Page 20 of Stay With Me (Griffin’s Den #2)

TWENTY

Noah

Luna’s cabin comes into view as I round the corner, and nerves swirl in my stomach. I want tonight to be perfect. It’s not only our first date but her first-ever date. I want to show her she’s safe with me and how important she’s becoming to me.

Since she got off work at the same time as me, she brought a change of clothes and was going to get ready in her cabin.

Leaving the truck on, I put it in park and hop out to go and get her, but before I get to the door, it swings open, and I stop in my tracks.

I’m met with the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.

She’s wearing a pair of tennis shoes, fitted jeans that are slightly distressed, and a dark gray T-shirt, and a forest-green flannel is tossed over her shoulder for later.

Her long blond hair is out of its normal braid, her wavy hair framing her makeup-free face.

I don’t know how I got so lucky.

“Do I look okay?” she asks, and I walk up the rest of the stairs and stand in front of her.

“Yeah, baby, you look perfect.”

“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?”

“Soon. Are you ready to go?” I ask as I brush her hair behind her ear out of her face.

“Yeah, I just have to grab my bag with my clothes from today.”

I want to tell her to just pack up the rest of her stuff in the cabin and move it all into my house. But I have a feeling she needs some stuff in this cabin as a safety net.

So, instead, I tell her, “Of course. Where’s the bag?”

“Right here.” She turns to hold the door open and grabs the bag right beside the door.

“I got it,” I say, grabbing it from her.

I step back and wait for her to shut and lock the door behind her. As we walk to my truck, I grab her hand, needing the connection. After throwing the bag in the back seat and helping Luna in, I run around the front of the truck and hop in.

“How was your day?” I ask her as I shoulder check to make sure nothing is behind me before doing a three-point turn to pull out of her driveway.

“It was really good. I did some work on updating the website for the bed-and-breakfast and was able to deep clean one of the cabins someone checked out of today. How about you? How was Jess after her day at school?”

I reach over the console and grab her hand, lacing our fingers together.

“It was good. Busier than normal, had to write a couple of tickets, and there was a fight at The Bar this afternoon. But it was a good day. Jess had a blast and was so excited to go to Sam’s house that she could barely sit in her seat. ”

“I love how quickly Sam jumped at the chance to watch her. What are they doing?”

“Honestly, I called him to make sure he remembered and that he wasn’t going to do anything crazy. But he told me he had coloring books, movies, Mario Kart , puzzles, and pretty much anything else she could need for their night. I was shocked.”

Her laugh fills the truck. “I hope we get pictures of what they do. I know you guys give him crap, but he’s so good with her.”

“He is, and we do because we love him. When I dropped her off, he showed me that he even got her a bed set in case she wants to stay over there.”

“Oh lord. She’s never going to want to come home.”

I flip on my blinker to turn into a local grocery store just outside of town. “She will, she loves you.”

“Why are we here? Are we going to do grocery shopping?”

“We’re here to grab subs and snacks, and then we’re going to head to the drive-in movies,” I tell her and hop out. As I open her door, she just stares at me, and I start to doubt my idea. “I mean, if you want to, we don’t have to if you think it’s stupid.”

“It isn’t stupid. I’ve been wanting to go, but I don’t drive, so I never did. I’m so excited to do this. It’s like a picnic at the movies!” she says as she takes my hand and hops out.

“It’s like that, yeah.” I take her hand in mine as we walk in.

We grab two premade subs and so many snacks that we have to grab two hand baskets. After checking out, we head to our final destination.

“How long has this place been here?” she asks.

“Well, it originally opened back in the fifties, I think. Then, around the nineties, it closed down because people lost interest in it. I think sometime in the early two thousands it opened back up after three people, one from each county, came together to refurb it and reopen it. It’s very successful.

I think more people come to this than a traditional movie theater,” I tell her as we pull into the parking lot. I stop at the booth and pay for us.

“You’ll want to pull into the last screen and turn the station to 103.1 AM to listen,” the kid tells us and points in the direction we need to go.

As I navigate the truck, I look over at Luna and take her in as her head swivels, taking everything in with a wide-eyed expression. When her eyes meet mine, I see how excited she is.

“If I don’t say it later, thank you for an amazing night, Noah.”

“The night is still young. It could go to shit,” I say with a laugh, pulling into a spot.

“Absolutely not. Tonight is one of the best nights of my life.” She places her hand on my arm, and I put the truck into park, in front of the screen we were directed to.

“I’ll take it,” I tell her as I lean over the console and kiss her on the cheek. “Okay, let’s get comfortable.”

She glances around the truck. “We don’t just sit here?”

“We do. If it wasn’t summer, I would have a mattress pad in the truck bed with blankets, but it’s too hot for that.

So, instead, we’ll scoot our seats back as far as they’ll go, and I’ll lift the center console.

I already folded the back seats down, which is where we’ll lay out our snacks that we aren’t eating. ”

“You sound like a pro,” she says as she presses the button on the side of her seat to move it back, and I do the same.

“I mean, I’ve been coming here since I was old enough to drive, and I tried to come once a week, even if it was the same movie during COVID.”

“Oh, that would have been such a nice way to get out of the house.”

“Yeah, it was a nice opportunity to get out of the house for non-work-related reasons,” I admit. “I know you weren’t in Griffin’s Den during COVID, but did you pick up a hobby during lockdown?”

“I did. It was when I taught myself how to build and maintain websites. It isn’t much, but it challenged me, and I was so fascinated with computers after I left The Family that I learned all I could about them.”

I turn and look at her. “Not much? Luna, that’s amazing that you taught yourself that. I mean, I know the bare minimum when it comes to computers. I have a fancy gaming computer at home, but I only know how to play my games on it.”

“I saw it in your office. It looks nice. It took me a long time to figure a lot of stuff out. I also started to study for school, even though I wasn’t in school. I just like to learn, and I utilized the free classes everyone was giving out,” she says as she unwraps her sub to take a bite.

Looking over at her, I can’t help but admire how hard this woman has worked to get to where she is today.

She ran away from a cult at sixteen, has worked under the table, and is what some would consider uneducated since she never attended school formally.

Even with everything stacked against her, she’s thriving, and I hope I’m privileged enough to continue to watch her grow.

“Why are you looking at me like that? Do I have something on my face?” she asks when she realizes I’ve been staring at her.

I shake my head. “No. I’m amazed by you. You’ve come so far with everything stacked against you, and you’re doing so amazing. I’m in awe of you.”

She looks down at her lap and tucks her hair behind her ear. “I don’t know about that. I’ve just tried to stay hidden for the most part. I don’t think that makes me amazing.”

I wipe my hands on a napkin, bring one to her chin, and make her look at me.

“My sweet Lunabella. I’m sure those fucks you ran away from never in their wildest dreams imagined that you would be as successful as you are today.

You might not be successful in the traditional sense, but in a world so different from what you knew, you are.

You have friends who love you and a sister who looks up to you to help guide her in this crazy world.

You have so much more than so many people. ”

“What about you?” she asks softly.

“What about me?”

“Do I have you?”

“Yeah, baby. You have me.”

Her eyes light up at my words. “But you’re more than just a friend, right? Does that mean you’re my boyfriend?” she asks innocently.

“Yes, my Lunabella. It means I’m your boyfriend.”

Boyfriend sounds so much less than what I want to be to her, but it’s a start.

“Can I ask you another question?”

I laugh. “Yeah, you can ask me anything you want.” I pull my hand back reluctantly so I can finish eating my sub.

“You call me Lunabella? Why? What does it mean?”

“Well, Luna is your name, and bella means beautiful. Combined, it translates to beautiful moon. I think you’re beautiful, so it’s fitting. Why? Do you not like it?” I ask, knowing I’ll never call her that again if it’s something she doesn’t like.

“No, I like it. I just didn’t know what it meant and was curious,” she says just as the advertisements crackle through the radio. “Does that mean the movie is starting?”

“Yup, and the best part is it’s two movies back-to-back. The first one is normally a kid-friendly movie. That way, after the first movie, if the parents don’t want their kids to see the next one, they can head home.”

“This is so cool. I’ve never been to the movies before.” She crumples up her empty sub wrapper and looks around.

“Hand it over. I’ll take care of it,” I say as I reach behind me for one of the grocery bags from our snack haul to use as a garbage bag.

I organize our snacks on the folded-down bench seat in the back for easy access and pull out the blankets from the pocket behind my seat. I hand one to her. “Here’s a blanket in case you get cold or just want to get comfy with the movie playing.”

The last of the advertisements finish, and she has her legs pulled up under her with the blanket draped over her lap and a smile on her face as she eats the bag of white cheddar popcorn we got, because who can go to the movies and not eat popcorn?