With every day that passed they were more deliriously in love with each other than the last. We’d all grown up with a front row seat to that kind of love, and like all my brothers, we weren’t going to settle for anything less.
But Sophie…
Thiswas different? Was it possible it had finally happened to me, too?
“Griff? Are you okay?”
My girl is watching me, her pretty face screwed up into a mask of concern. “You know what?” I stroke my beard and let a smile slip over my face. “I think everything is more than okay.”
CHAPTER SIX
Sophie
The moment he puts a bowl of warm chilli in my hands, I realize how hungry I actually am. I scoop up a spoonful and blow on it before putting it to my lips. “Oh wow.” It’s delicious. “This is so good, Griff. You made this?”
A sexy mountain man living in a log cabin he’d built himself who also happens to be a single dad who cancook?Whoisthis man?
Griffin shakes his head with a chuckle. “I wish I could take credit for that.” He grabs his own bowl and takes the chair across from me, pulling it closer. “That’s all Ma. She’s so worried that William is eating right, she regularly stocks my freezer. I guess a mom has gotta mom.”
I smile a little but look back down at my dinner. “I wouldn’t really know,” I say after moment, surprising myself by opening up. I never speak about my mom. “My mom died when I was eight.” It doesn’t hurt as much as it used to when I say it out loud. “My dad remarried a few years back, but I wouldn’t callLynn a mom. Not to me, anyway. Her son, Seth can do no wrong.” I shrug a little. “That’s the asshole I was camping with. Seth and his loser friends. Dad asked me to go with them to make sure they didn’t get into any trouble. But it turns out, Lynn told Seth to take me because they felt sorry for me because all I do is study. Correction,” I add quickly. “That’s all Iusedto do.”
I look Griffin in the eyes, and for the first time say it out loud. “I dropped out of law school. No one knows yet.”
“That feels like a pretty big deal.”
“It’s all they ever wanted me to do.” I put another bite of the delicious chilli in my mouth. “But it was never what I wanted.”
“Then I’m glad you quit. Now you can do what you want to do.”
He made it sound so simple. The problem is, all I’d ever wanted in my life was to be a wife and mother. To give my children the upbringing I was robbed of. But there’s no way I can tell that to a perfect stranger. Especially not a gorgeous single dad who I’m ridiculously attracted to. Not without him thinking I’m into him for all the wrong reasons.
“Tell me about William.” I genuinely want to know about Griff’s son so it was an easy shift in conversation. His smile lights up when he starts talking about his boy and it’s easy to see how much love he has for him.
“Has it always been just the two of you?”
“And my family.” Griff nods. “I don’t think I could have done it without them all. When Cressa showed up out of the blue with a baby, I didn’t know what to think. Let alone what I was supposed todowith him.”
“So, Cressa…”
His eyes lock on mine. “Was a one night stand. I hardly knew her and I had no plans on ever seeing her again.” He looks away. “Still don’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“She didn’t want a kid. She showed up on my doorstep, handed me William and walked away. That was it.”
“What?” A flare of anger for a woman I’ve never met flashes through me. “How could she?—”
“There’s no point asking the question,” he stops me. “There’s no answer good enough.” Griff looked up again and lifts his glass of wine to his lips. I can’t take my eyes off them. His tongue darts out and licks away a stray drop and instantly my thoughts flash to what it would feel like to have his tongue on me, between my legs, licking and tasting me where I’ve never been touched before.
My cheeks burn hot and I try to cover it by picking up my own glass of wine.
“Is everything okay, sweetheart? It’s not your ankle, is it?”
“No. I’m fine. I was just thinking…never mind. Tell me more about your family.”
Griffin
I knowexactly what she’s thinking because I’m thinking it, too.
