Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
JULIETTE
Two hours later, I was tucked against Griffin’s side in the back of Cash and Charlie’s Beamer. Our legs tangled together, arms too. If we hadn’t needed seatbelts, I would’ve been in his lap.
“Juliette,” Charlie said from the front passenger seat. “You were a natural at line dancing.”
“Seriously,” Griffin said. “And you’re starting to get a little accent.” His lips grazed the tip of my nose. “Adorable.”
I traced his eyebrow, holding his gaze.
I needed to tell him. All night, I’d promised myself I would.
He nuzzled behind my ear, revving me back up.
He dragged his lips along my jaw. I tipped my head back, inviting more.
Instead of following the line of my throat, he reversed course—brushing the corner of my mouth, then the other.
His thumb traced my bottom lip, coaxing it open.
He tipped closer, lips hovering, teasing.
When I couldn’t take any more, I took his mouth, my palms against his chest. He let out a gravelly laugh that I felt beneath my fingertips.
Okay, I’d tell him. Right after this.
“Can you believe there’s already a video of our karaoke dance going viral?” Charlie said a few minutes later.
I broke the kiss and looked at her. She held out her phone for Cash to see. Thank goodness I’d refrained from joining them on stage. It had been hard to do. “Lil Boo Thang” was one of my faves. The tune was just so darn catchy.
“Yes, I can believe it.” Cash laughed. “It was freaking epic.”
But Charlie’s attention was already back on the screen.
Griff curved a hand along my jaw and pulled me back.
Charlie let out a loud “Boooo—are you kidding me? You should be ashamed of yourself.”
Griffin groaned as I pulled back.
“Hold on.” I made myself laugh, stomach turning.
Charlie typed like she was trying to start a war.
“Don’t do it, babe,” Cash said. “Do not interact. You’re training the algorithm that you want to see more BS about Griff.”
“Good,” she said through gritted teeth. “She doesn’t talk about my cousin like that.”
“Who said what?” I asked, fingernails cutting into my palms.
Griffin let out a battle-weary sigh. “What did they say this time?”
Charlie glanced at him, expression guarded. “You don’t want to know.”
“I do, actually,” he said. “Because then maybe I can help you and Jules see that I don’t care what strangers say about me on the internet.”
“Griff.” She sounded so sad. “You’re going to care about this.”
They shared a look I didn’t know how to decode.
He reached up and took her phone. I peered over his shoulder to see who it was.
On the screen was a paused reel of a dark-haired woman, about our age.
She wore a red puffed-sleeve shirt, black leather pants, and black ankle boots.
She was perched on the stage of “Breaking Curfew with Nate Midnight.”
Griffin went still. Then swore. “She’s never going away, is she?”
Charlie shook her head. “You’d think she’d have found a different family to harass by now. I don’t even know why Nate Midnight would interview her. She’s not a celebrity.”
I was about to ask who she was when Griffin tapped the play button.
“So, Selene,” Nate Midnight said. My stomach dropped. Selene was the girl Griffin had dated who sexually assaulted Bowen. “What do you think of all this Griffin Dupree hoopla? You dated him in college, right? What was he like back then?”
“Sure did.” She winked—and I wished I could poke her in the eye—and let out a tinkling laugh that sounded a little too practiced. “Oh, Griffin?” she said with a sigh. “He was… sweet. In a very try-hard way.”
Griffin made a sound of annoyance, but I could feel the anger rippling off him. Maybe he didn’t care what strangers thought about him. But this woman… she bothered him a lot.
“Sweet?” Nate said. “Well, darling, he’s not so sweet anymore.”
The show cut to a quick clip of Griffin on his Hollister shoot. He stood against a stone wall, shirtless, hands in the pockets of the jeans he was modeling. No smile, just a look that could stop a room. If I hadn’t been so knotted up, I would’ve had to roll the window down to cool off.
The camera cut back to Selene, who patted a small yawn like she couldn’t be more bored.
“Yeah, right,” I said.
Griffin pressed a kiss to my hair.
Selene lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “I think what you’re seeing now is just… what happens when someone finally gets attention for the first time.”
“Oooh-kay.” I paused the reel. “You dated this? She wouldn’t know good modeling if it smacked her in the face. Which is sounding more appealing by the second.”
“Babe. It’s okay.” He tapped play again.
Selene shifted on the ‘hot seat’ couch. “He probably doesn’t know how to handle all the attention. Not like the rest of the Duprees.” She studied her nails. “Griffin’s… performative.”
“Everyone’s new favorite word,” I muttered.
Selene continued. “A chameleon, really. They’re a family of celebrities, so he figures he’ll go get jacked at the gym and score himself a modeling deal.
I doubt it took much effort, honestly. They looked at his last name and said, ‘You’re in.
’” She folded her hands over one knee. “Can’t blame him.
It’s gotta be hard living in the shadows of Ford, Peyton, Blue, Ashton, Tally, Cash, and Liam,” she said, like she was on a first-name basis with all of them.
I hit pause on the reel, not because I wanted to vent, but because Griffin had gone quiet, shoulders caved. He stared at the floor as he rubbed his temples.
I handed the phone back to Charlie, who was silent too.
Cash hit the blinker and pulled into Theo’s driveway.
“Mr. and Mrs. Dupree, you have arrived at your destination. We here at The Love Wagon would like to thank you for the live demonstration earlier. Truly unforgettable. Five stars for fogging up the windows. Please gather your dignity on the way out.” Bless him for trying to make Griffin laugh.
Griffin only said “thanks” and got out of the car.
Charlie reached back and squeezed my hand. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have shown him the video.”
Cash picked up his phone, reading a text.
I managed a smile for Charlie. “It’s okay.” I waggled my eyebrows. “I know how to cheer him up.”
She smiled back. “Try to get at least a little sleep.”
“Oh, sick,” Cash said. “Jules, hold up. Liam won the Fury lottery. He’s offering us tickets to tomorrow’s game—can you tell Griff and Theo?
“Squee!” Charlie bounced in her seat. “Liam’s games are so fun. I can’t wait for you to experience it for the first time,” she said, like, of course I’d want to go.
I gulped. “Sure thing. Can’t wait.”
I hurried from the car in time to see Griffin slipping through the front door.
You need to tell him. Tonight. But how could I? He was already feeling super insecure.
If you’re going to Liam’s game, you have to tell him. It doesn’t matter if the timing is terrible.
Inside, I could see him in my room, door cracked, pulling out the trundle bed. Theo—who’d left Fourth and Goal twenty minutes before us—glanced over from his gaming chair. “Did something happen?” he whispered.
“It’s not good,” I said quietly. I used the boot jack to pull off my boots. “Selene went on Breaking Curfew.”
Theo swore.
“I’m going to check on him,” I said.
He nodded.
“Oh,” I said. “Cash wanted me to tell you that Liam won the Fury lotto and we’re all going to his game tomorrow.”
“Okay, sick,” Theo said, but his heart wasn’t in it.
I slipped into my room and locked the door.
Griffin knelt, hands under the bed, trying to raise it.
I slapped my foot down on the frame, stopping him. “What do you think you’re doing?”
He glanced up, eyes hooded. “Sorry, I thought—”
“You thought wrong,” I said softly. I pulled him up. “You’re not sleeping on the trundle.” I pressed on his shoulders until he sat, then climbed into his lap, straddling him. “You’re sleeping right next to me.”
“Okay,” he said, but it came out hollow.
“Forget her,” I whispered.
“No, she’s right,” he mumbled, staring somewhere below my chin. “I am a chameleon. I tried so hard to leave. To be my own person. But I was still a Dupree, just living in a different place.”
I cupped his face, forcing him to look at me. “There’s nothing wrong with being like the rest of your family. Your family is amazing. Don’t you know that?”
He nodded. “I do, but—”
“You’re not a chameleon,” I said confidently. “It’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard from the dumbest mouth God ever made,” I muttered quieter. “I hope He doesn’t strike me down for saying so.”
“He couldn’t strike down his most beautiful creation.” One side of Griff’s mouth quirked up. “But how is she wrong?”
“The world is full of chameleons, Griffin. And if anyone’s a color-shifting, fly-eating reptile, it’s Selene. Anyone can say and do hurtful things. It takes absolutely no originality whatsoever to go around slicing people up with your hurtful words and behavior.”
“True,” he said, but he was still tense.
“Don’t you see? In a world full of perverts and porn addicts, no man who saves himself for his wife is a chameleon.
He’s a national freaking treasure. A breath of the freshest air.
” My mouth dropped to his, giving myself a second to gather my courage.
“But even before you told me you were waiting, I knew you were different. I knew it before we met.”
He leaned back to look at me. “How could you know before we met?”
One more deep breath. “I’m going to tell you a secret, and you can’t make fun of me for it. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“You didn’t start modeling because you’re a copycat,” I said.
His forehead furrowed. “I didn’t?”
“No. You were always meant to be a model. Even if for only a little while.” I shook his shoulders. “Because we had to meet. The universe declared it so when I was fourteen.”
He blinked. “Come again?”
I smoothed his hair. “I fell in love with you way back in ninth grade.”
His head snapped back. “How? I never used to show my face on camera.”
“I know.” I groaned. “To my utter frustration. Really, would it have killed you to flash a single smile for the camera? But no. You had to torment me for years, giving me nothing but tiny snippets of that deep voice.”
He gaped, looking completely stunned.
I lifted a shoulder. “But it didn’t matter.
I fell for you anyway. Without even seeing your face, I knew you were the most beautiful boy on the entire planet.
Because of who you are.” I pressed a hand against his neck.
“You made me laugh every time you opened that mouth. I’d lie awake half the night trying to picture what you looked like.
During the day was no better. So finally, I made a list—Julie-Bean’s List of Dreams.”
His hands went still on my waist. “Was I on it?”
“Were you on it?” I tapped my chin. “Griffin.” I looked him dead in the eye. “You owned it.”
Just like that, the wound closed. He laughed, low and easy. “What do you mean?”
“Well.” I nibbled my bottom lip. “There were only two things on that list. First, I knew I wanted to become a world-famous model, and second, I was going to marry Griffin Dupree and have all of his beautiful red-haired babies someday.”
He grinned. “Why didn’t you tell me before?”
“Because.” I sighed. “It made me sound like a weirdo, and I, Juliette Serrant, have a reputation to uphold. Also, I wanted to show you the list, not tell you about it—and I haven’t had the chance because it’s still in my apartment in Vegas.”
“Ahh. Gotcha.” A crease formed between his brows. “But how did I own the list if I was your second dream?”
“Because modeling caused me to give up other smaller dreams. And I let it. But you?” I rubbed his earlobe between my fingers. “I wouldn’t let anything touch you. You were non-negotiable.”
His gaze burned into me. “So you’re saying that even though I was listed last, I was the grand prize?”
I beamed. “Exactly.”
He fell sideways onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling fan like he didn’t know what to do with that. “Jules, I… I’ve never been anyone’s grand prize.”
“Wrong.” I crawled over, straddled his waist, and shimmied his shirt up and over his head. “I mean, look at this.” I laughed, my fingers trailing over his pecs, then slowly down his phenomenal abs. He shuddered at my touch. “Nothing but grand prize material right here.”
His hands cupped the backs of my elbows, drawing me closer.
“You’ve always been the grand prize, Griffin.” I stared down at him, my hair making a curtain around us. “You just didn’t know it.”
I could see he finally believed it. But he didn’t answer with words. He pulled me down on top of him, giving me a memory that would outlast that moment.
And it was a good thing it did.
Because, full circle, he was about to become nothing more than a dream on my list, once again.