I follow her back into the house, without telling her that I like her even more now.
“Is everything all right?” Adrianne asks as soon as we step into the kitchen.
Ginny smiles at her mother. “Fine.” She turns to address the entire room. The whole family has stayed in the kitchen, clearly waiting for us to come back inside so as not to miss any of the details or drama.
“Here’s the situation,” Ginny says. “Everett and I did meet when I was in Denver. Randomly. We happened to be in the same bar on Halloween. We were in costume, so we just exchanged character names.” She slides me a glance, then looks back at her family. “We chatted and had a drink, and I just wanted to…apologize to him.”
I wonder if anyone else notices how she trips over that word.
“And wanted to reassure him that he doesn’t have to worry about bringing me on as an employee with IES. I just wanted to clear up… the first impression I made.”
She made a fantastic first impression. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about her.
I glance at Graham. He’s seated at the breakfast bar that separates the kitchen from the dining room. The morning aftermeeting Ginny, I told him I’d met someone and had amazing sex with her. Does he remember that? Will he assume it was Ginny? Will he assume that it’snotGinny?
Mason, Ginny’s father, looks at her. “Did you say or do something embarrassing?”
“Um,” she starts.
“Absolutely not,” I say firmly.
She shouldn’t be a bit embarrassed aboutanythingthat happened that night.
“It wasn’t that,” she says, clearing her throat. “But obviously a conversation with a good-looking, charming stranger in a bar is a different conversation than one I’d have with a man I knew was going to be my boss.”
Okay, that’s probably fair.
“So you flirted with him,” her father says.
Ginny clears her throat. “Uh, yes.”
She definitely did. It was fantastic.
“Well, there’s no harm in that.” Mason looks at me. “I’m sure Everett understands.”
“I definitely do,” I agree. I understand that Harriett Ginger Riley is one of a kind, and I will never get over her or the night we spent together. I’m sure her father would understand.
“I can’t believe you went out to a bar in costume by yourself,” Graham says.
“It was a half block from the hotel,” Ginny says with a shrug. “It was no big deal.”
Half a block from the hotel. Dammit, she must’ve been at the Four Seasons. I did check there, but got nowhere in my sleuthing.
The no big deal thing does rub me the wrong way, though. It was definitely a big deal, but fine, she doesn’t want her family to know what happened between us. It can stay private. But ifshe thinks we are never going to talk about it again, she is sadly mistaken.
“Okay, well, if everything’s all right, let’s all sit,” Adrianne says, gesturing toward the dining room table. “Everything’s ready.”
My stomach growls, even as my chest warms in anticipation.
I have been in the Riley house for three prior meals on other trips to Sapphire Falls. The meals have been delicious and very pleasant, but have only involved Mason, Adrianne, Graham, and twice, Margot. I hadn’t previously met the two oldest sons, Carver and Jefferson, or their significant others, Kaelyn and Harlow.
And of course, Ginny hadn’t been here.
This is going to be great.
It doesn’t even take five minutes before the siblings are bantering and teasing. It’s loud, it’s boisterous, and there isso muchfood.
I fill my plate, then sit back and simply watch and listen.
