The Bluff (Graham Brothers, #2)(7)

I have a feeling if it were up to James, my presence would be better never than late. Or at all.

I give Val a pouty face. “You’re not going?”

She shakes her head, then glances at her painting. “Nah. I’m itching to work.”

“You don’t mind driving me?”

“It’s fine,” she says. “Let me get these brushes clean and we can go.”

My car is back at Chevy’s house, where I’m crashing until I get my financials under control. Val picked me up for dinner, then had the sudden urge to paint while I had the sudden urge to break up with my boyfriend. We came here, then planned to hit the party together. Lindy, our other best friend and the third part of our Bermuda Triangle, is our link to the Grahams. It still feels a little strange without her bridging the gap. She and Pat, James’s youngest brother, left for their honeymoon last night. Which means I’ll be on my own.

I should just have Val drop me back at Chevy’s. But the curiosity about how James Graham celebrates his birthday is too great. I need to see if my suspicion is correct and James will grumble through the whole party, then turn in early like an old man trapped in a very young, very hot body.

While Val cleans her brushes, I hunt for my phone in the grass. I stuff it in my purse and grab James’s gift, the one whose purchase I’m still questioning. I clear my throat loudly as Val emerges, whistling and twirling her car keys around her finger.

“What?” she asks, seeing my raised eyebrows.

I nod down at her lower half. “Pants.”

Val looks down at her boy shorts above bare, paint-marked legs and laughs. “If I’m not getting out of the car, do I really need pants?”

“What if Chevy pulls you over for speeding?”

Since we were teenagers, Val has had a massive crush on my brother, who is definitely not good enough for her. I mean, I love Chevy, but he dates truly terrible women and has never even seemed to notice Val’s interest. Still, the idea of him pulling her over and seeing her pantsless has Val scurrying back inside, emerging moments later wearing coveralls, the top half unzipped down to her waist. Val is the only one I know who can still manage to look hot while sporting mechanic chic.

“So, what did you get James?” Val asks, nodding toward the bag in my lap.

I realize I’m holding it the way you might hold a Faberge egg, even though it’s actually a coffee mug. The reality is that I shouldn't have gotten James anything at all. I wouldn’t be shocked if he refused to take it and shoved it back at me with a single gruff NO.

“Just a coffee mug.”

Val says nothing, but she gives me a smirk I do not like. “But you did find time today to get him a gift.”

Not only did I find time, I drove all the way to Austin—something I’m definitely not admitting to Val. It may be just a coffee mug, but a very specific one I couldn’t find anywhere in Sheet Cake.

“Not a big deal.”

“And how was your first day with Mr. Hot Boss?”

“Mr. Grumpy Boss is more accurate, and might I remind you that I literally just broke up with my boyfriend? I’m not looking for another one.”

“You had like five percent feelings for Dale.”

“More like three or four percent.”

In middle school, Val developed her own system for crushes in percents, arbitrarily assigning them as she saw fit. One hundred percent feelings would be love. Only Lindy has gotten there so far. Val and I have stayed pretty low on the percent scale, unless we’re counting the feelings she never wants to talk about regarding Chevy.

“I told you when I met James he looks like trouble, and I stand by that assessment.” Val looks ready to argue, but I jump into a subject that will shut her up. “I heard Tank found someone to open a gallery downtown. Are you going to submit some pieces?”

After purchasing Sheet Cake, the Grahams have made quick work of trying to revitalize the mostly dead downtown. The plan is to have most of the businesses open for the Sheet Cake Festival in a few months. Dark Horse Brewery being one of those, as well as a few boutiques, a coffee shop, and the latest, an art gallery. Tank has a Christmas lighting planned for early December as a kind of soft opening, but I’m not sure what will be up and running by then.

“We’ll see.”

Val presses her lips closed, and I thankfully escape any more questions about James. She pulls up out front of Mari’s diner, and I don’t miss the way she eyes Chevy’s patrol car longingly.

“You sure you don’t want to come in just for a few minutes?” I ask. “Say hi to your aunt, get some cake?”

Val shakes her head. “I’m a mess.”

“A beautiful mess.”

“Whatever. Anyway, I figured out the rest of the painting on the drive over. I’m going back to finish. Do you have a ride home?”

“Chevy will take me. Night, Val.”

She waves once more before pulling away. I stand outside the diner for a minute, gathering my breath, gathering my wits, gathering my courage. I’m not sure why I feel so devoid of the third, but it has something to do with the gift bag in my hands. I already made a fool of myself once today. Am I really about to do it again?

“In for a penny, in for a pound,” I say out loud before I take a deep breath and walk inside the diner.