Chapter 22 Penny #2
I dash for the kitchen, grabbing the sprayer hose from the sink.
Turning the cold water on full throttle, I whisper a quick prayer of thanks for excellent water pressure and thumb the trigger.
The spray arcs across the room, dousing them.
I play firefighter, swooping the sprayer back and forth to drench them both.
“No, bad boys!” I call out, chastising them like wayward dogs.
“What the fuck?” they both sputter as they stop fighting and their anger-filled eyes find me.
I release the trigger but keep the sprayer locked on Dominic, silently threatening another spray as I inform him, “This is happening.” I swing a finger from myself to Griffin to make it clear what I’m talking about because my brother likes to play stupid when it suits him. “This.”
Dominic immediately starts shaking his head. “No, it’s not.”
“Quit with the bossy big brother act and be a better friend,” I tell him, ignoring his refutation. “Now.”
“It’s not an act,” Dominic answers flatly. “And I have been the best friend. You don’t know this guy like I do.” Sneering, he lifts his chin toward Griffin.
Dom’s talking about Griffin like he’s not standing right here. No, he’s talking like he wants to make Griffin feel like shit, and he’s using me to do it.
Well, he can fuck off if that’s his grand plan.
I press the trigger, squirting him again, and he sputters in enraged shock.
“I know enough!” I declare. “You and Griffin are best friends. He’s the one you want at your side and at your back, and who you love like a brother. And he’s done the same for you. Respecting you so much that he squashed down his feelings for me in some misguided bro-code bullshit.”
“Bro-code bullshit? Is that what he told you?”
“He told me a lot. Enough that I’m willing to give him a chance.” I cut my eyes to Griffin, a soft smile stealing across my face. “Because he’s worth it.”
“You deserve better,” Dominic spits out.
I watch the light in Griffin’s eyes dim and his jaw clench hard.
That hurt him. He said as much about himself today, but hearing it from Dominic cuts a lot deeper.
I wonder how many times he’s heard that in his life.
His parents told him he was worthless, and now, even as an adult, his best friend in the whole wide world is essentially doing the same.
His dad, the man who was supposed to love him unconditionally, hit him so hard that he broke his nose.
And now, his best friend has done that too.
My heart breaks for Griffin, which is something I never thought I’d say or think or feel about the stone-cold man but is absolutely true in this pivotal moment.
“Dominic Lee, I have never been so disappointed in you as I am right now,” I reply evenly, totally seriously, and absolutely disgustedly.
“If you know anything about Griffin, have ever had one real conversation with him the way a friend would, I want you to think really hard about what you just said and what you’ve done tonight. ”
I’m channeling every bit of Mom that I can, from the glare to the stance to the frown shaping my lips.
Dropping the sprayer hose, I beeline straight to Griffin.
Grabbing his cheeks in my hands, I force his eyes to mine, pulling him down until he’s nearly nose to nose with me.
His skin is wet, chilled by the water, and there’s bruising blooming beneath both eyes from his clearly reinjured nose.
“You are a good man. Deep inside that fortress of a heart, you care. And I see that in the way you protected me tonight. I see it in the way you let my asshole brother—”
“Standing right here,” Dominic interjects.
Ignoring him, I forcefully repeat, “The way you let my asshole brother beat you to a pulp in some stupid attempt to punish yourself. And you are worth everything. Friendship, love, family, friends. I deserve the best, and I think I’ve found it.”
Dominic snorts in disbelief, but Griffin is locked onto me, listening intently and absorbing every word.
“If you kiss her . . . cross my cock and swear to balls, I will kill you right here, right now.”
He won’t. I wouldn’t let my brother kill Griffin.
And not only because Talia and I wouldn’t get our security deposit back.
But because I’m in this thing. Earlier today, I was reeling.
Hell, I still am, but for entirely different reasons.
Because I see the way Griffin is trying so hard to respect Dominic while also wanting me with every fiber of his being.
And he left a damn hockey game—twice!—for me.
If that’s not an indicator of how important I am to him, I don’t know what is.
And I’m sure Dominic won’t kill me—partially because he loves me, but for sure because Mom and Dad would have his ass.
So I make the move, lifting to my toes and pressing my lips to Griffin’s.
I can feel him holding back, the tight grip on his restraint returning, and when he doesn’t fully give in to me, I crack open one eye to find his eyes opened fully as he looks past me.
My lips still pressed to his, I ask, “Is he mean-mugging you?”
“Mm-hmm,” Griffin answers, not moving away.
I let go of his face, sliding one hand behind my back to flip my brother the middle finger.
I don’t know what Dominic does, but Griffin chuckles against my lips and then kisses me properly.
His arms wrap around my waist, and he lifts me, my feet dangling in the air as he stands to his full height.
His lips soften, melting against me as he leaves gentle smacking kisses across my mouth.
The surrender we both make to the moment settles something in my soul.
Things are going to be okay . . . eventually.
They have to be. Unfortunately, like all great things, the kiss is over too quickly, but probably not fast enough for Dominic, judging by the furious look on his face when I turn around.
“How long?” His eyes cut from me to Griffin.
“A couple of weeks,” I answer.
At the same time, Griffin grunts, “Five long years. For your ungrateful ass.”
I press my lips together to hide the smile trying to lift them. Rushing to explain the latest turn of events, I say, “For me, it’s a couple of weeks with this whole ring fiasco, and Griffin helping me with it.”
The mention of what brought us all here tonight is another cold-water damper and kills my smile.
“What’re you doing with that?” my brother asks.
Dominic is a doer. He needs a mission, and I think for a long time, I’ve been his number-one mission.
Protect Penny. Not that I needed his protection.
And he thought he was doing that by fighting Griffin.
I don’t think he’s done with that mission, but sensing he’s losing the battle, he’s retreating to fight again and win the war.
He won’t, but I’ll gladly take the momentary reprieve of focusing on another mission where I could use his help.
“Hiding?” I suggest unhelpfully.
“Yeah, no. That’s not good enough,” Dominic declares.
“Well, I’m open to suggestions. What’cha got?”
But Dominic doesn’t look to me. He turns to Griffin. “What have you been doing?”
Griffin grabs a hold of the back of his neck and cuts his eyes toward me. His voice is rough in that way that says he’s ashamed of something when he finally says, “There’s a little more to the story that you don’t know yet.”
“Oh yeah, Johnny K said he’d call Griffin if he found out anything about the mugger.
He’s supposed to be scouring the dark underbelly of the city to see if he can suss out any intel, but more likely, he scammed Griffin out of a thousand dollars.
” I report that as if I’m summarizing the latest Law & Order episode, with all the dramatic retelling I can muster.
“Johnny K? Who’s that?” Dominic asks.
I almost clap in excitement because he asked Griffin, not me. See? They’re talking again like the bestie bros they’ve always been. I knew Dom couldn’t stay mad that long. Well, I hoped. And it seems like I was right!
“Sketchy pawnshop-owner-slash-stolen-goods-fence we talked to about the ring and thief,” Griffin answers.
“You took my baby sister to some dangerous hole-in-the-wall pawnshop?” Dom rumbles. Well shit, that didn’t last long, because he’s quickly ramping back up.
I hold up a finger. “To point, Johnny K’s was fancy, and Griffin didn’t take me anywhere.
I was going there based on Mad Dog’s recommendation.
He’s the super-helpful but kinda scary fence I talked to first on my own without telling Griffin, and when it went a teeny-tiny bit sideways—” Dom’s eyes widen and he opens his mouth like he’s going to cut me off, so I keep on chattering away, not even pausing to breathe in the hopes that he won’t interrupt.
“I smartly called Griffin for reinforcements. So no, he didn’t take me.
He went with me because I asked him to. If he’d said no, or tried to stop me, I would’ve gone without him, and there’s no telling where I’d be now .
. .” I trail off, playing up the danger factor to get my brother to realize that Griffin did right by me, and he should be thanking Griffin, not blaming him.
“Seriously? Why the fuck do you even care about this ring that much?” Dom finally asks. “It sucks it was stolen, but can’t you just design another one?”
My jaw falls open as I glare at my brother.
“You did not just tell me to make another one, as if each piece I make isn’t one of my precious babies.
” He rolls his eyes, acting like I’m being dramatic, and maybe I am, but my work is important to me.
“Yeah, if you couldn’t play hockey anymore, you could just get another job. It’d be no big deal, right?”
“That’s not the same thing and you know it.”
“It’s exactly the same thing!” I protest. “Plus, that ring was special. It was gorgeous and I had so many ideas for it. And it was really expensive. Redesigning it was going to take my work to the next level.”