Saving Grace (10 page)

Lea appeared in the hallway shaking Shane from whatever his thoughts were. A sad expression shadowed his face and he turned away,
growling
, and stormed down the hallway towards the front door.

Lea giggled. "Well, it's nice to have my best friend back, where the hell has she been?" she asked smacking me on my bottom. "I told you, matching sets are weapons of mass destruction. I have never seen Shane speechless like that before." She folded her arms and tilted her head at me. "You okay? Can you move
,
Grace?"

"
Ummhmmm
. That man just melted the panties right off me with his eyes."

The dark bitter smell of coffee woke me from another dream of Shane. My body was twisted tightly around my sheets and I could honestly still feel his warm tongue on my inner thigh. That man was going to make me self
cum-bust
right in front of him one day.

I dragged an old button up lumberjack shirt over my shoulders and snuggled into its warmth. Slipping my cold toes in my slippers
,
I made my way into the kitchen in search of some of that caffeinated mud Lea makes each morning.

I felt his eyes on me before I saw him standing there.
Damn, I didn't think he'd be there. I would have worn next to nothing.
He and Conner were still sweaty and panting from a morning run. His shirt was off and he leaned his body up against the counter and stretched when I walked in. Ignoring him,
okay trying to ignore him
, I reached up for a mug from the cabinets. I felt the material of my shirt ride up to just over my bottom and I heard his low throaty growl when it did. I watched him tear his eyes off my bottom and storm out of the kitchen.

"Catch you later
,
Conner," he called out when he got to the front door.

I glanced at Conner. "Everything okay?" I asked.

Conner was sitting down at the table with his coffee steaming in front of him. His eyes were glued to my face, serious as all hell. "You slept with Ethan." It wasn't a question. It was a statement.

"You sleep
with Lea
all the time
," I stated back.

"Yeah..."

"And Conner, when you sleep with Lea, do you always have sex?" I asked trying to make my point clear without saying it outright.

"Point taken Grace."

When Conner and Lea left for work
,
I jumped into the shower and did all that was girly. I left my apartment before I needed to and sat in the small coffee shop on the corner of my block to calm my nerves. I got to the studio at exactly eleven o'clock.

Walking into the studio gave me that feeling that I could only guess
some people got when they walked into their places of worship. The euphoric sense that you could find the guidance to your existence, the answer to your pray
er
s, or maybe the
path to your soul's freedom, it
s redemption.

I took a deep breath and stepped in
,
shutting the door behind me. I left my guitar back at my apartment because I knew there would be no
real
band practice for me today.

Ethan sat behind his drum kit with his legs stretched out across the top of his bass drum. He twirled a drumstick in one hand. His long
platinum
blond hair was uncharacteristically loose, and he smiled wide when his eyes met mine.

Brayden
sat on one of the couches with his bass laid out across his lap. He ran a hand through his short brown hair and waved hello to me.

"There's our gorgeous girl!" Alex was sitting behind his keyboard and ran out from behind it to grab me in a hug and swing me around like a rag doll.

"Yay! You
r
casts are off!" I cheered when he let go.

His dark hair flopped in front of his
mischievous
green eyes. His eyebrows
rose
up and his cheeks reddened. "Yeah, yesterday. Grace, my love, you look hotter than ever," he laughed.

"Fine. Let's get this shit over," Shane's voice murmured from one of the couches. I looked over at him, but his eyes never turned in my direction. He stood up and walked forward folding his arms across his chest. "Yeah, so Alex is back. We really don't need another guitarist."

There was a second of awkward silence.

"Whoa, what the
hell
?" Alex asked. "Dude, I'll be only on keyboard now, Grace does guitar, she blows me outta the water anyway." He gave me a wink, "Did you like when I said you
blow me
, that part?"

I just winked back, smiled and gave him an eye roll.

Brayden
walked over closer to Alex, "Yeah, this is stupid. Let's just get to practice so we can set up a gig at Boozer's, it's been weeks, dude."

Shane hooked his guitar strap over his shoulders and hung
his guitar in front of him. Hi
s eyes finally locked onto mine.
"Yeah, well we got rules in
this
band. Nobody can sleep with another band member, so Alex stays on guitar
and
keyboard." His eyes held my stare, wait
ing for me to break, to shatter
,
to fall to pieces from his words.
Nope. Isn't going to happen
.
He sauntered over and plugged his guitar into the biggest amp.

Alex's eyebrows pulled
together, "Dude, I haven't slept
with anyone of you motherfuckers. You
'
r
e
the pretty boy who was in jail for four fucking weeks,
Sir
FuckmeBung
."

"I didn't sleep with any one of you guys either,"
Brayden
called out.
"Now can we just play?
"

Ethan's eyes snapped to mine and a look of horror crossed his face. I shook my head for him not to say anything. It wasn't worth it. Shane wasn't going to believe him. He just wanted to embarrass me and punish me.

I met Shane's stare and smiled at him. "Um, I think Shane is talking about me." The room stilled and all eyes were on me. "Well, now that that is settled. I really did have a blast playing with y
ou guys, and Alex," my eyes swe
p
t
to Alex who stared open-mouthed at me. "Anytime you want to bring your
guitar
over to my place
,
I would love to play with you. I'll probably see you guys at the bar sometime." I turned on my heels and walked out of the studio and down the hall. I didn't look back. There was no way in the world I was going to let Shane Maxton see my expression.

As the door
closed,
I could
hear
Alex yelling, "Which lucky son of a bitch got to tap that perfect ass?"
Shane's answer was to start playing Bloodhound Gang's
Ballad of
C
h
asey
Lain
and just inserted my name in.
If you've never heard the song, Google it and then you'll understand how very d
isgusted I was
with him
that I almost vomited in the hallway
.

I made my way up the stairs and out to the front lobby. When I got to the front
doors,
Ethan was in front of me
, out of breath from running, and
grabbing at my elbow. "Grace...wait. You can't just
walk out like that,
please tell me what is going on with
Shane
."

I continued to walk out of the front door, but he pulled me to a stop on the sidewalk in front of his building. "Grace, I'm not a child. I don't like playing games. Tell me what's going on."

I shook my head. "Shane caught me leaving your bedroom early in the morning. He automatically thought I slept with you."

"Why didn't you explain to him that nothing happened?"

"Ethan, I tried too. He cut me off every time and I was still drunk, so my verbal sparring skills were
nonexistent
. I could barely remember to
breathe
the correct way in front of him
,
let alone reason with him." I could feel my cheeks redden with my thoughts, "He ended up flinging me over his shoulder and dropped me in front of the Bone Room and
asked me if I wanted to fuck him
, and I quote,
Because I could really get off on some head right now, since I've been in fucking jail for over a month. I usually don't like my girls still wet from Ethan, but hey, if you
'
r
e
game, but if not, get the fuck out of my hallway
."

"I knew it, I knew it the first time he met you," Ethan laughed and leaned against the front wall of his building.

I sighed, "What are you talking about?"

"Shane doesn't do jealous, Grace. He has some serious feelings for you," Ethan smiled.

"What the hell color is the sky in your world
,
Ethan? The man just kicked me out of his band. The only serious feelings he has are extreme horniness and extreme disgust that he didn't get to me first." I walked away.

Ethan was next to me
,
immediately walking down the street. "The first night he saw you, after that bar fight, he made me search the entire bar for a silver eyed girl so he could get her name
,
Grace."

"Stop it
,
Ethan. I know exactly how Shane felt before we all went to Tucker's
parents'
house. One of the last things he told me was that he loved me," I said.

Ethan's eyes almost popped out of his head. "Holy shit..."

I held my hands up. "Yeah. But then I walked away with Blake because I was a fool, Ethan. Then he spends a month in jail because everybody assumed the worst in him, even you, one of his best friends. Ethan. You beat the crap out of him! And when he gets out of jail
,
he finds me sneaking out of your room in the middle of the night, drunk! I'm thinking his feelings might have gone straight to hell since."

Ethan's gaze
raised
from me to something pas
t
my shoulders. I knew
by
the way the hairs
on the back of my neck tingled
that
it was Shane. But, he just
walked past us without saying a word.

After watching Shane walk
away,
I said goodbye to Ethan and made my way home. I changed into sweats and spent the rest of the day running in the park. The weather was a mild 60 degrees and the smells of an early spring wafted through the trees. I made a mental note to try to take a trip to Lea's parent's house to pick up my bike, it was definitely moving into riding weather. I ran until my legs almost collapsed and night had fallen.

It was five o'clock when I got back to my apartment and my phone was screaming for attention. There were ten texts and three voice messages from Lea
,
all telling me I had to come to Boozer's because everybody was going for drinks.
What else is new? That's all these people ever did.

Pass. Not tonight. There's no way I want to watch Shane throw his tantrums about me and Ethan or mess around with his girls.
I showered and still wrapped in my damp towel, flung myself on my mattress and passed out
.

Sirens echoed through my skull waking me from a dead sleep.
Oh, what a surprise, it's my cell phone. Again
. In the dark of my
room,
I hit the screen and saw Lea's face. I swiped it open. "What do you want?" I groaned. "I'm sleeping."

"Get out of bed and come to the bar. Wear something um...slutty." "What? Why? No
..
.I'm sleeping. Leave me alone."