Page 112 of Indigo Ridge (The Edens 1)

“We did.” She gave me a sad smile, her head lolling into my touch. “It was with their friends, since they didn’t have siblings, but as a kid, they’d host summer barbeques and everyone would laugh for hours and hours. Like tonight. This was fun. I needed it.”

“I’m glad.”

“Did you have fun?”

“I did. Though some of those stories weren’t exactly ones I wanted you to hear.”

She laughed. “You really streaked down Main Street with a gorilla mask over your head?”

“Yep,” I muttered.

Knox had told her all about how I’d lost a bet my senior year and the price was a naked sprint down Main. Thankfully, there’d been no stipulation that I had to keep my head exposed, so I’d borrowed the mask from a buddy’s Halloween costume stash.

“To this day, I don’t think Mom knows it was me.”

“I want to be there the day she finds out.”

My heart swelled. “You will be.”

“Your family is incredible. You’re lucky to have them.”

“I am.” I nodded.

It was too soon to declare they’d be hers too. That tonight, each of my siblings had found a quiet moment, like Eloise had before falling asleep, to tell me they loved Winn.

“They’ve claimed you now.”

She locked her eyes with mine. “Have they? And what about you?”

“Oh, I claimed you a long time ago.” The night I’d met her at Willie’s. I hadn’t realized it at the time, but from that night on, she’d been mine.

“What are we doing, Griffin?”

“Thought it was sort of obvious.” Falling in love with her had been effortless.

“Yeah,” she whispered. “I guess it is.”

I opened my mouth to say the words but hesitated. Not tonight. Not with my brothers and sisters outside, their laughter bouncing off the walls. Not when I hadn’t taken her on a first date.

The words would come in time.

So I dropped my lips to hers, starting with a slow tangle. The heat built gradually but with intensity, like the sun on a clear July day.

With clothes stripped, with her bare skin against mine, we came together. One slick slide of my body into hers, and there was nothing to keep us apart.

We didn’t need the words. Her eyes locked with mine as her toes curled into my calves, as her body trembled beneath mine.

We didn’t need the words.

For tonight, living them was enough.

Chapter Twenty

Winslow

“I’m going to go hang out with Pops for a while today,” I told Griffin as we ate breakfast at the kitchen island.

“I’ve got to head up to the south side of the ranch where we’ve got some horses grazing and make sure the creek still has enough water for them. If it’s too dry, and I suspect it’s getting that way given how hot it’s been all week, I’ll have to move them closer to a spring. Want to come with me?”