From there, we just drive. Drive, and talk, and laugh, and sing, and sometimes just sit in silence. The world feels so big when it’s just the two of us out in the middle of nowhere under the big Texas sky. I don’t know how I ever felt suffocated here.
“Not smiling at anything in particular,” I say, placing my hand over his and tracing soft circles with my thumb. “Just happy.”
“Oh yeah?” he asks, his own smile lighting up his tanned face. Griffin year-round is the hottest thing I’ve ever seen–butsummer Griffin?He’s not just hot, he’s devastating.
His entire summer wardrobe apparently consists of nothing but muscle tees that show off his broad shoulders and toned muscles–not gym-bro huge, but the type of strong you get from manual labor, which is exactly what he’s been doing. He, Jack, and David got jobs with the local contractor, helping demo old buildings and framing the new ones.
Any time not spent at work, we spend together. Usually it’s the four of us, Abby and Aaron joining sometimes. At least until Griffin decides he wants me to himself and kicks everyone out, or sweeps me off my feet, hollering over his shoulder that we’re leaving as we’re already halfway out the door.
Not that I’m complaining–about the alone time, or the muscle tees. I could spend every hour of the day with him (and looking at him)and never get enough.
“Well, what’s got you so happy, then?”
Scooting closer to him on the bench seat, I lay my head on his shoulder with a contented sigh.
“You.”
He places a gentle kiss on the top of my head, squeezing my thigh before threading his fingers through mine, holding both of our hands in my lap. Tilting my head up, I press a soft kiss to his jawline.
“Can we go home?” I whisper in his ear, goosebumps immediately raising on his neck. Smirking to myself, I kiss him again, this time lower on his neck, my free hand ghosting my fingers up his forearm.
“You’re killing me, Eleanor,” he says in a hoarse voice.
Laughing softly, I nip at his earlobe.
“Betterdrive fast, then.”
***
“So anyway, once they got the nails out everything was totally fine,” David says, finishing a story about how he managed to nailgun his pantsandboxers to the roof he was working on and had no choice but to either get rescued by the fire department, or get stark naked in public.
Griffin and Jack roar with laughter, rolling on the basement floor. I try to twist my smirk into something much more sympathetic, but fail miserably.
“We go to a different work site foroneafternoon and you manage to cause mayhem,” Jack says, finally catching his breath and shaking his head.
“Exactly, this is totally your fault,” David says, pointing an accusatory finger at him. “You know I need constant supervision.”
Griffin sits up, wiping the tears from his eyes. “Shit dude, I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time.”
He climbs off the floor, picking me up out of the chair and settling me into his lap when he sits down. I wrap my arms around his neck, pulling him in to rest his head on my chest, stroking his hair absentmindedly. I never thought I’d be a PDA girl, but I can’t seem to keep my hands off of him, no matter who we’re with. Even at my house with my parents, there’s always some point of contact, albeit much more chaste.
“Should I be more affectionate in public?” Aaron asks with a slight frown, looking from Abby to us, then back to Abby. He and Abby joined us tonight, but Aaron sat on the couch while Abby took the other chair across the room.
“God, no,” Abby replies with a scoff. “If you try to touch me like that outside of the bedroom, I’m breaking up with you.”
“Okay, good,” he says, letting out a relieved sigh.
“No offense, of course,” Abby adds, waving her hand in our direction.
“None taken,” Griffin says with a wicked grin, one hand sliding up my thigh, playing with the threads of my cutoffs, his other arm snaking around my waist and holding me tighter.
“I do not need to hear about what goes on in either of your bedrooms,” Jack grumbles.
“I do,” David says, wiggling his eyebrows. “The more detail, the better.”
I laugh loudly when Jack smacks him over the back of the head, scolding him to stop being a perv.
David hands Abby the Wii controller and turns on Mario Kart, while Jack and Aaron start a heated debate about the Rangers versus the Astros. I don’t hear a wordthey say–I’m distracted by the way Griffin has been steadily moving his hand higher and higher up my leg, thumb now brushing my skin underneath the hem of my shorts.
