Keeping You (Destined Love #3)

19. Hannah

CHAPTER 19

Hannah

G rayson’s been off ever since our run in with Rebecca, and I don’t know why. I’m assuming there’s history between them, but I have no idea what that history is. As nosey as I am, I don’t want to go asking his family about it. It’s something Grayson will have to tell me when he’s ready and wants to. I’m not gonna lie and say it’s not heart-wrenching knowing he’s seen me at my worst and knows how shitty my relationship with my mother is, yet he has this secret he hasn’t even mentioned to me before. I had never heard the name Rebecca in relation to Grayson until the parade.

I don’t know why it bothers me. It shouldn’t. My plan was always to divorce Grayson as soon as possible, but he’s making me see another side of him and it’s chipping away at this view I had of him.

When the guys leave for the barn, Chloe drags me to the yard where her friends have just shown up. She convinces me to join them for a game of cornhole.

“Okay, we’re gonna play twenty questions cornhole,” Chloe says. “You get a beanbag into the hole, you get to ask anyone a question and they have to answer truthfully, or they drink.”

Everyone nods and grabs a drink from the bucket beside the deck. Brinley goes first and tosses the beanbag. It slides across wood and hangs just over the hole but doesn’t fall in. Chloe laughs and makes her throw. It lands right in the centre of the hole.

She taps her finger against her chin as her eyes bounce between all of us before they finally settle on me and a wicked grin spreads across her face.

“Hannah, fuck, marry, kill, Grayson’s friends, Matt, Caleb, and Josh.”

I nearly spit out my drink. I cough and pat my chest. “You realize one is a friend’s brother, the other is that same friend’s husband, and the other is a friend’s fiancé?”

She nods, her smile not fading.

I figure if this is her starting question, then they’re just going to get worse, so I might as well answer. I don’t want to be wasted before the fireworks even start.

“Marry Caleb, fuck Matt, kill Josh.”

She tilts her head, assessing me. “Not how I thought you’d answer that.”

I tip my head back and laugh. “And how did you think I’d answer it?”

“I don’t know, just thought Matt would be your kill,” she says.

I shrug. “Fuck boys do make for the best fucks.”

Their jaws drop before they all bend over, laughing.

“Is that how my brother managed to hook you?”

The question sobers my mood. I turn to Aspen and say, “Your turn.”

She gets the message and tosses her beanbag. When it slides into the hole, she turns her gaze to Brinley. “Why did I see you sneaking out of Ryder’s truck yesterday morning, outside your office?”

Chloe spits her beer out while Lennon’s eyes bug out.

“You and Ryder?” Chloe asks incredulously.

Brinley holds her hands in front of her as she shakes her head vigorously. “No. Nope. I’m not sleeping with him. He was on his way to the station for his shift and saw me walkin’ to work because my car wouldn’t start. He just picked me up and dropped me off at work.”

“You’re tellin’ me Ryder Daniels gave you a ride to work out of the kindness of his heart?” Aspen asks.

Brinley shuffles foot to foot and tucks her hands in the back pockets of her jean shorts as she shrugs. “Yeah, I guess. He pulled over and told me to get in, I did, and we made the drive into town in silence.”

“Huh,” Aspen says, still looking confused.

Lennon tosses her beanbag and misses, and now it’s my turn. I’ve never played cornhole but assume it can’t be that difficult. I pull my arm back and toss the beanbag underhand the same way I watched the girls do it. I watch it slide across the wood and just when I think it won’t go in, it drops into the hole. I jump up and cheer while the girls laugh. I turn and face Lennon. I spotted her wedding ring the night at the bar and she only mentioned her husband briefly that night.

“Lennon, what’s one secret that you’ve never told a soul, not even your husband?”

Her eyes widen as she gnaws on her lip. She looks around the group for a second before grabbing her drink and chugging as the girl’s jaws drop.

“You’re keeping secrets now, Len?” Aspen asks.

Lennon looks anywhere but their faces as she takes another sip, looks at Brinley, and says, “Your turn.”

Brinley gnaws on her lip before she nods and tosses her beanbag. We watch it slide in, and she turns to Aspen.

“What’s going to happen when Beau comes back to town in a few months?”

Aspen looks at Brinley like a deer in headlights. “Beau’s coming back?” she whispers

Chloe and Brinley look at each other before looking back at Aspen.

“You didn’t know?” Chloe asks.

Aspen shakes her head, and I ask, “Who’s Beau?”

“No one,” Aspen quickly interjects.

The conversation moves on, and we laugh as the more we drink, the worse our throws become. We’re laughing at Aspen’s lastest attempt when arms wrap around my middle and hot air dusts over the shell of my ear. Grayson’s scent fills my nose, and I find myself relaxing into him.

“Having fun?” he whispers, and I nod. “I’m glad,” he says before placing a delicate kiss behind my ear that has me melting like fucking butter on toast into him. He chuckles and runs his nose down my neck.

“Get a room,” Chloe calls.

His nose leaves my skin briefly before his mouth replaces it as he trails soft kisses down my neck. Goosebumps erupt across my skin, and I close my eyes as I lean my head to the side, allowing him more access. He steps back and leaves me hanging. I turn and stare at him. The fucker winks and walks away, leaving me all hot and bothered, standing here with his sister.

“Glad to see you’re having fun,” Brinley says on a laugh.

“That was not fun,” I say, frustrated as hell.

Chloe and I leave the group to help her parents set up the food for everyone. It’s buffet style, with chairs scattered around the yard for people to sit. It’s very family style, and I love it. I grab a plate and make my way down the line, adding different items before I make my way to a chair at the edge of the yard. Even with my head down, I can tell it’s Grayson who pulls a chair up right beside me and settles in. I look over at him and raise a brow.

“Can’t leave my wife to eat alone,” he says.

“Oh, but you can get her all worked up in public and then fuck off?”

He leans over the arm of his chair until he’s as close as he can possibly get and whispers, “If you want that ache between your legs to go away, Spitfire, all you have to do is ask. I’d be more than happy to oblige and watch you come undone as you call my name again.”

I squirm in my seat, his words having their desired effect. I twist and lean in close, matching his position. When my mouth is beside his ear, I let out a soft breath, allowing it to dust over his ear.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” I whisper in a low, husky tone before my teeth scrape across his earlobe.

“I keep my promises,” he says with a wink before settling back in his chair, his plate positioned just so on his lap.

I let out a soft laugh.

“You laughing at me, Spitfire?”

I bite my lip and bat my eyelashes at him. The grin that spreads across his face is feral and has me wanting to jump out of my chair and drag him to our room.

“I think someone might need to be taught a lesson.”

I bat my lashes more dramatically. “Are you gonna spank me?”

He adjusts himself in his seat. “Do you want that?” he asks, his own voice growing deeper with arousal.

I nod.

His eyes eat me up before we dig into our food, both of us sitting in his parents’ backyard surrounded by his friends and family while incredibly turned on. My only hope is that tonight he’ll actually fuck my brains out like I want. I need sex. I need good sex. At this point in time, my only hope for that is with Grayson. A little voice in the back of my head warns me that it might be a little more than wanting a good orgasm when it comes to me wanting to fuck Grayson. I push it aside, not wanting to think that maybe my emotions are coming into play.

Slowly, Chloe and the girls join us along with the guys that joined Grayson in the barn earlier. When we finish eating, it seems like everyone has decided it’s time to interrogate Grayson and me.

“So, Hannah, what made you decide to marry Grayson?” a guy I’ve been told is Ryder asks.

I don’t really want to out to his friends and family that it was a drunken mistake, so I say, “We were in Vegas.” Wanting to take an equal jab at him, I ask, “What made you pick up Brinley from the side of the road?”

Grayson raises a brow while Leo and Colton look at Ryder.

He shrugs a shoulder. “Saw her walkin’, and my mom raised me right. You pick up a stranded lady on the side of the road.”

Aspen leans forward in her chair and looks at Ryder. “Did she also teach you to fuck anything that walks?”

“Just enjoying life. No one doesn’t know what they’re getting from me when they climb into my bed.”

Silence fills the air before Chloe breaks it. “So, Hannah. What’s it like working with your husband?”

“It’s nothing different. We haven’t told anyone yet that we’re married, but when we work the same shift, we take our breaks together.” They don’t need to know it’s because of me that we haven’t told anyone, or that Grayson basically blackmailed me into sharing every meal at the hospital with him.

“Oh, don’t forget you get to see my beautiful face all the time,” Grayson chimes in.

“How could I forget,” I say with a laugh.

“It’s nice being able to spend more time with Hannah. We work such crazy shifts that having some overlap allows us to see each other.”

“Grayson,” Randy calls from across the yard.

He pushes up from his chair, grabbing my plate and kissing the top of my head before making his way to join his dad. That simple action of kissing the top of my head before he left has my insides in knots. How can I continue to hate a man who shows me affection like he does? I’m beginning to think maybe Liz’s comment about a thin line between love and hate might be true.