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Griff raised his head, and our eyes met across the room. A sliver of doubt shot through me when his Adam’s apple bobbed. He glanced at the woman, his hand covering hers. As if burned, he tugged his hand away and stood.
A waving hand in my peripheral vision caught my attention. Jay. He was frowning. I switched my focus back to Griff, who was hurrying toward me. I shook my head. Please let him understand now wasn’t the time for him to explain who that woman was. Her presence was less problematic than Jay seeing me with him.
I bolted for the door.
“Scottie!”
Griff.
I rushed outside into the night. My heart pounded as I scanned my surroundings for an escape. I couldn’t let either of them find me. Later I would make up an excuse for Jay. He’d made such an important decision to turn his life around. If he found out now that I was sleeping with his father, the truth would be devastating.
“Scottie, wait!” Griff grabbed me around the waist and hauled me back against his chest. “You have the wrong impression.”
I shoved at his arms, digging my fingers into his skin. “No, Griff, let me go! Jay—”
“Please let me explain. She’s nothing but a stranger.”
“We can talk later. Please, Griff, you don’t understand. I’m here with—”
“Scott.”
Oh, god. Jay.
“Jay…” His name slipped past my lips.
Griff stiffened, and I pushed away from him, my heart racing. Jay stood a few feet from us, his fists clenched and face flushed. His eyes flicked between Griff and me, and the tension between us pulsed like a live wire.
“What the hell are you doing bothering Scott?” Jay strode toward us and firmly gripped my shoulder. He shoved me behind him in a protective stance, his body radiating with anger.
“Jay—” I grabbed his arm before he could do anything stupid, but the rest of the words refused to come.
“It’s my fault,” Griff said. “I shouldn’t have bothered him.”
“No, you shouldn’t have,” Jay spat. “I already told you I want nothing to do with you. It’s one thing to hound me, but now you’re bothering Scott as well. Don’t you go near him ever again. He doesn’t deserve to be tangled up with someone like you because of me.”
I pulled on Jay’s arm. “Listen, you—”
“You’re right,” Griff said loudly, talking over me. “I shouldn’t drag Scottie into this mess between us.”
Griff’s shoulders drooped, and he turned to walk back inside.
Let him. Just let him go, Scottie. You can fix everything later.
“No!” I barked out, and Griff stopped.
“Scottie, don’t,” he said. “It’s better this way.”
“N-n-no, it’s n-not.” I took a deep breath to calm my racing heart and walked up to Griff. “I don’t want to lie to him anymore.”
“If you do this…” Griff stared at his son.
“I know.” My heart was already breaking, but a love like I shared with Griff came once in a lifetime. How could I let it go? Maybe we were wrong and my friendship with Jay was solid enough to withstand this.
“Scott, what’s going on?” Jay asked.
I closed my eyes, counted from one to five, and then opened them. The look of suspicion in Jay’s eyes almost made me swallow the words. “Running into Griff tonight was an accident. B-b-but it’s not the first time we’re meeting. I’m sorry, Jay. I should have t-t-told you, but I started falling for your f-f-father, and you were so determined not to f-f-forgive him that I didn’t know how to tell you.”
Jay took a step back, a hand over his heart. “He’s the one?” His voice came out raspy. “He’s the one who leaves those hickeys on you? The one you told me earlier that—Scott, why?”
