“I’m tired. That’s all. You? You look like you haven’t slept much.”
He frowned. “That’s because I didn’t. I kept thinking about last night. If anything had happened to you, I could never forgive myself.”
“Grant, I think you’re being too hard on yourself.” I was still half asleep. I wasn’t expecting this conversation at all.
“I’m not. I was worried the whole night. Worrying about family is too much.”
I blinked rapidly, feeling pressure building in my chest. Wait, what was he saying? That worrying for me, on top of that, was too much? “What do you mean?”
“Just that!” He said it so sternly, and I was confused.
“Grant, that’s not an answer. You don’t have to worry about me.”
“At this point, it’s not even a choice anymore.” He kissed my forehead. “I need to go.”
“No, you don’t.” As he pushed away from the bed, I did too. “We need to talk.”
I put my hands on my hips. I was butt naked, but maybe that would help the conversation. I figured he was going to make an innuendo soon enough. Only he didn’t. He actually turned away from me.
Now I felt a bit stupid parading around naked, so I grabbed a robe and put it on, tying it around my middle.
“Why don’t you take the day off? So you can recover after last night,” he suggested.
I walked around, positioning myself right in front of his face so he couldn’t avoid me.
“I don’t need to recover from anything. We had an event with a little hiccup that turned out to be nothing. I don’t understand why you’re trying to make this into something more.”
He looked at me briefly, then shook his head. “I need to go to the office. ”
“We’re seriously not going to talk about it? You’re clearly out of sorts. I need to understand why.”
I took in his body language. It was tense, but not in the way I’d come to expect from him. He wasn’t looking around to check for potential dangers. He seemed closed off. Yeah, that was it. And that shocked me because Grant had never seemed closed off to me—except the first time we met.
“I’ll check on you later today.”
“Grant!”
He kissed my forehead and then walked toward my front door.
“Holy shit, you’re seriously going to leave like this? Without talking things through?”
I looked after him, mouth agape as he walked out.
Wow. What a way to start the day.
I needed to eat something and shower so I could wake up properly and get my mind going so I could figure this out.
Why on earth was he so fixated on what happened last night? No one had been hurt. In my book, the incident was meaningless. But apparently not for Grant.
I showered quickly, then ate mashed avocado with a sunny-side up egg while enjoying my coffee. I still felt restless. I couldn’t make sense of Grant’s reaction.
Hmm. What to do, what to do.
I was supposed to be at the restaurant in half an hour, but I didn’t feel like going in. I felt like talking to Daphne. My friend was supersmart. She and I together could shed some light on what happened.
I texted Sherry that I would be coming in later before messaging Daphne.
Ruby: Are you up? Fancy dropping by my house?
I knew for a fact that she’d taken today off. Ah... maybe she wanted to spend it with Roger. Damn it, why had I messaged her?
But she replied right away.
Daphne: Sure. I’m already in town running errands. Roger’s sleeping in. You know me, early bird and all that. I can be at your place in about half an hour.
Ruby: I’ll make coffee.
Thirty minutes later, Daphne and I were sitting on the floor in my shed, enjoying coffee and croissants. She’d brought three. She always said she liked the vibe in my shed more than in my actual house.
“Last night was amazing. Thanks so much for organizing it. I know it was a lot of work for you,” Daphne said.
“It was fun, actually,” I agreed. “If I could, I’d organize your wedding too.”
“Ah, no. Roger said we do need to go big. We’ll probably have about three hundred guests, and they’d never fit in The Cozy Place. Anyway, Grant will be over the moon, securing the location.”
I frowned slightly.
“What was that?” Of course she picked up on it immediately. “Oh, shoot. You didn’t just ask me over to eat croissants and drink coffee, huh?”
“What gave me away?”
“Your general aura.”
I laughed. Daphne could be weird, but in the best ways. I so loved her. Growing up, I’d always wanted a sister, but I had to wait until college to find her.
“Spill it,” she said as she shoved the last mouthful of croissant into her mouth. “What did he do?”
“Nothing per se.” I was already defensive.
Daphne grinned. “Tell the truth. ”
“He was so stressed out last night.”
“He was born stressed. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the man relaxed.”
“Well, I have, so I know the difference. Last night, he kept asking me a million times if I was okay, if I was hurt.” I dropped my voice to a whisper even though there was no one else here. “He didn’t even want to get laid.”
She gasped. “That’s not possible.”
“Yeah, it is. He just kept me close, and then we both sort of fell asleep. It was very romantic.”
She raised a brow. “I don’t see the problem.”
I crossed my legs on the floor, putting my palms slightly behind me so I could lean on them.
“And this morning, he was different again. Tense, but also closed off.”
“That’s exactly how I’d describe Grant. Tense and closed off.”
“He’s usually not like that with me. He also said that worrying about family is too much. And I don’t understand what he meant by that.”
Her jaw dropped. “Too much?”
“I know, right?” I shook my head. “And he didn’t even want to talk about it.”
“So what exactly are you thinking?”
I sighed, closing my eyes. “What if he’s getting cold feet?”
“Then I will beat the ever-loving crap out of him. I told him not to get involved with you, and he didn’t listen. Quite the opposite, in fact. He made you fall for him, so he absolutely cannot get cold feet.”
I swallowed hard. “I don’t know if that’s what he meant.” But I was so afraid that he did. “I hope he wasn’t... What do you think?” I sounded uncertain.
Daphne ran a hand through her hair and then cursed as she got it tangled in her ring. “Honestly, I don’t even know what to say. The Grant I know is very different from the Grant you know. This whole relationship with you is very uncharacteristic for him.”
“Daphne!” I chastised. “You’re not helping.”
She held up her hands in apology. “I know. I’m sorry. Do you want me to relentlessly cheer you up? Convince you that everything will be fine?” She cocked a brow. “Or do you want the realistic part of me that tells you Grant is a wild card?”
“You’re a bit infuriating today.”
She pressed her lips together. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be.
I guess I’m just processing everything. But I haven’t even properly processed you and Grant being a couple, let alone anything more.
” She tapped her chin in thought, then lit up.
“I have a suggestion. Why don’t you and I have a spa day?
I can always process things better when someone’s spoiling me. ”
“I can’t. I need to go to the restaurant. I want to be there for the lunch business.”
“How about taking the day off?”
“No, I’ll just drive myself crazy if I don’t go to work. But we still have some time until I need to leave.” I looked at her. She was clutching her cup. I moved awkwardly, tilting forward so I could see inside. “Want another coffee?”
“Yes, let’s have another one. While we’re at it, maybe you can add a shot of whiskey or something. Then I’ll get creative and come up with more appropriate scenarios to explain his behavior.”
I chuckled. “You got it.”