Page 13 of Griffin (Stone Brothers #5)

THIRTEEN

GRIFFIN

I t was only seven but the party was already cranking as Theo and I pulled up to Stella's beach house.

Although, to call it a house was a stretch.

It was a century-old, three-bedroom cottage that had hardly been touched in all those years.

At the moment, Stella's roommates were two women who played rugby in their spare time.

Lonny was a woman with an impressive shoulder span and a mess of tattoos on her neck and chest. Her partner, Rina, was half her size, and her only tattoo was a peach tree on her shoulder.

She'd grown up on a peach farm in the south.

She was also an incredible skateboarder.

She'd set up a nice course of rails and ramps on a patch of cement next to the cottage.

I could hear skaters already taking advantage of it, and I was sure Crusoe and Cormac were there with their boards.

"Whooee, I think I just saw Candy. I thought she was still in Hawaii.

" Theo clapped once. "This night just got way better.

" Theo flew out of the truck and hurried inside to find Candy.

They'd dated on and off for a year and eventually became sex buddies when Candy said she was too busy with her modeling career to commit.

Theo liked that plan just fine since he was not exactly a commitment kind of person either.

None of us were. Or at least that was what we thought until Jaxon met his match—Bridget Walsh.

The two of them pulled up behind us on Jaxon's motorcycle.

"Fin!" Bridget waved, tossed the helmet to Jaxon and ran toward me for a hug.

"So good to see you," she said loudly, then leaned in for a second hug and whispered into my ear.

"No fucking way I'm letting him put that roof on.

" She pulled back and was smiling again.

"How have you been?" She glanced around. "Did you come alone?"

"If he showed up with a date there'd be a lot of sad faces sitting around the firepit." Jaxon tapped my shoulder a lot harder than necessary. "Did you give that roof some thought?"

My eyes darted over to Bridget. She winked at me and waved toward Stella. "Oh, there's LaLa. I'll see if she needs help with the snacks."

"I think that if Bridget is going to pay someone to fix that roof, then you should take her up on that. Honestly, Jax, I don't want to do it."

Jaxon huffed. It meant he was going to be grumpy, at least to me, the rest of the night.

I could live with that. He walked ahead, his shoulders tense, so I took a turn toward the skaters.

A group of six people, my two cousins included, had their own loud music playing as they took turns on the ramps.

Cormac was just grinding across a rail as I reached them.

"Fin, come sit here." Tawny and Robyn were sitting on the short wall between the skaters and the beach. They were both wearing scarves and drinking red, fruity cocktails. Jaxon and I had gone to school with them, and they were inseparable as friends. That hadn't changed. I took a seat next to them.

Tawny had pale amber eyes that always reminded me of a cat. She leaned down and peered over at me. "And what has the town heartthrob been up to? Breaking hearts, I assume."

"Nope. I've mellowed out a lot in the breaking hearts routine. Just working and trying to save money to get my own place."

"Aw, you gonna leave us like Jax?" Crusoe came up and sat down next to me.

"Theo and I will have to get more roommates.

We can't afford that place on our own. Maybe Mac will finally cut the apron strings and move out.

" We all stopped to watch Cormac hit the quarter pipe.

He landed and the board squirted out from under him. He hit the cement with a thud.

"Or maybe we should leave him tied to the apron," Crusoe added. We all laughed.

Cormac pushed to his feet and rubbed his tailbone. "Real nice," he said to us.

"Actually, we weren't laughing at you epically eating shit," Crusoe said. "But it did have to do with you epically eating shit."

"Ahh, don't make fun of him," Tawny said. She'd always had a soft spot for Theo's little brother. "He's so damn cute. Do you need some ice, honey? Or how about just some all-around nurse attention?"

Cormac pushed the thick hair out of his eyes. "You know, now that you mention it, some nurse attention might not be too bad."

"Oh brother, could you two be dorkier?" Robyn said.

Tawny jumped off the wall, walked over to Cormac and gave him a long kiss. I looked over at Robyn. "Funny, from this vantage point, it looked like he fell on his ass." We all had another laugh as Tawny took Cormac's hand and led him into the house.

"Fin, we heard you were here." Olivia and Rachel came around the corner. "We've been waiting for you." Rachel looked down from under a long curtain of brown bangs. "Where's your drink? What would you like? I'm going back inside for a refill." She lifted her cup.

Crusoe cleared his throat loudly. "Uh, what about me. I'm here too."

Olivia laughed as she sat down next to him and dropped her arm around his shoulder. "How could we forget the hottest, most adorable Stone on the beach?"

"I'm all right with the hottest label, but my mom likes to call me adorable, so let's stick with hottest, yeah?"

Rachel pointed at me, still waiting for my drink order. "I'll be in soon to get a drink," I told her. She strolled off.

"Hey, there's your sister," Olivia said. "I haven't seen Jules in months. God, she's gorgeous. I'm so jealous of that long blonde hair. Hey, Jules," she called and waved.

Jules spotted us and headed our direction. She was wearing a long black coat. I grabbed the end of it. "Hey, Dracula, nice of you to wear your cape tonight."

Crusoe laughed.

Jules yanked the fabric from my hand. "God, you're such a fashion lump. This coat is warm and stylish." She twirled the long end around once.

"I love it," Olivia said. "Oh my god, Jules, have you been following the Banana Bandana saga?"

Jules' eyes practically popped from her face in excitement. "Can you believe that Toby just called an Uber and left Roxi alone with the van in the middle of Zion? What a jerk."

"Was this the guy who was messing around with the park ranger?" I asked. I remembered vaguely hearing about the whole drama while Jules made pancakes.

Crusoe looked over at me. "Are you following any of this convo, or are they speaking a different language?"

Jules rolled her eyes at Crusoe and motioned for him to move down the wall, so she could sit with Olivia and exchange opinions on the whole thing. I was sure Toby's reputation was going to suffer greatly in the exchange.

Crusoe moved closer to me then prodded me with an elbow. "New hot girl alert," he said. "Never seen her before."

I looked toward the house. Shay was standing with her hands in her pockets, her thin shoulders lifted in a shy shrug. She was wearing big gold hoop earrings, and her short hair stood up and away from her beautiful face.

"You came," I said.

"Figures," Crusoe grumbled behind me as I walked in Shay's direction.

"You came," I repeated. I'd completely written off the possibility.

"I went back and forth about it a dozen times and then I finally said, what the heck?

In fact, today has been a steady stream of 'what the hecks.

' And I haven't felt this good in a long time.

I even pulled out my—" She stopped. "You don't need to hear the boring details of my day, but it's been a good one, and I thought I'd keep the streak going. "

"I'm glad you did. Drink?" I asked.

"Yes, please." I didn't hesitate to take her hand.

I led her through the screen door. The tiny front room was packed with people.

Jaxon was in the center of it all telling some story that had everyone laughing.

He took the time to scowl my direction as I passed through with Shay in tow.

Stella was in the kitchen with another group.

She was blending up fruity drinks, and the whole place smelled like fruit punch.

Stella spotted me. "Fin, there you are. Want to try my Hawaiian punch and rum concoction? Guaranteed to give you a buzz and make your lips red." She smiled at Shay. "Welcome. I'm Stella, this guy's favorite cousin. Wait, you're the woman from the pier."

Shay stepped past me to introduce herself. "That's me, and I have learned my lesson about eating scones on the pier. I'm Shay."

"You're working for Colt," Stella said and then looked slyly my direction.

I ignored the sly look. "I'm going to skip the fruit punch drink and have a beer." I looked at Shay. "How about you?"

"You know, I had a very bad experience once with fruit punch at my friend's birthday party. I learned the hard way that hot dogs, strawberry cake and fruit punch are not always a good combo. I'll stick with a beer."

Stella walked over to an ice chest and dug out two beers. "There are snacks in the front room, but you may have to elbow my brother out of the way. He tends to take over the snack table."

"Yeah, he's not talking to me," Fin said.

Stella licked fruit punch off her fingertip. "What's the grump's problem now?"

"He still wants me to help him put a roof on their house, and because I enjoy not being in the hospital with a broken neck, I still said no."

Stella sighed. "As stubborn as he is big." She smiled at Shay. "It's my mom's favorite saying, and since I had to share the womb with the guy, I heartily agree."

The music suddenly got louder. "I told you guys if it gets too loud the neighbors will call the cops," Stella yelled out to the front room.

It was turned slightly down. "I think they're getting the firepit going and"—Stella waved at a pile of marshmallows on the counter—"There was only one box of graham crackers and one box of chocolate bars.

I had each job parceled out, but everyone decided to just bring marshmallows, so if you want the entire s'more, you'd better have one soon. "