Nope, I’d told them to come this month.Ah, damn it.I bit theinside of my cheek, deciding not to tell them about my mistake. The tickets were nonrefundable.
Crap, this was not a good time at all. I’d have to think about how to best bring it up later with Griffin. Right now, I wanted to focus on taking care of the guys.
“Anything wrong?” Griffin asked.
I shook my head, putting the phone in my pocket. “It’s all good.”
He didn’t say anything, so I chanced a glance at him. He was frowning slightly. I figured he didn’t buy my quick excuse, but he didn’t insist.
Once everyone finished, we carried the plates to the kitchen.
“I need a coffee now,” Chase said. “I’m starting the coffee maker.”
“See, that’s why I didn’t want us to pause for lunch,” Knox said. “I knew we’d be tired afterward.”
“Guys, you know you can just take the boxes out of your cars and put them by the wall,” I told them. “I’ll carry them to the bedroom later.”
Chase looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “No. That’s not how Sterlings do things. We’ll carry everything upstairs. We just needed a boost.”
“Well, then, I’ll take a coffee too,” I said.
I usually didn’t drink any caffeinated drinks in the afternoon, but I wanted all my energy today.
The second we emptied our cups, Knox said, “Let’s stop procrastinating or we’ll never get this done.”
Finn nodded. “Yeah. We don’t want to be late to Hannah’s either.”
It turned out that he was right. It took almost two hours to carry up the rest. The guys were completely spent by the time they’d finished.
“I really need to think about doing something more to thank them,” I murmured as Knox, Chase, Finn, Wyatt, and Duncan went up with their last stack of boxes.
“No, you don’t, babe,” Griffin said, coming up from behind me. “Trust me, it’s good to put them to work. Otherwise, they’d spendallof their time giving me shit. This keeps them occupied and focused on something else.”
He pulled me out of view of the staircase and into the living area. Then he pushed me against the wall and kissed me so deliciously that my fingers curled. I rose to my toes, deepening the kiss.
“You know, I think we should go before we become cockblockers,” Knox said.
I gasped, literally jumping to the side. My face felt completely red. My insides were on fire. I slowly walked in front of the staircase so they could see that nothing untoward was happening. Griffin joined me after a few seconds, glaring at his brothers.
“Oh, we already are.” Knox nodded. “Got it. We’ll be out of your way.”
“Actually,” Chase said, looking at his phone, “our parents are already there. Hannah said that you’re welcome to join us, and then we can make it a whole afternoon event. If you don’t have plans.”
I glanced over my shoulder at Griffin, who zeroed in on me. By the feral intensity in his eyes, I was 100 percent sure that hedidhave some very sexy plans for me this afternoon.
“That’s fine by me,” I said.
That intensity flared up a bit. Oh, I was enjoying this. I would love to seduce this amazing man right here, right now, but we couldn’t turn Hannah down.
“Sure, we can go,” Griffin said.
“I’m not going to start unpacking until tomorrow anyway,” I added.
“Good idea,” Griffin replied. “I wouldn’t let you today anyway. You need to relax.”
He pressed his fingers into my shoulder blades as he led us out of the house. His brothers were right behind us. I didn’tactually do anything—they’d been the ones carrying stuff around—but when he pressed his thumbs into my skin, the tension released instantly.
Huh, look at that. My man knew me even better than I knew myself.
