The Expert’s Guide to Driving a Man Wild (Bluebonnet #3)(65)
Author: Jessica Clare

Except she hadn’t seemed playful. She’d seemed betrayed. And he desperately needed to find her. Grant growled under his breath and headed into the kitchen, digging through the dishwasher and any bowls he could find. She’d hidden his keys in a bread pan once.

The kitchen door swung open and Grant looked up, hope in his eyes. But it was only Colt and Dane, somber expressions on their faces.

“Have you seen my f**king keys?” Grant tugged out the silverware drawer, and then slammed it shut again. “I can’t find them anywhere and I’ve got to go after her.”

Silence.

Grant looked up, only to find that both Dane and Colt had their arms crossed over their chests, and they were both scowling at him.

“What exactly did you do to Brenna?” Dane asked.

“I know you blow hot and cold on her, but she’s like a little sister to us,” Colt added.

“And Miranda just got a text from Elise saying that Brenna’s been crying. She’s in her pajamas and she’s crying.”

Grant raked a hand through his hair, that frantic panic billowing up in him again. “That’s why I need my keys. I have to go after her and explain. I wasn’t laughing at her—”

“You were laughing at her?” Dane’s normally easygoing features were set into a scowl.

“No,” Grant snapped. “But she thinks I was. I was just f**king glad that she didn’t have cancer.”

“Cancer? What the hell are you talking about?” Colt’s tone was irritated. “You’re not making any f**king sense.”

“I know. I don’t care. I just . . . I need to find her and explain.” He didn’t want to share her secrets. The way she’d reacted when she’d told him? He knew that if he ever told a word of it to Colt or Dane, it’d be unforgivable in her eyes. And he wouldn’t do that to her. “I can’t talk about it.”

“And what makes you think that we’re going to let you off the hook without explaining what’s going on?” Colt asked in a surly tone.

“Because you’ve known me for twenty goddamn years,” Grant snapped. “And I don’t say this sort of shit lightly, but I love her and want to make things right. And I’m not telling you her secrets, because they’re hers, so f**k off about it. Either help me find my keys or get out of my f**king way.”

“Hoo-rah,” Colt said, apparently pleased by that response.

Dane grinned and held up a hand. Grant’s keys were dangling off his finger.

“You stole my keys?” Grant’s hands curled and he stormed toward Dane. “You ass**le! I’ve been looking for them for twenty minutes!”

“Wanted to make sure your head was in the right place before you took off after Brenna,” Dane said simply. “You want us to go with?”

He snatched the keys from his buddy. “Hell, no. I can talk to my girl myself.”

“Cause you did so well in the past?” Colt drawled.

“Fuck off.”

His friends just laughed.

• • •

Grant tore into Bluebonnet at top speed, his tires screeching at every stop sign. He slammed to a halt in front of the Peppermint House, just as Brenna and Elise were heading down the front porch stairs. Brenna still wore his Tulane shirt, but her hair had been tugged into a clip at the back of her head, her purple bangs brushed, and she wore a pair of jeans that were too loose on her and sagged.

Both women looked his way as he jumped out of his car, and he could have sworn Brenna’s jaw dropped in surprise.

She looked over at Elise with a betrayed look. “You told him I was here?”

“I didn’t tell him to come over here,” she protested, putting up her hands. “I just gave him a little text-shaming from afar for making you cry.” But she didn’t look displeased at all.

“Likely story,” Brenna told her with a faint scowl.

Grant was so relieved to see her that he bounded up the stairs, reaching for her . . . and stopped when she shied away.

“I don’t want to talk to you,” Brenna told him in a cool voice. “In fact, I was just leaving.”

“Leaving? Where are you going?”

“Anywhere that you’re not!”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want to be around you anymore!” The look on her face was stubborn. “I thought I could trust you and it’s clear to me that I was wrong. So I’m done here. Time to scope out the wild blue yonder once more.”

Panic assailed him anew. She was pulling up roots and leaving? Then again, this was Brenna. She didn’t believe in roots. “You can’t leave.”

“Why can’t I?”

He moved toward her again, ignoring the fact that she shied away from him. “Because I love you and I want to be with you.”

“You have a funny way of showing love, Grant Markham.”

He looked over at Elise, who stood watching their exchange, a faint frown on his sister’s face. “Can you leave us alone to talk, Elise?”

“Will you be long?” his sister asked.

“We might,” he admitted. “However long it takes to get through to Brenna’s stubborn brain.”

“Insulting me is not the way to win me over,” Brenna announced.

But Elise grinned and wiggled her fingers at him, turning around and disappearing back into the bed and breakfast. After the door swung shut, it was just him and Brenna, alone on the big wooden stairs.

Brenna crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a blatantly unhappy look.

“Just let me talk,” Grant soothed. “I promise I’ll explain everything.”

“This should be good,” she muttered. But she didn’t leave. That was a start.

“You were right to slap me for laughing,” he told her, since he knew that would get her attention. And he was correct because she perked up a little after that. “But,” he continued, “you should have heard my reasoning before you ran off.” When she said nothing, he decided to plow ahead. “It wasn’t that I was laughing at you. It was just that you and me were too perfect together. I guess it reminded me of how things were back when Heather and I first got married. I was so happy with her, and then it felt like everything turned upside down overnight. I suppose I was worried that it would happen again. Once your life goes down the drain once, you get gun-shy and afraid it’ll happen again.”

She still said nothing. But that scowl was gone from her face.