“Tell Grant I say hi,” Astrid quipped before sliding the glass door open and letting in a rush of sea air.
You’ll probably get to tell him yourself. “I’ll be right back.”
Tara took her time walking to her bedroom, carefully composing her thoughts. She didn’t want to hurt Grant’s feelings, but Astrid’s arrival was her wake-up call. She’d made promises to her and Miranda, and she had a duty to perform at Sterling. Being involved with Grant stood in direct opposition to that. Drawing in a deep breath for confidence, she opened the door and slipped inside, discovering that Grant was getting dressed.
“I forgot that I have a meeting at the office at nine. I really do need to get home and grab a shower.” He shook out his shirt and threaded his arms through the sleeves.
“We have a problem.”
“I wanted to spend more time with you, too, but I can’t blow off this meeting.”
“That’s not what I mean. Astrid is here. She was at the game last night. She saw the kiss. There’s no telling who else saw it.” She didn’t want to be so annoyed by something as silly as a kiss cam, but she was. If it hadn’t happened, if they hadn’t gone to the game at all, they wouldn’t be in this situation. Then again, something told her that she and Grant might have found another excuse to fall into bed. Their attraction was that incendiary.
“I didn’t even think about that.” Grant furrowed his brow. “This is not good.”
She nodded. “No kidding. What are we going to say if someone calls us on it?”
“Honestly? I have no idea. I mean, it was a pretty hot kiss.”
Incredibly hot. Just thinking about it sent a shudder through Tara. But she didn’t have time for that. Not now. “We have to tell people it meant nothing.” Tara gestured to the bed, where the sheets were rumpled and the comforter twisted and piled. “Just like we have to tell each other that this meant nothing. There’s too much on the line.”
Grant cast a look at the site of their tryst. “I agree. It was impulsive. We obviously weren’t thinking straight.”
Apparently Tara had hoped for at least a little resistance from Grant. Why else was she feeling so utterly disappointed by his agreement that they’d made a mistake? “I don’t think you can say that about everything last night. I got you to agree to move forward with the Seaport project. We were both thinking straight when that conversation happened.”
Grant buttoned his shirt, shaking his head. “That’s all that really matters, isn’t it?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” She greatly disliked his tone.
“It means that you took me out and flirted with me all night, then you kissed me at the baseball game. Now that it’s the next day, I’m starting to think that the whole night was a campaign to butter me up. To get what you want out of me.”
“Do you honestly think that?”
“We were both caught up in the moment. I got wrapped up in your vision and you got wrapped up in me saying yes to your ideas. It might not have been the best time to decide to sleep together.” He stuffed the tails of his shirt into his pants and buckled his belt.
Something in Tara wanted to challenge Grant, but he wasn’t wrong. She had been swept away by him taking her seriously. It was so validating. “In the meantime, what do we do about Astrid? I can’t lie and tell her nothing happened.” Tara sat on the bed, her mind scrambling for a way to deal with Astrid.
“She’s not stupid. You know that.”
“Of course.”
“We need to convince her to keep this to herself. She owns a sizable piece of Sterling and this could damage the company. Therefore, she needs to keep it quiet. Which I mean, is the only fair thing, anyway. We’re consenting adults—it was a one-time thing. Time for all of us to move on.”
A one-time thing. Tara had thought that at one point last night, but that was before they’d arrived back at her house and he’d pinned her hands against the wall in the foyer. Just like the moment out on the promenade, that made her see him differently. She’d even gone to sleep with nothing more than thoughts of wanting more from him. But maybe she’d been delirious from orgasms. “So we’ll go talk to her now?”
Grant shook his head and pulled on his socks, then stuffed his feet into his shoes. “I think this is all on you. You three are the ones who made the decision to band together. I don’t want it to be seen as me interfering if I say something to her. But I do want you to make it clear to her that she needs to stay quiet.”
The only trouble was that Astrid had a mind of her own. There was no telling what she might do or say if it benefitted her in any way. “It’ll make my job a lot easier if I can tell her when and where she should report to work. She’s mad that an entire week has gone by and she’s been sitting in her apartment with nothing to do.”
“Tell her I’ll call her this afternoon. She can start on Monday.” Grant glanced in the mirror and straightened his shirt. Tara was taken aback by the change in his demeanor. A switch had been flipped. He was no longer sweet, fun and sexy Grant, nor was he the take-charge man she’d slept with. He was all business and all too ready to distance himself from her. About to leave, he held out his hand. “Thanks for a nice night, Tara.”
“A handshake? Seriously?”
He cocked an eyebrow at her, which felt like he was telling her she
