Saving Grace by Katie Graykowski Page A

admit thinking about how she’d feel against him. He leaned down, his lips an inch from hers.
    “No.” She stepped back. “We can’t. It’s a bad idea.”
    “You keep saying that, but I can’t think of a reason we shouldn’t get to know each other better. We could go out to dinner…you know…a date.” His voice was higher than usual, and his heart pounded a mile a minute waiting for her answer.
    “I can’t.” Sadness crept into her eyes. “It’s funny. You’re the first man I’ve been attracted to in a long time, but I can’t. Right now, I have to put the kids first and my uncle. I need this job, and I love it.”
    She headed back to the grill.
    A slow smile worked its way across his face. “When there’s something I want, I don’t give up. I’m not a quitter. I’ll wear you down. You’re going to go out with me…that’s a promise.”
    He hadn’t won two Super Bowls as a quarterback and another two as a coach by throwing in the towel. He and Grace would go out, they would kiss, and they would sleep together. Sex with her…only he had a feeling that it wouldn’t just be sex—it would be so much more. He rubbed his hands together in anticipation.
    “Stop eye-screwing me. We’re never going to be together,” Grace said as she picked up the tongs. “How do you like your steak?”
    She rolled her eyes. “And don’t say rare and juicy just like you like your women.”
    He closed his mouth and scratched the back of his head. He hadn’t been about to say that…okay, he might have. Grace was wrong, they would be together, and she would enjoy it. They had a future. Were they destined to end up walking down the aisle? The fact that his mind had taken him there was a scary thought.
    Why had it gone there?
    He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He’d never thought to marry again. Once had been more than enough. Grace arranged green beans on the top grill shelf. She wasn’t Alice though and every relationship was different.
    What would one with Grace be like? He smiled. Zany, fun, loving…more than anything he wanted to find out.

 
     
     
Chapter 12
     
     
    Two days later, Clementine was settling in nicely. He stepped onto his new dog pillows, walked around in a circle exactly three times, and then lowered his giant body onto the two pillows—because one wasn’t enough. Grace had set him up in the corner of the breakfast room. He still eyed the pool skeptically, but he no longer cowered behind her when he went outside. She loaded the last dirty dish into the dishwasher, popped in a dish tab, and closed the door. She leaned against the counter and inspected the kitchen. It was spotless.
    CoCo walked in flanked by HW and Cart. She leaned on the island across from Grace.
    “We need to talk to you.” CoCo was all seriousness.
    “What happened?” She glanced from CoCo to the boys and back again.
    “Nothing.” HW knelt down next to Clementine and petted him.
    “Dad’s birthday is coming up. We’d like to throw him a party.” CoCo said. “A couple of weeks ago, I heard him tell Debra he’d never had a birthday party…even as a kid.” She shrugged. “He always throws us big parties so we wanted to do something for him.”
    Grace nodded. “I’m in. What did you have in mind?”
    She’s never had a birthday party either…well, except for a family party when she was a kid.
    “How about a pool party?” Grace offered.
    Clementine howled in protest.
    Cart knelt beside him and hugged him. “No pool party, I promise.”
    Grace smiled at the sound of his voice. Clementine may be a handful, but he’d opened up Cart in a way that would have taken her months.
    CoCo sat in the kitchen chair closest to Clementine and used her bare foot to rub his back. “Something big, with all of his friends and the team. Some good food, music, and I don’t know…dancing? What do adults usually have at their birthday parties?”
    “You nailed it. Food, drinks, conversations, and sometimes dancing