Him & I

I Wanna Make You Close Your Eyes - Part 2

I wanna take you somewhere, out there
'Til the world fades out of sight
We're wide awake but girl I wanna make you close your eyes
——I Wanna Make You Close Your Eyes, Dierks Bentley

Grayson walked back inside to see Cait in the kitchen. Marvin was leaning through the opening in the wall talking to her a mile a minute. They were even laughing.

Grayson took a couple of deep breaths and tried to calm down. He didn't know anything at this point. He suddenly understood exactly why Cait hadn't said anything to him when she'd first suspected that Stacy was around. He didn't want to upset her over a speculative possibility. But he was determined to protect her.

He had Stacy's address. It was in that report that Brennan had sent to Cait. But what if Phil was wrong?

Grayson called out that he'd be right out for dinner and went into the master bathroom, just to try to talk himself into some composure. He forced himself to calm down. Nothing was going to happen to Cait tonight.

Grayson walked out into the bedroom to see Cait looking at him. "You okay?" she asked, stripping her sweatshirt off.

"I'm good," Grayson managed a smile at her.

"I just wanted to change," she said with a smile. "Marvin is sneaking a peek at the Duke game."

Grayson shook his head. "Anything you need me to do while you're changing?"

"Nope, everything is just about ready." She was stripping off that base layer that she wore under her ski clothes and Grayson had to bite down on the inside of his cheek to keep from gasping out loud.

Her left hip already had the beginnings of a nasty bruise. It trailed up the left side of her back, where it looked like she had a bit of a brush burn too. And the outside of her left knee had another bruise. Grayson felt the anger bubbling up but he couldn't let her know.

"Those are some marks you've got," he managed, voice low. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Cait glanced down, but she knew she couldn't see the worst of it. "I'm okay, Grayson," she whispered. "I'll probably be a little stiff for a couple of days, but it's no big deal. I've had way worse falls than that."

Grayson nodded stiffly. "I'll go pour you a drink for dinner," he said softly. He walked to her and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "You should take some Motrin or something too."

"Thanks," she said quietly, hugging him for a brief minute.

*****

Grayson managed to set aside some of his worries and enjoy dinner with Cait and Marvin.  They laughed over a lot of things that happened the year before at Duke.  Marvin even sold Grayson out and told Cait a few things she hadn't known about.  Like them waking Grayson up when she won her first race.  Or showing up at his apartment at 6:00 a.m. to watch one and bringing doughnuts that Grayson threw in the trash.

All three of them watched the game and then cleaned up.  And Grayson needed to take Marvin back to his hotel. "Ride with me?" he asked quietly, as Cait finished wiping the counters. 

Cait glanced at him and looked down at her yoga pants and sweatshirt.  "I mean, I guess I could?" She looked at Grayson quizzically.