Page 9 of Gray’s Surrender

The plan feels solid until she steps from her car. She wears a sleeveless black dress that stops above her knees and flat sandals. Her hair is loose, copper catching beneath the sun. Nothing about what she’s wearing is designed to distract me, but it does anyway. Meg closes the car door.

I lead her inside. The house is quiet in a way it rarely is. No television, no music, no second set of footsteps above mine. Meg stops in the kitchen where I had her against the wall last night. Her gaze touches the place, then me.

“This is where you tell me last night can’t happen again, right?”

“Not exactly.”

“That sounds promising.”

“Sit down, Meg.”

Her eyebrows rise. “That’s never an encouraging opening.” She sits at the table anyway. I remain standing because distance feels necessary, then realize how that looks and take the chair opposite her.

“I’ll find different cover for next week,” I say.

Meg studies me while I continue. “Mrs. Lawson can take a couple of days. I talked to Kane. I can probably move things around at the compound for the rest.”

“Can you?”

“I’ll have to make it work.”

“That wasn’t my question.”

I rest my forearms on the table. “It’s handled.”

“There’s the phrase men use when they want the conversation over.”

“I’m not saying that.”

“No. You’re just cutting me out of a commitment I made and telling me it’s already settled.”

“After last night, having you here isn’t simple anymore.”

“I don’t recall asking for simple.”

“Ruby is getting attached to you. She’s getting used to you being around.”

Meg’s expression changes. Not anger yet, just attention.

“She trusts you,” I continue. “She waits for you. Talks about what you’ll do the next day.”

“Is that so bad?”

“Her mom left when she was three.”

“I know that, Gray.”

“No, you know the fact. You didn’t live through a year of her sitting by the front window whenever a car slowed. You didn’t hear her ask what was wrong with her that made her mom stay gone.” The words come harder than I intend. Meg doesn’t look away. “If you and I cross this line, Ruby gets pulled into whatever happens after.”

“Whatever happens?” she repeats.

“Relationships end.”

“They do.”

Her agreement makes my chest tighten. “If we end, she loses you too.”

“So the safest answer is to push me out now, then?”