Page 150 of On The Rocks

“I’d like to meet him.”

He tossed his phone back into the cup holder. “Guess you’re going to get the chance. He’ll be here first thing in the morning.”

Was it a coincidence?

I was probably just jumping to conclusions because none of this made any damn sense.

The trip to the Starling was quiet, both of us lost in thought. Once inside, we both went right to the shower. I wanted nothing more than to stand under the rain hood forever. I smelled like a cigarette that had gotten lost in a bonfire.

“C’mere.” Griffin pulled me out of the spray and squeezed shampoo into my hair. I sighed as he washed it twice and the worst of the smoky scent and dirt swirled down the drain.

I was so tired that I even let him wash my back and neck. I let my head fall forward as the suds rained down over my chest and back.

Once I was squeaky clean, I turned around to do the same to him.

The act of washing away the soot and smoke helped more than I thought possible. His smooth skin, muscles, and those damn green eyes watching me could have bumped the soothing touches into something more.

Instead, we stumbled out of the shower like drunks and laughed as we wrapped ourselves in towels.

I could only imagine what my poor hair would be like tomorrow.

As was our night routine, we had a bit of ice cream as we waited for Elmer to do his business. First, he had to sniff his way around the small patch of grass and mark his whole way around.

“C’mon, man.”

Elmer came bounding over, panting the whole way.

“That is not doing your business. I’m not getting up at four so you can go then. Go on.”

He hung his head and trotted back over to the grassy section.

“Hard ass.”

He took the pint back from me. “You’re not the one who gets up with him.”

My heart skittered a bit. It sounded much like getting up with a child and that was scarily domestic.

“Hallelujah.” He handed back the pint to me and dug into his hoodie for a bag. “Good job, buddy.”

I scraped through a layer of Chocolate Covered Strawberry, grinning around a spoonful as he chased Elmer around the patch of grass, both of them obviously in love with one another.

And because I needed the tiny bit of normalcy, I jogged over to play with them for a minute.

Eventually, it was too brisk for even the fun-loving Elmer and we all filed back into The Starling. Griffin took the pint from me and I corralled Elmer into our bedroom.

I paused right before I helped Elmer onto the bed.

It wasn’tourroom.

I helped get his honking butt up on the bed and collapsed beside him. But what if it was? I collapsed back on the pillows.

Pillows that had appeared after I started staying the night with him.

There were touches of me that had slowly been added to the room. Paintings and prints we’d found on our day trips hung on the once blank wall.

A few of them were printed photos from the wine tasting and a trip to a nearby falls.

It wasn’t like I hadn’t noticed them before, but on top of everything else, it seemed like I’d been so damn blind.

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