Chapter 6
Kelly bit her lip as she turned her Yugo onto the drive that led to the club’s property.
She’d been here a few times, but always for public events, like their haunted house at Halloween or the time they hosted an adoption fundraiser for a local animal shelter.
Never had she been here like this. As Grumpy’s… what? Girlfriend?
She cringed. That sounded so childish. So high school. But what the hell else was she supposed to call herself? To call him?
The giant black gate that blocked their way was intimidating as hell. It loomed like the physical manifestation of her life’s current path. Was this a blockade, something that would keep her and Grumpy apart? If the gates opened, did that solidify anything or add more chaos to the mix?
In her rearview mirror, she had an almost magazine-worthy image of the large, equally intimidating building across the street from the club’s property.
Master Key Security Solutions. Everyone in town knew about the high-tech company headquarters being built—but unless you wore a club cut, you weren’t getting inside.
Numerous people had tried, especially bored teenagers on dares.
To Kelly’s knowledge, no one had yet to succeed.
It hadn’t taken long for Kelly to realize why she thought Grimm looked familiar to her but she couldn’t place him.
He wasn’t familiar, but his features were.
Grimm was the youngest brother of three ex-Navy SEAL soldiers—sailors?
—who now worked for MKSS. She hadn’t met Grimm before, but Thorne and Goose, his older brothers, frequented the diner.
Kelly wondered why Grimm wasn’t as social as his brothers, and why he’d been the one to show up to escort Margery out of Grumpy’s house yesterday morning.
To her disappointment but also her understanding, Grumpy had gone home the night before.
They both wanted him to stay or for her to go with him, but neither could.
Grumpy’s medications and aids were at his place and Kelly couldn’t leave her mom alone at night.
Statistically, if she was to fall, it would be at night on the way to the bathroom, and Kelly couldn’t take the chance that the one night she left her in recent months was the night she fell again.
Her eyes moved forward to focus back on the gate.
Grumpy hadn’t said much since getting in the car, but the silence wasn’t awkward or heavy.
In fact, Kelly appreciated it. When she’d volunteered to drive Grumpy to Texas, it had been spur of the moment.
In his presence, it was so easy to forget the rest of the world existed.
But once he’d gone home the night before, Kelly had a chance to think without her brain all fogged up with thoughts of him.
Go to Texas? What was she thinking? Or clearly hadn’t been thinking.
Kelly had never been outside Pennsylvania.
Hell, she could count on one hand the number of times she’d left Mount Grove, and all those times had been to see an orthopedic in Pittsburgh about her knee after she fell in the diner about six years ago.
But to Texas? It seemed so daunting.
A quick map search to Maddie’s college showed one way was one-thousand, four hundred and thirty-eight miles.
Without stops, it was a twenty-two-plus hour drive.
Her little Yugo was an old girl, and it wasn’t like she had a motorcycle license to take Grumpy’s bike.
Also, Grumpy was still recovering from almost dying after surviving a fucking bomb.
It would take far longer than a day or two to get there.
Could Grumpy even go? Kelly hadn’t been involved in his medical decisions recently. Did he have limitations that would prevent him from going? What about her own limitations? Like her mom, her job, her house…?
The idea of being in the car with Grumpy for that long did not make her hesitate.
In fact, that was one of the bigger pros on her list of reasons to go.
Their relationship was new. Maybe their feelings weren’t, but them as a couple, as two people openly in love, were.
And Kelly had no idea what that even looked like for them.
Did Grumpy?
Despite his silence, he wasn’t ignoring her.
It was hard to explain, but Kelly still got the sense that he was very aware of her.
His hand lay on her right thigh like it belonged there, his thumb rubbing almost absentmindedly as they traveled.
Despite years of her serving him at the diner, Grumpy had brought a to-go cup of coffee for her with the exact amount of cream she liked in her drink.
Not only that, but it was the zero sugar sweet Italian flavor she liked.
Kelly was very certain she’d never mentioned that before to him.
Even though she was the one driving, he still insisted on opening her door for her and getting in after she did. She knew that being pampered was not something Grumpy wanted, regardless of his current limitations.
For years, long before he’d kissed her six months ago, Kelly had fantasized about sex with Grumpy.
His hard muscles, his countless tattoos, his long golden-brown hair…
Hell, she’d even dreamt of his callused, working man’s hands rubbing over every inch of her body.
It wasn’t something she would ever admit out loud, not even under the threat of torture, but since meeting Grumpy, he had been the one on her mind when she’d been with past lovers.
There was just something about his stoic, hardness that lit her flame.
But Kelly was also old fashioned. Not in a no-sex-before-marriage way but in a relationship way.
She didn’t want sex, the stale, nameless pounding of flesh.
The act of two strangers chasing an unobtainable high.
That meant nothing to her. She’d tried it once in her early twenties, and it hadn’t worked out well for her.
As Bubbe often told Kelly, “Dayn harts ligt tsvishn dayne fis.” Which basically came to the very crude, but true, sentiment that Kelly’s heart lay between her legs.
Kelly hadn’t been in love with every man she slept with, but she’d had feelings, a connection, with him.
Maybe it was silly or vain, but she also liked being chased, being the pursued instead of the pursuer.
Regardless of her feelings for the grumbling mechanic, Kelly never would have made the first move.
She liked dating, but more often than not, expectations fell short.
As she’d confessed to Grumpy, she usually ended up being the caretaker in the relationship.
Hell, she’d even paid a boyfriend’s rent once when she was younger because he gave her some sob story about being evicted if she didn’t pay.
George Hunter had been the exception to her usual, but both of them had been so busy, it was a wonder either remembered they were even dating.
Kelly was only sorry that relationship had ended because it had been the first time in so long that Kelly had felt cherished by a boyfriend—that was, when he’d been available.
Being with Grumpy didn’t feel like dating.
It hadn’t from the moment he’d kissed her in the diner.
It felt like life, like two puzzle pieces finally coming together.
She knew without a doubt that Grumpy was the sort of man she’d always wanted and craved.
The sort that would put her first. She wanted those chivalrous rules in their relationship, like the sidewalk rule, the coat rule, and the stairs rule.
And she knew without a shadow of a doubt because he’d already been doing some of them for the past decade. Without prompt, without any gratitude, without hesitation.
But what if she’d built up their relationship, being with him, so much in her head? She wasn’t concerned about his current limitations. She was very aware of how he’d gotten them and didn’t blame him for a second. And those limitations wouldn’t be forever, so she knew that wasn’t the hold up.
Grumpy’s hand on her thigh flexed lightly, bringing her attention over to him in the passenger seat. Kelly glanced over at him, breaking her internal ranting. She had no idea how long they’d been idling in front of the gate, but damn, the man had silent patience because it felt like a while.
Kelly put her Yugo into Park and then turned in her seat to face Grumpy.
Her car was small, but felt like a fricken clown car with him crammed inside with her.
“I love you,” she repeated, needing that to be known.
“But I’ve loved you from afar for so long that I have to wonder what finally being with you is going to be like.
It’s like meeting a celebrity or your hero.
They say not to meet them because they never measure up to your expectations.
What if I’ve built you up in my head and heart so much that you’re completely different once I get to know you?
And I mean, really get to know you. Like your favorite color and time of day and what music you like or what songs you sing in the shower.
What if you have this really annoying thing about you that I don’t know about now and I find out later?
What if it’s a dealbreaker for me? I don’t want to mess this up, Grumpy.
I am terrible at relationships. Like just really fucking awful,” she added with a cringe.
“You feel permanent, Grumpy. You feel right. But the truth is, we’re still practically strangers.
What if you turn out to be a total asshole and break my heart?
Or worse—what if you discover I’m a total bitch and break yours? ”
Grumpy stared at her long after Kelly finished ranting. Kelly fought to catch her breath, her cheeks flaming at the knowledge that she’d once again word vomited on him.
Rather than answer her, though, Grumpy pulled his phone out of his pocket. He pulled up an app Kelly didn’t recognize and typed in a series of numbers. The gate in front of them beeped once before slowly moving, like a feline hunter opening its maw.