3. Griffin
Carson and I arrive at Jackson’s sometime after nine and the party is in full swing. The girls were taking their sweet ass time, so they said they’d get their own Uber and meet us here.
“Turner, what’s up, man?” Jax yells from the kitchen island when he spots us.
I shake his hand and bring him in for a one-arm hug. “Not much, Jax. Just putting Carson through the grind, trying to bring him up to speed,” I taunt and look over his shoulder at Carse. He knows I’m just giving him shit.
“What about you? Something has to be keeping you busy if we haven’t seen you at the rink or the gym yet.”
“Yeah, yeah, I hear ya. Not something, someone.” Jackson wraps his arms around the waist of a girl with raven hair and kisses the top of her head.
“This is Tae. Tae this is Griffin Turner, and you’ve met Carson, right?”
“Yeah, you introduced me to him after one of your games this spring,” Tae says.
“Nice to see you again,” Carson says as he grabs a cup and fills it up with a rum and soda mix.
“Babe, Turner used to play on our high school team with us. Now he’s big time at Emery before he heads to Colorado,” Jax explains as he nuzzles into her. I’ve never seen Jax with anyone for longer than a one-night stand, so this is weird.
I think Tae murmurs a response, but I’m completely distracted by the girl who just entered.
Kenna is wearing the shortest pair of black cutoff shorts with a black crochet crop top that leaves very little to the imagination. She looks good enough to eat.
I clench my fists and I’m immediately on edge thinking about all the other guys here who will be fawning all over her.
“Yo, Carse.” I smack his chest. “You alright with your sister wearing that?” I nod my head toward Kenna.
Carson nearly chokes on his drink and then shakes his head at me. “You gotta compose yourself, G. Subtlety has not been your strength when it comes to Mack today.” He rolls his eyes as he adds, “And for the record, I don’t give a shit what she wears. Especially when Katie and the rest of the girls here are wearing just as little.”
That makes me spin my head to do a double-take. Lo and behold, Carson is right. Katie is also wearing cut-off shorts and a crop top. Though I’m not filled with anger and jealousy when I think of the guys here looking at her.
Jealousy? Come on, G. Get your shit together.
I grab a cup and pour myself a rum and soda too as the girls try to make their way over to us. They’re stopped by several of their friends on their way to the kitchen.
“Kitty, we’re partners for beer pong,” Carson shouts to Katie as she approaches us. Kitty is an innocent nickname from when we were younger. I’ve always called her Katie Cat and Carse, being Carse, decided to call her Kitty from then on.
Although, I haven’t heard him use the nickname in a while, he must already be feeling it. We took a few pregame shots while we ate our pizzas.
“Okay, but Kenna and I were just about to join a game of Never Have I Ever. So put our names on the list, but let’s wait for a few rounds,” Katie replies to Carse.
“For sure. G, are you in for a game?” Carson asks me.
“I’m game,” I say as we head outside through the back of the house. Once we’re outside, we join a few others who are gathered around a fire. I take a seat on one of the Adirondack chairs that surround the fire pit.
Carson sits in the chair next to me and Katie and Kenna sit on the arms of each of our chairs. Kenna chooses to sit on my chair.
She’s close enough that her scent wraps around me. Her signature citrusy perfume is mixed with the faint smell of her sunscreen from earlier in the day.
That makes me smile to myself. She’s not like most of the other girls here. She didn’t fuss over getting ready—she doesn’t need to.
Kenna has always been effortlessly beautiful. With her wavy, honey-blonde hair coming to just above the waist of her shorts and sun-kissed skin, she looks more like a Cali-girl than the Midwestern goddess she is.
I’m tempted to reach my hand up and run my fingers through her hair. Massage my fingers on her scalp. Wrap her long locks around my fist and—fuck.
I try to subtly adjust myself to hide my semi and shove those thoughts from my head before I sit here with a raging hard-on.
“Alright ladies and gentlemen, let’s get this game started. Everyone has a full drink?” Jackson asks.
We all hold our drinks up as he says, “Good. I’ll go first. Never have I ever given a lap dance.”
I just about shit myself when both Katie and Kenna take a sip from their drinks. The fuck?
Katie looks over and shrugs when she catches me glaring at her. She just shrugs! We will most certainly be circling back to that tomorrow.
“This won’t be any fun if you’re just going to judge your sister all night,” Kenna says as she swats my chest, breaking my glare off with Katie.
“I’m not judging anyone. Can’t a guy contemplate how the hell his baby sister grew up so fast?”
“One, she’s not a baby, I thought we established that earlier. Two, she didn’t say who she gave the lap dance to.”
I raise one of my eyebrows at that. Then both fly to my forehead as she says, “It was me. We went clubbing, and all the girls we were with were rubbing up on guys, crawling in their laps, and we thought it’d be funny to give each other lap dances so the guys would stop hitting on us.”
I chuckle. “And how’d that go for you?”
“It backfired immensely. Who knew guys loved girl-on-girl action so much?”
“Everyone. Literally everyone,” I deadpan. “Though seeing you grind on my sister would have definitely deterred me.”
A flash of hurt crosses over Kenna’s face before she quickly masks it with a roll of her eyes.
“My turn. Never have I ever kissed more than one person in twenty-four hours,” says Katie.
Well, thank fuck for that I think as I take a sip of my drink.
I know. I’m a hypocrite.
“What’s your record?” Kenna asks.
“Record for what, darling? You’ll have to be more specific. I hold a lot of them,” I retort.
She rolls her eyes again and I want to spank the defiance out of her.
Woah, where did that come from?
“Number of people you’ve kissed in twenty-four hours?”
“Mmm, not sure. Five or six?”
Her eyes go wide as she says, “Glad to see Boston’s keeping it classy.”
She’s got such a smart mouth on her. The back and forth with her draws me in and leaves me wanting more.
“Easy there, Mack Attack. I’ll have you know it was freshman year of high school during a game of Spin the Bottle. It’s like there was a magnet stopping the bottle on me at every girl’s turn.”
“Oh,” she says as she bites the corner of her plump bottom lip. She’s wearing a sheer gloss that makes me want to lean in and finally find out what she tastes like.
“Oh? Come on, you can do better than that, babe.”
Kenna takes that as a challenge and turns herself more toward me. She looks down at me as she says, “I hear you’re single for the summer. I’m sure kissing five or six girls in one night will become just another summer night for you soon enough.”
I move my hand to her thigh that’s resting on the chair and draw slow circles with my thumb. God, I want to inch my way up higher.
“I’ve got my eyes set on something this summer, that’s for sure,” I say as I stare into her cerulean eyes.
Her breath hitches and her cheeks flush just enough for me to see in the dim firelight.
“Never have I ever dated someone older than me,” Carson says.
Both Kenna and I take a drink. Arching a brow at her I ask, “Who did you date that’s older than you?”
“Drew. He’s in the grade between us.”
“Drew Hutton? You can’t be serious?”
“Unfortunately, yes. He was terrible. In every way.” Her shoulders shake as she shivers at the thought.
There’s more to unpack there. I want to know so much about her. I want to get to know this adult version of Kenna. She’s a far cry from the girl who used to spend every other weekend at our house growing up.
“Never have I ever cheated on someone,” Tae says. No one drinks. Nice.
“Never have I ever been cheated on,” says a girl I haven’t met. Kenna and another kid I don’t recognize bring their cups to their lips.
Who the fuck would cheat on Kenna? If it was Drew, I’ll kick his ass.
“Never have I ever had sex with a dude,” Carson says.
Kenna takes a sip and something turns in my gut. Jealousy rips its way through me. Not because she’s not a virgin, but knowing that someone else got to touch her. Taste her. Fuck her.
“Never have I ever wanted to get back with an ex,” Kenna says as she looks at me.
I don’t even flinch toward my cup. Was that directed at me? Does she honestly think I’d want to get back together with Emily? Maybe she’s testing the waters to see where I’m at.
I meet her stare and smirk at her, just enough to make my signature dimples come out.
“Never have I ever been in love,” I say, and only Tae and Jax drink.
Interesting, so she didn’t love Drew. At least there’s that.
Kenna’s eyes are still stuck on me. She’s looking at me as if I’m a puzzle she’s trying to piece together. Maybe that’s a good thing—she’s always loved puzzles. She used to do the crossword in the Sunday paper growing up when she stayed over. My dad would sit at the breakfast table reading the sports section, leaving the crossword and a pencil in the spot she’d sit in.
“Kitty, I just got the text that we’re up next for beer pong,” Carson says to Katie, and that seems to break whatever trance Kenna and I were in.
“Do you want a refill?” I ask Kenna, still mindlessly rubbing circles on her thigh.
Kenna clears her throat. “Yeah, I could use another.”
We top off our drinks and I ask, “Do you want to go back out to the fire and keep playing?”
Kenna nods, and I can’t help but feel mesmerized as I stare into her gorgeous aqua eyes. I want to get lost in them.
I follow her lead through the packed house back outside. Taking her hand in mine, sparks shoot up my arm from the touch. I see the slightest blush on her cheeks at my gesture.
Once we get back outside, we notice the game is over, and everyone else must’ve gone in to get refills and watch the beer pong match.
“Do you want to go back in?” I ask.
“Maybe we could play a little game of our own?” she asks.
I’d like to play a lot of games with you.
“Yeah. This time, let’s play two truths, one lie,” I suggest as I take a seat back in my chair by the fire.
“Isn’t it supposed to be two lies, one truth?”
“Not sure, honestly. But this way, I’ll get to catch up with you more,” I say as I smirk.
She smiles back at me. “Griffin Owen Turner, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re trying to charm my pants off with those dimples.”
“I’m guessing it’d take more than these hideous indents in my cheeks to make that happen.”
“Hideous? Blasphemy! You know I’ve been a sucker for your dimples since we were kids. They’re my kryptonite.”
I do know that. Any time Carson and I would do something to upset Kenna and Katie, I’d break out the dimples, and she’d convince Katie that all should be forgiven. But hearing her say it makes me smile like the Cheshire Cat, only enhancing the dimples more.
Kenna bites at her bottom lip again, and my thoughts spiral.
I need to know what she tastes like. What would she do if I leaned in right now and kissed her? Would she pull away? Would she lean into it?
Stop being such a bitch, Turner, and kiss her already.
Kenna’s voice breaks through my thoughts. “My favorite snack is an apple with peanut butter. My first pet was Ranger. My biggest fear is never taking chances.”
“What kind of chances do you want to take, Kenna?” I ask as I pull her into my lap.
“What?” she responds with a breathlessness. “How did you know that wasn’t a lie?”
“Easy. You used to come home every day after school or practice and cut up an apple with peanut butter for as long as I’ve known you. And your first pet was Bits the Bunny, who passed away when you were eleven. That was before your mom and dad got Ranger to help you deal with the loss of Bits.”
Kenna’s breath hitches as she stares into my eyes. “I want to take as many chances as I can. What’s a life without risk? Without risks, there are no rewards, right? That’s my biggest fear—if I don’t take any chances, I’ll have a boring, unfulfilled life.”
I keep my eyes locked with hers. “You know, I’ve always been one to live just enough on the edge, like each day is my last. But I’m never reckless. I can’t be. Katie and my dad would kill me. We’ve been through enough after losing my mom.”
Pushing my hand slightly higher on her thigh, my thumb continues to make circles. Kenna places her hand on top of mine and gives it a gentle squeeze.
I look down at her hand on mine. “Guess it’s my turn.” I swallow the lump that forms in my throat whenever I think of Mom.
“I can’t afford any distractions this year. It has to be my best season yet.” I hold up one finger. “I cried like a baby when I got back to my hotel room on draft night.” I hold up a second. “I’ve never wanted any of my sister’s friends,” I finish, holding up a third finger.
The slightest frown appears on Kenna’s face.
“Which is the lie, Kenna?”
“Well, I know every season matters for you guys. But this season, I’m guessing you could get pulled up with the stats you pulled last year. So that’s a truth.” She hesitates before she says, “I’ve only seen you cry once and that was the day your mom passed.”
“So you think that’s my lie?”
Kenna looks at me and shrugs. “Sure. I mean, I know you’ve always said Colorado was your first choice. So I’m sure you were ecstatic, but I can’t see you crying on the best night of your life.”
I brush my hand up the side of her thigh and wrap it around her waist.
“Wrong. The emotions of my dream coming true and my mom not being there to see it were too much. I cried so hard Katie thought I was hurt when she came into the room. She said it had to be that or that Emily trapped me with a baby.” I snort. “Thank fuck that didn’t happen.”
“So . . .” Kenna pauses.
I rub my palm up and down her lower back and move my head closer to her.
“Yeah, so . . .”
Her breath hitches again as I grab the side of her face to pull her in.
I press my forehead to hers as I say, “It was my lie, Kenna. I’ve wanted to kiss you for-fucking-ever, but I didn’t know how you’d react.” I take a deep breath.
Am I really going to do this?
Before I can second guess myself, I take the plunge and rasp, “Can I kiss you?”
The words barely leave my lips before Kenna softly presses hers to mine. A bolt of energy passes through me with just one touch.
Is this really happening?
I kiss Kenna intently, exploring her pillowy soft lips, bringing her plush bottom lip forward and biting into it.
I groan at the first delicious taste of her. She tastes better than I could’ve dreamed, like vanilla and mint wrapped together.
Passing my tongue over her lips, she opens for me. In an instant, the kiss deepens, turning desperate.
Her touch is intoxicating. She’s a high I never want to come down from.
I’m completely gone for this girl after only one kiss and fuck if it doesn’t feel right.