Wishing For You (Never Too Late Book 2) Read online

  “Okay, fine!” she sighed, her shoulders slumping toward him. His hands clenched into fists in his lap, so as not to touch her. He wanted to feel her under his palms so badly that his own body ached. What is wrong with me? he wondered. “I have to go do this walk thing tomorrow, and I really don’t want to go alone. Come with me.”

  “What?” he asked, snapping out of his wayward thoughts.

  “It’s a 5K thing to help raise funds for the inner city’s art’s program.” she quickly shared. He tilted his head. Something about the way she’d done that screamed she wasn’t being completely honest with him. He raised an eyebrow at her and watched as her cheeks went a slight shade of pink. Had she always done that?

  “Don’t you have to sign up for those things ahead of time?” he calmly asked.

  “Umm….”

  “You already signed me up?” he guessed, and she smiled at him. He fought from shaking his head and rolling his eyes at her.

  “You don’t do much other than have dinner with those little college girls…”

  “Shell,” he groaned. As cute and sexy as she’d been looking to him lately, she was starting to irritate him.

  “What? It’s true! Please…” she pleaded, and he wondered if she’d be the type of woman to do that in bed. “We will be back early enough to take your little girls to ice cream before their bedtime.” The sarcasm was very clear in her voice. He couldn’t help the smile that appeared on his face, nor the chuckle he couldn’t hold in.

  “They’re all in their mid-twenties, hardly need to be tucked in.” he stated, and she rolled her eyes.

  “Like I said, little girls.” She became serious and looked at him. “Don’t you get tired of babysitting?” she asked, and he couldn’t help it. He fully laughed, because if he didn’t, he was going to pull her off his damn desk and onto his lap, and ask if she was willing to show him the difference between the girls he dated and a woman like her.

  He dated younger women on purpose. They wanted to have fun and were not looking for commitment. Sure, he’d promised Olivia that he would try to fall in love again, but he hadn’t. Every date had been about not being alone, and any time he’d gone home with a woman, it was just about a good time and getting the hell out of there afterwards.

  “So will you go?” She looked at him. Her eyes did something to him. How could he not have noticed before how they weren’t just a light brown, but a syrupy amber?

  “Fine.” He sighed, leaning back and keeping his expression a serious and bothered one. She beamed at him and clapped her hands.

  “Great! Let’s go eat. I’m starving!”

  “Let’s go.” He playfully rolled his eyes, shook his head, and stood, surprised when she took his hand, he looked at their joined hands.

  Something felt like it kick-started his heart, and suddenly all he wanted to do was run. Don’t fight it. At the sound of her damn voice in his head, he dropped Shelly’s hand as if she’d burned him. She looked up at him, confused. She’d always been touchy feely, but he’d never felt what he’d just felt.

  “Are you okay?” She frowned, stepping forward, her small hand touching his face, and his mouth went dry.

  This close, he felt her breasts brush up against his front and watched her pretty mouth, the scent of cinnamon on her breath. All so damn close. His skin heated and everything in his body tightened. All he had to do was pull her in about an inch and lean his mouth…What the fuck!

  “I’m…” his voice too deep, he cleared his throat. “I’m fine. Let’s go.”

  Chapter Four

  One Year Ago, The Next Day

  Shelly Santiago

  She smiled too brightly and knew he was more than irritated with her. His eyes narrowed, his scruffy jaw ticked, and she couldn’t stop the laughter that escaped from deep within her.

  “I’m sorry! Did I not mention it was a 5k mud run?” she asked him, her cheeks hurting from smiling so big.

  “Shell…” he started to say. She pressed her lips together, trying to stop smiling at how angry he was getting.

  “Shelly Santiago!” They both turned and watched Councilman Crane walk over to them. And just like that, she stopped smiling.

  Her body tensed as the man approached. She didn’t like him. He was just too flirty and too touchy for her taste, but she did like that he was active about getting much-needed funding for the arts program for the school district that was in very big need after so many budget cuts in education.

  Taking a deep breath and pasting on a smile, she looked up at the man. He wasn’t as tall as Grant, but he was taller than her; then again, at five three, many were. His brown eyes met hers, and she extended her hand.

  “Councilman Crane.” Shaking his hand and noticing he wasn’t letting it go, she turned and looked at Grant, who was slightly scowling. “Please meet Grant Alexander,” she added. The Councilman looked at Grant then back at her. Finally letting go of her hand, he extended it to Grant, a serious look on his face.

  “Nice to meet you, Mr. Alexander.”

  “Pleasure.” Grant’s voice was gruff. He let go of the man’s hand before his arm wrapped around her shoulder. She warmed at the touch, ignoring the safe way it felt to be held by him. “This is a great fundraiser you’ve organized.”

  “Yes. I think so. Shelly here has been a great help.” She smiled at his compliment. Unfortunately, she hadn’t realized he’d moved in closer.

  “Maybe we can have dinner tomorrow and talk about …”

  “I’m sorry, Councilman, to cut you off, but I see some friends that are calling us over. You understand, right?” Grant surprised her by interrupting, moving his hand away from her shoulder. Hand in hand they walked away before the Councilman could respond.

  “You don’t know anyone here,” she whispered as they walked through the crowds of people.

  “I know.”

  “He was…” she could feel her cheeks warm up in embarrassment.

  “He was hitting on you.”

  “I know.” She did, and she was uncomfortable with it.

  “You didn’t want to go. I saved you, so I guess you owe me… again,” he shared with her. She laughed and looked up at him.

  Her heart did a weird thing when he winked at her, and she almost tripped over her own two feet.

  ***

  That Night

  “I hate you,” he grumbled as he sat on her couch, his sock-covered feet on her coffee table.

  “No, you don’t.” She smiled at him and raised her beer bottle. He rolled his eyes, setting his head on the headrest of her bright red couch.

  “I’ve taken two showers and still feel like I’m caked up in that damn mud.”

  “Mud is good for you,” she chimed.

  “Hmm…” he slightly shook his head, but she could tell he was just doing it for show, and that made her goad him further. She loved pushing his buttons.

  “It’s good for aging skin.” He grunted. She laughed, leaning her head on his shoulder as they watched a movie he’d picked out. Some action flick with a lot of shooting. “Thank you for saving me today.”

  “Hmm.” He tilted his head, and their eyes met. “Has he done that to you before?”

  “The Councilman?”

  “Yeah. Corner you, make you go out with him?”

  “Once.” She sighed, never having been good at lying, especially to Grant. “Okay, maybe twice, but …”

  “You can’t let him corner you like that.”

  “I don’t.”

  “Have you actually had to go to dinner with the scumbag?”

  “He’s not a scumbag. He’s just persistent. He’s one of those men who think ‘no’ means a woman’s playing hard to get and he should try harder. And yes, I have, but I met him there and took Jess with me.”

  “Hmm…” he sighed and looked toward the TV. She rested her head back on his shoulder.

  “No date tonight?” she asked, not knowing why. She liked him there, she didn’t want him to leave.

&nbs
p; “Nope.” He sipped his wine. She sighed, trying to get into the movie’s story line, but she couldn’t stop thinking about how much fun the mud run had been, even if she was exhausted.

  “You had fun,” she told him. He grunted, which made her smile softly.

  She liked how happy he’d been out there in the mud, in the middle of the obstacles, once he had let go of the usual stick up his ass. She even liked how he’d smiled at her, the sun shining brightly behind him as he’d grabbed her hand, so that they would do the entire thing as a team. He never went ahead of her, and she knew physically he could have finished the course at least thirty minutes before they actually had. But he’d stayed at her side, smiling and laughing in a way he hadn’t ever done in the years they’d known one another.

  “Can’t you admit it? Please?” She wasn’t sure why she was goading him, but for some reason at that moment it was important to her to know that he’d had a good time.

  Chapter Five

  Grant

  He looked at her, trying to ignore the way he’d been feeling around her and being extremely unsuccessful at that.

  “It wasn’t bad,” he shared, and the way her face brightened up made him want to give her anything she could ever wish for, just to get that look again from her.

  He wasn’t lying.

  The mud run, as unexpected as it’d been and despite the fact that his new Italian leather wallet was now ruined, had been fun. He couldn’t help but be glad that she’d made him go. He was especially glad that he was able to keep that idiot Councilman away from her.

  The moment he’d come sniffing around, Grant had felt a surge of protectiveness and need to claim Shelly off limits to anyone with a dick. He was just not going to let himself think about what that meant.

  She settled into his shoulder, snapping away the thoughts of any other men around her. He took a cleansing breath. One filled with the light floral scent of the shampoo she favored, mixed with the scent of her light, crisp perfume. It soothed him and warmed him at the same time. He didn’t know what to do with that, but for now, he knew it was best to ignore it.

  “What’s the matter?” she asked.

  “Nothing, why?” he snapped, regretting the cold tone of his voice. She sat up and away from him, making him miss her body instantly. It felt like a piece of him was suddenly not there. The confusion, and if he wasn’t wrong, hurt in her eyes made him feel like a dick.

  “You got all stiff. Am I too heavy on you?” she asked, and Hell no! almost slipped out of his mouth. Instead, he kept his mouth shut.

  He didn’t want to lie to her, but he also couldn’t see himself telling her something he wasn’t even sure he actually felt.

  Was he interested in Shelly Santiago? The biggest pain in his ass? His closest friend? The one person who in the last ten years he had leaned on and knew that no matter the situation he could count on?

  How the hell had this happened? Just give it a chance… Olivia’s voice chimed in his head just as Shelly stood up, her eyes not meeting his. Worry hit his gut as she walked to the back French doors that led to her backyard.

  “Where are you going?” he asked, frowning. Had she been talking to him and he’d being deep in his own messed-up thoughts?

  “I’m going to go for a walk,” she snapped, not looking at him.

  “You’re going to leave me here?”

  “You’ve been at my house alone before, Grant, it’s not a big deal.”

  “It’s late.”

  “Then go home.”

  “I mean its’ late for you to go walking.”

  “I have a flashlight.” Her back was to him. Her cute, round ass was covered with black yoga pants. She threw on a dark grey wool kimono jacket, and he stood.

  “I’ll go with you,” he said without thinking.

  “Why?” she asked, grabbing her neon green flashlight from the side table by the door. “You hate walking on the beach.”

  This was not true.

  He ran on the beach every morning, but when he’d first moved in next door and Shelly had invited him on her own nightly walks, he’d turned her down.

  Every. Single. Time. So often that she’d stopped asking.

  Something about the thought of walking with her side by side on the dark beach had made him slightly anxious. But every time she went for her walk, he always watched her from his upstairs bedroom window, making sure no one bothered her.

  “I just want to go.”

  “Okay. Do you need a sweater or …” he stepped in closer to her, unable to help himself, needing to be in her space. He tucked a loose strand of her light brown hair behind her ear, enjoying how silky it felt in his fingers. Her familiar scent made his mouth water, and before he did something stupid, like kiss her, he grabbed her silly excuse for a flashlight and put it into his pocket before backing up and opening the door for her.

  “I’m okay. I like the cold,” he shared, and they walked out into her backyard and out the gate that led to the beach right behind her home.

  They walked in silence, and he could feel her thinking. The cogs in her mind were working overtime on something, but he was too much of a coward to ask.

  As they walked, he looked ahead and saw a gleaming white shell. As they passed it, he bent and picked it up for some reason, then slipped it into the pocket of his track pants.

  “This is my favorite time to come for my walks,” she shared, her voice unusually soft.

  “It’s not safe,” he remarked, knowing how he sounded to her. Cold and boring.

  “I always bring pepper spray and my flashlight.” He knew without looking directly at her that she’d rolled her eyes at him. They knew each other as well as two people could.

  “It’s still not safe, Shell. I worry about you,” he told her sincerely. Her soft laughter mixed with the waves crashing on the shore.

  “I’m a big girl. I know what I’m doing.”

  “I guess….” he scoffed, and as they walked, her hand brushed his. He couldn’t help but hold it. He’d liked, too much, how their hands had felt together that morning at the mud run. He’d felt lighter and more alive than he had since Olivia’s diagnosis, twelve years earlier.

  Holding her hand, he slowed the pace of their walk, and she walked slightly closer, sometimes placing her head on his arm as they walked, which he liked.

  She’d always been touchy, but in the last couple of months, he’d been noticing or letting himself notice the way it made him feel. He liked it. Too much. Holding her hand and rubbing the seashell in his pocket, he walked with her in silence to her usual spot.

  They didn’t sit like he knew she normally did. They turned around, still hand in hand, in their own brand of comfortable silence, both deep in their own thoughts, then walked back until they reached her gate.

  “I’m sorry I dragged you around today,” she announced. He was surprised at how sincere she sounded about it and felt bad. She thought he’d had a shit time.

  “Shell…”

  “I thought you would have fun.”

  “I…”

  “I know you did.” Her honey eyes were on him, her pretty head tilted toward him. He wanted to kiss her and knew exactly how he wanted to do it. The hand in his pocket held on to the seashell so tightly, he was surprised it didn’t shattered in half. “You can deny it all you want…”

  “Good night, Santiago,” he blurted out. The need to bring her soft body into his was too much. The temptation only grew with every second that skipped by. Panic and dread of how that could change what they had, of diving into something again and losing it all, was too much for him.

  “Grant, don’t be mad….”

  “I’m not,” he snapped.

  “I just want you to realize that if you try new things…” Her scent was too much temptation. He shook his head, only imagining how pissed he must look.

  “I’m tired. Good night.” He patted her shoulder with his free hand, still holding tightly on to the seashell as if it were a talisman, and walked of
f to his gate next door to hers.

  He glanced over at her and saw her standing right where he’d left her. With a frown on her face and what looked like a disappointed shake to her head, she walked off and into her home.

  He wasn’t sure what the hell was wrong with him. He’d never, not once, not even when he’d first met Olivia at twenty-one, ever hesitated when it came to a woman.

  But Shelly was different.

  Everything about them together and separate was as different as night and day. Fuck if he didn’t love that though.

  He hated that she’d gone back to her place thinking he was a cold son of a bitch. Especially after the great day they’d had. But he had to be smart. She was too important and meant too much to him to mess up the dynamic they had.

  He walked through his very bare backyard and into his modern re-done home. Everything was decorated in dark, masculine colors. He sat at his kitchen table and took his hands out of his pocket to look at the small, white shell in his hands and sighed.

  What the fuck was he going to do? One hand at his forehead, the other touching the sides of the shell with the pads of his fingers, he wasn’t really looking at it or at anything really, other than what he could see in his mind’s eye.

  Shelly smiling brightly, sweat pouring down her hair, her face dirty and muddy, the tip of her nose pink from the sun, not one gram of fucking make-up on her, and she was one of the most beautiful things he’d ever seen.

  Shit! He was falling for his closest friend and had no idea how to stop it.

  Dread flowing in his veins, he stood and picked up the shell then dropped it in an empty jar by the staircase without thinking about why he’d kept it.

  Chapter Six

  Five Months Ago

  Shelly Santiago

  “No… I cannot let you…” His cold tone made her want to laugh.

  “I need this! Grant, this is perfect for my studio.” She smiled at him. He shook his head in obvious disdain at the bright teal couch she had just fallen in lust over. They had just had lunch and she’d talked him into stepping into the furniture store next door.