Tessa.
Tessa was my close call, too. I may have fallen hard and fast for Grip that week, but I’ve been getting back up ever since. My hands and knees may be scraped, but I’m otherwise in tact, if not a little tougher and smarter. Tougher and smarter should be the natural evolution of a woman. It’s the only way we’ll survive as the “weaker” sex in this world.
Weaker, my ass.
“Just admit you want this,” Rhyson says with a laugh.
I carefully peer through the crack to see Rhyson’s very pregnant wife sitting on his lap. He brushes Kai’s long, dark hair away from her neck to drop a kiss there. I can’t believe Gep, Rhyson’s most trusted security guard, isn’t
out here keeping watch. Then I notice a shiny shoe only a few feet from Rhyson’s. Figures. Gep is inside with them.
“You two do make it look good.” The smile in Grip’s voice stills my heart for a beat. “But it looks good on you because you found the right girl. A lifetime with the wrong girl is a sentence.”
“Then find the right girl,” Rhyson says. “And do not say it’s Bristol.”
A needle pulls through my heart at my brother’s words. Grip and I aren’t right for each other, but to hear someone else say it, to hear my own brother say it, hurts.
“Don’t start.” Now Grip’s voice is tight. No sign of a smile.
“Yeah, Rhyson,” Kai chimes in. “I believe Bristol will come around.”
You’re wrong, honey.
“I already told you who Bristol will marry,” Rhyson says. This I gotta hear. My brother is notoriously obtuse about me.
“She’ll marry some guy in a suit with a stick up his ass and who has our mother’s approval.”
Okay. Maybe not completely off base.
“Don’t say that about your sister,” Kai says.
“It isn’t a criticism,” Rhyson replies, his tone ringing with truth. “Just a prediction. Bristol wants more control than what she would have with a guy like you, Marlon.”
“We’ll see, huh?” Grip answers softly. “You might be right.”
“I still have my money on Grip and Bristol.” Kai’s voice is light but a little defiant.
“Don’t lose our money, Pep,” Rhyson says. “Ow! Why’d you hit me?”
“Because you’re being a jerk,” she says, laughing a little. “And I’ll kiss it better.”
They would turn my stomach if I wasn’t getting a niece out of this in the next month or so.
“Uh . . . I’m still here,” Grip says. “Don’t start making out. Remember Gep’s innocent, virgin eyes.”
Gep’s gruff hack of a laugh joins the others. I’m positive the ex-CIA operative hasn’t been innocent or a virgin in decades.
“In all seriousness,” Rhyson continues. “Qwest likes you a lot.”
“What gave you that idea?’ Grip asks. “The way she practically dry humps me onstage every time we perform? Maybe I’ll wear a condom for our set tonight.”
I find myself smiling listening to them laugh. “She’s a sweet girl,” Kai defends.
Kai actually pointed Qwest my way when the rapper asked about meeting Grip. They’ve developed some kind of odd friendship. Odd because Qwest may be sweet in her own way, but she’s a diva. She and I would still rip each other’s hair out. Kai doesn’t have a drop of diva in her body.
“She’s very sweet,” Grip agrees. “I’ve been surprised by how sweet she is. And smart. And gorgeous. And funny. She’s actually kind of amazing.”
That needle makes another pass through the fibers of my heart as I listen to Grip’s glowing words for Qwest. Why wouldn’t he think those things?