Page 12 of Stay With Me (Griffin’s Den #2)

TWELVE

Noah

I pull back into the station after my patrol shift and look at my watch.

It’s almost five…

Tonight, Luna has a late shift at the bed-and-breakfast. Abby said she would bring her home, and I’m grabbing Jess so that she can stay on somewhat of a routine. I lock my squad car and walk in to swap keys. On my way back out, I say bye to Eden.

Hopping in the truck, I message Luna that I’m on my way for Jess before I leave. I set my phone in the cup holder, and it lights up. I smile, expecting it to be Luna, but it’s the guys.

Sam: Rumor has it that Luna doesn’t think you like her as more than a friend.

Carter: She lives with you?.?.?. How did you drop the ball on this one?

Luke: Rookie

Me: What are you talking about? Who told you this?

Luke: The girls?.?.?. and then we told Carter.

Me: I don’t know how to tell her. I don’t want her to feel obligated to go on a date with me

Carter: Um with words. She won’t do anything she doesn’t want to do, the girls will make sure of that.

Me: .?.?.

Carter: .?.?.

Luke: .?.?.

Sam: When did we become a group of women? I swear we talk more about our feelings than anything else.

Me: First off, you’re the one who brought it up, and secondly I can’t wait for you to fall for someone. I hope it’s Abby.

Sam: She hates me so it’s no worry

Luke: Whatever you say, pal.

Me: Okay so if I say something to her tonight and suggest a date, can we set something up for the group to come over and spend time with Jess before we ask someone to babysit?

Carter: Can’t wait

Luke: Just have her tell Am when we need to be there.

Sam: She’s going to like me the most, so I don’t know why she has to meet everyone.

Me: Cool. Okay I have to get Jess. I’ll keep you guys posted

Shaking my head, I throw my phone back in the holder and pull out of my spot, heading to the farm.

I can’t believe Luna told the girls she wasn’t sure how I felt about her. Even with my reservations about starting a relationship with the possibility that she’ll leave Griffin’s Den, I thought it was clear how I felt.

First, I’m going to pick Jess up, then after she goes to bed and Luna gets home… Operation: Make Sure Luna Knows How I Feel begins because it’s time.

Pulling into the driveway at Griffin Farm’s Bed-and-Breakfast, I don’t fight the smile that takes over my face. As I come up to the main house, Luna and Jess are standing on the porch.

I wasn’t sure how to go about pursuing her without scaring her, but after tonight, I’ll make my feelings known.

Our path might be unconventional, but I’ve never been happier. Like I told the girls, I bought the house right before COVID hit and knew it was too big for me. But I always wanted to fill the house one day. So, little by little, I worked on updating it.

Now, it doesn’t feel so empty anymore.

Throwing the truck into park, I leave it running while I hop out.

“How was your day, ladies?” I ask as I walk toward the porch.

“Busy but good. Are you sure you’re okay to take her until I get back?” Luna asks, tucking her hair behind her ear.

“Of course. I’m excited to have dinner with just Jess and me and to hang out.” Turning to Jess, I ask, “Are you excited, Jess? We can see what kind of things we can get into before it’s your bedtime.”

“Yes, s—” She shakes her head and looks between us. “Yes, Noah. I’m excited to head to your house. Can you help me with my reading?”

My heart stutters in my chest, and I hear Luna’s sharp intake of breath. This is the most she’s interacted with us without us doing most of the talking.

“I would love to help you with your reading.” Smiling, I look at Luna. “See, she’s excited, and we’re gonna do some reading. It’s going to be a great night! Alright, squirt, say bye to your sister, and let’s head out. I’m so hungry I could eat a cow.”

“A cow is very large, and while you’re a large man, I don’t think you can eat a whole cow,” Jess says as she hugs her sister.

A sly smile crosses Luna’s face. “He is a rather large man, isn’t he?”

“Alright, it was a figure of speech. We’ll talk about it on the ride home. We’ll see you in a few hours.” I want to hug her, but Ann calls for her before I can.

Looking over her shoulder, she acknowledges Ann and turns back to us. “I can’t wait to hear what you guys get up to. I’ll see you in a few hours.”

I watch her walk inside and turn to Jess. “It’s just me and you. What do you want to eat?”

We get in the truck and drive away, talking about dinner options.

I pull into my driveway and turn the car off, hopping out to open Jess’s door for her.

“Did you figure out what you want for dinner, squirt?”

She looks at me and then looks at the ground before grabbing her backpack.

“Whatever you want to eat is fine,” she finally says.

We shut the doors and walk toward the house. “No, you get to choose today. I gave you a few options to help out, but the choice is yours. I know that before you came here, you only ate what you grew and harvested, but if you want to try something, we can try it.”

When we took her to the doctor for her physical and to start her shots, they told us to introduce processed foods slowly. I don’t see why I can’t offer her something new and make a salad on the side.

Balance.

“Really? I can try something new for dinner?” she asks as she puts her lunch bag by the sink.

“Of course. What are you thinking?”

She purses her lips as she grabs her workbook that we work on a little every night. The school put together a packet of testing prep stuff, starting with kindergarten and going up to fifth grade.

“I don’t know what it’s called, but I saw the cleaning man at school eating it when Ms. Cassidy and I were eating outside for lunch.”

With her not having a formal education, Cassidy is doing great at balancing between getting her used to the classroom but allowing her to be outside as well if the weather permits it.

“Well, what did it look like?”

“Well, it was… Um, not a square shape but like this.” She uses her hands to make a triangle.

“A triangle.”

“Yeah, that! And it looked like it was like bread, and it had cheese on top, but that was all I could see.”

“Oh, pizza!” I tell her once I figure it out.

“Pizza?”

“Yeah, he was eating pizza. It has a flat bread as a crust and normally comes with tomato sauce and then cheese and other various toppings. Then it’s baked, and you can eat it.”

“It looked very good. Is that something we could maybe try?”

“Of course we can.”

I pull out my phone and call in the pizza for delivery. I order one with just cheese and another that’s all meat with spinach and mushrooms.

“What are you doing? I thought you said we could eat pizza?”

It’s moments like this that I forget how much of the outside world is so new to her. “We are going to eat pizza. I was just ordering it, but don’t forget it might make you not feel good, and we’ll make a small salad to eat on the side with it.”

“Order it? I don’t understand.”

I walk closer to the table and pull out a chair for her and one for myself as I lay my phone on the table. “Well, my phone is like a computer. Have you looked at the computers at school?”

She shakes her head.

“That’s okay, you will. But I can order food or groceries and pretty much anything else we might need, and we can either go pick it up or we can have it delivered right to the door.”

She looks at the phone wide eyed. “I only know how to use a phone to make a phone call. How does the person know where to bring it?”

“I put my address in, and then they know where to go.”

“And this is not the work of the devil taking over?”

“Umm, no. Sometimes technology can distract you or tell you the wrong thing, but it isn’t the devil taking over.”

I worry this is getting deeper than I know how to handle. She’s only met with the therapist once, so I’m afraid of saying the wrong thing. How do I tell her that everything she was taught with The Family might not be true?

I clear my throat and redirect the conversation. “How about we do a couple of pages of your homework, then eat, and then, if it isn't too late, we can play a game on the TV.”

“You can play games on the TV?”

“Yup! It’s a lot of fun.”

“Well, what are we waiting for? I would very much so like to try that.”

We dive into some of her writing homework. She amazes me with how smart she is and how fast she picks things up. I have no doubt that she’ll be caught up by the time fall comes around.

About twenty minutes later, there’s a knock at the door.

Jess jumps and starts looking around.

“Hey, it’s okay. It’s the pizza being delivered. Why don’t you finish what you were reading, and I’ll get it, then we can eat.”

“Okay…” she says, nervously eyeing the door before returning to her homework.

I stand from the table and walk to the front door. Grabbing the pizza, I thank Travis, the young high school boy who works at the pizza place in town. Back in the kitchen, I set down the boxes and open the fridge, pulling out the stuff to make her a small salad with her pizza.

As she finishes putting her homework away, I fix our plates and set them on the table. “Now remember, if you don’t like the pizza, that’s okay, but I want you to take at least three bites before you decide if you like it or not. My mom called them no-thank-you bites.”

She nods and picks up a piece of pizza, inspecting it. “It smells good.”

“Pizza should be its own food group. I could eat it every day.”

She brings the pizza to her mouth and takes a bite. As soon as she starts chewing, I know we have a winner. The corners of her lips tip up, and this is probably the happiest I’ve seen her so naturally.

Tonight with her has been amazing. She opens up a little more every day, and while we have a long way to go, I know she’ll be just fine, even if Luna worries she won’t be.

“What do you think?”

“This is delicious! I believe I like pizza!” she tells me right before she takes another bite.

Smiling, I start to eat my pizza when I remember I wanted to talk to her about meeting our friends.

“So, Jess, I was thinking that I want to take Luna out to dinner.”

“Um, okay? Why would you go out for dinner when we have dinner here?”

“Well, when you like someone, sometimes you do things just the two of you, and I was thinking that since you met Luna’s friends when you all went to the park for a picnic, maybe one weekend we can have them and three of my friends over so you can meet them.

Then when I take Luna out to dinner, maybe you can hang out with one of them until we get back? ”

I watch her closely. I don’t know if I’m going about this the right way, but I want to make sure she’s not caught off guard when we do have a sitter. So maybe talking about it early and a little bit every day will help?

Adding that to my mental list of things I need to talk to the therapist about.

Her shoulders tense. “You won’t be gone forever. You will come back?.?.?. right?”

A pit grows in my stomach as I close my eyes briefly and take a deep breath. “Of course, we’ll come back. We’ll always come back to you.”

Her shoulders relax a little, and my heart breaks at the thought that she thinks we’d leave her behind.

“As long as you come back, I’m okay with meeting your friends.”

“Cool. Now eat up so I can show you the game I was talking about.”

She smiles softly at me and quickly finishes everything on her plate. We clean up together, and I set some pizza on a plate for Luna to heat up when she gets home.

I walk into the living room and turn the TV on. “Let me introduce you to Mario Kart .” Handing her a controller, I give her the instructions.

Not much could make tonight any better. Now I just need Luna to get home so I can tell her how I really feel.