Page 98 of Holding Out

Becca nodded.“Okay.I’ll be there.”

Jed’s fist appeared on her screen and grew enormous.She put hers out and bumped back.Then he was gone, and Nate came back on, his voice edged with worry.“Are you sure you can get the time off?You just started this new job.”

She smiled at him, her big brother and protector.He and Alia, they’d shield her from every possible danger of being alive, if she let them.

She had no intention of letting them.

“Don’t worry about me, dude.I know what I have to do.”

48

“What are you doing here?”Alia demanded, flinging the door wide open and throwing her arms around Becca, squishing Robbie—who squeaked in protest—between them.“Youknew!” she accused Nate over Becca’s shoulder.“You knew she was coming and you didn’t tell me!”

“Yup,” Nate said, self-satisfied.

“I had something to do at KidsUp,” Becca said.“And then figured I’d surprise you guys with a Friday Night Dinner appearance.”

Robbie was flailing his limbs wildly in excited greeting, and the rest of the guests spilled out of the dining room, hugging Becca and Nate.All the kids were here, too.Mira and Jake’s son Sam, and Sam’s girlfriend Cora, and Trina and Hunter’s girls, Phoebe and Clara—it was a lot of hugging.Only, the one person whose embrace she longed for didn’t seem to be in the mix.

“Where’s Griff?”she demanded.

She’d been half expecting him to amble out of the dining room, all casual, making a big scene out of being unexcited by her presence ...but he hadn’t.She peeked around Clara, but the dining room was empty.

Glances flitted around the room between her friends, and Becca got a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

“Do you want to tell her?”Jake asked Alia.

They were going to tell her he’d gone back to Marina.That she’d broken off her engagement and they’d moved in together and Marina was pregnant with twins—

She wasn’t sure where that last bit had come from, or why that particular idea figured into her nightmare fantasy, it justdid.Anyway, the point was, sheknewshe’d been an idiot to think he actually wanted her.She wasn’t the kind of person who—

“You tell her,” Alia said, and Becca took a deep breath and steeled herself against the worst of the worst news.

“He’s on his way to Seattle,” Jake said, shaking his head darkly.“He’s on his way to Seattle to see you.He said he owed you a big apology, some groveling, and if he got really lucky, makeup sex.”He looked around the kitchen, winced, and said, “Shit.Sorry kids.”

“Language,” Mira said sharply, at the same time Phoebe said, “We’re notbabies.We readbookswhere people have makeup sex.”

It was taking a minute for Jake’s words to sink in to Becca’s brain and make sense.“Oh,shit,” she said, but she didn’t mean it at all.In fact, her innards were doing a tap dance of sheer joy.Griff had gone to get her.He had crossed hundreds of miles to tell her that he wantedher—her!She couldn’t help the enormous smile that spread across her face.

Then she considered the implications—he was now hundreds of miles away from her—and frowned.“Poor Griff!”

“You didn’t think maybe you should have mentioned something to me about Griff going to Seattle?”Nate demanded of Alia.“I could have kept this from happening.”

“That’sright,” Becca said grumpily.“I’d have worked this all out by now if it weren’t foryou meddling kids.Didn’t we talk about this thelast time you messed around with my life?”

Nate and Alia both had the good manners to look ashamed.

“I didn’t want to interrupt you at work,” Alia said sheepishly.“And why would I think you’d just be dropping by for a casual visit?Normal sisterstell their sisters when they’re driving in from five hours away.”

“I wanted to surprise you,” Becca said.

“Text Griff!”Phoebe said.“Quick!Tell him you’re here and not there and that he should come back.”

Becca did a quick visual survey of her friends.They were all nodding.

She pulled out her phone and did as commanded.

I came to Friday Night Dinner, but you are not here.They say you’re on your way to Seattle to find me.Come back!

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