Sierra stopped and turned toward him. She put her hand on his arm. “She loves you.”
“I know. And I love Devyn too. But I don’t need her help when it comes to women,” Grover complained.
Sierra raised an eyebrow, then turned and continued down the trail. “What about Sally Jensen?” she called back.
Grover groaned. “Oh Lord, please tell me she didn’t tell you about that.”
“How would I know her name if she didn’t?”
“In my defense, I was eighteen and a senior. Young and dumb.”
“I saw the picture,” Sierra told him, glancing back with a smile.
Grover stopped in the middle of the trail and bowed his head. “I really am gonna kill her.”
Sierra giggled again, and Grover couldn’t resist drinking in the woman in front of him. She looked so relaxed and happy, and he ached to do what he could to keep her that way for the rest of their lives.
She walked back to where he’d stopped and glanced up at him. “If it makes you feel any better, it wasn’t a very nice thing of Sally to do. And…you were pretty damn handsome, even at eighteen.”
“Right. So, the backstory is that she told me she was attracted to guys with a sense of humor. I was trying to be funny.”
“By dying your pubic and chest hair blue?” Sierra asked, doing her best not to burst out laughing.
Grover sighed. “Yeah. And she laughed all right. And, I might point out, my, er…enhancements…didn’t seem to make her any less eager to have sex with me. It wasn’t until I was asleep that she took those pictures and showed them to all her friends. Luckily, she cropped out my cock when she posted my naked chest all over the school. My nickname took on a whole new meaning for the rest of that school year.”
Sierra lost the hold she had on her laugh, and she literally bent over double as she cracked up. Grover didn’t give a shit that she was laughing at his humiliation. He was simply soaking in the sound. At that moment, she didn’t have a care in the world.
When she had herself under control, he asked, “So…I should’ve chosen pink?”
That set her off again.
Grover had to reach out and grab hold of her arm to keep her upright.
“Oh my God, my stomach hurts,” Sierra complained, still chuckling.
“You’re so damn pretty,” Grover said quietly, the words tumbling over his lips without thought.
Sierra blushed, shaking her head in disbelief.
“You are,” he insisted.
“I’m sure,” she said, running a self-conscious hand over the fuzz on her head.
Grover grabbed her hand and kissed the back of it. “Your hair doesn’t make you any more or less pretty. Neither do the clothes you’re wearing or how much you weigh. You’re beautiful to me because of who you are inside. Because when you laugh, you do so freely and without reservation. Because of your smile. Because you didn’t ask my sister why in the hell she was messaging a complete stranger.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” Sierra insisted.
“I know. Which is all a part of why you’re so damn pretty.”
Sierra rolled her eyes, but Grover noticed that she didn’t take her hand out of his. He eyed the trail and realized it was wide enough that they could walk side by side. So he started forward once more, with Sierra next to him this time. “Moving away from embarrassing stories about me…what else did the girls say?” he asked.
“Riley sent me about four thousand pictures of Logan, Bria, and Amalia. She told me how Logan wants to be a professional baseball player, and how Bria wants to be a princess. She somehow got me to agree to babysit when and if I come to Texas. She’s kinda sneaky, isn’t she?”
Grover chuckled. “Yup. She seems so innocent and quiet, then the next thing you know, she and Oz are sneaking off to have sexy times while you’re holding a baby and staring down at their other two adorable kids.”
“She did say that Oz wants more kids.”
“Oh yeah, he’s made no secret of that. Bought a huge-ass house that he’s determined to fill,” Grover said, smiling.
“Aspen’s been giving me nutritional and medical advice,” Sierra went on. “Just telling me things I can do to help my body adjust to normal food and regular activity again. Kinley hasn’t messaged quite as much, but she’d still been super sweet, telling me how happy she is that you found me, that she can’t wait to meet me. She did warn me that Gillian would try to throw some huge party to welcome me to Texas.”
Grover sighed. “I haven’t made it a secret with my friends that I’d love it if you came to visit, and maybe even made it your home. Or that I want to see where our friendship can go. I know that you said you weren’t ready for a relationship, and I’m okay with that…but until you tell me unequivocally that it won’t happen, I’m going to be patient and hope that maybe someday you’ll be ready. Still, I don’t ever want you to feel pressured to do anything you don’t want to, by me or my friends. And that includes coming to Texas or dating me.”
“I don’t,” Sierra reassured him. “It’s nice to be wanted, actually.”
“Oh, you’re wanted,” Grover said dryly.
She shot him a small smile. “I’m a little overwhelmed, I admit, but in a good way. I’ve been talking to Ember the most. Which, as a side note, is weird. I mean, she’s Ember Maxwell, and I have her phone number. It’s so surreal. Anyway, you know how you said that she would probably let me work with her?”
“Yeah?” Grover asked hopefully.
“Well, she already brought it up. And she said the apartment she rented for her friend—the one who tried to freakin’ kill her—is still available. She paid for the deposit and then added a few months’ rent, because she had hopes of finding someone else to help her with the gym.”
“That’s a great idea,” Grover told her.
“You think?”
“Oh yeah. Although, I have to admit, I liked the idea of you staying at my place better.”
“I’m seriously considering her offer,” Sierra said.
“Good.”
She sighed. “Okay, that’s a lie…I pretty much already told her I accepted.”
Grover stopped in the middle of the trail once more. It was a good thing they weren’t hiking for exercise because they’d stopped about a hundred times since they set out. “You did?”
Sierra wouldn’t meet his gaze.
Grover gently tilted her chin up so she had no choice but to look at him. “I’m thrilled for you. No matter what happens between us, you can’t go wrong with friends like Ember, Gillian, and the others.”
“I was afraid you’d think I was…I don’t know…encroaching or something.”
“No way. I was the one who brought up moving to Texas in the first place, remember? And I haven’t stopped since.”
She grinned. “I know. That barn-date thing.”
Grover smiled back. “That’s the one. But seriously, Sierra. Yes, I’m attracted to you, more with every minute we spend together, but if things between us never move beyond this intense friendship we have…it’ll be okay.”