CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR #2
I am so relieved to see him and so shocked, I can’t gain control of my face. My mouth is damn near the floor. When I don’t say anything, Griffin steps inside the unit.
“Please, Case.”
In a flash, I pull myself together. If Griff Keegan is here, I might as well hear what he has to say. I draw deep breath, waving him in. “Good luck getting back here.”
“I’ll stay out here and…try the coffee,” Becca says. “While you two chat.”
“Yeah. Okay.” I wipe sweaty palms against my shorts, prepping myself for a conversation I didn’t plan on having. I’d thought he was done. Closed the book and moved on.
“What did you want to talk about?” I ask, trying to sound nonchalant. I aimlessly pick through a box as Griffin weaves closer. The question is ridiculous—it’s not like he came here to talk to me about an incomplete move-out or leaving the spare bedroom a mess.
Griffin pauses at the edge of my blob chaise longue. He frowns down at it. “This thing is kind of ugly.”
“Thanks, it’s my favorite piece, so…”
Griffin rubs the back of his neck, shaking his head. “Sorry. That’s…that’s what I came to say to you.”
“That my couch is ugly?”
“No, that I’m sorry. I am so. Fucking. Sorry. I did a lot of things wrong. Specifically during the past few weeks. But the thing I fucked up the most was that I didn’t tell you the truth.”
I’m not entirely sure which direction this is going now. Part of me worries he’s just here to clear his conscience before hockey season begins. “Okay, and what is that?”
“I love you.”
Tears spring to my eyes. I fiddle with the edge of a plastic lid nearby, nibbling on the inside of my lip. “Love isn’t enough though, is it?”
He looks a little taken aback. “You don’t think?”
“Isn’t that what you’re about to say? You love me. But it’s not enough to survive a hockey season or the dismal divorce rates or whatever else you’re thinking of.”
Pain creases his face, and he steps closer. “No, Case. What I’m about to say is I love you, and I’m not going to stop loving you, and I don’t want to imagine a future without you in it. Despite hockey season and away games and the crazy divorce rate and everything else.”
“Oh,” is all I can manage to say.
“I should have told you that I loved you after Claire’s wedding, but I couldn’t say it.
I couldn’t say it the next day either. And that conversation we had will haunt me for the rest of my life.
I was a fucking coward. But that’s why I packed your shit up.
Losing you then felt safer than losing you sometime in the future. ”
“But you wouldn’t have lost me,” I whisper, tears blurring my vision. “I’m here. I mean, there. I wasn’t going anywhere.”
He swallows hard, looking at me so intently I can barely hold his gaze.
“That’s not what I mean. I tried to protect myself by rejecting you before this went further.
Because I’m fucking terrified. Loving you makes me scared, because I could lose you.
Like I lost my dad. But it’s a risk I want to take, even though it’s scary. Because I…I know it will be worth it.”
I laugh, wiping away a tear that’s rolled past the brink. “You do?”
“Listen, I don’t actually know how any of this is going to go. And that terrifies me. But I know I don’t want to just be a chapter in your book. I want to be in your story until the end.”
The tears are coming now. I roll my lips inward, trying to stave off a full-body sob that really wants to escape. I cross my arms, still trying to appear in control and firm. Even though I am so gone for this man I might as well be melted butter at this point.
“Well…that’s nice to know,” I manage to say.
“Here.” Griffin reaches into his pocket and fumbles with something. He pulls out a couple key rings next, holding them out. “Take these.”
“Is that the key I just returned to you?” I wipe away more tears.
“Yes. And the keys to my Cleveland condo. Take them. They’re yours.”
My chin is trembling now as I look up at his handsome, pleading face.
“Please, Casey,” he says more softly. “I can’t leave here until I know that you’re going to be waiting for me when I get back from Colorado. I want you with me. Move in with me. In Bayshore. In Cleveland. I don’t care. I just want you. As much as I can fucking have you.”
I swallow a knot of emotion, sniffing. I cautiously take the keys, turning them over in my hands. “When are you leaving for Colorado?”
“Today.” He clears his throat. “In roughly ten hours.”
My eyes widen. “Griffin. Where are you flying out from?”
“Cleveland.”
“Oh my god. It’s a seven-hour drive to Cleveland! Why would you drive to Chicago right before your flight?”
He looks at me like I’m the silliest, most wonderful creature on earth. “Because I needed to talk to you. Now can I fucking kiss you please?”
It’s hard to fight the grin now. “You packed up my shit then drove all the way to Chicago and showed up unannounced at my storage unit only to ask for permission to give me a kiss?”
He huffs, clearly impatient. “I’m trying to do better.”
I smile up at him, so in love with him I can barely see straight. “Yes. You may kiss me.”
Griff surges forward, sliding his rough hands around the sides of my face as his mouth covers mine.
We kiss like we’ve been separated for years, not days.
Hungry, urgent, absolutely dripping with passion.
We kiss until I’m gripping the front of his shirt, my leg hoisted up in his hand, absolutely breathless.
When we finally come up for air, I loosen my grip on his shirt and smooth the fabric where I’d bunched it. “My god, that was some hello kiss.”
“Um, guys?” Becca’s tentative voice reaches us from outside the unit. “I have to leave for work in like four minutes and I need to know if everything is okay before I go.”
“Oh my god.” I take a step back and try to find a new path out of the storage unit. “Everything is okay. Let me come give you a hug before you go.”
When I reach her, I throw my arms around her, even though I’ll be spending another couple of nights on her couch.
“Thanks for helping,” I whisper into her ear.