Bring Me To Life

Watching You Watch Him

I love you
From the bottom of my heart
And that's not gonna change
But things are grim
When I'm watching you watch him
----Watching You Watch Him, Eric Hutchinson

January 4

Grayson awoke to the tickle of whiskers and the gaze of a rather annoyed feline. "Sorry pal," he grumbled softly. "You're gonna have to share the bed."

He glanced over at Cait, who was still sleeping soundly, her lips slightly parted, her lashes laying on her cheek. A wave of love swept over him. He wondered when he would get used to the feeling.

They'd arrived home the night before to find that Luke and Chase had mostly followed his instructions. There was a fire in the fireplace, soft jazz playing and candles lit around the house. Chocolate covered strawberries and Diet Coke were in the refrigerator. And the bed was turned back upstairs. He knew Cait had been happily surprised, even though she'd made a couple of remarks questioning his sanity for combining Luke, Chase and open flame, in her house no less.

She deserved all of that and more. That was the way their first time should have been, but when he told her that, she'd just laughed and told him she wouldn't change a thing and that he was the only man she had ever actually seduced. He had the brief thought that he'd like to be the last, too.

The displaced cat shot him another glare and yowled in his ear. Grayson got up from the bed and picked up the unwilling animal, cuddling him to his chest. "You and I are going to have to learn to get along. We can start by making your mom some coffee."

*****
He picked his parents up right on time. Cait had gone to get her workout in early. She was nervous about meeting them. He could tell.

He'd decided to subscribe to Luke and Chase's theory on public places to break the news to his parents, so after he picked them up, he stopped at Starbucks and insisted they should go sit down for awhile.

Grayson sat across from them, playing with the straw in his iced coffee nervously. Finally, his father noticed that he seemed uncomfortable.

"Grayson, for heavens sake, why are you so fidgety?" Will Allen looked at his only child. "Is something wrong?"

"No! Nothing's wrong - it, well, it's actually something that's right, I mean, it's a good thing, not a bad thing and I just -"

"Hon, you just aren't making a lick of sense." Sherry huffed out. "Whatever you have to say to us, spit it out."

"O-okay. Here goes. I'm in love. With a girl. Cait, her name is Cait. She's amazing and beautiful and she totally gets me," Grayson stopped and shook his head. "What I'm trying to say is that I have girlfriend and I'd like you to meet her."

"How long has this been goin' on?" Sherry questioned.

"Not long," Grayson admitted. "But I've liked her for a really long time."

"Son, you know you have to be careful about this stuff." Will frowned. "So many girls are after money or fame."

Now Grayson actually cracked a smile. "Trust me, Cait has more of both of those things than I do. She's already an Olympic champion and her dad is one of the richest men in the country."

"Wait, are you talking about Caitlin Callahan? The skier that's training at Duke?" his father questioned.

"Uh yeah," Grayson quirked a brow. "Wasn't aware you knew about that."

"Her father called me. The day after the Elon game. He said he'd gotten my number from Coach K and he just wanted to offer his support," Will looked puzzled. "He said he had some idea what we were feeling. We had a nice conversation. But he never said anything about you dating his daughter."