Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 100750 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100750 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
“You think so?”
“Grayson, deep down, you’re a good man. You just take the wrong path to get to the right road.”
Grayson sighed. “In hindsight, I wish I’d done things differently. I didn’t expect—”
“For this to be what you thought it was?”
He nodded. “Yep. I thought I’d come here and feel nothing. Sometimes, I wish that were the case. Now, I’m attached. I’ve known them for weeks, and it feels like I’ve known them their entire lives.”
“It’ll be hard all around. The best we can do is be honest and go from there.”
“Yeah,” he said with another sigh. He pulled back onto the street and drove around the corner, then parked in front of a house. Reid stared out the window, noticing not the home but the two girls who lit up as soon as the car parked. They raced down the stairs and ran to the fence.
“Gemma’s a bit shy.”
“Not Lynnea, though,” Reid said.
Grayson nodded. “Don’t be jealous of her,” he joked. “She really likes me.”
Reid laughed. “I’ll try to rein it in.”
They got out of the car, with Grayson carrying the box of doughnuts. He reached for Reid’s hand when he met her on the sidewalk and guided her over to the girls.
“Weid!” Lynnea screamed her name and jumped up and down. She fumbled with the latch on the gate and finally got it open but didn’t pass the threshold until Grayson was there. She launched herself at Reid.
Grayson’s mouth dropped open, and Reid smirked.
“Hi, Lynnea,” Reid said as she gave her a hug. “It’s nice to meet you in person.”
“Me too. Come on.” Lynnea grabbed her hand and started to tug, but Reid told her to wait up a bit.
“Hi, Gemma, it’s nice to meet you as well.” Reid held out her hand.
Gemma stared at it for a moment and then looked at Grayson. She beckoned him forward and cupped her hand over his ear, and then he nodded. Gemma smiled and then wrapped her arms around Reid’s waist, catching her off guard.
Reid hugged her back.
“Grayson talks about you a lot,” she told her.
“He talks about you girls as well.”
“Oh no,” Lynnea moaned.
Everyone laughed.
They took the girls inside, where Grayson made introductions to Nadia and Kiran. No one else offered any hugs, which Reid was okay with. Hugging kids was one thing. Adults were a whole other thing. They joined everyone at the dining room table for breakfast, and as soon as Grayson sat down next to her, she leaned into him.
“You have a type.”
“A what?”
Reid motioned toward Nadia, who was busy putting plates in front of the girls. “We have the same color hair.”
Grayson looked from Reid to Nadia, and then at Gemma. “I have nothing to say for myself,” he told her, laughing.
“Were all the girls you dated in college red haired?”
He shook his head. “Nope. You and Nadia are the only ones.”
“Ah, I see. Start with red, end with red.”
“Is there anything better?”
Reid smiled and said, “Nope. We’re literally the best.”
“Reid.” Nadia said her name to get her attention. “Grayson says you work together?”
“We do. I work in Human Resources.”
“We fear our HR department at work,” Kiran said. “Anytime we get an email from them, I think we lose a year off our lives.”
“Oh no, it shouldn’t be like that,” Reid said. “Where we work, we try to make HR approachable and part of the team. Everyone but our director is an employee advocate. We each have teams. Our director speaks for the company; we speak for the employees.”
“I’m surprised you’re not unionized,” Kiran said to Grayson.
“The setup at Wold is different,” Reid said as she looked at Grayson. “The owners really value their employees and make sure we receive an annual cost of living increase and bonuses, and we always give out merit awards for productivity, closing sales, things like that.”
“I’ll be honest, I’d never heard of someone designing tables until Grayson told me what he does,” Nadia said. “Now I look at this table differently.”
“Same,” Kiran said. “I went into a board meeting the other day and looked at the inlay.” He shook his head. “Grayson’s ruined me.” He laughed.
“What can I say?” Grayson held his hands up. “Anytime you want to come tour the facility, let us know. Everything happens on-site. Nothing is outsourced. From start to finish, the product is made at Wold.”
“Maybe we can take a visit this summer,” Kiran said to Nadia.
Reid didn’t miss the exchange between them and agreed with Grayson that Kiran definitely had a crush on Nadia. She tried to put herself in Nadia’s shoes, having two young kids and losing her husband. Would she move on after a year? It was hard to say. The heart made people feel things differently. The situation Grayson was in was the perfect example. He’d loved two strangers from the moment he’d met them and couldn’t imagine his life without them. Maybe that was the same for Nadia, with Kiran being Rafe’s best friend. They’d known each other for years, and falling in love could’ve been a natural progression. And then Reid imagined herself with Pearce and quickly changed her mind. He was nice and she liked him, but she knew far too much about him and his ways to think he’d ever be a good fit for her. But then, if you lost someone you loved, grief could really change you.