Page 48 of Handy

“Hey,” Griff murmurs, looping an arm around my waist as soon as I’m close enough to reach without getting out of his chair, and tugging me close until I stumble and fall into his lap. He grunts, then snakes his hand under my shirt to splay it across my belly.

My insides flutter and I’m positive I have big, throbbing hearts for eyes right now. But he’s my boyfriend and I don’t have to play it cool anymore, so I don’t do anything to try to tamp down what I’m sure is an over-the-top look of adoration on my face.

“Hey,” I say right back, planting a loud, smacking kiss on his cheek and chuckling at the blush that rises in its wake. I swivelback towards the group and lean over with my hand extended to the nearest dude I haven’t met before. “Ledger. Bird nerd, raccoon dad, and bear wrangler extraordinaire. Are all you guys on the construction crew too?”

I met a couple of them in passing at the fair last week, but didn’t have much time for official introductions since we were in a hurry to get to that unholy abomination of a fashion show.

The guy with a streak of silver in his beard and tattoo sleeves on both arms takes my hand with a friendly grin.

“Steele. I own Big Bull Mechanics, and these guys are the cats I’m cursed to wrangle.” He points out the rest of the guys I didn’t recognize and rattles off their names. Tallahassee, Shep, Riggs, Red, Henry, and Auggie.

“Did you say you have a pet raccoon?” The adorably nerdy twink seated on Steele’s other side with his hand on the mechanic’s lap leans over to ask with a wide grin. IknowI met him at the county fair. He had his arm up a cow’s ass at the time, which is kind of hard to forget.

“Porter, right?” I ask, and he nods.

“Did you say bird nerd?” Riggs shoos a couple of the guys out of their chairs so he can move closer to me, and the petite mechanic is clearly used to getting his way, because no one even dares to complain, they all just shift down, taking their drinks with them.

“Yes, and yes.” I chuckle, answering both questions.

Griff tightens his grip on me and makes a quiet rumbly noise in his throat. I reach down and run my fingertips slowly back and forth along his forearm, giving him silent reassurance that no matter where my attention is, he’s always the first thing on my mind. He squeezes me again and my heart flutters. Is this what love feels like? I’ve convinced myself a dozen times that I’ve been madly in love with guys who, in hindsight, never deservedit and never felt the same way. But this thing with Griff… it’s different.

He shifts me on his lap just enough to lean forward and pour me a beer from the pitcher on the table while I get lost in conversation with Porter, who’s apparently Steele’s husband, about the work he does as the local vet and with the wildlife rehab down the road. And when Riggs tells me he has a pet crow I nearly piss myself from excitement.

“The last time that little asshole stole my keys, he didn’t bring them back for over a week,” Shep shouts down the table, shaking his head when he hears Riggs gushing about Vel the crow.

“Shep gets annoyed, Vel thinks it’s funny.” Riggs shrugs. “What can I say? He’s a shit stirrer just like his daddy.”

“Now, are you just Vel’s daddy or does Shep let you be Daddy too?” Auggie teases, waggling his eyebrows.

Riggs flashes his teeth in an approximation of a smile that looks a lot more like a threat than anything.

“Why, you hoping I’ll spank you?” Riggs shoots back.

“Nah, my ass is still sore from the pounding Henry gave me last night while we were closing up shop.” Auggie winks. His husband blushes and Steele groans.

“I explicitly said no fucking at the garage.”

“Oops.” There’s not a hint of actual apology in Auggie’s voice or his smirk.

“Alright, quick poll, who here has fucked at work?” I ask, loud enough for the whole table.

Nearly every hand at the table shoots up, and after a second, Steele sighs and raises his too.

“Your friends are freaks,” I say to Griff, grinning at him over my shoulder. “I love it.”

He laughs, the sound making me all giddy and tingly again.

“They’re something,” he agrees, nuzzling the back of my neck.

“Alright, you want to talk about badass birds…” Gates, Tallahassee’s husband and apparently Steele’s brother, hops out of his chair and comes around the table with his phone in hand. “You’ve got to see my buddy, Nigel. You’ve never met a macaw with better comedic timing than this guy.”

Gates’s videos of Nigel set off a flurry of everyone wanting to show off pictures or videos of their own pets. Griff seems content to justbe, quietly observing and chiming in every so often when he has something to say. No one bugs him to talk more, but when he does pipe up, everyone quiets down to listen. It’s nice, like a big, chaotic family that apparently, I’m now a part of. Porter gives me his number so I can get TP a checkup without worrying she’ll be confiscated, and both Riggs and Gates invite me over to meet their birds sometime. My favorite part of the night though is Griff’s arm around me the whole time.

We don’t get around to playing pool this time, but no one seems to mind. There’s always next time or the time after that. Because now that I have Griff, I’m not going anywhere.

“Ready to head home?” he whispers in my ear after a couple of hours.

Everyone else still seems to be happy to sit around and shoot the shit. West even flags down his husband, Sawyer, to order another couple of pitchers of beer. If Griff is at his social limit though, I definitely don’t mind.

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