“As I live and breathe.” Mr. Bates stops on the steps, his eyes going wide. He’s an impossibly tall man in his sixties, with big, wide shoulders that take up most of the staircase behind fragile old Miss Hales. He eases sideways past her now, hurrying over to Gray’s side. He takes Gray’s hand in his own, shaking it enthusiastically.
Gray glances over at me. “Um, do I know—”
“Gray Smith,” Mr. Bates announces, throwing back the bottom of his jacket to put his hands on his hips. “Miss Moore, if recruiting for me is another one of your inn’s services, I think you’ve just earned yourself a five-star Yelp review.”
“Recruiting?” Gray repeats.
Miss Hales steps up to Mr. Bates’s side. They arrived at the inn within days of each other, and from the moment the withered and pale Miss Hales saw him, she’d had new color in her cheeks and I’ve heard a sewing machine humming along upstairs at all hours of the night. I’m fairly confident she purchased a machine specifically to lower the collars of her shirts and raise the hems of her skirts, putting her most wrinkled and wan assets on display.
“Eugene is the new basketball coach for Little Haven High School,” she explains, putting a bony, suggestive finger to Mr. Bates’s arm lovingly. “He’s going to whip all those boys into shape, including the grandson I’m in town visiting who is on the team.”
Her face gets a shade pinker, and her chest heaves as she absorbs Mr. Bates with no care that the rest of us are watching.
“He’s going to run ‘em,” she says in a husky, faraway voice. “He’s going to show ‘em how to stretch andwork…”
“Uh, Mr. Bates is staying at my inn until he can find a home to purchase,” I explain.
Mr. Bates nods, clapping a hand on Gray’s shoulder. “I’m hosting my first practice this week. We’d love to have you out with us.”
“Yes, the more men the better…” Miss Hales mumbles to no one in particular, licking her lips.
I step out from behind the counter and grab Gray’s wrist, rescuing him before he gets in too deep.
“I’m sure you’ll have more opportunities to pitch your new coaching prospect later,” I assure Mr. Bates as I guide Gray toward the staircase up to the rooms. “But for now, he’s got to be tired after a day full of travel.”
“Thank you,” Gray mutters in my ear. “But if we leave them, is there a chance that old woman assaults Mr. Bates?”
I snort. “He can hold his own, I promise.”
We round the bend in the stairs, and then we’re up on the second story. I lead Gray down the wide hall of rooms, and we stop at the last door on the left. I hold up his little brass key and deposit it in his palm when he holds out his hand. I grit my teeth as his fingers close around mine.
“My room is just here across the hall if you need anything.”
I gesture at a plain door, shut and locked. Gray’s eyebrows raise, and I clear my throat.
“I, um, have a maid service that comes by around ten o’clock,” I tell him. “And breakfast is every day from seven to nine. Don’t miss it.”
“What’s on the menu?”
I shrug. “Whatever Hunter shoots in his backyard tonight.” Gray’s eyes widen. I smirk. “More sarcasm, I promise. We’ll be having sausage and grits.”
I’m stepping back to the staircase when Gray reaches out and grabs my arm. When I look back at him, his brow is pinched tight in the middle and his dark eyes are questioning.
“Listen, I’m sorry I was bitching about the town at our first introduction,” he says. “It’s just hard to come back home after spending so much time in a metropolitan area, right? I mean, would it kill City Council to approve one Walmart?”
I laugh, but my stomach only tightens up further.
“Still, I’m glad I’m staying here,” he says. “With you.”
I nod, swallowing down the lump that’s formed in my throat. “Just holler if you need anything.”
And then I’m bolting down the hall, for the first time eager to return to Miss Hales’s slow take-down of her younger prey. It’s impossible to think when I’m around Gray. Hell, it’s impossible tohearanything over the beating of my damn heart.
I steal one last glance at him before taking the stairs. He’s fiddling with the key, but he turns at the last second and those dark eyes catch me again.
Just holler if you need anything. Sheesh. He could ring my line for anything from a blowjob to a hit job and I’d probably come running.
CHAPTER THREE: GRAY