Chapter 24
PHOEBE
The family stayed for another two hours. When it was time to leave, I realized that Jeremy was negotiating with Duncan and Riley again. Everyone else had left, and the three of them were by the window in the living room.
“What do you think they’re talking about?” I asked Griffin. We were quite a few feet away, near the coffee machine.
“I bet he’s asking Duncan if he can spend the night here when we’re done shopping.”
“That would be so cool. We could make it a movie night, buy popcorn and stuff.” I stopped talking and glanced at Griffin. “Shit, I just realized I invited myself for a second night. It wasn’t my intention.”
“Funny, I planned to convince you to stay.”
“Really?”
He grinned wolfishly. “Fuck yes. I want you here with me another night.” He brought his mouth to my ear. “And a third one.”
I fidgeted against him, sucking in a breath when he pressed his chest against my boobs.
I put a finger over his lips and shook my head. “We’re not alone, remember?”
He straightened up. “No, actually. It happens to me all the time when I’m with you. I forget there’s anyone else around.”
I completely swooned, but then Jeremy’s voice broke the magic. “Dad!” he exclaimed.
“Let’s go help him. Are you sure you want him to spend the night here?” Griffin asked.
I nodded. “Yes. I’d love that.”
His eyes changed. They softened somehow, but I couldn’t quite understand why. Taking my hand, he led me to the trio. “Hey, guys. Phoebe and I were talking, and we don’t have any plans. We’d love for Jeremy to spend the night here, if you’re good with it.”
“Yes! I told you, Griffin loves me.”
“Of course I do, buddy,” he said, and Jeremy ran straight to him. He wrapped his arms around Griffin’s torso as if he wanted to grab as much of him as possible. That was so cute.
Duncan looked straight at me. “And that’s okay with you?”
I nodded. “Yes, of course. I was thinking we could have a movie night.”
“Yes!” Jeremy pumped his fist in the air. “You’re my favorite person. I love movie nights.”
I looked at Duncan for a sign that I’d committed some sort of faux pas. For all I knew, maybe Jeremy had a TV curfew.
Duncan just laughed. “I see you’re hitting it off, so we can’t say no.” He looked at Riley, who was smiling.
“Then it’s settled,” Griffin said.
Jeremy was still hugging him. “I’m going to make a list of what I want to buy. Where can I find a pen and paper?”
“On the kitchen counter.”
“Okay. Bye, Dad.” He didn’t even wave at his father before darting toward the kitchen.
“Thank you for doing this,” Duncan said.
“If anything happens or you need help, just call us,” Riley added.
“We’ve got this,” Griffin said. “You two have fun.”
“Yes, we will,” Duncan said before turning to his fiancée. “I’m taking you out on a date.”
Riley smiled even wider. “Sounds like my kind of Saturday night.”
As we walked them to the door, Duncan kept giving us tips about Jeremy’s nighttime routine.
Griffin frowned. “Dude, come on. It’ll work out. Don’t stress too much. I’ll call if we forget something.”
“How will you know if you’re forgetting anything?” Duncan asked.
“You have zero trust in me. He has sleepovers with Knox and Finn all the time.”
“It’ll be his first one with you.”
Oh, that explains the very detailed instructions.
“Duncan,” I said, “we probably won’t remember all the steps. How about we call you later this evening? Or you can text the instructions if it makes you feel better.”
Duncan seemed much more relaxed. “Yes, I’ll do that. I’ll text Griffin everything.”
“Great!” I exclaimed.
We bid them both goodbye before they left.
“Are you done with that list, buddy?” Griffin asked loudly the second we closed the door.
“No, I keep getting ideas,” he said, running toward us. He’d scribbled in bold letters on the white sheet of paper. I only had time to read the first one, which said Batman bedsheets, before Griffin took it away, looking at it.
“No more Spider-Man?” he asked.
“No, I already have two Spider-Man rooms. Now I want to have a Batman room too.”
“Do you actually know where we’ll find all this stuff?”
“Target,” he and I said at the same time.
Griffin frowned. “Let’s see where I can find the nearest one. I haven’t been in years.”
I jolted my head back. “What? How is that even possible? You don’t shop at Target?”
“No. I usually just go to a grocery store when I need food, and I order everything else online.”
Jeremy grinned. “Don’t worry. Dad didn’t know about it either, but Riley took me once. She says she hooked me on it.”
I laughed. “Let’s hook your Uncle Griffin on it too.”
We learned that the nearest Target was twenty minutes away. During the drive, I asked Jeremy to recite his list a few times until I’d memorized the items. I also wanted to buy a change of clothes and some panties, since a certain handsome man ripped mine to shreds.
Once inside, I suggested we divide and conquer, but the boys wanted us to stick together.
“I can see the appeal. They have literally everything,” Griffin said after we’d knocked off most of Jeremy’s list in under two hours.
He looked at the list while pushing a full cart. I was pushing the second one that was only half full. Jeremy was helping me too. He stood right by my side the whole time, and I loved it.
“Buddy, if you’ve got everything you need, we can head over to the cash register,” Griffin said.
“How about some Batman-themed shower gels and shampoo?” I asked. I didn’t actually know if there were any, but I was keeping my fingers crossed.
“Yes, yes, yes,” he exclaimed, and we headed to the aisle with personal hygiene.
“You’re good at this,” Griffin murmured as we arrived in the section with shower gels for kids. Of course there were Batman-themed ones too.
I smiled softly. “I just let him inspire me. There are so many cool options. Imagine being a kid today.”
“You’d be a great mom, Phoebe.”
That touched me in ways he couldn’t possibly know.
“Thanks,” I murmured as Jeremy grabbed a Mickey Mouse shampoo as well.
I wondered how come he liked Batman and Mickey Mouse, but maybe I’d find out when we picked our movie for tonight. We were now very well prepared for that. We didn’t just buy popcorn but an air-popper to make it. What was this life?
Before going to the cash register, Jeremy decided he wanted to buy a Batman figurine too. They all looked identical to me, but the boys went back and forth about it for a solid twelve minutes before I gave up.
“You know what? I’m going to buy something for dinner. I’ll meet you at the cash register, okay?” I said.
Griffin nodded. Jeremy wasn’t even paying attention.
Smiling, I headed straight to the grocery aisles, wondering what they would like.
Ha! Pizza! I was sure it would be a hit.
I didn’t buy a frozen one but rather picked up all the ingredients so we could make one together.
Afterward, I ran over to the women’s clothing section and quickly grabbed some panties that were on sale as well as a cute cotton dress.
I met the two of them at the cash register. It took a while for us to pay—Saturday was a very popular shopping day for Target. When we finally reached the car, Jeremy yawned.
“Buddy, if you want, you can wait inside the car while we load everything,” Griffin suggested.
“Okay,” he said and immediately got in the car.
We emptied the carts fairly quickly, and then I took them back to the store while Griffin arranged things in the trunk. By the time I returned, he was already in the car.
On the way home, Jeremy talked our ears off about all the things he bought.
The second we arrived at the house, Jeremy exclaimed, “Yes! I get to decorate the room.”
Once he got out of the car, we unloaded the trunk. We needed two trips to carry everything inside the house. I put the groceries in the fridge. Everything else belonged in Jeremy’s room.
“Do you have a quick-wash cycle so we can clean these before we put them on the bed?” I asked Griffin, pointing at the sheets.
“Yes. I’ll take care of it,” he replied, taking them from the bag.
After he left, Jeremy and I started opening the other packages.
“This will be even cooler than the room I have at Mom Shona’s house,” Jeremy said.
“Where is that?” I asked, a bit confused.
“In Dublin.”
“Right,” I said.
“Mom Shona is my real mom, but since she doesn’t live here with us, now Riley is my actual mom. Actually, I never told Mom Shona that I think Riley is my actual mom. But I think she might know that anyway.”
“You can never have enough moms. It’s cool that you have two.”
He nodded. “You’re right. It is cool. I don’t even know many people who have two moms. Some kids at my school say that their dad has another woman, but that one isn’t their mom. They say bad words about her.”
Oh my God. Kids at school discuss this stuff?
While Jeremy walked around with his huge Batman figurine to find the best place to put it, I was fearing that the room might look a bit like a bat cave—pun intended. The sheets were dark mauve and black. But Jeremy was happy, and that was all that mattered.
My phone vibrated while I helped him put a poster on the wall. My stomach somersaulted when I saw I had a message from our realtor.
A couple will make an offer for the house today. I’ll keep you posted. Hopefully, I’ll have more details next week.
Yes, yes, yes. I was keeping my fingers and toes crossed. This had to work out.
It had to.
When Griffin joined us a few minutes later, I debated telling him about the news but ultimately decided not to. I’d fill him in once I had more info.
“The sheets need one hour. What are we doing now?” he asked.
I looked at the clock. “We could make dinner before starting movie night.”
Jeremy jumped up and down. “Let’s start the movie night. We don’t need dinner. We have popcorn.”
Griffin looked at him with a stern expression. “Your dad sent me the list. He said that dinner is mandatory.”
Jeremy’s face fell. “But I never have dinner when I’m with Uncles Knox and Finn. I eat so many sweets that I’m not even hungry.”
Griffin looked at me in confusion, then back at Jeremy. “And your dad is okay with that?”
“No!” It sounded as if he wanted to add the word dummy. “Dad doesn’t know about it. I don’t tell him, and my uncles don’t either.”
I smiled. Growing up, I’d played that exact same card with my grandparents. They spoiled me to the moon and back, and my parents never knew anything about it.
“I can make pizza. I bought all the necessary ingredients when we were out shopping.”
Jeremy’s eyes widened. “You know how to make pizza? It’s my favorite.”
I grinned at him. “Yep.”
“I can help. I always help Dad cook.”
“Sure,” I said. “Between the three of us, we can prepare the pizza really quickly. I bet we can start watching movies within an hour.”
“Yes, yes, yes. I love it here. Can I come more often?” Jeremy asked Griffin as we went to the kitchen.
He chuckled. “Sure, buddy. I love having you here.”
Opening the fridge, I took out the tomato sauce, mozzarella, basil, and the dough.
“Which part is your favorite?” I asked Jeremy.
“I like to put the tomato sauce on the dough.”
“Then you start with that. I’ll shred the mozzarella. If you want, you can sprinkle that on too.”
“Yes, I do,” he said. His eyes were glinting with happiness.
As I rolled out the dough, Griffin opened the can of sauce. I wondered if life could actually be like this. I could see us doing this exact same routine on a Saturday in a few years, going shopping with our boy and then cooking together. My heart started to ache—that’s how much I wanted it.
At first, I thought I didn’t want a relationship, when really I just didn’t want another bad one. But this? Yeah, I wanted this.
But was it truly possible?
Just be happy about today, Phoebe. Enjoy every second.
Grabbing the can with both hands, Jeremy started pouring the sauce very carefully. He was biting his tongue with the tip stuck out.
Griffin came to me on the other side and kissed my cheek. I shifted my focus from Jeremy to him. “You’re good with him.”
“I’m enjoying this.”
“Thank you for this amazing day.”
He looked at Jeremy and then at me for a second before helping Jeremy.
And I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe I wasn’t the only one imagining something more.