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“So, you have no feelings for him at all? Romantic ones I mean?” Evie asked.
“No,” I lied.
The truth was my feelings were totally muddled and I had no idea what to do about it. I could tell that neither of my friends believed me, but fortunately they didn’t press it.
“If you really have no feelings besides attraction, you could just be friends with benefits,” Evie suggested.
I shook my head. “No, I can tell already that I’ll just get addicted to him and his big dick. And he’s already getting a little possessive, I can see it in his eyes. Although friends with benefits does sound tempting...”
The girls laughed, and we moved onto another topic. The little voice in my head reminded me that getting addicted to Griffin’s dick wasn’t what I needed to worry about. It was my stupid heart, the one that pounded harder every time I saw my ex-husband. I tried to tell myself it was just that fluttering you got when you were reunited with your first love, but I knew it was more than that. And I was committed to ruthlessly squashing any lovey-dovey feelings that I had about Griff.
After about an hour Wyatt and Jake appeared at the restaurant, giving us a wave before stationing themselves at the bar.
“Oh for the love of God,” Evie groused. “We have one drunken episode that ends in us fighting crime and now these assholes are acting like we can’t be trusted to behave if we go out together.”
A few weeks ago, before we caught the vandal that was messing with Evie’s store, the three of us may have gotten the tiniest bit tipsy and gone to “guard” the store with brooms and mops. Someone had called the cops on us, probably because we got the tiniest bit loud, and then Jake and Wyatt had come and dragged the three of us away like naughty teenagers.
I hadn’t had such a bad hangover since the trip to Florida we took when Evie turned fifty.
“Just ignore them,” Emma suggested, sending Wyatt a scathing look that made him look decidedly uncomfortable. “I want to hear more about this big dick, and where it’s been all these years.”
Chapter 9
Griff
“You here to see Mom?”
My daughter popped around the bar and I gave her a sheepish smile. We’d gotten together twice since I’d come back into her life, not counting the joint breakfast with her mother, and she already seemed to have my number. Of course, I also kept coming into the restaurant and staring at her mom like a lovesick fool.
“Yeah. But I’m glad to see you too,” I rushed to add.
She rolled her eyes. “She’s out with the girls.”
At my blank look she added, “Evie and Emma. They went to Jose’s, which means that someone’s fired up about something. They only go there when they need to have deep conversations and get drunk.”
“Um.”
I had a pretty good idea what Dawn was fired up about. She’d run out the door so quickly last night there was practically a Dawn-sized hole in my door.
“You still haven’t told me what’s going on with you and Mom,” Chloe reminded me. “I don’t buy that you’re just trying to get to know her again. Neither of you can keep your eyes off each other and here you are, night after night. Something’s changed between you in the last week. Even the staff is commenting about you undressing each other with your eyes.”
“Um. What did Dawn tell you?”
Chloe gave me a triumphant look. “I knew it! Something is going on with you and my mom. You’re acting all shifty and she’s certainly been off-kilter since you came back. She’s not been her usual calm self.”
“Really?” God, I was so pathetic.
Chloe rolled her eyes and waved towards the door.
“Go find her at Jose’s before she and her friends get crazy. Even though Evie’s dating the police chief now, I’m pretty sure he’d be thrilled to lock them all up if they get out of line.”
“Thanks.”
“Hey Dad?”
“Yeah?”
Chloe moved closer so no one would overhear us.
