Betting the Bad Boy (23 page)

“He’s looks ready to kill,” Grace said softly.

“Why do you think we’re here? Let Levi talk to him. He’s the only one who can get Colt to back down when he’s ready to blow.”

“What’s this?” Levi said with his usual good humor. “What did you do to make Lolly punish you now?”

“Lolly’s not punishing me.” He shot an angry look at the woman whose arm he was holding. “Zanna is.”

Ah, Zanna.

Duke was too preoccupied with his own woman troubles to find out what was really going on with his brother, but he knew that any woman who caused Colt this much trouble deserved a permanent spot in the King family.

Perry Andersen along with his brother Jeff pushed their way inside the door. “Is this true? You doing hair for a living now?” He had a smug look on his face—which was brave of him, considering Colt had gotten locked up for trying to kill him just a few short weeks ago.

“He ain’t doing shit,” Duke growled. “Now get out before I kick your ass, too.”

“I knew it was a lie.” Perry locked eyes with Colt. “Everyone should know by now never to trust a King boy. They’re no good, just like their father. Let’s go outside, Jeff, and tell everybody that Colt is running away, just like his father did after that accident he caused in the factory. Just like he did when Duke got sent to prison.”

“Send them in,” Colt said, a mix of rage and determination on his face.

“What?” Zanna said. “You don’t have to do this. I’ll send them away. I’ll tell them it’s my fault. It
is
my fault.”

“I don’t run away. Send them in.”

And right then Duke’s respect for this brother grew tenfold.

“I’ll help,” Levi said. “Colt wasn’t the only one who got punished by doing roller sets.”

“Don’t look at me,” Duke said before anyone got any bright ideas. “I’ve never touched a roller in my life. But I’ll stay here to support you.”

“I’ll go first.” Grace stepped forward, surprising him. “I would be honored to have Colt do my hair.”

“Move it, Bertie,” Colt said, staring down the old woman whom the special was named for. “I’m taking over your station.”

*   *   *

Grace couldn’t help but glance at herself in the rearview mirror one last time before she stepped out of her car with the two large bags of Chinese food she had just purchased for the hungry men waiting at the salon. Colt had roller set her hair, but Zanna had styled it.

“I’m going to give you Grace Kelly hair,” the beautiful stylist had told her as she took over. And she had. Grace’s hair was now slicked back with a curl at the bottom. It was elegant and classic, yet modern at the same time.

She didn’t look like herself. In fact she hadn’t recognized the woman looking back at her. Her hair wasn’t thrown back in a messy ponytail; her face wasn’t drawn and tired. She looked content for once and she couldn’t help but attribute that to Duke. She had never stopped loving him, but since his return she had fallen for him all over again. For his goodness and his kindness. For how he treated others and how he loved his son so completely even though he had missed out on most of his life.

And even now she was rushing back into the salon, her heart speeding up a little knowing that she was going to see him again, even though they had been separated for less than an hour. She wanted to say that she felt like a teenager again, but it was stronger than that.

Maybe because they had so much more to lose this time.

He was standing behind the cash register when she walked back in, studying a piece of paper.

“Food’s here.” She had gotten enough to feed an army. They had all worked hard that day. Levi and Colt rolling hair, Duke cashing the customers out, and Grace running around doing what she could to make life easier for everyone.

It was nice to see all the King boys together. They had an almost electric dynamic when they were all together in one room. Pure surging masculinity that would make most women need to fan themselves—but there was more there. She had a hard time describing it, but there was a closeness with them, a strong bond that felt unbreakable, one built on love and sacrifice. Few people ever got to experience that. But then again few people experienced what they had.

Grace wanted Ryder to have that kind of relationship with his siblings.

Siblings.
The thought was jarring. She had always thought she was going to be single for the rest of her life, that Ryder was going to be her only child, but she realized that she wanted another one. A baby to take care of and love and raise with a partner instead of alone.

She glanced back at Duke, who connected eyes with her, and wondered if that were possible.

“Oh thank you, you sweet beautiful woman.” Levi grabbed the bags from her. “I had her order everything on the menu, Shells,” he said to Shelly, Levi’s childhood best friend, whom Zanna had turned into a pinup girl with some big soft curls and a rolled bang. “I want you to walk on the wild side tonight and try some spicy Kung Pao beef.”

“I’ll be fine with just rice. You know I’m not used to eating exotic things.” She gave him a soft, almost shy smile. Grace worked with Shelly and had known her for years, but tonight she looked like a different woman. The prim elementary school teacher looked like a total knockout with her sexy hair and cute sundress. Her beauty wasn’t lost on Levi, it seemed, because he looked at Shelly with such longing in his eye that Grace almost blushed.

“Only you would think that Chinese food is exotic.” Levi kissed her cheek and grabbed Shelly’s hand. “Take a walk on the wild side with me tonight.” They walked into the back, followed by the other stylists who worked in the salon.

Duke walked up to her and she thought of her son, who was looking more like his father with each passing day. “I think I need to call Ryder again,” Grace said, reaching into her purse for her phone.

“No.” Duke grabbed her hand. “He’s fine. He’s with his friends and you already called him.”

They had agreed to let him sleep over. It wasn’t something that should be so out of the ordinary, but it was. Ryder had had a hard time making friends when they first moved here from back east. She wanted to chalk it up to culture shock but she knew it had more to do with him not having a father. In Boston it was much more common to be raised in a single-parent or nontraditional home, but in Destiny … Life was so much different here. She had spent 90 percent of her time worrying about him and how he would fit in and how happy he was. “I just want to make sure he’s not getting into any trouble.”

“Two dozen phone calls from you isn’t going to keep them out of trouble. Plus I told him that if he didn’t keep his nose clean, I was going to break his neck.”

“You didn’t?” she gasped.

“He’ll be fine, Grace.” He wrapped his arm around her and looked at her in that way that only he could. “Now let’s go eat some high-calorie, inorganic, non-free-range food.”

“I want to say I’d rather eat spinach and sole tonight, but I really am looking forward to shoving my face into some fried rice.” She was starving. She had been for the past few days. It was as if Duke had woken all kinds of hunger inside her.

“That’s my girl. Come eat, Zanna.” Duke motioned his head toward the back. “I bet your feet are barking.”

She nodded and looked back at Colt, who was sitting at Bertie’s station in a world of his own. He had been there since the last customer left twenty minutes ago.

“Leave him,” Duke said. “He needs to decompress.”

She did leave him, but not for long. Zanna grabbed some food and a couple of beers and went back out to Colt.

“She’s a brave woman to go back out there to him. I don’t think he’s recovered from doing all that hair,” Grace said to Duke as she plated his food.

“I think she might love him,” Duke responded. Grace agreed. “Lord knows that’s not an easy thing to do.”

“I think maybe you’re wrong. You King boys can ruin a girl for other men.”

Chapter 17

For the first time since he had opened King’s Customs, Duke slept in. In fact, he more than slept in, making it a lazy morning in bed with Grace. In her bed, not down in the basement with the door locked. No one had to sneak away in the middle of the night or the early hours of the morning. They had gone to bed together. They had woken up together. They had shared coffee and talked about what they were going to do for dinner that night. Things that might have seemed normal for a pair that had a thirteen-year-old.

But it wasn’t normal for him. And certainly something he never thought he would experience, in a place he never thought he would return to.

He came out of the kitchen to see Grace heading toward the lumpy old couch in the living room, which was filled with old, cheap furniture. He wanted to replace it all for her. Every piece of furniture, every stitch of clothing that was ten years out of style, every old, tired thing that she had. She deserved better. It was why he had let her go in the first place.

She lay down on the couch, her eyes looking sleepy and beautiful. He followed her, unable to stay away even though they had spent most of the day together. He couldn’t get enough of her. And he wondered if she felt a fraction of what he felt for her.

“Hey, Gracie.” He knelt by the side of the couch and she reached out, her fingers burying themselves in his hair.

“Hello, love. Ryder will be home soon.”

“He survived. You were worried.”

“I was,” she admitted. “I was annoyed at you when you gave him a phone, but you were right. I checked the GPS thingie about a dozen times.”

He smiled down at her and set a light kiss on her lips. “You’re a good mom.”

“You think so? I love him so much, I can’t describe it, but I was afraid. He was starting to act out and was so angry all the time. I thought he was going to turn into…”

“Me?” he asked, knowing it was fair of her to fear that.

“No. Well, maybe parts of you. You were angry. Just like a ball ready to explode. That’s one of the reasons I went after you. I wanted to make you happy. I wanted to be the one to calm you down. How arrogant of me.”

“You were good for me. You made me realize that I wanted something more out of life.”

She touched his face, stroking her thumb across his lightly bearded cheek. “You’re good for him. He’s happier now that you’re here. He needed you. You came just at the right time.”

He nodded, feeling a little choked up.

“I’m sorry, Duke. I’m so sorry for not trying harder to tell you.”

“I know, Gracie. You don’t have to keep apologizing. I’m not mad at you.”

They was a funny look in her eyes and he wasn’t sure if she believed him. “Our thirty days is almost up.”

“Is it? I wasn’t counting.”

“No? I heard you on the phone with your shop. They’re missing you. You have clients who only want their cars designed by you.”

“I know.”

“You have to go back there.”

“I do.”

“I can’t leave my father right now. Not just yet. I promised my mother I would take care of him. I can’t leave him alone now.”

“I’m not asking you to. Stop worrying.” He kissed her forehead. “Stop thinking. Everything will be fine. I promise you that.”

He would make it fine. He would make it all work. He would make sure she was happy.

“Life is too hard without you,” she said softly.

“You’ve been worrying.”

“I’ve been worrying for thirteen years. That’s nothing new. I’m feeling a little funky. My stomach is off today. It could have been all the Chinese food last night. Or the omelets this morning. Or the two dozen cookies I just baked and ate half of.”

“You baked cookies? I thought I smelled something good.”

She nodded. “You were on the phone with the shop for that long.”

“My poor baby.” He lifted up her faded shirt, making a mental note to send her shopping for some new clothes, and kissed her soft belly. “You want me to run to the store and get you something for your stomach?”

“I love you, Duke.”

He froze for a moment, his lips still on her stomach. He felt her love. Inside he knew that she did, that she must have, but it was still a jolt to his system. Part of him went back to the time when he was a kid from the wrong side of the tracks, wondering what he’d done to get her to love him like she did.

“Um…” He heard Ryder’s voice. “I’m home.”

Duke kissed Grace’s stomach once more before he looked back to his son. “Welcome home, boy.”

“Are you guys … like a couple now or something?” Ryder asked with a scrunched face.

“I’ve had a major crush on your mother for the past fifteen years. I think she finally agreed to go out with me,” he answered.

“Whatever.” Ryder rolled his eyes and looked at Grace. “Did you make cookies? Can I have some?”

*   *   *

It had been over a week since Grace had been to the hospital. Not since the day before her car broke down. But now she was back, walking through the halls on her break heading up to the ICU floor.

“Well, it’s about time you came to see me, girlie,” Lolly said from her bed when Grace walked into her room.

Grace looked at her, knowing her visit was long overdue. She had avoided Lolly since she had moved back to town, knowing the old woman was as sharp as they come. She would look at Ryder just a little longer than anyone else did. Of course she had seen Ryder’s likeness to Duke. She had taken over raising him when his father skipped town. Lolly probably knew Duke’s face just as well as Grace.

“I was afraid to come see you.” She sat in the chair beside her bed, studying the woman with the highly teased hair and made-up face even though she was sitting in intensive care.

“Why?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Public shaming. You hating me for ruining Duke’s life.”

“Duke’s life is a lot of things, but it sure as hell ain’t ruined. No one as successful as him can say that their life was ruined.”

“You are far kinder to me than I deserve. You are kinder than I have been to myself. Why didn’t you tell Duke about Ryder earlier? You had to have known.”

“Wasn’t my place to tell him.”

“I was secretly wishing you had. It was like I was waiting for him to show up ever since I came back to town. Every day, I’d look over my shoulder hoping to get a glimpse of him.”