11. Hendrix
Chapter 11
Hendrix
I have a bit of trouble sleeping that night, thoughts of Grace plaguing me. I wake up before my alarm and slap it off, and while I’m used to getting up early and usually wake up before my alarm anyway, this morning feels different.
Grace Whitmore is in my house. Our house.
Even in my bedroom, I can still get a faint whiff of her scent. Or maybe that’s just my imagination. Last night at dinner it had felt like it filled the entire room. Grace’s scent is both sweet and refreshing, not at all cloying or overpowering, but it sure as hell overpowered me. I felt like I was drowning in it.
And goddamn, honestly, I want to drown in it.
I force myself to get up and start my day like usual. We all have to be up and at ’em pretty early. Cade’s the earliest, going out to milk the cows at four in the morning, then he comes back in and sleeps another couple hours. We’ve volunteered to take turns on it but he likes his alone time, just him and the cows and the soft pre-dawn. Good for him, I say.
I get dressed and head downstairs. The moment I hit the landing, Grace’s scent wafts through my nose. I feel like I’m losing my sense of balance. I want to follow that scent until I can bury myself in it and never come out again.
I grip the banister and take a few deep breaths. Unfortunately that does fuck-all to get rid of the scent in my nose and only makes it worse.
Get a fucking grip, Hendrix, fuck’s sake.
Grace is going to be in the house for weeks. I have to get used to her scent and her presence. We don’t know how long this whole fake-courtship thing is going to take. Honestly I don’t even know how we’re going to get out of it.
From what I know, when an Omega is courted by an Alpha or pack of Alphas, either the courtship works out or the Omega goes back to the ORD facility to wait for the next presentation and try again. It could be that if there were other Alphas interested the first time who the Omega didn’t choose the ORD could contact them and let them know the Omega is available again, see if there’s an early start to a new courtship.
But I’m not sure how Grace is gonna get out of this one.
Still, she’s always been smart. It’s one of the things I like about her, even back when we were teenagers and I really shouldn’t have been crushing on my best friend’s little sister. Grace going to New York City to work in a shiny office wasn’t too crazy of a surprise when you thought about how smart she’d always been. Destined for bigger and better things than our small hometown.
The point is, I’ve got no idea how long she’s gonna be here. I need to stay in control.
I head into the kitchen to start the coffee maker, and that’s when I get hit with a wall of scent so strong I nearly bowl over.
Goddammit. Of course she’s up and in the kitchen already.
Grace is pressing various buttons on the coffeemaker while scowling at it like it insulted her mother. I grin, watching her. The admittedly fancy machine was my idea. Jesse wanted to know what the hell was wrong with boiling a kettle like our grandparents used to do, but I like a nice espresso every now and again, sue me.
Jesse said fine, as long as I was the one to operate it, so that’s my duty in the mornings.
I lean against the doorway and watch as Grace, oblivious to my presence, keeps trying to make the damn thing work.
She has no idea she hasn’t hit the power button. The thing’s off.
I walk up behind her and reach around her, caging her in a little as I get my hand to the back of the coffee maker and flip the ‘on’ switch.
Grace squeaks in surprise and jumps a little. I grin. “You know, I hear these things work better when they’re turned on.”
Grace glares up at me. “Lots of things do. I just—the button was in a weird place, that’s all.”
I nod sagely. “Lots of people have trouble finding the button that turns things on.”
She flushes, which is adorable, then lightly elbows me in the stomach, which is a little less adorable but still amusing. “Yeah, I’m sure you speak from experience there.”
“Hey now, I would like to inform you that many people can attest to my ability to find the button very fast and press it expertly.”
“Uh huh. But can you then press all the other buttons to actually make the coffee come out?”
I playfully bump her with my hip to move her out of the way. “I’ll show you how to make a proper cup.”
“Right. I’ll take a step back so it doesn’t blow up in my face.”
Grace puts her hands up with a smile and steps away. I take it for the signal that it is—that we’re going to stop flirting now. We’ve hit the line.
It’s how it’s always been with us. I flirt with everybody, and thank god, because it meant nobody ever realized I’ve always liked Grace more than I should.
It was bad enough when she was just Aiden’s sister and a Beta. I could handle it then. Or at least I told myself I could handle it. Who knows how well I would’ve actually done, if she’d stuck around all these years.
But back when I had a crush on her, I knew Aiden would’ve kicked my ass, and I had other things on my mind. She was my best friend’s little sister, after all, and a bit too young for more than just a simple flirtation.
Now, though. Now… and she’s an Omega. As if she wasn’t fucking tempting enough when she was a Beta, now her scent is everywhere and I can’t stop thinking about her heats and what she was like when she was presenting at the bar and—
Get. It. Together.
I focus on the coffee machine and show her how to work it, then get coffee ready for everyone. “Are you the first one up every morning?” Grace asks.
“Technically Cade’s up first to milk the cows, but then he goes back to bed. He’ll be up in about an hour.”
“He likes his alone time, huh?”
“Got it in one.”
Grace nods and helps get some mugs from the cupboard. I have to help her find them, first, but she’s determined to do some things herself. I put my hands up in surrender. “You really want to make yourself at home, huh?”
“I want to be useful. You guys are sticking your necks out for me. Don’t think I don’t know that.” Grace hands me the mugs. “I didn’t even help clean up dinner last night, it was so rude of me. Mom would’ve had my hide.”
“You’re our guest, Grace.”
“I’m the Omega you’re fake courting as a favor. I’m going to pay you back for that. Let me help out.”
I don’t know what to say to that. I’m tempted to defuse things with a joke about how she can help me out of my clothes, ’cause that’s the kind of guy I am, I deflect with innuendos and flirtations. But there’s a determined gleam in her eye and I don’t want her to think I’m not taking her seriously.
She’s not the little sister tagging along with us anymore or the earnest freshman stammering out a sweet, shy hello. She’s an adult. She deserves to be treated with maturity.
Before I can figure out what to say, there’s clattering on the stairs and Jesse and Easton appear. “Coffee,” Jesse groans, heading directly for one of the mugs.
“You stayed up too late last night,” Easton chastises him.
“I just wanted to… look over things,” Jesse mutters. He takes a sip of his coffee. “I want to make sure all of our ducks are in a row.”
I know what he’s talking about. “They are. You’ve done good work, Jesse.”
“You don’t know if it’s good enough. The…”
I clear my throat as I take a sip of my coffee and I see Jesse’s gaze dart over to Grace. She’s got the fridge door open, but is clearly listening in, I can see half of her curious face over the top.
“Everything okay?” Grace asks, fully popping her head out from behind the fridge.
“Everything’s fine,” I say smoothly. “Jesse’s always cranky in the mornings.”
“Just for that, why don’t you make breakfast?”
“Oh, let me help.” Grace closes the fridge door and gives me those big eyes of hers and goddammit, I can’t say no to her when she looks like that.
Jesse and Easton raise their eyebrows. “You’re… going to cook breakfast?” Easton asks cautiously.
“Oh, don’t you start. Hendrix just tried to tell me that I’m a guest here.” Grace fixes Jesse with a firm look. “I’m going to be living here for the next few weeks and that means I’m going to help out.”
Jesse sets his coffee down and folds his arms. “Do you even know how to help out around a ranch?”
“No, but I know how to help out around a house. You still use a vacuum around here, right? You still need to do laundry. And the other stuff you can teach me. I’m a fast learner.”
“Are you now?” Jesse teases her.
I can’t help but wonder what other areas she’d be a fast learner in. Like in the bedroom.
Christ. Her scent is making me feel like I’m sixteen again, desperate to get off. I’m not a teenager or an idiot. I can control myself.
Or at least, I hope I can.
“We can cook breakfast,” I say evenly. “I can show Grace around the kitchen. And make sure she doesn’t poison the food when we’re not looking.”
Easton snorts into his coffee. Grace gives me the evil eye, but I can see her mouth trying to twitch up into a smile. It was always a good day when I could make Grace laugh at my teasing, and apparently, that’s still how I feel, all these years later.
Great. I’m fucked. And not even in the fun way.
We make a simple breakfast and eat it quickly. There’s always a lot to do on the ranch and, as my grandpa used to say, we’re burning daylight. Grace is proficient in the kitchen, and a good cook. She insists on cleaning up the dishes while the rest of us go out and start on the chores out in the barn and the surrounding areas.
Even Cade seems to be in a better mood than usual when he gets down and accepts the breakfast burrito Grace makes him from the rest of the food we cooked up. He has a soft look in his eyes when he looks at Grace. I get it. I’m pretty sure I get that soft look on my face too.
There’s no time to moon over Grace all day, though. As much as I might want to. There’s always stuff to do around the ranch.
While I get to the daily chores, then the other stuff that we’ve planned for the day, I can’t help but notice her around. Half the time I can catch a whiff of her scent before I see her, which is probably just a sign of how insane she’s making me. And she’s barely been here a day. I’m so fucked.
But when I notice her, I see how she’s always doing something. She’s cleaning, she’s making a grocery list, she’s hanging up laundry, she’s weeding the plants along the walkway that lead up to the house.
She really does want to help out. She’s throwing herself into it even though she doesn’t know what to do to run a ranch—she’s finding what she can do.
The walkway up to the house is done in pretty cobblestones. Jesse’s grandmother put them in, wanted to give it a nice old-fashioned feeling. I think she was the one who originally planted the flowers too, but none of us have had time to look after that kind of thing.
Working on the ranch takes everything you’ve got, so the smaller things like flowers in the front yard, decorating the house how we like it, all that hasn’t gotten done. Honestly I don’t think it occurred to any of us to do it.
But Grace is putting that work in now. It’s kind of her, thoughtful, and shows a real initiative and work ethic that I can’t help but admire. I wish more ranch hands had the same kind of drive.
I have some free time this afternoon. It wouldn’t cost me much to do something nice for her.
Easton gives me a weird look when I take the pickup and head out into town, like he knows I’m up to something. Whatever. Like he wouldn’t do the same damn thing as I am if he had the idea for it.
Grace is out on the porch with a glass of what looks like lemonade when I walk up with my purchase. She smiles. “I made lemonade, Hendrix! You should have some. Did you put on sunblock?”
“I’ll put on more. Mom .”
“Haha. I’m not rubbing aloe vera on you if you get sunburned.”
“Maybe you could rub the sunblock on me instead?” I tease her.
“In your dreams.”
“Oh, always.” I hold up the daisies I got her. “I was thinking we could plant these along the walk up to the house, since you just weeded it? It’s looking pretty bare.”
Grace flushes and her eyes sparkle as she takes the flowers from me. “Oh, these will be lovely. Thank you.”
“No problem.” I watch as she grabs the gardening gear and eagerly heads down the front steps to plant the flowers. “You seem to really be up and at ‘em today.”
“I am. It’s been forever since I did physical work like this. It’s surprisingly satisfying.”
“Watch that, you’ll be taking those words back tomorrow when your muscles ache.”
“Well, I don’t like being idle. I was always working, in the city. This is different than what I did at the publishing house but it’s still work and it still helps me feel productive. And like I said, it’s the least I can do for you four.”
I watch her as she creates neat holes for the daisies, gets them carefully worked in, then piles the soil around them. They’ll grow nicely.
I wonder if Grace would grow just as nicely, here. If she stayed.
“Lovely,” I say, and I’m not talking about the flowers.
Grace grins down at them, oblivious. “Aren’t they? Thank you for getting them.”
I’d do a lot more to see her flushed and happy like this. Yeah, I’m sunk, good and proper. Damn it.