Keeping You (Destined Love #3)

6. Grayson

CHAPTER 6

Grayson

O ver the next two days, I drive Hannah to work, convince her to eat with me during our break, and then we come home and both crash. Saturday afternoon, I go to knock on the bedroom door to let her know that I have lunch ready. As I raise my fist to knock on the door, I hear her voice.

“Yeah, I’ll be at the game tonight… Yeah, sounds good… Okay, love you, too, Liv.”

I grin knowing she’ll be at our hockey game tonight. I knock on the door, and Hannah pulls it open within seconds.

“Lunch is ready,” I say, and she nods before following me to the dining table. “I can give you a lift to the game tonight,” I say, and she stiffens.

“It’s fine. I can manage,” she says.

“Hannah, I don’t mind. There’s no point in taking two vehicles to and from the same place.”

“I haven’t told the girls yet. I don’t want to show up and leave with you.”

I take a deep breath, reminding myself that she’s worked long shifts almost every day since she’s come back from Vegas and hasn’t had a lot of time to meet and chat with her friends. On top of that, she still isn’t fully on board with this marriage. If I don’t want to completely push her away, I need to be understanding with her while also trying to get her to warm up to me.

“Okay, we can park at the back of the lot and you can walk in first. I’ll give you enough time so that it doesn’t look like we arrived together. We can find time tomorrow to go get your car from your place.”

She stares at me, her eyebrows pinching before her shoulders slump and she says, “Fine.”

It’s not much, but I take it as a win.

Knowing how much Hannah likes her space away from me, I decide to go for a run after we finish eating. I run my usual route around the seawall. On my way home, I see a flower shop with beautiful lilies. I immediately think of Hannah. I slow my pace and pull my wallet out, handing the attendant enough for a dozen red lilies and some baby’s breath with greenery. She bundles it all up into a bouquet for me, and I walk the last two blocks to my apartment.

When I open the front door, Hannah is in the living room with headphones in as she dances around, singing into a water bottle. I lean my hip against the kitchen island and watch her.

She looks so carefree and happy right now. She hasn’t let me see her like that in a long time, and I miss it. I miss the small smiles she used to give me when we’d pass each other in the hallway of the hospital, or the way she’d laugh at a joke that wasn’t remotely as funny as her laugh made it seem. I know it’s my fault for not correcting her assumptions when she walked into that storage closet Samantha had cornered me in. Now, more than anything, I wish I had. Hannah may, on the outside, seem like she’s all snark and sass, like she’s the strongest person you’ve ever met, but I see beneath the facade she puts on for the world. Beneath all of it, she’s a soft, caring, loving, supportive person who will do anything for the people she loves.

I knew then, like I know now, that she deserves so much better than me. She deserves someone who can be everything she needs and provide her with the life she wants. I’m not sure that I can. Seeing Hannah cry when she walked into the storage room had me flashing back to when I was eighteen. But now I’m going to give her everything I can and hope that it’s enough.

She spins and faces me, and when she sees me, she stops in her tracks. I grin as she pulls out her headphones.

I take a step towards her and pass her the bouquet. “For you,” I say.

She looks at them for a second, and I swear I see the start of a blush tinge her cheeks as she tucks a stray piece of hair behind her ear and grabs them from me tentatively.

She clears her throat before saying, “Um, thanks.”

I move to the kitchen, reach to the back of one of the cabinets, and pull down a vase for her. When I turn back to her, she’s still staring at the flowers. I leave the kitchen and move into my room, grabbing some clothes before hopping into the shower.

When I come out of the bathroom, Hannah is cutting the stems of the flowers and arranging them in the vase as she smiles to herself. Her eyes flick to me for a second, and the smile stays on her face.

Another small victory.

Usually when she sees me, whatever expression she’s wearing turns neutral or into a scowl. I settle onto the couch and turn on the TV and switch it to Carolina vs Philadelphia playoff hockey game. Hannah sits on the other end of the couch, with her legs curled under her and her Kindle in hand.

We sit in peaceful silence until it’s time to leave for my game. I grab my bag and sticks from my office before meeting Hannah at the front door, Kindle still in her hand. The drive to the rink is silent except for the music that plays through the stereo. Hannah faces the passenger door as she reads. I sneak glances at her, watching her subtle facial expressions as she reads. I enjoy seeing how engrossed in her book she is.

Pulling into the parking lot, I find a spot way in the back and park. I round the car quickly and help Hannah out before I watch her make her way to the front door. It sucks having to stand here and watch her and not be able to walk right beside her.

Once she’s inside, I grab my bag and stick out of the trunk and head inside. We are the last ones here. When I step inside, I see the whole group standing in a circle. Josh has his arm wrapped around his wife, Olivia, who is wearing their baby girl, Cate. Caleb is holding his little girl, Charlie, while his girlfriend, Bailey, leans into his side. Hannah has joined Zoey and Eliza beside Liv. Matt is talking to Josh about the Carolina game today when I walk up beside him.

After a few minutes, we all make our way to the rink. The girls find their usual spots on the bleachers while we head into the dressing room.

“So, I guess congratulations are in order,” Josh says as he claps Caleb on the back.

“Thanks, man,” Caleb says.

“What happened?” I ask.

“Caleb popped the question to Bailey,” Josh says.

“I win!” I holler before turning to him and saying, “But congrats, man, that’s awesome.” When Caleb and Bailey first met, I told him he’d marry her and he said they weren’t even dating, but I could tell that his sorry ass was falling for her and her daughter.

“Yeah, yeah, you win. I’m marrying Bailey,” Caleb says as he shakes his head, but there’s still a soft smile on his face.

“When did this happen?” I ask.

“Saturday.”

“You didn’t say anything when you picked me up from the airport on Sunday,” I say.

“Yeah, well, there were other things that had my attention,” he says as his eyes flick to my left hand where my wedding ring still sits. Thankfully, no one else notices.

We all change quickly before heading out onto the ice. Hockey has always been a part of me. At the age of five, my dad put me into a program. I loved it. I played all the way through high school. It was my saving grace when everything went down my senior year. Without hockey, I’m not sure I’d be where I am right now. When I got to university, I joined the intramural team, not wanting to take time away from my studies.

Tonight’s game moves quickly, and we win 5-2. Our usual Saturday ritual is group dinner upstairs. We all change quickly and Luke, Nick, and Sam also decide to join us tonight. We all take our bags to our vehicles before heading upstairs to join the girls. Josh and Caleb beeline it to their girls, and I notice that Luke moves straight to Hannah. I grit my teeth but don’t say anything as he sits beside her. I take the seat across from her, watching them interact.

We order, and I watch as she laughs at his jokes and gives him small smiles. I grip my glass so tightly, I fear it might break. Our food is delivered, and that puts a hold on Luke’s flirting. I try to listen as Bailey tells us about how her and Caleb got engaged, but my attention is stuck on Hannah.

As soon as Luke is done eating, he’s back to flirting with Hannah. Rage climbs through me. When he reaches forward and tucks a stray piece of hair behind her ear, I’ve had it.

“Luke, I highly recommend you remove your hand from my wife if you’d like to keep it.”

His eyes widen as his hand drops to his side and Hannah glares at me. The entire table has gone silent, and everyone’s eyes are on me.

“You said you wouldn’t say anything,” Hannah hisses.

“And I respected that until you let him touch you.”

She crosses her arms over her chest, and there’s a collective gasp from the girls. Zoey is the first up and rounds the table, grabbing her left hand and inspecting the ring.

“How did you hide this the entire game?” she asks as she continues to tilt Hannah’s hand, looking at the ring.

“It’s easier when you guys aren’t looking for it,” Hannah huffs.

Hannah’s now surrounded by all the girls as they look at it. She narrows her eyes at Bailey. “Why don’t you look surprised?”

Bailey’s eyes flick to Caleb as he takes a sip of his beer. Hannah’s head flips to him immediately.

“I’m not keeping secrets from my fiancée,” he says.

“And who told you?” she asks as she glares back at me.

I put my hands up in a defensive position. “Hey, I didn’t tell him anything. He saw my ring when he picked me up, but I didn’t say who I married.”

“Oh, no, Caleb and I figured that out on our own,” Bailey says. “He told me that Grayson came back from Vegas married and I knew you also went, we put two and two together.”

Thank God, because Hannah’s already pissed at me for outing us, I don’t need her any more mad.

Everyone takes their seats and the questions start.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Olivia asks, sounding hurt.

Hannah rolls her eyes. “Yeah, I was really looking forward to telling my best friends, ‘Hey, I went to Vegas for work and ended up marrying Grayson, you know the man I barely tolerate.’ That’s exactly what I wanted to do.”

Her words hurt even though I expected them. I take a sip of my beer, hoping to hide how her words affect me.

“You know we wouldn’t judge you, right?” Eliza asks.

“Yeah, but it doesn’t make a mistake Vegas marriage any less embarrassing.”

Olivia worries her lip as though she’s deep in thought. Her eyes meet mine and a small smile spreads across her face before she looks back at Hannah and I look down at the table.

“You know, maybe this doesn’t have to be a mistake,” Olivia says, and I could kiss her if we both weren’t married.

Hannah’s jaw drops as she stares at her friend. “You did not just say that.”

“Maybe Liv’s right,” Eliza says. “They say there’s a thin line between love and hate, and if your feelings are this strong, maybe there’s a reason behind it.”

Hannah’s pissed. “Zoey, what do you have to say?”

She blushes slightly before she lifts a shoulder. “I kinda agree with the girls.”

“For what it’s worth, I do, too,” Bailey says.

Hannah balls her napkin and throws it down on the table before pushing back in her chair.

“So glad to know,” she says before turning and leaving the restaurant.

I quickly stand and throw some bills on the table to cover both Hannah and my bills. “I’m her ride. I’ll talk to you guys later,” I say before following behind Hannah.

I have to jog to catch up to her. She stops at the passenger door and turns, glaring daggers at me.

“You promised you wouldn’t say anything and give me time to tell my friends.”

I step forward, placing my hands on either side of her head, caging her between me and the car. I lean in real close to make sure she doesn’t miss a single word of what I’m about to say.

“Spitfire, I did respect that, but then Luke touched you. I’m going to make this abundantly clear, so listen closely. I. Don’t. Fucking. Share. You may not want to be in this marriage, but you are. We are married. You are my wife, and I am your husband. And while we’re married, no other man will touch you. If I see another man’s hands on you, I will break his fucking fingers. Do you understand me?”

I watch her throat bob as she swallows before her eyes meet mine and she nods. I know she wants to push back, to say something, but she doesn’t. She just holds eye contact until I reach for the handle beside her. I step back and she follows as I open the door and help her in.

I spend the entire drive wanting to place my hand on the top of her thigh and feel how soft her skin is. To have some sort of connection to her. The emotions running through me have me wanting to claim her more than I did back in the restaurant.

When we pull into the parking garage, Hannah leaves the car before I can even open the door for her. I grab my bag and sticks and make it to the elevator just before the doors slide closed. Hannah has her arms crossed over her chest, pushing up her tits, and it takes everything in me not to stare. This woman has me on the edge of control.

The second we make it into the apartment, she kicks off her shoes and heads into the bedroom, closing the door behind her.

Well, tonight didn’t exactly go as planned.