Free Sweet Something (Sweet #1) by K.C. Harper

about you. I wanted you, Grace. Hell, I still do, and I just had you not even half an hour ago,” he said and pulled her in for a kiss; a slow kiss with his tongue and lips taking another taste of what he couldn’t get enough of, and what he wanted more of.

 
    CHAPTER NINE
     
           It had been two days since Grace had seen Tyler. He made a permanent mark on her heart, and it scared her. She found herself thinking about him during the day, and at night when she was in bed. She could feel something inside of her changing. The walls around her heart were coming down piece by piece every time she thought of him, and she found herself smiling a little more than usual. For the first time in a long time, she felt like she was ready to forget about Denny and move on.
    “Grace, come on! We are going to be late, and happy hour is almost over at Geddy’s!” Paige yelled into the hallway.
    “I am going, and happy hour is not over for another two hours. You really have been gone too long if you have forgotten what time happy hour ends at Geddy’s.”
    “I know it’s not over for another two hours, but that’s two extra hours of half-priced drinks, and I could use a few cheap drinks. This has been a rough year, and as an artist, I don’t make the kind of money to be buying drinks at full price. So get your ass in the car; Autumn is waiting for us.”
         It had been a long time since all three Carter sisters spent a night out together, and it was exactly what they needed.
     
     
       “You guys are finally here! What took so long? Did Grace hog up the bathroom again?” Autumn asked, as she came around the bar holding three beers.
    “Give me that! No, I did not hog up the bathroom. You hog the bathroom up all the time and you know that,” Grace said, as she found a seat at the bar while taking a sip of her beer.
    “Hand it over sister! I need these coming all night, so if you see my glass getting close to empty, have another one ready. This is going to be a ‘get shit-faced’ kind of night,” Paige said, slipping onto the bar stool next to Grace. Autumn went back to work behind the bar.
    “This place hasn’t changed at all. It’s the same way I remember it when I was younger. Do you remember the night you brought me and Autumn here for dinner when I graduated from high school? This was the last place we had dinner together before I left for New York,” Paige said as she looked around. It was like she never left. Everything was the same. The house, the town, and Geddy’s. All of the places she loved spending time in never changed. Only her. Every minute she was back home, she felt herself missing her life in Bar Harbor, and started to wonder why she even left in the first place. Something caught her eye in the back of the bar near the corner; it was a man sitting alone drinking what looked like whisky. Something about him pulled her in. Her eyes took in his face, the stubble that ran across his jaw, and his deep green eyes. He looked up and saw her staring and nodded before throwing back the last of his drink. Something in his eyes trapped her in that moment. It was like a magnet pulling her in as his gaze met hers. She could sense the turmoil in his eyes. He looked like he was trying to get over a long day. It was a look she had never seen in a man before, and was enough to peak her curiosity to know who he was. She turned to Grace and looked back at him one more time, watching him as he got up and paid for his drink.
       “Who is that?” she asked.
    Grace looked over to the end of the bar and back at Paige. Everyone knew who he was. He grew up in Bar Harbor and was running his dad’s hardware store for the past four years. The women loved him, as did the entire town. After his father was diagnosed with cancer, he took over the family business without any questions and was running it ever since.
    “You don’t remember who that is?” Grace said.
    “No. Who is that?”
    “That is Grayson