Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Lark McCoy, on the other hand, had kissed him in the hotel that night like her life depended on it. Then she’d pulled away without any explanation and spent the following week acting like he was some distant coworker whose name she sometimes struggled to remember.
It was making him insane.
“You gonna drink that glass of wine or kick its ass?” Jace asked.
Grayson glanced up and found his younger brother smirking at him. It wasn’t until Jace spoke that he realized he’d been scowling at his wine. Not that it was wine pissing him off. Just the woman who’d poured it.
He tried to soften his glare, but given Jace’s grin, he’d failed. So Grayson ignored him and took an aggressive and too-large bite of his grilled cheese.
His grumpy mood was his own fault. He never ate in the tasting room this often, but ever since returning from the wine festival, his ass had been sitting at this table, chowing down on Mila’s incredible cooking while pretending he wasn’t watching Lark work.
Of course, when Jace picked up his own sandwich, a BLT stacked with a heart attack’s worth of B, he realized he wasn’t the only one whose lunch plans had changed this week.
It was even rarer for Jace to eat lunch in the winery.
He usually opted to stay closer to his own office.
Since he was the brewmaster for Rain or Shine Brewery, one of the other businesses on the family’s farm, it didn’t make sense that Jace kept showing up here.
Grayson wondered if his brother was trying to act as some sort of buffer between him and his best buddy’s ex-girlfriend.
Then he dismissed the thought because, one, the idea of that made him angry, and two, that just wasn’t something Jace would do.
His kid brother might be good friends with Tommy, but blood truly was thicker than water in their family, so he knew if it came to pistols at dawn, Jace would be his second and have his back.
Grayson glanced toward the nearby counter—again.
Lark had her back turned as she restocked the wineglasses.
Her blonde hair was twisted into a loose knot today, soft strands escaping around her face.
She wore jeans tucked into knee-high boots and one of the winery’s fitted black T-shirts.
She turned around, laughing at something Edith said.
While the sound was easy, bright, and relaxed, he couldn’t help thinking there was something off about it.
Lark’s laugh at the festival was softer, almost reserved, which had made it endearing and adorable. This one was brasher and, of course, louder.
A week ago, she’d lain next to him in the dark hotel room, the two sharing family stories and then that lethal kiss.
Now?
Now, she smiled politely whenever she caught him looking her direction, but her eyes were decidedly colder, almost as if she was looking at a stranger or, at best, an acquaintance.
It was starting to feel like he’d dreamed the entire weekend. Except he hadn’t. Because he could still remember the minty, cool taste of her toothpaste when she kissed him back, and the soft touch of her hands resting lightly on his chest.
Hell.
He was literally living in Hell right now.
Jace glanced over his shoulder when he noticed where Grayson’s attention was focused.
“You got something to say?” he asked, when Jace turned back around.
“Nope.” Jace sighed, heavily, and for some reason that irritated Grayson even more.
What the fuck was his problem? This almost felt like jealousy, but that didn’t make any sense. Tommy had dated Lark for two years, and Jace never batted an eye about that relationship.
That Grayson knew about.
He frowned, realizing he’d never really paid attention to Lark or Tommy prior to last weekend.
Sure, he’d known she was pretty. Everybody knew Lark was pretty, but she’d been Tommy’s girlfriend and an employee and one of Remi’s best friends.
Just part of the group. Familiar background noise in his life.
He’d never truly noticed her until the festival, when he’d suddenly become fascinated about every little thing in regards to the woman.
Like the way she bit her lower lip when she was concentrating.
The tiny line that appeared between her brows when one of the festivalgoers was rude.
The huskiness in her voice that night when she was close to falling asleep.
He kept looking for those things this week, but they were missing.
As if sensing his attention, Lark glanced over and their eyes met for all of a single split second. Then her brows furrowed, either in nervousness or confusion—he couldn’t tell which—before she quickly looked away.
Since they returned, it felt as if he was some stranger she couldn’t quite figure out. Like the festival had never happened.
His patience had finally run out, and he rose.
“Where are you going?” Jace asked, somewhat alarmed.
“To talk to Lark.” For a moment, he thought his brother was going to stop him, the realization causing him to pause.
Just long enough that his trip to the counter never happened—because Tommy walked in, spotted Lark instantly, and made a beeline for her.
Grayson frowned, watching as the man stopped in front of the counter. Given Lark’s lack of surprise, it appeared she knew he was coming. Then he overheard her talking to her ex.
“I just need one more minute to finish, then I’ll be ready.”
Ready for what?
Tommy nodded, then spotted him and Jace. Grayson slowly resumed his seat as Tommy stepped over to them. “Hey, Jace, Grayson.”
“What’s up, Tom?” Jace said, when it became apparent Grayson didn’t intend to return the greeting.
“Lark’s got a half-hour break. She agreed we needed to talk.” Tommy’s expression was brimming not so much with hope but with confidence. “She’s been stonewalling me for a full month. Guess I really pissed her off this time.”
Jace sighed. “Guess you did.”
“I’ll make it right,” Tommy said, like a man who fully expected to get his way.
Jace nodded, while Grayson remained where he was, sitting so still he might as well be chiseled from stone.
Lark approached them.
“Ready, babe?” Tommy asked.
Babe? Seriously?
Lark nodded. Tommy reached for her hand, but Lark didn’t take it, turning to walk outside instead. Tommy followed in her wake like a baby duckling waddling into the lake after his mother.
Grayson’s jaw tightened when they disappeared from view.
“You okay?” Jace asked.
“Fine,” Grayson lied.
Jace studied him for a second, his expression sympathetic, but not in a way that annoyed Grayson. In fact, his brother looked as sad as Grayson felt.
“They always get back together,” Jace said quietly, though he didn’t seem to take much joy in repeating the same assertion he’d made earlier in the week.
And suddenly, Grayson understood Jace’s reaction to him insisting Lark was the one.
He wasn’t Team Tommy so much as he’d been trying to protect Grayson from getting hurt.
“You said as much,” Grayson said, a hollow feeling opening up in his chest. He knew the path to happily ever after hadn’t been smooth for any of his brothers, but they hadn’t been competing with other men, any long-standing boyfriends.
He couldn’t understand why Lark continued to take him back when she’d been so hurt by Tommy’s continual attempts to change her, to mold her into someone more acceptable to him.
Then he felt a bit like a hypocrite. Grayson wanted to say he accepted her for who she was, but he considered this past week…and all the weeks prior to the festival. That Lark drove him as crazy as she did Tommy, so was he any better for her than the man she just left with?
Watching her from afar was doing him no good.
He needed to come up with some sort of game plan about how to proceed.
First, he needed to discover if she truly was getting back together with her ex.
The fact she hadn’t taken Tommy’s hand gave him a bit of hope.
If the breakup stuck, then he needed to stop waiting to make a move.
Nora and Gretchen were always after him and Maverick to host “special” wine tastings, where people could get an in-depth understanding of the wines and the process of making it.
He could offer to do one of those, asking for Lark to serve as his assistant.
Perhaps working together side by side, the same way they had at the festival, would spark some sort of reaction from her.
It was worth a try, because the last week or so of her freaking ignoring him was getting fucking old.
Satisfied that he had a possible way forward, he decided he needed a distraction. Because obsessing over Lark spending time with Tommy wasn’t accomplishing anything except making him miserable.
An unexpected grin tugged at his lips as he stood. “I think I’m going to take a long lunch.”
Jace frowned, confused by his about-face. “Where are you going?”
“The library.”
“The library…” Jace repeated, as if he’d misheard.
“I finished the book Wren gave me.”
“Wren? Lark’s sister?”
Grayson nodded. He’d spent the last week, reading the thriller Wren had suggested, welcoming the diversion from fretting over Lark and her apparent split personality.
He’d been hooked instantly, and the book had done something nothing else had managed this week—it had quieted his brain.
“I returned some books for Mom last Monday. Wren suggested one to me. I finished it last night.”
“You voluntarily read an entire book?”
Grayson chuckled. “I read. Occasionally.”
Jace snorted when he added the last word. “Very occasionally.”
“Whatever. I want another book,” he declared.
He’d enjoyed the temporary entertainment, and if he spent one more minute thinking about Lark, he was liable to lose what little sanity he had left.
Grayson was instantly hit by a calm peace as he walked into the library and saw Wren typing on the computer behind the circulation desk.