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Ipulled in to The Dog House right behind Jovie and Erica, dashing in to beat the client coming in behind me. I hated being late, but that time was worth every second and every inch. Despite how confused I was, how vulnerable I felt, I wanted more. I wanted every fucking bit of him constantly. Griffin was not my type, not my speed, but he was amazing. Harriet and Briggs were an odd match, but they worked out perfectly so maybe we could too. My thoughts made me sound like a crazy person. It hadn’t even been a week but I was thinking like we were going to be together forever. Forever was a long time to put up with the amount of crazy I was working with.
I dove into the day, trying to bury the feeling of a giant letter A on my shirt. It’s not like I was prude, but I felt like everyone knew my secret. I was a grown ass woman with a kid but felt shy about having sex. Mind-blowing, amazing sex. Really mind-blowing sex that made me forget how damaged I was. Maybe it came with the territory of only sleeping with two guys in my entire life, but I felt like they could read it on my face, which was insane. Despite my weird mixed feelings about whether to tell my friends about my sex life, I was happy. Honestly, I was nearly fucking giddy. He hadn’t seen me at my worst but had witnessed my mini breakdown without any reaction other than to calm me. That alone made my stomach flutter, but the stomach fluttering stopped abruptly, and my day went to shit in one second. A man wearing a suit came in. I recognized him immediately as Richard’s scum bag attorney. He politely asked for me and Jovie waved me over.Fuck.
“Ms. Sharpe.” Darren McNabb tipped his head. “Can we talk outside?” It was a rhetorical question, of course. I followed him out, leaning against the bannister, waiting. “Your husband—”
“Ex,” I cut him off, crossing my arms, “my ex-husband.” He rolled his eyes like being married was a formality. It had been years since our divorce was final, but, apparently, the attorney thought it was a fluke.
“Mr. Sharpe has a parole hearing next week. He has asked you and Axel to come for support. He tried to call, but your number changed.” I bit my tongue. Of course, I changed my number. I wanted to be as separate from the man as possible. Richard was lucky I hadn’t changed my last name. If not for Axel I would have. “He wants to contact you to discuss a custody agreement and reconciliation once he’s out, but the restraining order makes all contact difficult.”
I nearly laughed. “We won’t be there and the restraining order is there to keep him away from us. He nearly got me killed, they threatened my daughter, and it’s his fault. So, you can tell him to stay the fuck away from us.” My nails dug into the wooden porch to keep me standing. “I won’t have him bringing any more of his dealer’s wrath on us. As far as you’re concerned, do not come interrupt me at work again. You can deal with my attorney. I’m sure you remember how to contact her.” I narrowed my eyes as asshole attorney flipped a card from his pocket, handing it to me.
“Have a nice day, Mrs. Sharpe.” Then I watched him walk away in the direction of his BMW. Griffin was standing with a coffee in each hand, looking like he wanted to hit the guy. I shook my head and retreated before Griffin could follow me. The last thing I needed was for Richard’s attorney to go tell him I was seeing someone.Am I seeing someone?
Richard was never a fighter, he was more of a talker, work it out with words. Before the drugs, he avoided confrontation, but after was a different story, and I had no idea how his addiction was going. I really didn’t give a shit. The thought of him in my life again made me light headed. I had loved him. Loved him so much that I stuck by while he made a mess of his life, our lives. I thought he loved Ax and me enough to get better, but he didn’t. Richard loved getting high.
The day I saw Richard the first time was my fall semester in his English class. He was toned and tall with a thin build and thick-rimmed glasses. His short hair was groomed to perfection. He was even wearing a bowtie. The guy was my nerdy wet dream all in a college professor. It took all of two weeks before we were all over each other, then as soon as I was out of his class we eloped and I was pregnant with Ax. He had had the car accident right after that and we got sued. They threatened our home, our cars. The desperation for money made me start grooming instead of finishing school. Richard had different ideas. Instead of picking up a second job, he turned to selling drugs, namely his pain pills from the wreck. It snowballed from there and my life went straight to hell.
Griffin followed me into work, as I knew he would, stalking after me all the way to my table. He ignored Jovie’s protests as he vaulted the gate to come behind the counter. “Who was he?” Jove and Erica were watching, but Griffin obviously didn’t give a shit.
“Richard’s attorney.” I stepped back, but he followed again, staying in my space. I sent my attorney a text, giving her a heads up. Betsy was the most badass attorney in the area but you paid out the ass for her services, but it was worth every cent to keep him and his dealer away from us. “He has a parole hearing next week and is expecting to get out, so I need to prepare for this. Don’t you work or something?” I pushed past him to go get my next dog from the back. He trailed after me, stopping me in the hall by the arm. I was scared, terrified, and Griffin wasn’t helping by following me around.
“Do you need anything?”
“Other than for you to stop this, no.” I turned from him, but he gripped my arm tighter.
“Cori, I told you. I’m not going anywhere. I don’t give a fuck about your ex other than wanting you and Ax safe. Now stop trying to fight this and tell me how to help.” His voice lowered as he talked, not wanting my co-workers to hear him.How the hell did I get so damn lucky?Griffin was gorgeous and protective, even if he was bordering on too macho. I loved it. The guy had a point. I wanted him instantly and he did something to me, made me forget how fucked up I was. So, why fight it?
I growled, irritated as hell at him. “No, I don’t need anything other than to groom these dogs so I can pay for my fucking attorney, okay?” I jerked out of his grip but he moved closer, backing me into the wall. We glared at each other in another epic stare down. Another battle of wills. He won when he took my hand, making me fall into him. “I hate you.”
Griffin laughed, and it ran through me, causing a weakness in my knees. “I know. I piss myself off sometimes. Now go groom some dogs and have a better day. I’ll see you later, babe.” With that he kissed me hard, vanishing out the front after patting Jovie on the shoulder as she cussed him for storming into her shop.
I gathered myself, got my dog out, and went about my business. Erica and Jovie stared at me with stupid grins on their faces, but I ignored them, turning up the radio in the grooming room. It wasn’t long before Jovie cornered me by the tub. Her look said everything.
“I know what you said, but it’s not like that, Jove. I don’t know what you know about him, but it’s different with us.”
She warned me. My boss straight up told me about the kind of person Griffin was, but she didn’t even know about Celia, so what could she really know? I wanted to believe my own words so badly. I wanted to think I wasn’t fooling myself, but the look on her face made me second guess, and my self-confidence vanished.
“Oh, it’s different. I told him this would happen.” Jovie nudged me with her elbow. “I told him he would meet some amazing girl, fall madly in love and he would regret ever screwing around like he did. Lydia told him too. If I remember correctly, she’s been telling him since high school.” Jovie got all smug about it. “Now I’m going to text him and tease him relentlessly about how pussy-whipped he is and how I told him so.” My boss laughed, but a jolt of jealousy ran through me at the idea of Griffin texting another woman, even if it was just Jovie. “No strings attached. I don’t get all caught up on a piece of ass. HA!” Her mock-macho tone was hilarious, easing my unwarranted jealousy. Jovie and Ewan were the perfect love story. I had spent months living vicariously through them and Harriet. “Anyway, Erica and I may be looking to hire another groomer, we’re booked a month out, so if you know anyone, spread the word.”
* * *
By the timeI picked Ax up from school and went to see my parents, I was a mess. Between the incident at the zoo, the domineering man forcing his way into my life, and Richard, I was a fucking wreck. More so than before. It was comical that Griffin thought I was fixable. The guy had no idea how deep my scars truly were, how destroyed I was inside. He didn’t know the demons I fought every night or that him holding me the night before had kept the demons quiet. With Richard coming back into my life, there was no telling how bad the nightmares would be, and Griffin would tear out of my arms after witnessing what a mess I was.
Mom was shuffling around the kitchen, barefoot, of course, and caught Ax in the air as soon as my little monkey jumped at her gramma. Margo Wallace was a small, quiet force to be reckoned with, much like her three daughters. Poor Dad never stood a chance. Ari came in from the back door, holding it for Ax to dash out to meet her cousins. Dad’s pipe tobacco came in with the warm air and I had to close my eyes to take in the scent. Before anything else was discussed, I asked my sister about Ben. They talked about it, deciding that Ben was going to a therapist the next afternoon to let him talk it out.
Mom waited impatiently for Ari and me to stop talking about how Ben was doing. “Ari told on you.” My mother crossed her arms over her chest and smiled at me. “When do we get to meet him?”Yeah, not happening.
“Arianna met him and was a total bitch about it.” I poured a glass of tea from the fridge. “Plus, I have other things to talk about.” My older sister rolled her eyes at me. “Richard’s attorney showed up today. He has a parole hearing next week. He asked us to be there so I can drop the order of protection, so we can discuss custody and reconciliation.” I took in the complete shock on their faces and rounded it off by telling them what I said to the attorney and my own attorney was taking care of it. Mom changed the subject to Celia so I had to tell her story and she went onto her well-rehearsed speech about cooking for them. Mom’s goal in life was to feed as many people as she could and psychoanalyze them in the process.
“Celia likes horses.” Dad pecked me on the head, Ax in tow. “We had a sleepover last night.” My kid’s big mouth got me all kinds of accusing looks. “We had dinner then laid in the floor and watched the movie with the big flying dog.” Axel pointed at the fruit on the counter and Dad handed her a banana.
“Did Griffin sleep over too?” Ari eyed me, talking sweet to my little monster.Great.My stuck-up sister was going to judge me for that one so I would go back to being the family whore. I knew nothing of her sexual history other than Lee, her husband, and truly didn’t care to. I was with Richard and only Richard, we got married, had a family, but because I was pregnant before I got married, Ari saw me as a whore. Sleeping with Griffin was going to make me an all-out slut in her eyes.
“Hey, Ax, can you take your cousins bananas too?” I handed her two more bananas. She jumped to the floor and ran out the back. “Thanks, munchkin.” I started unloading the dishwasher, ignoring the tension. My family knew about my opposition to sex, so the fact that Griffin spent the night was probably more shocking to them than it was to me. Plus, they loved to judge me. Where was my baby sister when I needed her? Oh, right, Meredith followed some asshole to Colorado to go to college, leaving a path of verbal destruction in her wake.
“Corinne—” Mom took a plate from me “—are you all right?” The psychologist in her was about to rear its ugly head and psychoanalyze me. I nodded, answering with an “uh-huh”. She grabbed my shoulders to make me look at her.
“I’m fine.” It wasn’t a lie. After the early morning sex, I had gotten pissed, but not upset, not panicked. Griffin made it very clear he was not going anywhere, even if I shoved him away, and after the scummy attorney showed up, he still held to his story. It may have been stupid after only a few days, but he asked for my trust, and I gave it. Mom obviously didn’t believe me, because the look on her face told me everything.
