She startled and leaned back, hitting him. “Time?”
“Yeah, babe. I know I’ve been over every night recently, but it hit me that I haven’t asked. I don’t want you to feel that you don’t have a choice.”
Her body relaxed, a soft smile curving her lips. “No, Griffin, I don’t want to be alone tonight. I like having you here with me.” Sucking in her lips, she inhaled deeply, her gaze dropping to his chest.
“Talk to me,” he prodded. “Please.”
“My parents want to meet you.” Her words came out in a rush. “I know it may seem early in our relationship and I can tell them no. I don’t want you to feel like—”
“My mom wants to meet you, too.”
Her mouth snapped closed as her eyes widened. “Your mom? I didn’t know you told her about us.”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“Um… I don’t know.” A nervous laugh slipped out. “I guess since we hadn’t defined what we are, then I didn’t know if you’d told anyone.”
Lifting a hand, he brushed her hair back from her face. “Yeah, babe. My crew knows. My mom knows. My family knows. Even Russ and his mom.”
“So, now, we have an invitation to my parents’ for dinner, your mom’s for dinner, and Russ’ family for dinner?”
Chuckling, he slid his arms around her waist and pulled her tight. “Looks like we’ve got some people willing to feed us for a while.”
With her arms now around his neck, she leaned in and placed her lips on his. “I guess we're going to need to work up an appetite.”
Her words shot straight to his cock. “Can’t think of a better time to start than now.”
“I was hoping you were going to say that,” she mumbled against his lips.
Not about to ignore that invitation, he sealed his lips over hers, stood with her in his arms, and stalked toward the bedroom. Letting her body slide down his, he slowly laid her on the bed and grinned. “This is the best way I know to make a crappy day better, babe. So, hang on and let me do the work. I promise, I’ll take care of you.” With her easy acquiescence, he settled in to do just that.
25
“I can’t believe none of our carriers were picked up by the dogs that went to the school.”
The leader looked over, nodding. “Even if the dogs reacted, our carriers know to not keep anything in their vehicle. It helps to keep the deals off school properties. It reduces the risks to all of us.”
“Did you hear the police got some?”
“Yeah, but not any of ours. Dumb fucks.”
“I can’t believe they took the dogs to the teacher parking lot.”
“No one had anything, though, so that just leads credence to try to keep the dogs off the school property. Someone will complain and maybe there will be pressure to stop the practice.”
Two teens walked into the darkened room, their eyes darting all around. One took a deep breath and said, “Ms. McBride had to have her car searched.”
“No shit,” the other teen said as their eyes widened.
The leader flicked their hand out in a dismissing motion. “It’s all good. Nothing found. But again, just goes to show that the dogs can react to things besides what they’re trained for.”
The others continued talking, but the one teen remained quiet, their lips tight and heart pounding. How did I get myself into this? And how am I going to get out?
26
“Okay, Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie discussion today,” Caitlyn announced, looking out over her advanced juniors, ignoring their groans. Teens always groaned when approaching literature, but she knew as soon as the discussion began, they’d jump in with insightful if not sometimes delightful comments.
Several weeks had passed in glorious reprieve of any drama in her personal life and with little out of the ordinary. After Griffin had talked about Russ’ family reminding him so much of his own, she’d concluded that the last thing she wanted to do was make anything more difficult for the young man. To bring his name up to the police with no proof could have been catastrophic.
She and Griffin had made the rounds to their dinner invites, first tackling her family. She’d warned him that an invite from her parents would never involve just her parents. She never knew how many siblings and their significant others would come, but she should’ve known everyone wanted to spec out their baby sister’s boyfriend. She’d threatened all of them to be on their best behavior but should have known that Griffin could handle himself with a large family. In fact, she thought her family was impressed with how well he fit in. Sean recognized another oldest sibling. Her sisters and sisters-in-law loved looking at pictures of some of the old houses he’d worked on. Kyle and Rory enjoyed listening to his stories of his own siblings’ adventures and misadventures. And her parents loved the way he often reached over to touch or hug her.
Her next dinner invite had been with his family, and it was much like her own family. His siblings were sweet, his nieces and nephews were adorable, and his mother was delightful. It was obvious how proud she was of all her children and equally how much they all loved her. It was easy to see herself considering them her family, too. But she kept that thought private, too afraid to voice how much she could see a future with Griffin.
And then they’d gone to have dinner at Russ’ house. She’d had reservations about having dinner with a student’s family but pushed them down. Griffin was right about the parallels between his family and upbringing and Russ’. The house may have been much smaller than the one she’d been raised in, and no father was sitting at the head of the table, but pride was evident, all the children pitched in to help, and it was easy to see that love filled the home.
Russ appeared to be flourishing under Griffin’s tutelage, and their crew had finished refurbishing and replacing much of the porch that encircled Margaretha’s house, now moving to the inside. It wasn’t the only house Griffin was working on, and since discovering that Nate didn’t live too far from Russ, he had begun to take him home, freeing up more time Griffin had to spend at the different houses where his crews were working.
Now that school was firmly settled into the semester and her life was settled into the routine of dinner with Griffin at night and he in her bed each morning, she smiled out over her students.
“You’ve now read the entire book and have had a chance to start on your essays. Who can give me a sentence summary… just a sentence?” Looking around, she nodded. “Cora?”
The girl with multiple piercings that Caitlyn could see—and probably more that she couldn’t—replied, “For all the critics go on and on about this book, it’s really about a poor girl who rises in society and a man who started out high who falls down.”
“It’s more than that!” another student grumbled.
“Yeah,” Cora said, “but Ms. McBride said to put it in one sentence!”
Nodding, she said, “What happens when you have to reduce a novel to a sentence is that you strip away everything except the one concept that stands out for you.” Casting her gaze around she asked, “Who else?”