Gracie had never been what I would have described as normal. In fact, with the way she walked around with her head in the clouds, she was, in a word, enchanting because I never knew what would come out of her mouth. It might be something related to the current discussion we were having or something out of left field that had just popped into that fascinating brain of hers, but the point was, with Gracie, you just never knew.
I'd never used the word enchanting before in my life, but one day, while I was watching her talk excitedly about one of her more improbable story plots -- double-dicked dragon shifters who had chocolate-flavored cum (Really, Wyatt, it should be a standard because seriously? That's the most unrealistic thing in romance novels the way the women swallow that shit down like it's a hot fudge sundae when we all know it. is. not. Oh! Hot-fudge sundae flavored joy juice! And each dick shoots a different flavor!) -- it'd popped into my head and never left.
Get Gracie together with her two cousins, and any semblance of normal flew out the window. They didn't even try to pretend; they were out there and proud of it. They were the original we don't give a fuck girls. They still had never come completely clean about the biology lab frogs incident, and when Xane and I had approached Alex for the details, he told us quite seriously that he'd have to kill us if he were to reveal anything about it.
Xane and I were about seventy-seven percent sure he was kidding, but it was that twenty-three percent uncertainty that kept us from pushing it with him.
So when I said that Gracie was behaving abnormally, I meant her behavior was out there even for her.
It started during lunch. I'd noticed she and Riley were sitting together at the restaurant, and Riley seemed to be doing a lot of talking while Gracie watched her, her lips pinched tight, leaning back away from Riley, arms crossed.
Hmmm. That wasn't the way Gracie listened to people. She leaned toward them, face relaxed, eyes alight with curiosity and her lips slightly curved up. Gracie always projected a talk to me because I'm interested in hearing your story attitude when she listened. This was more like an I want to bitch slap you demeanor. That I didn't understand because Riley was a really nice woman, always kind and bubbly, great sense of humor, extremely serious about the job.
I'd had to focus on the tweaks to the security plan for that night's show with Blue and some of the others for an idea I'd had, but whenever I had a chance, I snuck a quick glance at Gracie who was still listening the same way to Riley.
That was my first clue. My next clue came when we were walking out to the bus and Riley called out to me. I turned and smiled as she approached, Gracie trudging along behind Riley.
"You OK, Ri?" I asked.
"Great!" she said, all chipper. "Just wondering if you're going out for drinks after the show tonight."
That was odd. All of us always went out for drinks after the show so I wasn't sure why she'd be asking. Blue usually left the post-show celebrations after he finished his soda water with a lime twist, and I went with him after I had a beer.
"Yeah. Of course," I answered her, and then Riley reached out and squeezed my bicep. Weird.
"It's going to be great being in a hotel for the next two nights, isn't it, Wyatt?"
"Looking forward to it," I agreed. The bus was fine, but it was nice to have a break once in a while on a big bed that wasn't moving.
"You should come to my room and we could watch a movie or something."
She wiggled her eyebrows at me, and I heard Gracie huff.
"I'll probably just crash afterward," I said. "But maybe one of the others will be up for a movie."
"Up for," Gracie muttered. "Sure."
"Well, I'm not giving up on you, Wyatt! I'll get that movie out of you yet!"
Then she walked off with a little wave and Gracie was still walking next to me.
"Well, she's full of...energy," she said.
"Riley's a lot of fun," I said. "Really good at her job. All the guys think she's great."
"She's a gem," she said.
Her tone was so curt I wondered if Riley had somehow gotten on Gracie's bad side. That would be surprising because Riley was a natural people person and everyone liked her. I would have thought she and Gracie would become fast friends.
"I asked Blue to hire her for the tour. I've worked with Ri before and told him she'd be an excellent addition to the team."
To that, Gracie didn't say anything, so I changed the subject.
"So, one of the things we were talking about at lunch is a way for you to get a feel for being on the front lines of security for your book. Tonight's venue is a little smaller and there's a bigger separation between the stage and the audience. We thought we could put you right behind me and we'd have two extra officers working in front tonight to give you an added layer of protection. That way, you could get a real feel for what it's like for your rock star to be performing and what your body guard would feel like protecting him."
Gracie looked up at me, surprised since she'd always been assigned to stay in the wings so far. "That's a lot of effort to get me that kind of first-hand experience."
I grinned down at her. "It'll get you the inside scoop on the way it feels from both sides. You just have to promise me you'll be safe and do whatever any of us tells you to do."
"OK," she agreed immediately, her eyes delighted. "I appreciate the opportunity, Wyatt. Thank you."
"We have a bullet proof vest for you to wear and a baseball cap. Even though everyone has to pass through the metal detectors coming into the arena and their purses and bags are searched, we don't take any chances. We've assigned Riley to you since she's what your heroine is -- a badass woman."
"Oh. Of course. It makes sense," she said flatly, her eyes suddenly dim.
I turned to her, not understanding why she was high and then low. Gracie pretty much was a one-mood woman and she rode whichever mood she was in for a while. Definitely not normal Gracie behavior to be up and down.
"Did she say something to you, Gracie? Give you a hard time? I can assign someone else to be the protection officer you shadow if you want."
"Nope." Now she had her wall up, and I wanted to scale it so I could be on the same side with her.
"What'd she say, Gracie?"
"Nothing," she said, then walked toward the bus.
More abnormal Gracie behavior followed when we checked into the hotel mid-afternoon. Riley was ahead of Gracie and me in line and when she got her room key, she turned to me to say, "I'll wait to see if our rooms are near each other!"
Maybe it just wasn't Gracie acting weird today because Ri never gave a flying fuck if our rooms were near each other.
Gracie checked in first and then I made sure I got the room right next to hers. Riley was waiting to compare and she laughed happily.
"I'm on the other side of you, Wyatt!"
If it was a full moon or something causing this weird-ass behavior, we'd need to be extra alert for crazies tonight during the show.
"Cool," I said to Riley's announcement, then the three of us took the elevator to our floor, and I kept an eye on Gracie because I knew she wasn't fond of elevators, especially since we'd gotten trapped in one.
Riley's room was first, and she went inside with a promise to meet us before the show.
Then I went past my room to Gracie's.
She opened the door to her room , then looked up at me, glaring. "If you're going to do something with her tonight, at least have the decency to do it in her room so I don't have to hear it in the room right next to mine."
"Do something with...Riley?"
"Also known as Ri to those in the know."
"Gracie, first of all, the only woman I want to do anything with is you. Second, Riley's married."
"That doesn't stop some people," she said, fixing me with a look.
"Let me clarify, then," I said. "Riley's married to a really nice woman."
Gracie didn't say anything but she shoved her suitcase into her room, pulled the door closed and then went and pounded on Riley's door. When Riley answered, Gracie pushed her way in.
The door shut. Hard. Yelling followed.
That was definitely weird. Not normal. I had no idea Gracie even knew Riley enough to have a beef with her, but I guess that was behind all the up and down moods today.
I just hoped that Gracie was over her bad mood soon because Blue and I had another surprise in store for her tonight.