Page 47 of Holding Out

He banged his head on the steering wheel a few times in case that would help, and when it didn’t, he made his way inside.

Jake had beaten him there and was in the kitchen with Nate, Alia, and Becca.

“No Mira?”Griff asked.

“She’s got some crazy revision deadline on her book she’s trying to meet.We both decided it would be a good idea for me to get out of the house.”

Nate drained the pasta, steam rising in the sink.

“Help me set the table?”Becca asked Griff.

“Of course.”

She pulled out placemats and napkins and handed them to him, then grabbed a stack of plates and silverware.They converged at the dining room table and started laying items out.Every time her hand brushed his as she set something on the table, or they skirted each other close, shoulders or arms or hips a hair’s width apart, blood surged in his veins.

He wondered—if he leaned in and breathed an invitation in her ear, would she pull away, or turn toward him, eyes bright?

His skin felt stretched too tight all over.

Once the table was set, Alia put Robbie in his bouncy chair, and they sat down to dinner.

Griff took a bite of spaghetti.It was phenomenal, the sauce rich and meaty.He was about to praise the chef when Becca moaned.“God, Alia, you’re a genius.”

Griff’s dick chubbed up and his taste buds shut down.And he deeply regretted the one-and-done promise.He really needed to admit to himself that he was going to break the ground rules they’d set and go for round three.Three and free?Four and no more?He was hopeless.

“Thanks, sis,” Alia said.

“Yeah,” Griff said.“Really good.”Not that he could taste his food at the moment.

“You guys.Let’s do roses and thorns,” Becca said.“Alia and I used to do this at dinner every night.The best and worst thing that happened to you that day.Alia, you go first.”

“My rose is that one of my patients told me he slept all the way through the night last night for the first time since he came home,” Alia offered.

“Because of you,” Nate said, smiling at her.

She shrugged.“I like to think I had something to do with it.”

“You know you did.”Nate’s eyes were warm.

“And my thorn is that Robbie is teething again, and he bit me on the boob,” Alia said.

They all winced.

Nate twirled spaghetti.“My thorn is that I have a lot of business and finance stuff to figure out tonight.But it’s all worth it because I have a kid who just got accepted at North Coast University with a full scholarship.He dropped out his sophomore year of high school, but we got him into running—cross country and track—and he ended up lettering in bothandpulling off a B average.”

“That’s terrific, Nate!”Alia said, and they all murmured echoed support.

“Bex?”

“My rose is you guys,” Becca said, beaming.

God, that smile.It was hard-wired—yep, exactly—to his dick.

“And my thorn is having to find a new job.”

“You have to find a new job?”Jake asked.

“Yeah, sadly.”She explained about the salon losing its building and the fallout.

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