Take Me Home (The Heartbreak Brothers 1)
“Just a few friends,” Maddie said hurriedly. “Good night.”
Before her mom could ask her anymore questions, she grabbed her sweater and purse and walked out onto the stoop, planning to sit on the porch swing until Gray arrived. But then she saw him walking up the path, wearing a pair of jeans, a dark grey hoodie, and a baseball cap, and she stopped at the top of the steps.
“Hey.” He looked up at her, pulling his hat off. “I was just about to knock.”
“I decided to wait out here. I didn’t want to disturb my mom.”
A slow smile curled his lips. “You look pretty,” he said, taking in her blue-and-white summer dress, fitted at the bodice before flaring at her hips. She was wearing her hair down, her dark waves cascading down her back. When she’d taken a look in the mirror, she’d breathed a sigh of relief that she’d managed to tame it.
He reached the bottom of the stairs and held his hand out to her. She slid hers inside his palm, feeling the warmth of it, the calluses from playing the guitar. And the strength in his fingers as they curled around hers.
“Where are we going?” she asked, as he led her to a truck parked across the driveway. It was shiny and new from the looks of it. Expensive, too. Not the kind of truck you usually saw around Hartson’s Creek.
“I thought we could go for a drive.” He opened the door and helped her inside. “I packed some food and drinks. Wasn’t sure if you’d eaten.”
“I can eat again.” She shrugged. “Especially if it’s Aunt Gina’s cooking.”
“How did you guess?” He grinned.
She winked. “Women’s intuition. But what I’m more interested in is what you told her you needed the food for.”
He climbed into the cab and pulled his seatbelt on, pressing the ignition so the engine roared to life. “She didn’t ask and I didn’t tell. But if she had, I would’ve told her I’m trying to woo a beautiful woman, and I need all the help I can get.”
“Woo?” Maddie laughed because it reminded her of her conversation with Carter the prior week. “That’s the second time I’ve heard that word in the past few weeks.”
Gray lifted an eyebrow. “Is somebody else wooing you?”
“Not unless you count my nephew.” She grinned. “I’m hoping you might do it a little better.”
“Maybe.” He pressed his foot on the gas. “Is it working?”
Was it? She turned to look at him, taking in his profile. Strong nose, soft lips, jaw shadowed with evening beard growth. He’d thrown his cap into the back seat and his hair was mussed, but that made him look even more good looking, if possible.
Even before he’d headed to LA and become famous, he’d been out of her league. Now he was a million miles up in the stratosphere. Yet here he was, talking about wooing her, and it made her feel funny inside.
“Can I ask you something?” she said as he took a left onto the main road out of town.
“Yeah. Shoot.”
“Why am I here?”
The corner of his lips quirked up. “I already told you. I’m wooing you.”
“But why me? Of all the people you could be sitting next to right now, why me?”
He pressed his foot to the brake, bringing the car to a stop in the deserted lane. “What people do you think I want to be sitting next to?” he asked, turning to face her. His brows were knitted together.
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She had to fight the urge not to smooth out the lines in his frown. “It doesn’t matter,” she told him. “I’m just being stupid.”
“It clearly matters to you. So it matters to me, too. So let me tell you something right now. There’s nobody in the world I’d rather have sitting in that seat than you. When you agreed to let me pick you up I felt like I’d won a goddamned prize. Because I get the impression you don’t agree to this kind of thing very often.”
“No, I don’t,” she said softly.
He reached out to take her chin between his fingers, his grasp soft but sure. Slowly, he angled her head until she was staring right into his eyes. “So why did you agree to it today?”
Her breath caught at the intensity of his stare. It made her whole body heat up, like the sun was beating down on her. If he kept this going for too long she was going to get burned.