And here he’d thought his biggest challenge this week was going to be securing office space for his new practice in Butler. Now he had no idea if he was going to practice in Vermont or make use of the New York license he’d gotten years ago so he could be with the woman who’d captured his heart in a few short days.

Grayson had no idea what to do. Nothing like this had ever happened to him before, and the next step wasn’t at all clear to him, not like it had been only a few days ago.

At seven o’clock, he gave up on trying to sleep and took a shower, hoping to clear the cobwebs from his racing mind. He got dressed and headed out to the diner for some badly needed coffee. As he stepped into the brightly lit diner, he wasn't surprised to see his grandfather sitting at one of the tables reading the Burlington Free Press.

Elmer Stillman’s face lit up with pleasure at the sight of his grandson.

“Mind if I join you?” Grayson asked.

“You know better than to ask me that. Sit your ass down.” He signaled to Butch, who was running the diner in Megan’s absence. “Can we get some coffee for my grandson, Butch?”

“Coming right up.”

“Why is he so nice to you and cranky with everyone else?”

“I’m a silent partner,” Elmer said, as if that was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Silent?” Grayson asked, brow raised in amazement.

“Megan and Hunter are in charge. I just do what I’m told.”

Grayson laughed. “That’ll be the day.”

“Enough about me. What brings you out so early looking like something the cat dragged in? What’s wrong?”

For a second, Grayson thought about saying nothing was wrong, but his grandfather was far too perceptive to be lied to. “Emma and Simone are leaving today.”

“Ahhh. I wondered if that was it. You’ve taken a shine to that girl.”

“You could say that,” Grayson said with a grunt of laughter. More like he was obsessed with her, but his grandfather didn’t need to know that.

“It’s about time,” Elmer said with satisfaction.

Butch plunked a heavy mug full of coffee onto the table in front of Grayson. “You guys eating?”

“I’ll have a full stack of pancakes with sausage,” Elmer said.

“Make it a double,” Grayson said.

“Coming right up.”

“You’re doing a good job running the place, Butch,” Elmer said.

“Megan can get her ass back here any time now.”

“Couple more days,” Elmer said.

“Damned honeymoon.”

They laughed at Butch’s scowl as he stormed off.

“We need to find him a wife,” Elmer said. “Then he’ll be all for the damned honeymoon.”

“Seriously.”

“Enough about him. Tell me about you. What’re you going to do about the lovely Emma and the absolutely adorable Simone?”