Only with You
Page 25

Sophie blinked in surprise. He was talking about her as though they were together. Which they weren’t. But he was out the door before she could figure out what he’d meant.
“He likes you,” Ashley said as she patted a bar stool at the center island. “It took him forever to admit it, even to Ian. But he wouldn’t have brought you here otherwise.”
“He hasn’t brought over women before?” Sophie was trying for casual curiosity, but it came out as insecure prying.
Ashley shrugged. “Not since Jessica. He’s mentioned he was engaged once?”
“Yeah. Wasn’t exactly liberal with the details, though.”
“Shocker.”
Sophie smiled. “You know him well.”
The other woman tilted her head. “So do you, apparently.”
“We work together. It’s my job to read him.”
“On weekends too?”
Sophie took a long sip of her wine and shifted in her seat. “I don’t really know what this is. I thought he was just bringing me along to make the situation more comfortable, but I’ve never seen him as comfortable as he is with you guys, so obviously that’s not it…”
Ashley shook her head. “He comes over every couple weeks or so. No buffer needed.”
Sophie was more confused than ever.
“It’s like I said,” Ashley said gently. “He likes you.”
A sharp rapping at the glass had them both looking up to see Ian staring in the kitchen window, miming shoving something in his mouth and pointing at the fridge.
“Oh crap, I forgot all about the bruschetta,” Ashley said. “I kind of wanted nothing to do with it after a tomato exploded all over my shirt. Sorry, I meant to change first, but I’m comfy.”
Sophie smiled. “Believe me, I like it better this way. I was picturing someone like my mother. Frosty hair, ever-present pearls, and designer slacks.”
Ashley snorted. “Not my thing. Grab that wine while I get the appetizers. Let’s go feed the menfolk.”
By the time the four of them were sitting around the outdoor table to a delicious dinner of barbecue chicken, grilled corn, and all-American potato salad, Sophie was feeling like part of their little dinner-party family.
The way Gray had his arm around the back of her chair and kept toying with the ends of her hair didn’t hurt either. She was starting to get the warm, glowing feeling that Ashley might be right.
Perhaps he did like her.
She grabbed her wineglass and leaned toward him just slightly, relishing the warmth from the wine, the toasty outdoor heaters, and the horribly attractive man by her side.
“So, Sophie,” Ian said, taking a long pull of his beer, “how’s your sister dealing with you stealing her boyfriend?”
Sophie choked on her wine and gave Gray a panicked look. He merely stared back with a raised eyebrow.
“Oh, Gray and I aren’t…We’re not…I didn’t steal anybody,” Sophie said, feeling suddenly sweaty. These damn heaters. Damn wine. Damn man.
Ashley and Ian exchanged a conspiratorial look, but Ashley apparently took pity on her and changed the subject. “So, Gray, do you talk to Mary often?” Ashley asked.
Ian gave them a bland look. “No.”
“Who’s Mary?” Sophie asked.
“His old assistant,” Ashley explained. “He tried to bring her out to Seattle with him, but she didn’t want to move. But I’m betting he never spent time with her outside of the office.”
“Ash,” Gray said mildly. “You’re going to make Sophie uncomfortable.”
Sophie’s mind was reeling. What was going on here? Since when was Gray the one to make a situation more comfortable? That was supposed to be her job. And why was he not refuting them?
“Gray, you’re going to give them the wrong idea,” she murmured softly, even as she kicked him not so softly under the table.
“What idea is that?” he replied just as softly, giving her a private smile.
“That we’re…you know…a thing.”
He shrugged. “I can’t control what they think.”
“It’s true,” Ian said unapologetically. “We’ll make our own assumptions regardless of your excuses.”
Sophie hated that she was blushing, and Ashley gave her a sympathetic look before she stood and began gathering dishes. “Soph, would you mind grabbing that platter? We need more room on the table for dessert.”
“Absolutely!” Sophie said, shooting to her feet. She’d grabbed the plate and was in the kitchen before Ashley had stacked more than two plates.
“Sorry about that,” Ashley said, as she came into the kitchen. “The three of us have always been open with one another. It’s unfair to expect you to spill your guts when you’ve just met us.”
“It’s not that,” Sophie said, fiddling with a piece of paper towel. “I actually have chronic verbal diarrhea. Spilling my guts is kind of my thing. It’s just…I don’t know what Gray is after. And I can’t afford to be wrong, you know?”
“Yeah. I get it,” Ashley said, giving her a sympathetic glance.
Needing some space, Sophie threw the paper towel aside. “Is the bathroom down the hall?” she asked.
“Second door on the left.”
The hallway was covered in mismatched picture frames, most of them containing photos of a child whom she assumed to be Ryan. There had to be at least two dozen pictures of a darling blond boy from babyhood to Little League.
At the far end of the hall was Ian and Ashley’s wedding picture, and she couldn’t help but grin at their elated young faces. Her eyes fell on the best man and she did a double take.
Gray. The short dark haircut hadn’t changed a bit over the years, and he had the same fit, lean build. But the gray eyes were less guarded than the ones she saw on a daily basis. And younger Gray was actually smiling.
“Cute, weren’t we?” Ashley said coming up beside her.
“You still are,” Sophie said truthfully. “I had no idea Gray had so many teeth.”
Something sad flashed across Ashley’s pixie-like features. “Yeah, well. He’s always been quiet and reserved, but back then he wasn’t quite so…”
“Emotionally handicapped?” Sophie supplied with a smile.
She expected Ashley to smile back, but she gave a small shake of her head. “I was going to say ‘wounded.’”
Sophie’s smile faded, and she stared again at the picture of Gray. She was so used to seeing his lack of social charms as a character flaw. What if it was an emotional scab that she kept picking at?
“What happened? The fiancée?” she asked Ashley.
The other woman gave a short nod. “It was a rough one.”
For some reason, Sophie had a hard time picturing Gray being hurt by a woman. He seemed the type to let the messy emotional stuff roll right off of him.
Ashley seemed to be studying Sophie for a minute before directing Sophie’s attention to another picture. “That’s Jessica.”
The picture seemed to be at a celebration of some sort. Gray had his arm around a blonde woman, and Sophie leaned in for a closer look.
And felt like she’d been kicked in the stomach.
“She looks just like me.”
Ashley nodded. “This picture doesn’t even do your similarities justice. The facial features are uncanny. Ian mentioned that Gray thought there was a resemblance, but seeing you on the front porch took my breath away. It was like déjà vu.”
“Wow, no wonder he’s had such a hard time liking me,” Sophie muttered. “What happened exactly?”
Ashley looked away guiltily. “It’s not really my story to tell. I shouldn’t even have shown you this picture. I just thought you should know. She’s the reason he insists he’ll never get married.”
There was another kick in the stomach. Much harder this time.
It doesn’t matter.
Why should it matter? One kiss and an arm around the back of her chair did not a soul mate make.
“Really?” Sophie asked, grateful that her voice didn’t croak. “I didn’t know. I mean…we’ve obviously never had that kind of discussion.”
Ashley gave her a knowing look. “I’m not trying to rush you to the altar, of course. But if you are looking for an eventual husband and father of your children, well…it’s always better to know sooner, isn’t it?”
“Thank you for telling me,” Sophie said, not really sure if she meant it. Navigating this weird thing happening with her boss was hard enough without knowing she was basically a ghost from his past.
As for the whole Gray will never get married thing, well…that just wasn’t her problem, now, was it?
After using the restroom, Sophie helped Ashley finish doing all the dishes, but her previously light, giddy mood had evaporated. Her eyes kept straying to Gray’s profile as he and Ian still sat at the outdoor table.
At Ashley’s request, Sophie took dessert out on the patio and began dishing up strawberry shortcake with more force than necessary.
“Here,” she snapped at Gray. She shoved the plate in his direction and sucked in a sharp breath when she felt his fingers brush deliberately against hers. And linger.
He stared up at her with hooded eyes, and Sophie jerked her hand back so quickly that she bobbled the plate, leaving Gray to make a quick grab for it with two hands.
“Sorry,” she muttered as a strawberry fell into his lap. The pink stain on his perfectly pressed khakis was immensely satisfying.
He gave her a questioning glance, which she ignored. She couldn’t help it—she was mad. Mad that he hadn’t trusted her enough to mention a rather significant detail about his past.
Really, he might have mentioned that she just happened to be the spitting image of a woman who’d spit on his heart.
And it wasn’t just anger rippling through her.
It was fear.
What if his apparent growing attraction had nothing to do with Sophie herself and everything to do with the fact that she resembled someone that he wasn’t over?
Was she just a stand-in for the real deal? First Brynn and now Jessica. Hell, she was apparently even second choice to Mary, his old office assistant.
It seemed that she couldn’t escape her role of backup plan in Gray’s life.
When everyone had been served dessert, Sophie reclaimed her seat next to Gray, but there was none of the casual intimacy of before. He must have sensed her mood, because there was no arm around the back of her chair, and no playful brushing of his knee against hers.
Sophie felt strangely like crying and she wasn’t even sure why.
Ian and Ashley kept the conversation easy and light, but the contentedness she’d felt during dinner had evaporated. By the time their hosts were showing them to the door, Gray and Sophie were like two strangers.
Ashley gave her a questioning look as she hugged her good-bye, and Sophie just shrugged. She didn’t know how to explain why she and Gray had gone from easy to enemy in the span of ten seconds. She only knew that it was something they seemed to be damn good at.
If dessert had been awkward, the ride home was downright painful.
Gray didn’t say a word, which was pretty much par for the course in their relationship. But for the first time since she’d met him…hell, the first time since she could remember, Sophie didn’t have the urge to fill the silence with happy, useless chatter.
The silence was uncomfortable, but stewing in it was oddly gratifying.
Gray pulled up in front of Sophie’s apartment building just as it started to rain. That too was satisfying.
Still, being sulky didn’t mean she had to be rude, and she couldn’t very well just climb out of the car and slam the door.
Especially when the man hadn’t actually done anything wrong.
Not directly.
“Thanks for the evening,” she said finally, as he put the car in park and turned toward her. “Ian and Ashley are really great.”
Gray gave a curt nod, and Sophie gave him several seconds to come up with a bland, polite response, but he remained silent.
Fine. Go ahead and be an emotionally closed-off hermit.
“Well, good night,” she said, giving up on him and reaching for the door handle.
He stopped her with the briefest of tentative touches on her arm. “What happened?”
“What do you mean?” Sophie hoped playing dumb never went out of style, because it was damn handy.
“Something happened. You were there with me at dinner…and then dessert came out and you were…gone.”
She thought about not responding. Leaving him in the dark about what made her tick just like he did to her. But then she saw his eyes and the vulnerability there, and she couldn’t just leave it alone.
“Why didn’t you tell me that your ex-fiancée and I could have been twins?” she asked, keeping her tone as neutral as she could. She didn’t want a fight. Just answers.
Gray’s eyes closed. “Goddamn it, Ashley.”
“It wasn’t her fault,” Sophie said, fudging slightly in defense of her new friend. “I saw a picture of you two on their wall. It was like looking in a mirror. I didn’t think it was possible for two unrelated people to look so alike except in the movies.”
“Me neither,” he said roughly. “Learning otherwise was not a pleasant surprise.”
“You should have mentioned it.”
“Why? I haven’t seen Jessica in over a year, and she has no part in my future. And I don’t owe you any explanations about past relationships.”