I hurried outside, exclaiming, “I’m here!”
Emma and Jude turned first. “Good morning,” Emma said.
“I’m so sorry to keep you waiting,” I said. “That bed is so comfortable that I didn’t want to leave it.” I inspected the table. It was bursting with food. “Oh, I didn’t help set the table for breakfast.”
“You’re a guest,” Emma said. “Let’s dig in.”
“Before we do that,” Jude said, “we want to share some great news.”
Griffin smiled widely.
“What’s that?” I asked as we all sat down.
“I have decided that I’ll consider Griffin’s proposal to invest in my company. I was far too quick to shut him down.”
“That’s fantastic!” I exclaimed.Mission accomplished.
My heart was so happy. Griffin deserved this. I glanced his way, and he beamed at me.
“We’ll get together to discuss this in more detail because I don’t want to spoil the weekend talking shop,” Jude continued. “But I have a feeling that we’re going to get along just fine.”
“So do I,” Griffin said. “I promise you won’t regret this. I’ve got?—”
“Tut, tut,” Emma interrupted. “No business talk.”
Griffin laughed. “You’re right.”
I was ecstatic all the way through breakfast, but then a realization started to dawn on me. There was no use for our ruse anymore. Griffin could tell him that we broke up after this weekend, and that would be that. I might tell him to blame it on me so Jude wouldn’t think less of him.
“All right. How about we spend the rest of the day doing nothing at all? I suggest we just lie in the sun, enjoying drinks,” Emma said.
“Sounds like my kind of Sunday,” I agreed.
We finished breakfast quickly, and then Emma and Jude asked us to help them take out some lounge chairs to put by the water.
I wasn’t sure how to act around Griffin. At some point, I was certain we should talk about last night, but I blushed every time I even thought about it.
As we sat down on our respective chairs, I applied sunscreen, then held the bottle for him.
“Sunscreen?” I asked.
He tilted his head, a playful smile on his lips. If he was going to ask me to apply it on him, I’d spontaneously combust. But he probably suspected as much, because he simply nodded and took the bottle. “Yeah, thanks.”
We didn’t actually get the chance to talk at all, though, because either Emma or Jude was always around. But every timeI caught his eye, my stomach somersaulted and my pulse sped up.
Only after Emma and Jude decided that it was time to start packing did we have our first moment completely alone. We stayed behind, carrying our respective lounge chairs to the woodshed behind the house.
It was completely dark inside. After I dropped off my chair, I started to head out, but Griffin touched my forearm.
“Wait a second.” He drew in a sharp breath. “Fuck, I’ve wanted a moment alone with you the whole day.” He ran his fingers along my jaw, and I shuddered. There was no need to pretend, so why was he touching me? Then again, after last night, that wasn’t really a valid question.
“Phoebe, last night was surreal,” he said.
What a good opener. Why didn’t I think of that?Every time I tried to play out in my mind how this conversation would go, I got tongue-tied.
“It was,” I agreed.
“I don’t regret it one bit.”
