Griffin winced and I knew I hit the nail on the head.
“I’m not him,” I stated. “Okay? I’mnotHeath. What Rafael said he did to you was unspeakable.”
Griffin met my eyes again and I noticed his were watery and hurt.
“I’m serious,” I said. “Even if I was in the exact same situation as him, I would never in a million years think about doing that. Do you get that?”
“Logically, yes,” Griffin admitted. “But at times, I’m not ruled by logic. Like the other day. The only thing that had its grip on me was fear. I couldn’t think straight, so I acted foolishly.” He lifted his sheepish gaze. “I hope you can forgive me for that.”
“I can.”
“But I also need you totalkto me,” Griffin added firmly. “You can’t make huge decisions like that on your own. I have to be involved.” With a mischievous smile, he added, “I won’t bite, all right?”
I sighed. “Yeah. I know. That was stupid of me.”
Griffin’s gaze softened with sympathy. “I’m sorry I hurt you, Jake.”
I pressed closer to him and rested my head on his chest. “I’m sorry, too.”
I heard Griffin chuckle as he put his arms around me. As he did so, his warm delicious scent wafted around me. I closed my eyes, letting it envelop me like a cloud. My heart ached with longing. In the days he was gone, I’d missed his scent. I’d missedhim.
I threw my arms around him and embraced him hard. Maybe if I held on tight enough he would never let go.
“Jake, you’re shivering,” Griffin pointed out. “Do you want to go inside?”
As I pulled away, I realized he was right. There were also tears in my eyes, so I couldn’t tell if I was shivering from the cold or from crying, but either way I nodded.
Griffin led me inside. Once we were in the hall, I saw a familiar head pop up - although I noticed now he was wearing his Omega Angel Café uniform. Skylar dashed over to us. Rafael, who had been sitting on the opposite side of the café, joined us as well. The two of them looked annoyed to be standing next to each other, but put their squabble aside for at least a moment.
“What happened?” Skylar demanded. “Are you okay, Jake?”
“I’m fine,” I said, giving him a tired smile.
Skylar’s eyes darted to my hand, which was interlaced with Griffin’s.
“Then… You two made up?” Skylar asked hesitantly.
“Something like that,” I replied. “We weren’t exactly done talking.”
Skylar shot Griffin a wary glance, but then said, “Come on. I’m officially on my shift now so I can seat you. There’s a private table at the back.”
“What should I do?” Rafael asked.
Skylar glared at him, but I gave him a shove to make him cut it out. “Lay off it. Rafael is a good guy. Besides, I don’t want you to get fired for glaring at customers.”
With a sigh, Skylar said, “You’re right. Rafael, I guess… You just sit there. I’ll take your order in a second, if you actually have one.”
Skylar led Griffin and I to a booth near the back of the café, which was secluded from the rest of the area by a decorative folding screen. The seats were luxurious white leather and I sank into them when I sat down.
Before he left, Skylar handed us some menus absentmindedly, then gave me one last nod to make sure I was okay.
“I’m fine,” I promised. “Go on.”
When we were alone, Griffin cleared his throat. “You know, Skylar didn’t strike me as the combative type when I first met him, but a few minutes ago I was really sure he was going to kill me for even looking at you.”
I smirked. “Yeah, well… He was pretty pissed off at you for running out like that. I mean, I was too.”
“That’s fair,” Griffin admitted. “Even Rafael was angry when I told him what happened.”
