“If that’s how you feel after I try to explain myself, I will take you home. But I’m hoping if you give me a chance, I can make this right.”
“I don’t know, Grayson…” She bites her lip, and I reach for her hand and pull it into my lap.
“I screwed up tonight. I hurt you—not intentionally, but I hurt you nonetheless, and I hate myself for it.”
“You introduced me as your sitter.” Nora shakes her head, seeming confused by the entire situation, and my stomach turns. Are those tears in her eyes? “And she introduced herself as your sister-in-law. Are you and Lorelei divorced, or just separated?”
Oh hell, I didn’t even realize that. “Divorced. Definitely divorced. And I’m so sorry, Nora. I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable, and I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. Seeing Lacey was a shock, and Christ, it threw me for a loop.”
My chest tightens as images of holding Lacey as she fell apart in my arms at the hospital after Lorelei’s drug overdose flash through my head like a slideshow. My ex-wife’s drug use was just as hard on her sister as it was on me.
“Lacey and Lorelei were really close. They were best friends. She didn’t handle it well when she found out about Lorelei’s drug use, and right after my divorce, things with Lacey and me were strained. She thought I was walking away from my marriage too soon, that I wasn’t giving Lorelei a chance, but she didn’t know half of what Lorelei had put us through.”
I pause and suck in a breath.
Nora tightens her grip on my hand. “Keep going.”
“Over time, things got better between me and Lacey, but she still holds out hope that her sister will get clean and we’ll get back together.”
“Is there any chance of that happening?”
“Of her getting clean? I hope so. But of us getting back together?” I shake my head. “It’s never going to happen.”
Nora nods. “And you were worried about how Lacey would react if she knew we were there on a date?”
“Yes and no.” God, why is this so hard to explain? “I love Lacey, and I don’t want to hurt her—”
“Is that why you didn’t introduce me as your date?”
“Partly. I didn’t know how she would handle it, and that’s not a conversation I wanted to have with her in the middle of a restaurant on our first date. But mostly it’s because I wasn’t thinking. Running into her was a shock, and I stupidly blurted the first thing that came to mind.”
“I understand.”
The tightness in my chest releases, and I feel like I can breathe again. “You do?”
“Yes. It’s a difficult situation, and I think you handled it well.”
“I hurt your feelings. I’d hardly call that handling it well.” She’s being so understanding about all of this. She’s almost too good to be true. “I promise I won’t make that mistake again. You’re the first real thing I’ve let myself have in over two years, and I don’t want to lose it before it even starts.”
“Grayson?”
“Yes?”
“Can we go throw axes now?”
“I’d love to.”
Nora’s hand rests on my upper thigh as I make the two-minute drive to the venue. We step out of the car and meet by the hood.
I slide my hand behind Nora’s neck. The weight of her hair hangs over my arm, and I breathe in her fresh scent. “Does this mean you forgive me?”
“I forgive you. But next time, introduce me as your date or your girlfriend. I’m good with either one. But don’t introduce me as Jessa’s sister-in-law or your sitter.”
My cheeks heat up. What an ass. I can’t believe I did that. “Never again.”
“I do have one more question.”
“I’ll answer as many as you’ve got.”