“This is awkward,” she mumbled with a forced smile. “Obviously I don’t need an introduction, are you all ready to order?”

“Yes,” I said before Knox or Deacon could ask for another waitress—it wouldn’t have been the first time. “We are.”

“Great, what can I get you?”

“I’M SO EXHAUSTED. I feel like a grandma, and it’s barely nine,” Grey groaned almost three hours later when we were back home. “I just want to go lie down in bed.”

I finished arming the security system and looked over my shoulder to see her walking toward the stairs. “Do you think we could talk?”

“Of course, what do you want to talk about?” she asked without stopping.

“Not in the bedroom. I want to talk down here.”

Grey turned to look at me when she heard my tone, her eyebrows rising in surprise. “Is everything okay?”

“With me?” I asked on a disbelieving laugh, and walked over to meet Grey at one of the couches. As soon as we were sitting down, I met her stare and held it. “Everything’s fine with me. I want to know what’s going on with you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you really not know what I’m talking about? You’ve been somewhere else all night. Your brother even noticed something was wrong.”

“Jagger, I’m just tired today. Work was overly exhausting, and everything kept going wrong there, so I’m just out of it because all I want to do is sleep. What is so wrong with that?”

“Was Graham right? Are you worried about LeAnn?”

She scoffed and sat back. “Why do you both think that all of a sudden? Of course I worry about what she might do, but I don’t focus on her like I did while she was trying to destroy us. I honestly think she’ll do anything to avoid jail, like I’ve told you before.”

I studied her for a while, then sighed, feeling defeated. “Fine. If you say there’s nothing wrong, then there’s nothing wrong.”

She looked at me again and shook her head. “I just want to go upstairs, curl up in your arms, and pretend like today never happened as I fall asleep. Okay?”

“Okay, Grey,” I said softly. “Let’s get you in bed, then.”

I followed her up the stairs and watched her as we both got ready for bed. After washing her face and stripping down until she was wearing only a thin tank top and her underwear, she climbed into bed and immediately curled into a ball against my chest. I looked down and couldn’t help but notice that she still looked like something was on her mind even with her eyes closed. Almost like her entire body was tight even after she’d relaxed onto the bed. Wrapping my arms tightly around her, I rested my chin against the top of her head, and exhaled heavily when I felt the tightness in her body slowly relax. No matter what she said, I couldn’t dismiss the way she’d looked all night and knew I would do everything to find out what was wrong if she was still the same the next day.

Chapter 18

Grey

November 12, 2014

MY FACE FELL right along with my heart when Mrs. Easton walked up to the counter at work. She looked around like she was genuinely trying to decide what to get, without ever looking at me. But from the sly smile on her face, I could tell that she knew I was there, and I knew why she was there. It had been another month and a half since her last visit to The Brew, and for a second I wondered if this was what I’d have to continue to expect until I figured out what to do. Every six weeks, her showing up at my place of work, asking for money. Because her man took off with everything, because her son wasn’t hers at all, but allegedly Jagger’s . . . and whatever else she had waiting to dump on me.

“I’ll take . . . four,” she mused, and then glanced down at me with a coy smile.

“Four what?”

“Oh, now don’t go playing stupid with me, Grey. You and I both know what.”

I ground my jaw for a few seconds before giving her the same smile she was giving me. “Four dollars? Sure, I’ll give you that in cash this time.”

“Don’t try to act smart.”

“That’s an insane amount of money,” I hissed, leaning forward so my voice wouldn’t carry. “I don’t even make enough to give you what I have already given—”

“I knew you had access to his money,” she bit out, cutting me off.

I didn’t. But I also didn’t want to tell her I was taking the money out of my savings, because then she would think she could get even more from me. “I don’t have that kind of money, and the fact that you think you can keep raising the price is ridiculous.”

“My grandson had to go the ER, Jagger should be footing that bill. And since you already know what will happen if Jagger finds out the truth about Keith, I guess you know what that means for you, don’t you?”

Unfortunately, I did. “I want to see the birth certificate and papers giving you custody.”

Without missing a beat, Mrs. Easton shrugged her shoulders. “Fine. Come on over sometime . . . without my son. I’ll show you myself. Or you could always just ask Charlie,” she added with a wicked smile.

I already had asked Charlie, and it hadn’t gone over well at all. She had just given me a shocked look and wanted to know who was asking—but never actually gave me a yes-or-no answer. And judging from the smile she was giving me, Mrs. Easton knew I’d been asking around. I hated that there wasn’t any sign that she was lying. “I don’t have the money.”