Chapter 4
EVERETT
Ginny pushes me back after nearly two delicious minutes.
It’s nowhere near enough.
She presses her lips together, then takes a deep breath. “We cannot keep doing that,” she says.
“I disagree.”
Not only can we, but we need to. I need to kiss this woman regularly for the rest of my life.
I can’t believe I found her. And she’s Graham’s sister. This could not get any better.
“We’re going to go back in there and tell everyone that we met when I was in Denver. Otherwise, explaining why I dragged you out here will make no sense. But we are not going to tell them we slept together,” she tells me.
“Fine. It’s none of their business.” The only thing her family needs to know is that I’ll be marrying their daughter and sister someday.
Is that over-the-top? Of course it is. And it feels fantastic.
I never do over-the-top things. At least, I didn’t until I met Graham.
Then I took all of my money and gambled on the first guy I actually trusted.
Who saw me, wanted to know me, cared about me beyond my last name and bank account.
That gamble paid back my bank account and then some.
It felt fucking fantastic to just go for it with someone based on a gut feeling, and I’m ready to do it again.
With Graham’s sister.
It makes so much sense that the woman I felt that connection with is related to Graham.
Ginny Riley is the woman for me.
“We’re going to explain that it was Halloween, and we met at the bar in costume,” she’s explaining. “We stick to as much truth as possible. Like that I didn’t know you were Graham’s friend or my future boss.”
Fuck, she’s beautiful.
“Fine,” I say again when she pauses and seems to want an answer from me.
She nods. “And then we’re going to proceed as if this is the first time we’re really getting to know each other.
Because it is,” she says as if explaining this to herself while she’s telling me.
“I mean, this isn’t flirting or talking about comics and comparing Wonder Woman to Lois Lane. We’re going to keep this professional.”
I feel my lips turn up at that. “I think we’re too far beyond professional to go back, Ginny.”
She points her finger at my nose. “Nope. Stop it. Don’t talk in that husky, sexy voice. Don’t mention Denver. We’re starting over.”
She thinks my voice is husky and sexy? I like that.
I grin. “There is no way in hell I’m going to be able to do that.”
“Dammit, Clark… dammit, Everettt…you have to. If I had known who you were in Denver, I never would’ve gone home with you.”
I frown. “Because of Graham?”
“Because…” She sighs. “I guess maybe I might have gone home with you. Because that was before Graham told me about the job.” She frowns. “Dammit. Okay, but now I’m not sleeping with you again because you’re going to be my boss.”
I think about that. That is unacceptable. I shrug. “Then I won’t hire you.”
She gasps. She looks genuinely, absolutely aghast. “You can’t do that. First of all, Graham already hired me. Second of all, I need this job. And I will be excellent at it. Third, that is a very dickhead thing to say and absolutely not the way to get me to sleep with you again.”
She’s probably right about all of those things. “Then how do I get you to sleep with me again?”
Her mouth opens, then she snaps it shut.
She steps around me. “You don’t.” She starts for the house, takes two steps, then turns back.
“I am going to take the job with your company, you’re going to be thrilled that I am working for your company, you are going to keep what happened in Denver between us, and you are going to stop looking at me like that. ”
I know exactly what she’s talking about. Still, I ask, “Like what?”
“Like you’re picturing me naked.”
No can-do. “But, Ginny, I am absolutely picturing you naked. Just know that. All day long.”
“Argh!” She turns and starts for the house again.
I don’t even try to hide my smile.
I’ve never had a serious girlfriend, but I’ve dated.
I’ve never dated a woman who said “argh” like that or one who so clearly didn’t want anyone to know we spent time together, however.
I start to follow her back into the house, but again she stops and whirls around.
“And I swear to God, if you slip and let them know that something more happened between us than just a drink and a conversation, just remember that I know where you’re going to be sleeping for the next couple of nights and where all the food you’re going to be eating is stored.
You will not come out of this unscathed. ”
“Are you threatening me?” I ask, amused.
I don’t have any siblings. I didn’t grow up with threats of retaliation or pranks from disgruntled sisters.
Not that there is anything about Ginny that makes me feel brotherly.
Her eyes narrow. “Oh, yes, Everett, I am most definitely threatening you.”
I follow her back into the house, without telling her that I like her even more now.
“Is everything all right?” Adrianne asks as soon as we step into the kitchen.
Ginny smiles at her mother. “Fine.” She turns to address the entire room. The whole family has stayed in the kitchen, clearly waiting for us to come back inside so as not to miss any of the details or drama.
“Here’s the situation,” Ginny says. “Everett and I did meet when I was in Denver. Randomly. We happened to be in the same bar on Halloween. We were in costume, so we just exchanged character names.” She slides me a glance, then looks back at her family.
“We chatted and had a drink, and I just wanted to…apologize to him.”
I wonder if anyone else notices how she trips over that word.
“And wanted to reassure him that he doesn’t have to worry about bringing me on as an employee with IES. I just wanted to clear up… the first impression I made.”
She made a fantastic first impression. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about her.
I glance at Graham. He’s seated at the breakfast bar that separates the kitchen from the dining room. The morning after meeting Ginny, I told him I’d met someone and had amazing sex with her. Does he remember that? Will he assume it was Ginny? Will he assume that it’s not Ginny?
Mason, Ginny’s father, looks at her. “Did you say or do something embarrassing?”
“Um,” she starts.
“Absolutely not,” I say firmly.
She shouldn’t be a bit embarrassed about anything that happened that night.
“It wasn’t that,” she says, clearing her throat. “But obviously a conversation with a good-looking, charming stranger in a bar is a different conversation than one I’d have with a man I knew was going to be my boss.”
Okay, that’s probably fair.
“So you flirted with him,” her father says.
Ginny clears her throat. “Uh, yes.”
She definitely did. It was fantastic.
“Well, there’s no harm in that.” Mason looks at me. “I’m sure Everett understands.”
“I definitely do,” I agree. I understand that Harriett Ginger Riley is one of a kind, and I will never get over her or the night we spent together. I’m sure her father would understand.
“I can’t believe you went out to a bar in costume by yourself,” Graham says.
“It was a half block from the hotel,” Ginny says with a shrug. “It was no big deal.”
Half a block from the hotel. Dammit, she must’ve been at the Four Seasons. I did check there, but got nowhere in my sleuthing.
The no big deal thing does rub me the wrong way, though. It was definitely a big deal, but fine, she doesn’t want her family to know what happened between us. It can stay private. But if she thinks we are never going to talk about it again, she is sadly mistaken.
“Okay, well, if everything’s all right, let’s all sit,” Adrianne says, gesturing toward the dining room table. “Everything’s ready.”
My stomach growls, even as my chest warms in anticipation.
I have been in the Riley house for three prior meals on other trips to Sapphire Falls.
The meals have been delicious and very pleasant, but have only involved Mason, Adrianne, Graham, and twice, Margot.
I hadn’t previously met the two oldest sons, Carver and Jefferson, or their significant others, Kaelyn and Harlow.
And of course, Ginny hadn’t been here.
This is going to be great.
It doesn’t even take five minutes before the siblings are bantering and teasing. It’s loud, it’s boisterous, and there is so much food.
I fill my plate, then sit back and simply watch and listen.
Meals at my family’s table were nothing like this. There would be four of us if my father joined me and my grandparents, but that was rare. More commonly, it was just me and my grandfather, because my grandmother wouldn’t be feeling well and would eat in her bedroom.
I read a lot of books at the dinner table. And the lunch and breakfast tables.
I was very well-read at a young age.
I love the Riley dinner table.
Adrianne is warm and welcoming, Mason is serious but good-humored, and Graham and Margot are fun and easy to be around, as always.
Carver, Jefferson, and their significant others, Kaelyn and Harlow, bring an entirely different energy, though.
Carver and Kaelyn practically finish one another's sentences. Apparently, they’ve known each other since they were small children and have been destined for one another from day one.
It only takes about five minutes in their presence to understand that.
Jefferson and Harlow are a whole different thing. They bicker and tease and banter with one another, and with everyone else at the table. Harlow rolls her eyes a lot, but she also kisses Jefferson a lot.
It’s also obvious that all of them have known one another for a long time and have an easy, strong friendship.
That includes Ginny. I’m thrilled she’s seated directly across the table from me, because I can’t stop watching her and soaking up everything she says and does.
From her smiles to her hand gestures to the way she looks at and speaks with each of her siblings, this is clearly her favorite group of people.
“Do you have siblings, Everett?” Adrianne asks.