“I have one of your favorite bowls ready to bring with me. If you’re in the mood for that, of course.”
There was an awkward silence, and I realized this must sound insane. “My brothers were here. Jeremy too. I bought a pizza for him in addition to the bowl. He didn’t even glance at the bowl, obviously.”
“All right. Sure. I can’t wait.” Her voice was breathy.
“I’ll see you in a bit,” I replied before hanging up.
I was a straightforward kind of guy. Never used ruses to get what I want. It wasn’t who I was. But ever since I’d met Phoebe, I’d gone against the grain. First with the pretend relationship and now this. But I needed to spend more time with her, and I didn’t much care how it happened. I grabbed the bowl and the bottles of wine and headed to the car.
Thirty minutes later, I was already pulling in front of herhouse. She opened the door before I even got out of the car. She had on a pink dress, but somehow it looked as if she was wearing nothing at all.
I groaned inwardly.Get yourself under control, Griffin.
But I was learning that when it came to Phoebe, that wasn’t easy.
CHAPTER 18
GRIFFIN
“I come with supplies,”I said, heading toward the front door with the bottles of wine and the bowl.
“You want to get me good and drunk, huh?” she asked, looking at the bottles.
I laughed. “We’re just tasting them. We don’t have to drink everything.”
“Oh, good. You’re tasting them with me. I was feeling a bit weird about drinking on my own.”
“I won’t leave you in the lurch.”
“Come on in.” She smiled but averted her gaze. Before she turned around, I realized she was blushing a little bit. My imagination spiraled out of control again.
I should have turned on the lights during our night together so I could see her. Was she blushing like this when I was inside her? When she came? I needed to find out.
“This place is a bit of a mess.” She looked over her shoulder, smiling sheepishly. “I didn’t have time to put things back in order after I unpacked everything, and today was crazy.”
It looked like someone had dropped a container of clothes in the middle of the room. “I was about to reassure you that it’s fine, but I’m taking that all back.”
She laughed. “Sorry you get to see me in all my messy glory.”
“But I like that,” I said before I could stop myself. “You don’t have to pretend for me. Never, Phoebe.”
Her smile deepened, as did her blush. I fucking loved it. I put the wine bottles and the bag with the bowl on the table.
Phoebe immediately took the bowl out and dug into the food with the wooden fork strapped to the container.
“This is delicious. I was starving.”
“Where’s your bottle opener?” I asked. One of the things we liked about the existing design of the bottle was that it wasn’t a screw cap. You actually needed to uncork it. Some people hated the idea of it, but I liked it. It was classy.
She headed to the counter, opening a drawer. “Here it is.”
I remembered the cabinet where she took the glasses from last time and opened it. The door promptly fell to the floor.
Phoebe shrieked, putting the bottle opener on the counter. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I assured her. “I have good instincts and jumped back quickly. It seems to have fallen off the hinges.”
She grimaced. “Sorry about that. I realized last week that it was a bit loose, so I was being careful about opening it. I didn’t have time to fix it.”
