Oh, shit. I fake a yawn. A big one. He laughs. “Sorry. It’s been one hell of a day. I think I need to pass on dinner with you guys.”
He makes a face. “It’s five o’clock, Sadie. You’re going to go home and go to bed?”
“Maybe.”
He rolls his eyes and reaches out and tugs on my arm. “Come on. Dad loves it when we’re all together.”
“I’ll meet you there.”
“Why? Everyone is waiting for us in the parking lot.”
Shit. Shit. Shit.“The whole family is in the parking lot?”
He nods and tilts his head, his eyes narrowing. He’s beginning to figure out I’m internally freaking out. So I do the only thing I can think of doing and relent. “Let’s go then.”
As we walk toward the doors, I dig my phone out of my purse and start to text Griffin to cancel and apologize profusely, but I know in my soul it’s too late. He’s probably already in the parking lot, and this is about to turn into a family reveal, whether I like it or not. My family is at the other end of the parking lot, waiting by the entrance to the diner. And then I see Griffin’s Range Rover a few feet to my left. He’s already stepping out of it—and he’s carrying roses. A dozen bright, multicolored roses.
Our eyes meet, and he sees the panic in mine. He glances over at Jude and starts to get back in his car, but it’s too late. “Sully?” Jude calls out, stunned. Griffin freezes and slowly turns back toward us. The smile on his face is strained.
“Hey, Braddock!” He waves, and I want to scream when Jude starts toward Griffin instead of continuing toward where our family is waiting…and watching.
“You here to visit someone?” Jude asks.
“Ah…sort of.” His eyes slip over to me. He smiles, and this one isn’t strained. “Hi, Sadie.”
“Hi, Griffin,” I reply and lift my hand to my face and pretend to cough when Jude glances over at me, because I can’t seem to make my face stop smiling.
“Nice flowers.” Jude motions toward the unbelievably beautiful roses. Each one is a kaleidoscope of colors.
“Thanks.” Griffin’s mahogany eyes find mine again. “Anyway, I should be going, I think.”
I nod and mouth the words “I’m sorry,” because Jude isn’t looking at me.
“Aren’t you here to give those to someone?” Jude asks, and then he glances at me with his “this dude is insane” look. I cringe inwardly.
“Coach Sully?” Eli calls, and I turn to see him walking toward us. In fact, everyone is coming toward us. It’s a wall of Braddocks marching toward us, sealing my doom.
“Crap,” Griffin hisses under his breath, and I bite my lip to keep from laughing. This isn’t funny. At all. I am so not ready for this with the emotional week I’ve had and the stress of knowing my family is about to find out about Griffin and me is clearly making me borderline hysterical. “Hey, Casco.”
“Sully as in the goalie coach?” I hear Winnie ask as they all stop beside me. “Oh! It is! This is going to get good.”
I glare at her over my shoulder, but no one notices, because Jude and Eli are busy introducing Griffin to everyone. And Winnie is too busy checking him out—blatantly. She gives me an approving nod and I glare back, annoyed. She is not even trying to cover this up.
“Lovely roses,” my mom comments as she shakes Griffin’s hand. “I’ve never seen ones like that before.”
“They’re called unicorn roses,” Griffin explains.
“They are not!” I blurt out in disbelief.
“They are.”
I burst out laughing, and he joins me. No one else is in on the joke, so they’re all staring at us, confused.
“Griffin came here to see me,” I finally confess.
He hands me the roses and steps forward and kisses my cheek. My rowdy family is abnormally quiet.
Eli is the first to break out of it, snapping his fingers. “Now it makes sense! I knew something was up with the way you were asking me about the Braddocks on the road trip!”
