Page 99 of Holding Out

Three dots hovered on her screen.

You came to FND?Why?

“What did hesay?”Phoebe demanded.

“He wants to know why I’m here.”

“Tell him!”Clara said.“Tell him you’re here to see him!”

To see you,she texted to Griff.To say some things that I should have said a lot sooner.About how I feel about you.Most of which are better said in person.Naked if possible.

She wasn’t sure if she’d gone too far or not said enough, but she didn’t want the first time she told him how she felt about him to be in a text.She wanted to see his face when she finally told him the truth.

I love the sound of that.*Turns truck around.*

She did a secret internal fist pump.Not literally, I hope.

No.Literally, I am sitting in the Toutle River rest area off I-5, feeling like I just won the lottery, said no one EVER before me.

She laughed.

“What?”Alia and Clara demanded at the same time.“What did he say?”

“He said he’s turning around.”

There was a chorus of cheers.Everyone except Mira, who was looking sheepish.

“What?”Becca demanded.

“Ha!”Jake said to Mira.“Haaa!I won this time!Iwon.Iknewit!I told you!”

“You were right, dear,” Mira said, but she didn’t sound at all grudging.She sounded happy.

“What are you talking about?”Becca asked.

“So, I don’t know if you know this, but Mira and I bet on Alia and Nate.She thought they’d get together and I said they wouldn’t, and, well—well, you know how that worked out.And then we bet on Hunter and Trina, too.And she flipping won again.”

“So this time, I put my money on things working out,” Jake said.“I justknew.Because of the way you guys were at Friday Night Dinners, like an old married couple pretending they’d never met so they could role play picking each other up at a bar.”

Becca laughed at that.She liked it, the old-and-new of it.“Youguys,” she said.

Mira crossed her arms.“I actually thought you’d get together, too, but I let him choose the winning position because I thought his ego needed it.”She smirked in Jake’s direction and he rolled his eyes at her.“Okay, okay,” she said.“I might have expressed some concern that Griff was too damn stubborn to ever fall in love again.But I’m really, really glad he did.And we can all see that you were way happier together than apart, even those of us who were dumb enough to bet against you the first time around.”Mira’s eyes were warm, and Becca threw her arms around her, and then around each of her other friends for good measure because she was stupidly happy.

When she’d finished the hugging, she did a fast Google Maps search and discovered the Toutle River rest area was exactly two hours away.

I’ll save dessert for you.

Is there something wrong with me that that totally turned me on?

“You’re blushing, Becca,” Alia purred.

“Shut up, Alia,” Becca shot back.

That was my intention.

On my way.

Drive fast.

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