Page 103 of Holding Out

She set her donut down.

“Let’s go,” she said.

Griff’s mouth fell open.“Wait a second.You’re leavingmid-donut?”

“Some things are better than food.”

Epilogue

One Year Later

Becca flounced through the door and threw herself down on the couch in her and Griff’s rental cottage with a dramatic flourish.She tossed her phone aside with the text from her mother still illuminated on the screen.

“That good?”he asked her, with a smile.

“Who knew that my own mother would turn out to be the biggest bridezilla in three counties?”she asked.Her mother and Chaz were tying the knot, and Becca was helping her mother plan the wedding.

“And how does that make youfeel?”Griff teased.“Tell Dr.Griff everything.I bet he can make it all better.”

She rolled her eyes at him, but she was smiling now.He’d already made it better.He made it better by just existing.And she was so damn proud of him.He’d continued leading the support groups.He still had flashbacks, because that trauma was part of him, lodged deep where it would take years—or a lifetime—to purge the poison, but now he went to his own therapist and learned the best techniques for wrestling PTSD to the mat.He was finishing his bachelor’s degree online, and his long-term plan was to get a counseling degree and become a therapist himself.

He was also happier than she’d ever seen him, despite the stress of being privy to some of people’s hardest moments.He worried about his peers, he suffered with them—but he also lived their successes, small and big, the moments when they walked again, worked again, got their GEDs, spoke their toughest truths.When they told him they felt whole and that he’d helped them heal.

“Tell Dr.Griff about your day,” he suggested.

“Work was good.I came up with a new system for dealing with the VA paperwork.”

“Of course you did,” he said fondly.“The VA will probably be using your system by next week.”

“I spent a couple of hours at KidsUp.Jed let me talk him into entering a writing contest about dealing with academic challenge.If he wins, he’ll get a $2,000 scholarship.”

“He’s still letting you talk to him about going to college?”

“He made me a deal,” Becca said.“He’ll consider it if I agree to think about it too.He wants me to get a teaching degree.”

A few months into their working together, Jed had asked Becca why she wasn’t a teacher, and Becca had had to admit that she’d never gone to college.Since then, he’d been steadily harassing her, as stern with her as she’d ever been with him.But now she had the best possible reason to give in—because she wanted Jed to go to college more than she feared going herself.

Griff grinned at her.“Tough kid.”

“The best,” she said.

“Second best,” he said, inclining his eyes towards the photo on his desk, of Robbie.“Soon to bethirdbest,” he added, because Alia was several months pregnant with a sister for Robbie.“And speaking of ...Alia and Nate are making grilled pork chops in adobo with applesauce.”

“Ohhh,” Becca moaned.

Griff made a sound that was halfway between a grunt and a growl.

“How doesthatmake you feel?”Becca teased.She was well versed now in how her appetites stoked Griff’s.

Griff rose from his seat and stalked towards the couch.

“If you’re troubled, Dr.Griff can help,” said Becca, struggling to suppress her laughter.Then Griff was kneeling over her, lowering his mouth to hers, and her giggles were swallowed by his warm mouth and swept away by the bliss of his tongue stroking hers.He broke the kiss and rocked back on his heels.“God, Becca.”

He slid a palm down her belly and eased his hand under the waistband of her pants.His fingers parted her curls and found her clit.

“Uh—” she said.Words were giving her trouble.“Griff.We’ll be late.”

“Fuck being on time,” he said, but he withdrew his hand from her pants, reaching into his own pants to reposition himself.Not that it helped.His jeans were broadcasting his state loud and clear.

---