Chasing You

  “Please tell me, Gray! Where are we going?”

  The excitement in her voice had me excited. I should have been exhausted but how could I, hearing how thrilled she was.

  “First up is ice skating.”

  With a fist pump and a small shriek, Meagan bounced around in the seat as I attempted not to think of her doing that while sitting on my face.

  Shit. Focus on anything other than sex. Or her lips. Wrapped around my dick. No . . . stop this. Damn it.

  “Gray, are you okay? You look pale.”

  With a quick glance over to her, I smiled and said, “What? No yeah, I’m totally fine.”

  “Are you sure you’re not too tired?”

  I reached for her hand, which I knew was not part of the friend-only zone, and placed my lips softly on her skin. “I’m positive. Today is all about spending it with my best friend.”

  Meagan’s eyes lit up. “Best friend, huh?”

  I hadn’t meant to say it, but it was true. If there was anyone I wanted to do stuff like this with, it was Meagan. Now that it was out in the open, I was going to run with it.

  “Yeah. I mean I think we have fun together. Don’t you?”

  “Are you talking fun sex, or fun hanging out?”

  My stomach flipped at the mention of sex.

  Focus, Gray.

  Focus.

  “Fun hanging out. Don’t get me wrong, sex with you is fucking amazing, but since we’re now in the friends zone, yeah . . . you’re my best friend.”

  I stopped at a red light and looked her way. Meagan was staring at me while chewing on the corner of her lip. With the cutest damn smile I’d ever seen, she scrunched up her nose and said, “You’re my best friend too. Well I mean, after Grace, and Taylor. Oh and Alex and Libby.”

  My smile dropped. “I’m at the fucking bottom of the best friend list.”

  “Not really. You’re my first guy best friend. Well . . . there’s Luke, Colt, and Will.”

  “Stop.” I rolled my eyes and hit the gas when the light turned green. “You’re making it worse.”

  Meagan let out a chuckle as she squeezed my hand. I wasn’t about to let go if she wasn’t. We drove in silence as I made my way to the outdoor skating rink. I was glad she still had my sweatshirt on, but I knew she would still be cold.

  I parked my truck and quickly reached into the backseat and grabbed the bag from yesterday’s little shopping trip.

  I set the bag in Meagan’s lap as I reached back for my jacket.

  “What’s this?” Meagan asked.

  With a quick wink, I motioned for her to look. Meagan pulled out a pair of gloves and matching hat. She smiled and glanced back over to me. “So are you buying yourself girl stuff now?”

  I laughed and shook my head. “No, I bought them for you. I saw them yesterday and that’s when I got the idea for today.”

  Meagan raised her eyebrow. “What made you think I’d agree to spend the day with you?”

  Shrugging, I took the gloves and removed the tags, followed by the hat. “I didn’t, but a guy can hope. You’re not going to be too cold in just my sweatshirt, are you?”

  The look in Meagan’s eyes told me she was beyond thrilled I had already been thinking about today. Clearing her throat, Meagan put the hat and gloves on. Damn it . . . she looked adorable. “If I get cold, I’ll find a hot guy to snuggle up with.”

  Narrowing my eyes at her, I shook my head and opened my door. “Let’s go get our skating on.”

  Thirty minutes later and my ass was killing me. Who thought ice skating would be so damn hard. Meagan glided across the ice like she had been doing this for years.

  “Tell me you’ve had lessons!” I called out as she zipped by me and then did a little circle thing.

  With a naughty smile, Meagan stopped right in front of me as I grabbed onto her hips for balance. “I may have taken a few lessons.”

  “Define few, Meg. You’re fucking spinning around like an ice princess.”

  Her smile grew wider across her face as my stomach dropped from her beauty. “Six years of lessons.”

  My mouth dropped to the ice as I stared at her with a stunned expression. “Six. Years?”

  “Yep. I thought I wanted to be one of the Disney ice-princess girls who go on tour and skate for the Disney shows.”

  “Somehow I totally see that.”

  With a wiggle of her eyebrows, she took off skating backwards. Before I could say anything, she ran right into another guy.

  “Shit!” Meagan said as she landed right on the guy. Trying to make my way over to them, I couldn’t help but notice the asshole holding onto Meagan as she lay across him.

  “You okay?” he asked as they both managed to get up as I slowly made my way over to them.

  “I’m so sorry about that. I shouldn’t have been skating backwards. That was totally my fault.”

  The fucker’s eyes lit up as he took Meagan in. “No problem at all.” Reaching his hand out he winked. “I’m Dex.”

  “Oh. My. Gawd! Dex Brewer! The baseball player?”

  I stopped skating. “Holy shit,” I mumbled as I stared at the starting first baseman for the Colorado Rockies while he made a play for my girl. This was not happening.

  His eyes widened as he nodded. “I’m impressed, you’re a baseball fan? What was your name?”

  “Yes! Oh, it’s Meagan. Meagan Atwood,” Meagan said as she shook the guy’s hand and finally turned to see me struggling to make my way over to them.

  “Oh, Gray! Sorry!” She held her hands out and pulled me closer to her. I wrapped my arm around her waist and looked this asshole straight in the eyes. Never mind the fact that he was looking at me like some kind of bug he needed to stomp right away. His eyes moved down to my arm around Meagan’s waist.

  That’s right, dickhead. She’s mine. Take your baseball and shove it up your ass.

  Meagan looked between us and surely had to have noticed the testosterone stare going on between us. “Sorry! Um . . . Dex, this is my friend, Grayson.”

  And there went the knife in my heart.

  Dex reached his hand out for mine. “Friend huh?”

  Pretending I didn’t hear either of them utter the word friend, I smiled big. “Colorado Rockies. I’m really looking forward to the season.”

  Dex smiled and I was pretty sure he puffed his damn chest out some. “A fan huh?”

  “Fan? Oh my gosh! I love baseball,” Meagan said as I turned and glared at her. That smile of hers was pulling this guy in deeper and deeper. I wonder if I made her fall, if she would stop smiling?

  “Really? Well, I have to say I don’t normally run into such beautiful fans.”

  Holy shit. Is her face blushing? Seriously, is this happening right now?

  “Well, my dad is a huge baseball junkie. I pretty much have grown up watching it.”

  Why didn’t I know this? Why have I never taken her to a game? I’d like to punch myself in the face.

  Before I could even get a word in, I watched as Dex the Great pulled out his phone. “It’s not broken.”

  “Oh thank goodness,” Meagan purred as I stared at her with a dumbfounded look on my face.

  “What’s your cell number, Meagan? I’ll be sure to arrange for some tickets for you and—”

  Dex glanced over to me and looked me over as he smiled that smile dudes do when they think they’ve just won the girl. “Your friend Grayson here.”

  “Seriously? I can’t wait to tell my father!” Meagan spit her cell phone number out as the asshole sent her a text.

  “You’ve got mine now.”

  Meagan stood there staring at this guy until I cleared my throat and said, “Um, we probably should be heading out before my ass goes permanently numb.”

  Meagan gave me a once over and nodded. “Right.” Turning back to the dickhead pro baseball player, Meagan reached her hand out again. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Dex.”

  Dex flashed Meagan a fuck me fast and hard smile. “The pleasure w
as all mine.” With a quick look my way, he nodded. “Nice meeting you, Grayson.”

  And just like that, the bastard skated off.

  “Wow. I can’t believe I have Dex Brewer’s cell phone number! Wait until I tell Taylor!”

  I rolled my eyes and made my way to the wall. I needed to get the hell out of there, and fast.

  After making my way off the ice, I headed down the stairs and to the benches where I promptly took the skates off and replaced them with my comfortable sneakers. Never once uttering a word to Meagan.

  I returned the skates and headed to the parking lot. Meagan grabbed my arm and pulled me to a stop. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

  Never mind the fact she was totally clueless that Dex Brewer, her hero, wanted to fuck her and she gladly handed him her phone number, but she was also clueless how jealous I was of that whole little exchange. Stopping, I turned and looked at her. “You really don’t get it?”

  “Get what?”

  “That guy wants in your pants, Meagan. You just gave your phone number to a complete stranger and practically told him you’d fuck him.”

  Her mouth dropped open as her hands went to her hips. “Excuse me? He’s Dex Brewer! And he said he wanted to give us tickets.”

  My head dropped back as I laughed. “Oh yeah, he wants to give us tickets. No sweetheart, he wants to give you a ticket, and in turn he wants your mouth around his cock.”

  I didn’t expect her hand to slap me, but the moment it hit my face the sting caught me off guard as I took a few steps back. For a brief second I was too stunned to notice the hurt in her eyes.

  “You can take me home now, Grayson. I don’t much feel like hanging out with someone who is going to call me a whore.”

  My eyes widened in surprise. “What the hell, Meg? I didn’t call you that. Look at it from my point of view. What would you have said if I had handed over my number to some hot tennis star? Sure, I just met you two seconds ago pretty little thing, but let me give you my number so you can send me tickets to Wimbledon, oh and one for my little friend here too.”

  Meagan looked away. “Meg, I care about you and yes, I was extremely jealous watching you drool all over that asshole, but baby, you handed him your number like you’d known him for years.”

  Peeking at me through her eyelashes, Meagan forced her smile back. “You were jealous?”

  I draped my arm over her shoulders and guided her to my truck. “Hell yeah. We may be best friends, but I’m still a guy and I didn’t like the way he was looking at you.”

  Lightly tapping my stomach, Meagan chuckled. “Stop it. I promise if he happens to call or text I’ll let you know right away.”

  “Hell yeah you will, I want tickets to a Rockies game, bitch.”

  Meagan

  I HAD TO admit, I kind of liked knowing Grayson was jealous of Dex. I may have gotten a little star struck when I noticed who I had plowed into. Baseball was a huge part of my life though and the moment Dex Brewer mentioned tickets, all reason went out the door. My father would have been just as pissed off as Grayson was by me handing over my phone number. His comment about the blowjob instantly brought back memories from college I had tried so hard to bury. My knee-jerk response to slap him caught me off guard as much as it did Grayson.

  “So, that was fun,” I said with a giggle as I watched Grayson trying to find a comfortable way to sit.

  “Fun? No, that was far from fun. What was I thinking with the whole ice skating thing?”

  Pressing my lips together to keep from laughing, I looked out the passenger window. “So where to now?”

  “It’s a surprise.”

  I couldn’t hold the smile back as I continued to look out the window. Grayson and I had hung out together before, but there was always so much sexual tension around us, we usually ended up sneaking away to his truck or my car or back to one of our apartments to release the build-up. This whole friend zone thing was kind of fun.

  We ended up hitting up a bowling alley, then a laser tag place and finally an indoor paintball place where Grayson got way too into the whole thing. I was positive I was going to be bruised from head to toe tomorrow.

  Climbing up into his truck, I let out a moan. “Holy fuck, Gray. Was the paintball your payback for the ice skating?”

  With an evil smile, he shut the door and headed around the front of his truck. Jumping in, he started up the truck and headed out toward the San Juan Mountains.

  “Doesn’t your mom live out this way?” I asked as I glanced back over to him.

  “Yep.”

  My heart started beating harder in my chest. I had yet to meet his mother. Grayson had met my parents, but as far as they knew he was just Noah’s cousin who happened to live in the same town as me.

  “Um . . . are we . . . ah . . . are you going . . . to um . . . well . . .” Jesus H. Christ, I can’t even talk.

  “Spit it out, Meg.”

  “Are we going to your mother’s house?” My words were laced with fear. Meeting Grayson’s mom would be taking a major step. Why was he bringing me to meet her? Today we were in the friend zone for Pete’s sake!

  With a smile that melted my panties, Grayson looked at me and then back to the road. “With the storm coming in tonight, I want to make sure she has everything. I’m not sure I’ll be able to make it up tomorrow. You don’t mind, do you?”

  I breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness was only making a quick run to check on her. This was no big deal. He wouldn’t think twice bringing me. I’m his best friend after all.

  With a smile I found I had to force, I said, “No, of course I don’t mind.” Sadness filled my chest as I realized I might have actually wanted Grayson to bring me home to meet his mother . . . and not as his friend.

  Snow was beginning to fall harder as we drove down a street filled with simple homes. They weren’t very big, yet you could tell it was a nice neighborhood. Each house looked like it sat on at least half an acre of land.

  “I made pretty good money in my stripping days. I bought my mom this house a few years back.”

  My stomach clenched at the idea of seeing Grayson dancing. There were plenty of times I wanted to ask him to give me a private show. I was certain he did very well in his last career. Not only was he beyond handsome, he knew how to dance. My mind drifted back to the first time I had ever seen Grayson.

  I couldn’t pull my eyes off the guy Lauren had talked into jumping up on the bar and dancing. The way he moved was almost sinful. Grace yelled out for him to take his pants off as I quickly joined in on the fun.

  Oh yes . . . I wouldn’t mind a little private show of my own.

  “It’s a cute neighborhood,” I said as I forced all images of Grayson stripping far from my mind.

  Grayson swung his truck down a driveway that winded back just a bit from the road. “My mother loves nature, so I bought the lot at the very end of the road. It’s two acres of land.”

  As he pulled down the drive, I took in the site of the cabin sitting in front of me as I smiled. “It’s a cabin!”

  The truck came to a stop as I looked over at Grayson. He was smiling a wide smile. “Yeah, she always used to talk about owning a cabin in the mountains. This is the best I could do for now.”

  My heart melted at the idea of Grayson doing all he could to make his mother’s dream come true. “I’m sure she loves it.”

  Giving me a quick wink, Grayson jumped out of his truck and ran around to get my door. The snow was coming down even harder now as he grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the front door as we both ran.

  The door opened right as we got on the porch. Grayson’s mom stood in front of me and she was beyond beautiful. She couldn’t have been but in her early forties. Her light brown hair was pulled into pig-tails and she had a smudge of green paint on her cheek. Her blue eyes lit up the moment she saw Grayson.

  “Baby! I told you not to drive up here!”

  My chest tightened as I watched the two of them exchange hugs. You could see how m
uch Grayson loved his mother, and that did crazy things to my guarded heart.

  “Why, who is this gorgeous girl standing on my porch?”

  Grayson laughed as he reached his hand out for mine and pulled me closer to him. My heart was beating so loudly in my chest, I was sure it would eventually beat right on out.

  “Mom, this is Meagan. She’s a good friend of mine, my best friend as a matter of fact.”

  My smile faltered one quick second. I wasn’t prepared for that to hurt as much as it did. Praying like hell neither Grayson nor his mother caught my reaction, I held my hand out and said, “Ms. Bennett, it’s a pleasure meeting you.”

  Her eyes sparkled as she quickly looked me over. “Oh, call me Ashley, Meagan. My mother-in-law was Ms. Bennett.”

  With a polite chuckle, I nodded. “Ashley it is.”

  “Well get in here kids, it’s getting colder by the second.”

  Grayson motioned for me to go first as I followed Ashley back into the house. With a quick glance around, I noticed Grayson’s mother was a simple woman. Everything was neatly in place and hardly anything was on the walls. A few pictures of Grayson were spread throughout the house, along with pictures of the two of them together.

  “I’m not much of a decorator. The simpler the better!” Ashley said as I followed her into a huge kitchen.

  “Wow! I love this kitchen. It reminds me of my parents’ kitchen back in Texas.”

  Ashley beamed as she looked over at Grayson. “Well, Grayson knows how much I love to cook. This kitchen is my dream kitchen. I’ve cooked plenty of pies and cakes for him and his friends over the last few years.”

  With a smile and wink toward Grayson, I sat on one of the stools at the kitchen island. “Would you like something to drink, Meagan?”

  “Water is fine, thank you.”

  Ashley reached for a glass as she filled it with ice and then purified water from the refrigerator.

  Setting the glass down, Ashley looked between us before she took a seat opposite of me and grinned. Oh shit. I had a feeling the grilling was about to take place.