Found by Love (45 page)

"I'm taking you up on that baby, especially when we get home." He grinned and nodded at me as I walked around the table to Mattie and extended my hand. He looked at me wondering what I was up to.

"Care to dance handsome? Caleb is sitting this one out." He looked over at Caleb and he nodded his consent.

"I'll be watching where your hands go Mr. Jackson. Pretend she's your sister, haha!" Mattie grinned and grabbed my hand and led me out to the dance floor.

There was an awkward moment because he was trying to figure out where to place his hands so I pulled him towards me and put his hands around my waist while I put my mine around his neck and started swaying to the music.

"He didn't say you couldn't touch me at all dork." I looked towards the table and all eyes were on us as Caleb was cracking up laughing at Mattie's awkwardness. When he realized that Caleb was messing with him he relaxed.

"He could probably kick my ass ya know." He pushed me away from him and twirled me around and pulled me back towards him. "So, what are you up to Claudia? I can tell that you want to talk to me about something so spit it out." I had a shocked look on my face and he scrunched his face at me letting me know that he didn't believe my little farce of only wanting to dance.

"You looked like you were bored so when Caleb said that he wasn't ready to dance, you were my next choice." He pushed me away from him again and twirled me around a couple of times but never let go of my hand. "Hmmm. You're a pretty good dancer. Why don’t you ask Josie to dance?" His body jerked at the mention of her name and his dark obsidian eyes drilled holes into mine.

"And there it is." The song was over and he started to walk away but I grabbed his hand as soon as the band started playing a slower song. I put my arms around his neck and waited for him to put his arms around my waist. He finally relented and we started swaying to the beat of the music. I looked over at the table to see if anyone noticed our exchange but Caleb had them all laughing about something so I exhaled the breath I was holding.

"Wow! I wasn't expecting to get that response from you. I kind of pegged you to be a gentleman. I guess I was wrong about that." He looked over at the table and shook his head when he looked back at me.

"That's not it Claudia. I knew coming out tonight with all of you that Josie and I were the odd ones out and it would be implied that we would probably hang out while the four of you did your 'thing'." He made the quote signal with his hands.

"Our thing? What thing? I didn't realize the four of us had a 'thing' as you call it." He rolled his eyes at me and laughed.

"You are kidding right? The banter between the four of you is... Well it's... It's amazing to watch to be honest. You all have this connection and the chemistry between the four of you makes me.... Well... It makes me jealous if you want to know the truth."

"Why do we make you feel jealous? What is it about us that seems to be so special? We just love and care about each other and have known each other forever. Well O not quite as long with the guys but she and I go back forever." He seemed sad before he answered me.

"I miss having friends like that. Thomas and Jane were it for me. Yeah I go out occasionally for drinks with clients and coworkers now and then but they don't know anything about my personal life." I tend to forget how lonely he is and now we've moved Grayson away from him.

"I'm sorry. I should have known that you were thinking about them. I didn't mean to upset you and I was only trying to get everyone to have fun tonight."

He looked over at the table and I followed his gaze and saw that Josie was sitting there quietly taking everything in and would laugh at the appropriate time but then seem a little withdrawn. He looked into my eyes and his face has already softened. "I feel sorry for her a little. At least I have somewhat of a life to go back to when I leave but she's stuck here with all of you." His words offended me a little and I didn't let him get away with it.

"Stuck here with all of us? You make it sound like we are going to exclude her from our fictitious clique that you seem to think we have. Have we not made you feel welcome while you've been here?" He must have realized that he had offended me because he threw his head back and laughed.

"Don't take offense to what I said Claudia. Of course you all have made me feel welcome. The past couple of days have been the happiest I've had in a very long time and I know that Grayson will thrive with all of you. What I was getting at is that I see pain in her eyes and I think she’s hiding something and I don’t think I’m the guy for her." I looked away knowing full well that he knew my intentions all along. "That is what you were trying to do right? Try to get Josie and me into this perfect little relationship so that I'd move out here to be with her and join your big family?"

I looked over at the table and I realized that he was right. Josie seemed fine on the outside but you could tell that she really didn't want to be here and seemed to be rather uncomfortable. Maybe she is hiding something from everyone and evidently Caleb was right in thinking my idea was a bad one. Maybe the four of us have this dynamic about us that makes newcomers feel unwelcome. I guess Olivia and I should plan a girls’ night or girls’ day out with Josie to make her feel welcome. Especially after the way the guys gave her such a hard time when she showed up.

"You seem to be speechless Claudia. I must say I never thought that would ever happen and it lets me know that I was right. You were trying to play little Miss Matchmaker tonight." I looked at him and rolled my eyes which had him laughing again. "If it makes you feel better she's really not my type." This shocked me because Josie is a very beautiful woman and I've already seen her turn a few heads when she walked in.

"For real? She's a knockout! Did you not notice the waiter couldn't keep his eyes off of her when we ordered our drinks?" Now I'm wondering what his type is. Surely he's not one of those kinds of men that are all about having a trophy at his side.

"Oh I noticed and you're right. She is very beautiful but I'm more attracted to a strong independent woman that’s confidant about herself." She does have some self-esteem issues but I wasn’t sure how much I agreed with his assumption.

"What makes you think that she’s not a confidant independent woman?"

"It's all in her body language. I pay attention to things like that and the simple fact that she barely looks me in the eye, the few times I've spoke to her, lets me know that she lacks confidence or his hiding something and she reminds me of someone from my past."

"Maybe if you tried to talk to her and not be such a stuck up and get to know her better you might feel differently about her.” He pondered what I said and nodded his head.

"I guess you're right. Maybe that's why I always tend to be so closed off from people and have only considered marrying two women that were unattainable to me, women that I would have moved heaven and earth for. My timing always seemed to suck I guess."

"Oh yeah? Only two? Haha... What happened? Were they both corporate lawyers who only wanted a quick fling because it was the only thing they wanted from you? Maybe the timing wasn't off at all and it just wasn't meant to be." His body tightened up and the heated look on his face made me regret laughing at him.

"I think you're right Claudia and no they weren't corporate lawyers. One of them happened to meet my best friend five minutes before I met her. They got married and lived happily ever after. Well, until they died." Oh wow! So he had been in love with Jane. I've often wondered by the way he would describe her to me. He looked over at the table and I looked as well and saw Caleb headed towards us with a smile on his face.

“And what about what the other one?” He got a somber look on his face and whispered into my ear before Caleb reached us.

“That’s a story I’ll have to tell you later. Who knows? She could be in this room with us right now.” I didn’t have much time to react to what he said before Caleb interrupted but I didn’t miss the sad look on his face.

"Do you care if I twirl my fiancé around the dance floor seeing as how you got her warmed up for me?"

"She's all yours Chap! I'm going to go see if Josie wants to dance." He looked over at me and winked. "Someone pulled my arm and convinced me into coming out of my shell a little. I guess you have to start somewhere." Caleb looked between the two of us and nodded.

"I guess so man. Go have some fun because Josie does look pretty bored over there."

Mattie walked off and I put my arms around Caleb's neck and looked over at the table to see what he was going to do. I saw him extend his hand to Josie and she looked up and grinned at him and took his hand but let go and headed for the dance floor leaving him at the table.

I chuckled because the look of shock on Mattie's face was priceless. He looked over at me and cocked his head and grinned as he headed towards the dance floor. I looked over at Josie and she definitely seemed to be quite confident to me.

"Did you put him up to that Cruella?" Caleb's sudden question made me jump because for a second there I was so absorbed in watching the two of them.

"Believe it or not he pretty much told me to mind my own business and to quit trying to play matchmaker. I guess he changed his mind."

Caleb was trying to turn me in the opposite direction to where I couldn't see what was going on but I jerked him around to where I could see. He started laughing at me and started swaying to the music and it was then that I saw Josie wrap her arms around Mattie's neck and pull him closer to her possessively. I saw her whisper something in his ear and a look of lust come across his face. I giggled into Caleb's ear and he looked at me wondering why I was laughing and he looked over at the two of them dancing.

"Hmmm. Maybe just maybe you were right and you might know what you're doing. I wasn't expecting that at all. Ya know... She is my cousin after all and I don't think he has the best intentions with her by the look on his face. I don't think you could get a piece of paper between them if you tried." I shut him up with a kiss and he gave me a heated look back when I pulled away.

"Oh shut it Nerd Boy. Josie's a big girl and can take care of herself obviously and I love how she seems to be more confident than she acted when we first came in." He laughed and said something I never expected.

"Well I guess you could blame that self-confidence on mine and Cash's shoulders after what we just proposed to her."

"Hey! She's your cousin! You can't propose to her." I was joking of course and he laughed like I knew he would.

"Oh you think you're so funny. No.. not that kind of proposal Cru. Gross!" He shivered and had to take a minute to finish what he was about to say. "Dad and Cash and I bought this place and we just asked her if she'd run it for us. You can only trust family with things like this and my Uncle Gregory owned a hotel in Georgia that Josie helped manage so we offered her the job. It took her maybe all of a minute to say yes and we just finished wrapping up the final details right before I came over here. Two birds, one stone." Funny how he threw my words back at me.

"What do you mean two birds and one stone?"

"Oh... Well. There's a suite that the manager lives in so now she won't feel like she's putting anyone out and has free room and board in with her salary. She's pretty happy right now."

"Well I'm sure she is and that worked out pretty well and in her favor I would say. I had no idea you three wanted to buy this place. Actually I didn't realize it was for sale."

"Oh like Cash says all the time, everything's for sale for the right price." He got serious and looked into my eyes and leaned down and grazed my neck with his teeth. "One of the perks of being an owner is that one of the presidential suites is always available for VIP's. Since there's not anyone important staying here tonight I put dibs in on the room for tonight. You interested? There's a very big Jacuzzi if I'm not mistaken and I know how you like big bathtubs." I looked up at him and nodded my head and purred making him pull me closer into his arms.

"Oh most definitely! I'm very interested.... Nerd Boy." He growled into my ear and twirled me around the dance floor with excitement in his eyes.

**********************

The next morning Caleb and I rushed around to get out of the hotel because we wanted to show Grayson and Mattie around town some more. We also wanted to show Gray the cemetery where we would have his parents laid to rest for their final resting place as well as show him where he would be going to school.

"Sweetheart? Do you care to run home by yourself? I've already called you a limo to be pulled around front. I need to go over a few things with Josie if you don't mind. Cash put me in charge of her signing some paperwork before her official job starts Monday."

I looked over at him wearing nothing but a towel and I felt a shiver run down my spine. Will he ever not turn me on when I look at him? I sure hope not. He started grinning at me while he pulled his towel off of his body to dry his chest and shoulders off.

"I really need to hurry up but I think I can spare five minutes if you would like to go another round, Cru." Oh he's the devil I swear with that devilish grin of his and his pearly whites shining so bright. I sucked in a breath and shook my head at him. "I see it in your eyes what you're wanting."