He considered that for a moment, and then his gaze moved over her. “Do you suppose Pop drives safely?”
“I guess?” This was a weird conversation. Why was it okay for the guys to ride the ATVs through the woods but not Elise? It didn’t make sense.
He grunted and sat down at his desk to work. They ignored each other until he put down his phone and said, “My parents left me a voicemail. They want to go out to the boat today and want us to come. And they insist on you going.”
Brenna perked up. “Boat? You guys have a boat? Do people even go out on the lake in November?”
He gave her a curt nod. “It’s housed at the marina. Bring a jacket. We’ll be doing some fishing.”
“Sounds like fun.” When he said nothing else, she added, “Are you going to pout the whole time?”
“Pout? You think I’m pouting?” He gave a harsh snort. “Get over yourself.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Sounds like pouting to me. It’s not like the sex wasn’t any good.”
Grant looked over at her. He got up from his chair and slowly, casually, walked over to hers and leaned over her desk. His gaze moved from her messy hair down to her borrowed shirt, and she wondered if he could tell that she wasn’t wearing a bra underneath. Or that her ni**les had gone hard the moment he’d leaned over her desk. “The sex,” he said in a low voice, “was spectacular. And if I misinterpreted your signals, that’s on me. Rest assured that I’m not going to harass you to stay with me again, Brenna. You made it loud and clear that all you want from me is sex and pretending. So we’ll pretend for the sake of my family and leave it at that. Understand?”
“Good,” she said brightly, but for some reason it didn’t feel so good. Had she hurt his feelings? Normally Grant was a pain in the ass, but he was never icy like this.
Dane wandered in, yawning, and paused at the sight of Grant leaning over Brenna’s desk. “Something going on?”
Grant pushed off her desk, giving her one last searing look before moving back to his desk. “Nothing. I was just instructing Brenna on a new task.”
“Oh,” Dane said, and then searched Brenna’s face. She smiled at him, hiding her emotions, and gave him a quick thumbs up to let him know everything was fine.
She didn’t know what to think of Grant’s response. It was what she’d wanted to hear, of course, but the tone had been so very . . . detached.
Whistling to himself, Dane wandered into the kitchen of the main lodge and returned a minute later with a water bottle. He leaned on the door jamb and glanced over at Brenna’s computer, where she was playing solitaire and distinctly avoiding talking to either of them. “Huh,” he said after a minute.
“What?” Grant snapped.
Dane shrugged, not taking offense at Grant’s tone. “I was just surprised that Brenna went to Tulane, too. You two didn’t know each other back then, I thought?”
She had no clue what he was talking about. It took a moment for it to register, and then she glanced down at her chest. Sure enough, she’d picked up a Tulane University T-shirt from Grant’s drawer. His alma mater. Oops.
“Different years,” Grant said shortly, and picked up his phone to end the conversation.
“Huh,” Dane said again.
• • •
When they got to the marina, Justine took one look at Brenna’s short-sleeved T-shirt and tsked. “You’re going to freeze to death out on the water.”
Which made Grant feel slightly justified, since he’d told Brenna that at least three times in the car ride over and she’d ignored him each time. But all he said was, “Brenna didn’t want to change into a jacket.”
Brenna shrugged, ignoring his foul mood and moving forward to hug his mother affectionately, a move that surprised Grant and pleased his mother. “I don’t have a jacket. And I’m sure I’ll be fine! It’s not that cold today.”
“No jacket!” She turned back to Grant. “Take this girl shopping, won’t you?”
“No shopping,” Brenna said just as quickly. “I don’t need one, really. I’m fine. So is this your boat?” She stepped past Justine and onto the boat where Reggie was fiddling with the controls. “What’s it called?”
Grant hugged his mother in greeting and headed in after Brenna, just to make sure she didn’t do something stupid like lean over the rails.
“It’s called the Bass Belle.”
“Oh. You like fishing?” Brenna asked, moving to his father’s side and staring at the controls as if she could figure it out. “What’s this button do?”
Resisting the urge to slap her hand away from the controls, Grant left that for his father to handle. He moved to the stern of the fifty-foot yacht and laid a hand on his sister’s shoulder and leaned in. “Think there’s a chance in hell that Dad’ll skip the fishing today?”
Elise laughed and glanced back to the cabin, where their father was dutifully pointing out controls to a wide-eyed Brenna. “Not a chance. He’ll want to show Brenna that he can catch dinner. I think he likes her.” She nudged her brother and then added, “We all like her.”
With a sigh, Grant glanced back at the two heads bent over the controls of the yacht, one in a sailing cap and the other with a thick fringe of purple bangs. “You do? Half the time I’m not even sure I like her.”
“Very funny,” Elise said sarcastically. “I saw how you couldn’t take your eyes off her at dinner last night.”
That was because I was afraid of what was going to come out of her mouth, he wanted to tell his sister. But he said nothing. Because Elise had seen Brenna with the condoms and today she was wearing his shirt. It would be obvious to anyone that they were together.
Anyone but Brenna, that is.
He supposed he could have told Elise the truth. Actually, she’s just pretending to be my girlfriend so Mom and Dad won’t harass me about dating. Oh, and she likes to annoy me and this gives her the perfect opportunity to get under my skin for a time. The condoms? We slept together. No big deal. According to her it was nothing.
Which didn’t sit right in his gut, of course. It was the first time he’d even looked twice at a woman since Heather had died, and the first time he’d touched someone in longer than that. The sex had been good. Hell, the sex had been amazing. He’d thought his mind was going to fry the moment he saw that piercing, and yet it had been so typically Brenna that it seemed natural on her. They’d gotten along so well over dinner and even afterward. She’d slept in his bed, curled in his blankets next to his side, and something about it had felt so incredibly right that he’d felt an intense bolt of longing rush through him. He’d wanted this.