“Griff.”I laugh slightly, feeling my cheeks redden.I am pure baffled ineloquence.At least he doesn’t know about what happened in my panties.All I can think about is how Griffin would be the perfect star of his very own romance novel, since that’s been what I’ve been reading a lot of lately.I need fictional happily-ever-afters to combat my own lack of them.“It’s so good to see you.”
“I haven’t seen you since…shit, right after college graduation?”His handsome smile grows even wider, and I feel like I’m caught in the tractor beam of his attention, head tilted back and gobbling up his beautiful slate blue eyes.I have no concept of time while looking at this man.I just know that I don’t want to leave his presence.
“I don’t know,” I say on a sigh, my body buzzing.“It’s uh…it’s been a…time…”
“I’ll let you two catch up,” Piper says with a mysterious grin.I can’t tell if it’s because I’m acting like a starstruck fan or because she’s got the entire town of Bayshore trying to snag a shred of her attention at the grand opening party around us.Either way, she blows me a kiss and drifts off to chat with others, leaving me and Griffin grinning at each other like idiots.
Griffin nudges me with his shoulder, his gaze scraping up and down my body in a way that makes my knees threaten to go out.“What’s new, Case?How have you been?”
“Honestly, uh—” I can’t even fumble for my words before another partygoer drifts past us, munching happily on something and moaning.
“Oh my god, have you guys tried these yet?”It’s Mr.Truehart, a city commissioner.
“What are they?”Griffin asks.
“These cake balls,” he gushes.
“Oh, those are from Dee,” Griffin says.Mr.Truehart wanders off, and Griffin looks at me again, looking sheepish.“They’re Dee’s Balls.”
I tilt my head.“That sounds…inappropriate.”
“Dee Meadows makes them, my mom’s neighbor.They’re incredible, but she’s too old to understand the connotation,” Griffin explains.“She insists on labeling them Dee’s Balls.”
I laugh into my hand, but before I can say anything else, Claire butts in, waving at Griffin.
“Hello, Mr.Crusher,” she says in a singsong voice.Griffin signed with the Cleveland Crushers hockey team after college.He’s the beloved local pro athlete.“How was last season?”
His smile droops slightly.“For the team, it was good.For me, not so great.I was out on injury.”
“Oh no.”My sister pouts.“Are you all healed up?”
“Let’s hope,” Griffin says with a laugh.But there’s sadness tugging at the corners of his eyes.“I’ve got until August to prove myself.”
I want to dive into the tension I heard behind his words, but my sister carries on.She’s the professional networker of the family, so I know to just sit down and take a backseat.“I’m getting married in August.I hope you and the family can come.Casey and her boyfriend Jake will be joining, isn’t that right?”Claire elbows me, and I offer up what I hope looks like a normal smile.
“That’s right.Wouldn’t miss my big sister’s wedding for the world.”
Griffin’s gaze shifts to me, and I swear there’s a flash of disappointment.I’m probably imagining it, because I’m sure he’s already married by now.We’re thirty, that’s when you’re supposed to have your life together, if you’re not me.And Griffin is way too handsome and successful to not have snagged a wife by now, or at least a serious girlfriend.Maybe he has mini-Griffin hockey players running around and I haven’t met them yet.
But I can’t ask.I almost don’t want to know.I just want to go back to that moment when almost every inch of my body was smashed against his.
“I’ll ask my mom later,” Griffin says good-naturedly.“I’m sure she’s planning on going.And I might be her plus-one, so I’ll probably be there too.”
Claire lets out one of her tinkling laughs, the odd-yet-melodic kind she reserves for social situations.In private, she snort-laughs, which is too uncouth for her public persona.“I wouldlovethat.After all, we don’t have too many more excuses to celebrate as we get older.It would be fun to hang with the Keegans for a night.”
“That’s right,” Griffin says.“Other than weddings, it’s just birthdays and graduation parties.”
“And honestly, I try not to think aboutmygraduation party,” Claire says in a stage whisper.She sends a severe look my way coupled with an exaggerated frown.She’s doing it for show, but it makes a thorny heat blossom in my gut.She’s never let me forget what happened at her graduation party, i.e., the way in which I ruined her life.It was the last time I remember her treating me like she used to—not like chaos on legs, but like her kid sister who she loved.
I’m desperate to move the conversation past this, especially in front of Griffin.So I look around for one of those waiters with the trays of champagne flutes.
“I gotta try one of these cocktails,” I gush, signaling to the nearest waiter.I want to appear unaffected, as though my sister’s comment doesn’t have the power to completely derail me.But the truth is, her words were lined with acid, and they are currently disintegrating my gut.“Have you had one, Griffin?”
He turns as the waiter approaches.Claire sniffs, uninterested.I’m too bubbly, too buzzy, too eager to move past her snide comment.As I grab the flute, the smooth plastic slips out of my fingers, and it tips.
Toward me.
The entire glass spills down the front of my dress.My jaw drops and all I can think of is howcoldit is…and how dumb I feel, yet again, at my sister’s side.
