20. Chapter 19
Chapter 19
Griffin
As I expected, and would have insisted upon, Kaitlyn and I are shown to separate bedrooms for our stay, but as she told me she would in the car, she spoke with her father and convinced him we should be allowed to sleep in the same room.
I vehemently told him I would respect his wishes and his home, and that seemed to appease him enough to nod his head in agreement. I’ll be sleeping with Kaitlyn in her childhood bedroom and won’t be touching her. This will be a test in and of itself.
The next couple of hours are spent having drinks on the porch until Hillary calls us in, letting us know dinner is ready. I offered to help her many times, as did Kaitlyn, but she insisted. Who are we to argue?
It’s not until the exact moment I pull Kaitlyn’s dining room chair out for her that I’m hit with the realization I haven’t actually sat at a table, with a family, for a meal in years. I didn’t realize how much I’d missed it.
“I hope you both brought your appetites,” Sam says. “This one put her stethoscope down to take the lead on dinner. Thank you, honey.”
“It was fun. I pulled some old recipes out that I hadn’t made for a long time. I guess I got excited to cook for more than two people.”
“Everything smells amazing, Hilary. I was just thinking to myself, I haven’t sat for a family meal in longer than I can remember.” Kaitlyn reaches over to squeeze my right thigh in a gesture of comfort.
“You aren’t close with your family?” Sam asks while staring across at Kaitlyn.
“My family dynamic is…different, Sam. My parents are divorced and have been so for many years. My brother passed away just after so it’s not something we’ve done. To be honest, I’m very close to my mother.”
“But you work with your father? Isn’t that right?” Hilary asks.
Kaitlyn answers for me. “That’s right, but Griffin is essentially in charge of a whole section of the company.” She smiles at me proudly. Is it real? It feels real. Maybe I’ll tell myself it is, just for now.
“And what is it, exactly, that you do?” Sam asks as he lifts his drink to his lips.
“Orion invests in and sometimes outright purchases property or land, splits it up if necessary, or sells it as a whole to individuals or companies that are looking to build.”
“Residences?” he asks.
“Not usually, no.” I shake my head. “Commercial real estate is our bread and butter, as they say.”
“That sounds so busy and complicated,” Hilary replies as she pops a roasted potato into her mouth. “I’ll take my babies, uteruses, and placentas all day long.”
I laugh. “Less stressful for sure. I do like the investment side. It’s not my passion. It sounds like that’s what you’re passionate about, and I’m sure your patients are all the better for it.” I quietly exhale into my wine glass before I take a long sip.
“Well, son, if your passion isn’t there, where is it?”
“Daddy, don’t grill him, please?” My blond beauty is trying to swoop in and save me, even when I don’t need it.
“I don’t mind, Pixie.” I wink. “I love to draw, honestly. Combine that with an obsession for angles and you have an amateur architect of sorts. It was my path for a while until I was needed to fill the large shoes of my brother.”
“I’m sorry for your loss, Griffin. We know a little about that in this house,” Sam responds, staring down at his food, sliding it onto his fork as if it’s the toughest task in the world.
Hilary reaches over and squeezes his arm. “So, Griffin, how did you meet our Kaitlyn?”
We speak at the same time. “It’s funny…” I say while she says, “Actually…”
“Go ahead, baby,” I tell her and internally delight at the flush of her cheeks. She likes that term of endearment. Duly noted.
“He came into Elliot’s while I was working,” she says truthfully. “We hit it off instantly.”
And there’s the lie. She conveniently leaves out that I was an asshole to her and she wanted to stab me in the eyeballs by the time she left the restaurant that day.
“When was this?” Sam asks.
“Uh.” Kaitlyn looks to me for an answer that works for our timeline.
“A few months ago,” I tell them.
“Yes, that’s right,” she chimes in. “A few months ago, but it has certainly felt longer.”
“A few months? Were you keeping him a secret on purpose?” Sam asks.
I see Kaitlyn’s cheeks and top of her chest glaze over pink for a very different reason. “I can answer that. I asked her to. To be honest, again, I’m often followed by the British press due to the global nature of my business and the money that flows with it. I wanted to make certain Kaitlyn was and is protected at all times. Kaitlyn, I think we should tell them about your boss. I don’t see another way around it.”
I reach across and offer her a hand on her thigh as she did for me moments ago. “I thought it could wait until tomorrow. I didn’t expect the third degree at dinner. That’s usually my specialty.”
“Sweetheart, I just have questions. I’m sorry you feel picked on in some way. We’re family. I’m not going to judge you. I don’t think I ever have. Please tell me what happened.”
Kaitlyn lowers her hand to rest on top of mine on her leg. She’s looking for some supportive contact, and I’ll be damned if I won’t give it to her. “Wilder showed his true colors that I’ve tried really hard to ignore. Please don’t ask me to go into detail. Just know, I quit.”
“Did he hurt you?” Sam asks, his proverbial feathers are standing on end.
“Had he, we’d be having a very different conversation right now,” I tell him plainly.
Kaitlyn shakes her head. “No, he didn’t hurt me, but he was inappropriate so I quit.”
“Christ, Pixie, I’m sorry,” Sam says. “What are you going to do for income? I know how hard you worked for that position. I can help in transition if you need it. You just have to say so.”
“I get it, Dad, and thank you, but actually, I’ve accepted a position to work in the legal department of Griffin’s company. They wrote up an offer and it honestly fits my needs. I accepted it yesterday.”
“Wow. All right. What does that mean for your location? Will you have to travel or move? I have so many questions,” Sam replies. I can sense he’s more than a little confused, perhaps a little frustrated. I’m sure he feels out of the loop and that I could be the cause. I don’t want that in the short term for Kaitlyn on top of everything else she’s taking on at my expense.
I turn my chin toward Kaitlyn, our ruse taking yet another turn we should have anticipated. “Allow me?” As she nods her approval, I raise her fingers to my lips, offering what reassurance I can. “I know it’s a lot. It was a lot for us as well. Kaitlyn and I will travel together. Yes, she will have to come to London with me from time to time, but we will be here in the States more than over there. That I can assure you.
“Will there be other times she will need to accompany me to other parts of the globe? I won’t know that until or unless that comes up and we discuss it. I can assure you, this job for her is based on strictly merit and necessity from Orion’s point of view. I will place her needs above my own. I hope I already do.”
I can see my answer provides some clarity and relief for Kaitlyn too. We had still been hammering out the fine points so she needed to hear this.
“Wow,” Sam replies. “That sounds exciting, Pixie, and as long as you’re happy, I’m happy for you.”
The rest of dinner passed with ease. We answered questions, ate our fill, and when the kitchen was clean and coffee was had, Kaitlyn and I announced we were going to retire to our bedroom a little early tonight since travel days can be exhausting, which was to be expected. What I didn’t expect, however, was to sense how nervous she was to have me in her bedroom, which clearly hadn’t been touched since she was a teenager.
“I see you were a big fan of boy bands,” I say in a chuckle, pointing to her Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC posters.
“Don’t make fun. They both had some incredibly good music, and look at their faces. What teenage girl wasn’t in love?”
“You could have at least had some Take That in there.”
“Take That?” she questions like I have three heads.
“Come on. Seriously? They’ve been around for ages. Better in my opinion than BBMak.” I pull out my phone to scroll through my Spotify playlists. “I dare you to tell me otherwise after you give them a go.” I pass the phone to her. “Press play anytime.”
I quickly turn my attention to my suitcase, which has a very sassy cat lying in the middle of it. After lightly shooing her aside, I take my toiletry bag to the small en suite bathroom. When I return, I find no music playing and a petite blonde staring straight through me. “What?” I ask.
“You have a whole playlist with boy bands.”
“I do. And? They have some catchy tunes for taking the piss out of a treadmill when the mood strikes.” Kaitlyn falls back to her bed in a fit of laughter. “What’s so funny?” I ask as I take hold of the sides of her knees.
“You. You’re what’s hilarious and a total conundrum. The great and powerful Griffin Shaw, who has a boy band playlist on his phone, is also now known as a cat dad but will still punch out a complete stranger if the mood strikes. Conundrum.”
I pull her to the edge of the bed by her knees until her thighs rest at my hips. “You say conundrum, I say cultured and willing to try new and unique things.”
She reaches up and hooks her fingers into the waistband of my pants, holding me in place. “Thank you for taking the lead during dinner. I knew lying to my dad would be hard, but I didn’t realize how hard.”
“I told you; I’d always make sure you were safe and protected, even from your own overthinking.”
Kaitlyn
This isn’t a real relationship, Kaitlyn.
This is a contracted engagement so you can pay off your student loans and help a good man get what he’s owed.
I repeat this mantra to myself, and my heart, as I watch him ready himself for bed. He removes his watch, placing it on my dresser, and his wallet follows suit. There’s something so intimate about watching a man strip his day away until he’s dressed only in linen sleep pants.
“You’re staring, Pixie.”
I instantly pull the sheet over my head. “Are you going to call me that now too?”
I feel the bed take a dip beside me as the heat from his body waves toward me. His fingers pick at the top of the fabric until he pulls it down far enough to find my eyes. “Only to gain your undivided attention. What were you truly thinking just then?”
“Honestly, I was thinking this is the most clothes I’ve seen you sleep in with me.”
Griffin chuckles softly from deep within his chest. “Barriers to prevent the inevitable when I’m around you. However, if you’re in need of a cuddle, I won’t protest.” He slowly falls to his back, waiting for me with open arms. “I’m sensing your need for one.”
He’s right. I do need it.
I shimmy over into his arms as we settle together in the middle of my queen-size bed. Marilyn has taken over the window seat overlooking the rolling hills around the house. She will have birds to her delight to torment in the morning. “How did you know?” I ask.
“You are sometimes hard to read. However, when you’re apprehensive or even a little sad, you have this tendency to bite the inside of your cheek. Most wouldn’t notice, but I have.”
He wraps me tighter in his arms, my front to his back, resting his chin on top of my head. “I do not.” I totally do.
“You’re doing it now.”
Damn it. I release the inside of my cheek from my teeth. “Since when do you know everything?” I nudge back against him playfully.
“I don’t know everything, but I’m starting to learn more and more about you.”
“Griffin?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you think what we’re doing is confusing?” I ask him, hoping he will answer me honestly.
“In what way?”
“I mean, confusing for our own brains and bodies. We are together for all intents and purposes, except for real life. I worry about our psyches when this is all over.”
I feel his chest behind me rise and fall as he ponders my question. “I think we’re both aware of the reality here, right? We have an open line of communication and are helping each other through it all. That’s all we can do, I think.”
I rest my head back against him. “I suppose you’re right.”
We lie in relative silence after that, and eventually, his breathing is steady and I know he’s fallen asleep.
I can’t though. I simply stare toward the window and watch the shadows from the moonlight shining across the tree branches dance along my wall. I didn’t expect to be so torn about this relationship, or lack thereof. This was supposed to be transactional, easy, but I fear it’s barreling toward complicated faster than either one of us could have prepared for.