Standing His Ground: Greer (Porter Brothers Trilogy 2)

Greer’s face blanched. “I’m planning on a long nap. I might be getting a cold. I wouldn’t want you to catch it.”

“Aw…poor baby. I’ll make you some soup when I get home. Feel better.” She stepped away from him, so he could close the truck door. She knew how truly exhausted he was when he let her remarks pass.

When she went back to Diamond, they watched her husband drive away.

“If Knox looked at me that way when I suggested an afternoon in bed, I’d ask for a divorce,” she advised.

Holly shook her head in concern at how tired Greer looked. The stubborn man would rather lie than admit what had made him so tired, would rather plead sickness than admit he wouldn’t be able to perform in the bedroom until his strength returned. His limp dick was one price he would never admit to, even with a gun pointed at his head. Her braggart husband’s gift didn’t come without a price, and she wouldn’t be getting any until he recovered.

Both she and Diamond waved at Winter as she put Aisha in the backseat of her car. She had a good suspicion as to what had exhausted her husband so much.

“You think he took the job Knox offered him?” Diamond asked, reaching for her phone to text Knox.

“Yes,” Holly answered her absentmindedly, her mind on Greer.

Diamond snorted when Knox texted back. “I don’t know how you put up with that man. He told Knox he would only work twenty-five hours a week.”

“It’s more than I expected.”

Diamond’s eyes widened. “You’re not mad?”

Holly shook her head. “I married Greer knowing I wouldn’t be able to change him. I don’t want to. I don’t expect a perfect marriage.”

“You don’t think he told Knox I’m pregnant, do you?”

“I told you he wouldn’t when you told me you were pregnant and I couldn’t keep the secret any longer.”

She let Diamond rattle on about Greer, knowing she was still angry at him. Greer wouldn’t want her to make excuses for him; he wanted everyone to believe he was a cold-hearted a-hole, but she and their family new the truth. That he could walk the streets using his gift; no one would probably miss him if he never came back to town, not knowing he had left a piece of himself behind.

“By the way, what did you expect?” Diamond asked as Knox drove up to take her on their daily lunch date.

“That he would have the sizzle factor.”

Diamond paused getting inside the car. “Does he?”

“He doesn’t have the tongue ring, or the big bike, but he has something better.”

“Like what?”

“A big heart.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” She smiled and got inside Knox’s car. Diamond thought that as a newlywed, she was blind to his faults. Greer had told the truth; he had made a blind woman see. Her.

For the years she had lived with him, she had seen nothing but his faults. It was when he had catfished her that she looked beyond that to realize who he truly was; a man who loved his family with every breath of his being, and that included her. She had become part of the wheel that would carry the Porters into the next generation.

She decided to go back inside her office and work through her lunch hour when she saw Willa come out the back door of the church, waving.

Holly waved back before going inside. It was only when Willa continued waving as she walked toward the end of the church playground to the fence that she got her meaning. Crossing the small street to greet Willa, Holly saw she was holding a bag.

Willa held out the bright pink bag to her. “Greer called me and said he wasn’t taking you to lunch and asked me bring this to you.”

“Thank you, Willa. I was just going to eat an apple I have in the office.”

“He ordered you a chicken salad sandwich on a croissant.”

“Greer knows I love your chicken salad.”

Willa nodded happily. “It’s become one of my customers’ favorite. I usually add a cupcake when someone purchases a sandwich, but Greer told me to put some chocolate-covered strawberries in there for you.”

Holly practically saw her waistband growing; Willa’s strawberries were a decadent treat.

“He knows me and Logan fight over them.”