Sundae's Best (Briar County 2)

Grady barked out a laugh, pretty sure he was dreaming. Maybe he’d fallen off a ladder at work and hit his head. Maybe he wasn’t at Sundae’s Best at all, but at the hospital, hallucinating what Elsie had just said to him. “We’re friends,” he finally said.

“Of course you are. The best kinda love always starts that way. You know I’m right. You fit here. You’re home.”

Grady’s muscles tightened, his stomach twisting uncomfortably. How had she known he felt that way? Could Deacon have told her?

“You’re looking at me like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“I’m not sure I haven’t,” he replied.

“I just feel things. Most people do, but they don’t pay attention. Patricia would have liked you. Now I’m tired. Are you going to walk an old lady to her car or not?”

Grady laughed again, feeling closer to this woman than he had a right to feel. “Yes, Elsie. I am.”

“Didn’t even get the Ms. this time.”

“That’s because we’re past that. When someone knows what you’re feeling before you tell them, that tends to happen.”

“I supposed it does.”

He stood and helped her up. “I’ll be right back,” he mouthed to Deacon, then walked Elsie to her Cadillac.

Once she was behind the steering wheel, Grady said, “Thank you…for what you said in there. I don’t know what’s happening or if it’ll go anywhere, but I care about him.”

“I know you do.” She patted his hand, which he’d rested on the open window. “If not, we’d be having a whole different conversation.”

“I believe it too,” Grady replied, then stepped back and watched her drive away.

He didn’t know what to think or feel about what she’d said, if he thought she was right and he was different for Deacon, but somehow, he knew he was, at least on some level. Deacon wouldn’t let Grady hold him every night if that wasn’t the case.

He reached the door of Sundae’s Best right as Roe and Holden came from the opposite direction. “Hey, you guys made it.”

“Well, you wouldn’t shut up about your Sticky Bourbon, so we figured we should head down,” Roe teased.

“Wait until you taste it. You’ll understand why.”

Grady pulled open the door, and the three of them went inside. It was mostly cleared out now, only a couple of customers there. Deacon was behind the counter, watching them, and he nodded for the group to come over.

That was the first time Grady looked in the case…when he saw it: Grady’s Sticky Bourbon.

He felt a little weak, like his legs couldn’t quite hold him up, his stomach a weird mixture of light and tumbling. Patricia had an ice cream flavor… The rest of Deacon’s family did too. And now him. “You put my name on it,” he said without looking up. Part of him felt like it was a silly thing to be so damn touched over, but then he knew it wasn’t, how much this meant.

“It’s your ice cream,” Deacon replied.

He felt Roe’s and Holden’s stares, flicked his gaze in their direction—Holden looking at him while Roe turned to Deke.

After a moment of silence, Deacon said, “This okay? I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable.”

“I’m not.” He shook his head. “This is…hell, it’s incredible, Deke. I’m honored, is what I am. Just not sure what I did to deserve it.”

They were staring at each other then, the two of them, eyes locked. Goddamn this man and the way he made Grady feel. He didn’t even know how to describe it, because he’d never felt it before. He just felt right in a way he never had.

Roe cleared his throat. “Got a bit of an audience,” he said softly, which snapped them out of it.

Deacon recovered quickly. “Here, let me get you guys some Sticky Bourbon.”

He got bowls and filled three of them. He helped again with another small rush of customers while Grady, Roe, and Holden went to the outside area. He could smell coming rain in the air, something he hadn’t been able to do when he moved there. It hadn’t been long, but he already knew Everett and some of her secrets.

“We should get together sometime, the four of us,” Holden said. It was clear he and Roe had noticed something was up.

“Yeah, that’d be great. I’ll talk to Deke.”

“I got all sorts of questions, but I’m reminding myself I’m a forty-six-year-old man and not a gossip, so I should keep my mouth shut,” Roe said, making the three of them bark out a laugh.

“Not sure I have any answers for you anyway,” Grady replied.

“Well, you make good ice cream, that’s for sure,” Roe said.

“That was all him.” Grady might have come up with the flavor combination, but the rest was all Deacon. He turned and looked through the window at Deacon working.

Holden laughed. “I recognize that look. Welcome to the club, man.” He put a hand on Grady’s shoulder and squeezed.