“You were wearing lace.”

Grace tossed her free hand in the air. “I really don’t want to know more about your sex life.”

Colin winked at her and looked over her shoulder. “I see Dameon made it.”

Parker peered closer. “Is that him?”

Grace nodded.

Dameon must have sensed people watching and turned around. After saying something to the people he’d been talking to, he walked toward them.

“Dameon, I’d like you to meet Parker. The newest member of the Hudson family.”

They shook hands. “A pleasure.”

“And of course, you’ve already met Colin.”

Grace watched them shake hands. This time it didn’t seem to be a struggle to determine who had more testosterone coursing through their veins.

“Nice to see you again,” Dameon said.

“We’ll see about that,” Colin uttered.

Grace gave him the stare. “Be nice.”

“How about we get the ladies a drink,” Dameon suggested to Colin.

Her brother kissed Parker’s cheek. “Red?” he asked.

She nodded and the men walked off.

As soon as they were out of earshot Parker leaned close. “He is so much hotter in person.”

“Tell me about it.” Grace lifted her glass to her lips, realized it was empty, and set it down.

Dameon waited until they were well outside of earshot before turning to Colin.

“What do you know about Stefan Sokolov?” he asked.

For a second Colin looked lost. “You mean the guy who owns the mobile home park?”

“That’s the one.”

“I know he’s lousy at maintaining his property . . . why?”

Dameon looked around, leaned closer. “A certain person we both know had a run-in with him earlier this week. Scared her enough to call me.”

The pleasant expression on Colin’s face fell. “What do you mean, ‘scared her’?”

“Just what I said. You know her better than me. I have a feeling she doesn’t spook easy.”

Colin looked toward his sister. “No, she doesn’t.”

“Do you know what this guy looks like?”

“No.”

“If you find an image of the guy, will you pass it on?”

Colin turned back. “She called you?”

“She was concerned that you or your brother would take it too far if she called you.”

“She’s right about that.”

They moved forward in line. “You didn’t hear it from me.”

Colin regarded him with a sideways glance. “Why tell me this?”

Easy answer. “Because my office is in LA and I can’t always be in town. Regardless of what you might think of me, I only want to see that woman smiling. Not shaking in fear.”

Colin patted him on the shoulder as they stepped up to the bartender.

It appeared to Grace that Colin and Dameon had made some kind of peace. Her brother wasn’t snapping or cutting barbs at the man, nor was he attempting to make him uncomfortable.

The four of them found a table and grabbed some food from the buffet.

“I understand you’re building a pretty big development in town,” Parker said to Dameon.

“I am. Grace has given me a lot to consider about the build. Some things we already factored in and others we didn’t.”

“My sister knows her stuff,” Colin said with pride.

“You mind telling my boss that?” Grace asked.

“Richard still playing hardball?”

She looked at her brother and nodded. “You’d think he’d grow bored after a while.”

Colin looked around. “Is he even here?”

“I saw him earlier,” she said. “These things aren’t in his skill set, he probably left already.”

Parker shifted the conversation. “So, Dameon, where do you spend Christmas?”

“My mom lives in Glendale.”

“Any siblings?” Parker asked.

“A brother. Sometimes he shows up. My uncle and his family come in every other year. What about you guys?” he asked, his gaze moving to Grace.

“Our parents host. Mom loves to cook and we’re all pretty good at helping out.”

“Nothing more important than family,” Colin said, his eyes narrowed on Grace.

She pushed her plate of food aside and looked up to find Richard staring at them.

“Looks like my boss didn’t leave after all.”

“I should probably be mingling,” Dameon said.

“That might not be a bad idea.”

Colin stood when Dameon did. “I’ll introduce you to some of the guys I work with, not that they have time to do anything for your project, but they do know most of the people in town who could.”

Dameon leaned close to Grace. “Don’t leave without saying goodbye.”

He walked away before she could respond.

Parker moved over to the seat Colin had just vacated. “He’s charming.”

“I know. It’s unnerving.”

“I don’t get the stalker vibe Erin talked about.”

“Me either.”

Before either of them could say more, Richard walked by their table. Their eyes met and he looked away without saying a thing.

“Merry Christmas to you, too,” she said in a tone only Parker could hear.

“Ignore him. His wife probably hasn’t had sex with him since the nineties,” Parker joked.

“In the nineties he had a different wife altogether.”

As the evening wore on, the people in the room loosened up and the voices grew louder. Grace scouted the group to see if anyone was going to be the talk of the party after the holidays. Pete was out of the running since he’d already left.

“We haven’t had a girls’ night since before the wedding,” Parker said.

“You’ve been a little busy.”

“We need to plan one. Before the wedding it was all about the wedding. Before that it was all about getting Erin back to the living. I feel out of the loop. And outside of the Dameon gossip, I have no idea what’s going on in your world.”

Grace shrugged. “I work, I go home . . . wash, rinse, and repeat.”

“That’s not healthy.”

“It beats meeting strangers in bars and learning later that they tried to kill one of your best friends.” Grace didn’t realize the weight of her words until after they’d left her mouth.

Silence stretched between them.

“I’m guessing that’s not healthy either,” Parker said. A frown replaced her smile from the moment before.

“I stopped trusting my instincts.” Grace glanced around to avoid being overheard. “Which is why I’m glad you know who is here for you to meet. Erin put doubt in my head, and I haven’t completely shaken it off.”

“I expect that from Erin. Not you. But that’s not really fair, is it?”

Grace shook her head. “It’s completely fair. No one tried to kill me.”

“We don’t know that. And I’m guessing you’ve come up with that conclusion yourself.”

More than once.

“You’d tell me . . . if something was off with you know who, right?” Grace asked.