Chapter 21
Griffin
As we walk into Whiteman’s Bar at the top of Main Street, I hold her hand tight. There’s a lot of people here tonight. Usually, I slink in, find Tanner, and sit in a booth down by the back, paying no attention to anyone.
But tonight is different. I feel different.
“Wow, this really is the place to be. Is this what the locals get up to while I’m mixing icing and proofing sourdough?”
I look down at Savannah and see her glancing around at everyone and everything. The bar is packed. Tables full, the dance floor getting good use.
“I see the guys.” I spot Tanner, Connor, Hudson, Sawyer, and Sutton all over near the pool tables.
Their significant others are right by their sides.
Tanner looks up and spots me first, and I see when it registers that I’ve brought Savannah with me tonight as his eyes widen before he has a chance to school them.
“I feel like I’m waddling… Do I look like a duck?”
“You look beautiful,” I say like it’s as natural as breathing. With her skin glowing, her face and body round and soft, her hair out tonight, falling down her back past her shoulders, she looks like my every dream rolled into one. Her cheeks pinken at the compliment, only making her more stunning.
“Not sure I believe you, but I’ll take it. This baby is really pushing against my rib cage today,” she teases, and my lips quirk, but it’s replaced with my frown quickly as her hand rubs the side of her tummy and she winces.
“Maybe we could dance?” I’ve never danced in public. Never hardly danced in private aside from our bakery nights. But if she needs to dance, I’ll do it.
“No, it’s okay… maybe a fizzy drink might help…”
I nod to her, my mission now known.
“You made it. Hey, Savannah,” Tanner greets us, and Victoria and Savannah hug hello.
“I need a sprite and a whiskey,” I tell the bartender, who immediately gets to work.
“So how’s the bakery going?” Tanner asks Savannah, and her grin is instant.
“So good. The town has been really welcoming.”
I love seeing the joy in her face when she talks about her business.
“Oh, we’re not talking about business tonight. Come. We need girl time.” Victoria pulls Savannah away from me, over to the group of women on the side. My jaw tightens a little at having her removed from my side, but Savannah laughs.
“I’ll be back later,” she tells me quietly, dropping my hand and walking off.
“You need anything, you come to me.”
Her grin widens as she nods, and I watch her until she gets to the group of girls and is settled before I can relax.
“Sooo, this is new?” Tanner asks, taking a swig of his whiskey to hide the grin he has.
“What is?” I mumble, looking around to not feel so on the spot.
I notice a guy over by the other side of the bar.
I haven’t seen him around before. He’s on his own, watching everyone and everything.
He sticks out because his shirt is buttoned up tight, crisp, clean.
Not the usual country vibe for this area. More uppity.
“That small grin on your face…”
My eyes flick back to Tanner, seeing him smirking at me like he knows something I don’t.
“Don’t know what you’re talking about.” I grab my whiskey from the bar and take a sip, needing the burn but knowing I need to be sober tonight to drive Savannah and the baby home safely.
“How long have we known each other, Griff?”
“Too fucking long.”
Tanner huffs. “Did you know tonight was the first night in the twenty or so years I’ve known you that I’ve ever seen you hold hands with a woman?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” I try to make nothing of it.
But he’s right. It is. I meet women. Lots of them.
It's always been transactional, though. I’ve never had anything serious.
Never anything loving. Some girls have tried.
I’ve had friends with benefits before that lasted a while, but they become attached, even though they say they never will, and I’ve moved on from those quicker than a firecracker going off on the Fourth of July.
I don't hold hands. I don’t touch softly. I don't place sweet kisses on girls' heads. I don’t dance in bakeries or bars. Yet I’m finding that’s exactly what I want to do with Savannah.
“Hey, Griff.” Connor walks up, Sawyer on his heels.
“Gents.” I nod in greeting.
“How’s the build at Stonemore going?” Connor’s straight to business. Just like his dad, he wants to know all about what’s happening over in wine country. God, if they only knew what’s happening over at Stonemore. Hell, that family over in Sundown Valley gives these guys a run for their money.
“Going well. The build is big. Beautiful. It's a nice part of the world.”
“Are you talking about Sundown Valley?" Hudson asks as he and Sutton walk up, the gang all here after finishing their game of pool.
“Yeah, I can’t remember the last time I went there,” Sawyer says.
“Remember that weekend wine tasting we did there years ago?” Sutton asks Hudson, the two of them hailing from LA first before landing here in Whispers, where they found their girls and never left. Sundown Valley gets lots of LA celebrities and locals.
“The one where the paparazzi stalked us all day, and we had to fly in and out of wineries in a helicopter like fucking royalty.” I roll my eyes at Hudson's version of events. We’re all rich men.
All six of us have worked hard, made good money, and we’re now at the stage of life where we can settle down a little, relax, and use our wealth how we want.
But Sutton Silvers, former Hollywood movie star, probably has the best stories. Now he’s a local apiarist who comes out of showbiz retirement a few times a year to lead one of Tanner and Connor’s whiskey commercials since he’s the face of the Whiteman brand.
Sutton starts telling everyone another one of his stories, and I tune him out.
I've heard them all before, and I’m not really into it all.
Instead, my eyes wander over to the women, seeing Savannah sitting, nursing her Sprite, the women around her laughing and throwing questions, talking kids and babies.
“Is she resting?” Hudson murmurs to me.
“No. Stubborn.”
“She still hasn’t dropped.”
I frown, looking at him. “Is that a problem?”
Hudson's eyebrows rise. “Could be. By now, I’d prefer the baby to be down a little more and in position. It’s not a big issue, but if the baby doesn’t drop in the next day or two, then things have an added layer of complexity.”
“She’s dancing, eating all the spicy food. Taking her vitamins. What else can she do?”
“Medically, I’ll monitor her closely. Sometimes, women don't drop until they are in labor. But at that point, the progression is slow and things can escalate quickly. We might have to have the birth in Williamstown instead of Whispers.”
I swallow roughly, not liking that option. Especially because I know she wants to give birth here in Whispers and also because I know her family is in Williamstown. And if her parents are anything like her sister, that isn’t going to go well. I make a mental note to plan for that.
“Is there anything else we could be doing to help?” I’ll get her anything. If she needs more spicy food, I’ll ship that in for her.
“There are the old wives’ tales…” he says quietly, being more than a little elusive.
My eyebrows pinch as I look at him. “What are they?”
“The spicy food, the movement and dancing were all on the list…”
I feel like he’s trying to say something yet not.
“What else?” I almost bark at him, not liking how he’s not getting to the point.
“Sex,” he blurts, like it should be obvious, and I still.
“Sex? Doesn’t that hurt the baby?” She already has a human inside of her, so I can’t imagine that having another one would be beneficial.
Regardless of how much my own dick would love it.
I try to push down the thoughts now swirling.
Her naked pregnant body moving on mine. Fuck, I’m getting hard just thinking about it.
“Well, yes, you’ll need to go slow… let her lead…
but no harm will come to the baby. Believe me, that kid is so cozy in there they won't feel a thing. Medically speaking, orgasms cause mild uterine contractions, which may help nudge the baby downward. That, combined with the fact that semen contains prostaglandins, which are hormones that can help soften and ripen the cervix, means having sex can potentially ease the baby into position or bring on labor.”
I blink at him a few times, taking it all in, yet I’ve never felt so raw in a bar before. I look around, seeing if anyone can hear our conversation, but the music is loud and the boys are laughing at something Sutton’s telling them.
“So no condom, then. Bare?” I clear my throat, feeling myself getting a little hot. I’ve never gone bare. Not since I was a teen and didn’t know anything different. Since then, I’ve wrapped it every single time without fail.
“That's better for this particular outcome.” Hudson’s trying to be professional, but I know he’s having too much fun with this.
I blow out a breath. “Fuck.”
“Hmm, something for you to mull over for the evening…” His grin wraps around his whiskey glass as he sips, and I shake my head, trying to get my thoughts on other things, yet failing. Because now, all I want is Savannah, naked, moving on me, swaying her hips like she does when she dances.
“Hey, Griff, did you talk with Mother Maven?” Sawyer asks out of the blue, and all of the guys look at me, teasing grins pulling at their lips.
I blink at him a few times, my mind scrambling, trying to catch on to the conversation.
“Mother Maven?” Tanner asks.
“Yeah, Griffin wanted to help Savannah with a few things, so he called the experts.” Sawyer lifts his eyebrows, and Tanner looks at me pointedly.
“I spoke with her. Organized a few things. She’s on call for whatever Savannah needs,” I tell them, because I have.
I practically bought a whole store of things.
I have no fucking idea what to get her and what she needs.
Hell, I don’t even know how to change a diaper, and with her mom and sister not in her life, I guess she’ll be winging it too.
“Sounds like you’ve got it all organized,” Tanner says, seemingly amused, and I nod.
“I got it handled.” My eyes find the man again over Tanner’s shoulder on the other side of the bar. I don’t know what it is about him that has my attention. Maybe because he looks so out of place. I follow his gaze as he stares at something nearby, and my frown is instant.
“What is it?” Tanner notices immediately, his voice leaning into a warning tone, making the other guys fall quiet and watch us.
My eyes trail his line of sight until they rest on the group of women. Our women.
“Who’s that guy?” I nod toward the man at the bar, not wanting to jump to conclusions, when he could be the local gardener around Whispers, for all I know.
“No idea… Connor?” Tanner barks at his son, and Connor takes a hard look at the man.
“I don’t know him.”
“Me neither,” Hudson says, and Sawyer takes a look.
“Never seen him before,” Sawyer says as Sutton shakes his head.
“Do you see what he’s looking at?” Tanner's eyes are glued on him. This guy is so focused on the girls he can’t even feel our gazes burning into him.
I put my glass down, thinking I might go have a word with him. But he stands, pushing his empty beer glass across the bar, and walks out. Alone.
I look back at Savannah, her and the girls completely oblivious to the man who was watching them so closely. But they remain smiling and laughing, sounding like a gaggle of geese.
She must feel me watching her, because she looks over, her face relaxed and happy, her eyes glistening in delight, and she gives me her sunshine smile. The one that thaws me from the inside out.
She thinks I feel obligated. But if she only knew what her smile does to me. How it melts every restraint I’ve built. Crumbles every wall I’ve erected over decades. She’d understand this isn’t duty. It’s desire. It’s longing. And I’m one breath away from showing her exactly how much.