Page 25 of Stay With Me (Griffin’s Den #2)

TWENTY-FIVE

Luna

As the school comes into view, the pit in my stomach grows. Noah and I are meeting with Cassidy about Jess’s progress. I hate that I can’t help her as much as I would like, but I’ve learned a lot from doing the work with her, with the help of YouTube sometimes.

Noah squeezes my thigh as we stop at a stop sign, his eyebrows drawn together. “Are you okay?” he mouths.

I shrug and nod, unsure how to describe my feelings right now. The connection I have with him has only grown. I should have known from the beginning that just being his friend was never going to work. It’s like a part of my heart knew before the rest of me caught up.

One of the first weekends I was at the farmers’ market, he just walked around with me while I got my shopping done. He’s never pushed for more than I was willing to give.

He nods at me and smiles before looking in the mirror at Jess. “I can’t believe it’s a week into July. Soon, you’ll be starting school for the fall, Jess. How does that make you feel?”

After we met with Jess’s therapist, he started asking her how she feels about different things, and we try to help her work through it or make notes to talk to the therapist about it.

“I’m so excited. Ms. Cassidy tells me I’m so smart, and I’m going to learn so much, but I’m nervous that I’ll have to sit in a chair all day to learn,” she admits.

Looking over my shoulder, I say, “I know, but we’ll talk to Ms. Cassidy to see if they have a plan for that. If not, we’ll work through it.”

Noah pulls into the school and parks the truck.

He gets out and comes around to open our doors for us.

Jess and I hop out and stand on each side of him.

If someone had told me a few months ago that I would be at the school in town with my younger sister and that we lived with Noah and that Noah and I are… dating.

I would have told them they were nuts.

But here we are.

Together we walk into the school to find out if Jess is on track to be at the same level as her peers and what we still need to do. Noah mentioned something about getting a school shopping list.

An hour and a half later, we pull into the bed-and-breakfast. I’m blown away, yet again, by how amazing Jess is. She’s catching up quickly to where she needs to be, and they’ll test her again next week to continue to track her progress.

We have this week’s homework packet, and it’s a little thicker than they have been because they’re giving her more challenging work.

“I’m sorry I have to work late tonight. You said Am is coming to pick you guys up, right?” Noah asks me.

“It’s okay. I feel bad that you have to drive us around all the time. Plus, you adjusted your schedule so you could come to the school meeting this morning, and it’ll be nice to have dinner with Am.”

“Is Penny going to be there too?” Jess asks.

“I’m not sure. We can ask, but she doesn’t bring Penny to work with her every day,” I say.

“You said she has a farm but not like Farmer Joe, right? Do you think she could teach me about it?” she asks as she hops out of the truck. “Can I go inside, please? Maybe Farmer Joe will take me to the barn to see the goats.”

“I’m sure Am will tell you all about her farm, and yeah, of course, you can head in to see Joe. Thank you for asking,” I tell her as she runs to the door.

“Hey, I don’t want you to feel bad about me driving. I don’t mind it,” Noah says as he walks up to me.

“I just wish I was able to get my license and help out more.”

He pulls me into a hug. “You do so much for me. We’re working to get you your license.”

I just nod into his chest. I’ve started to have this feeling of not being good enough because I don’t contribute as much. Mostly, I’ve been struggling with going from being on my own and not having to depend on anyone to depending on Noah for a lot of things, like rides and help with Jess.

“As much as I would rather spend the day with you guys, I have to go to work. Give me a goodbye kiss, my Lunabella.”

I smile as I look up at him and stand on my tiptoes to meet him halfway. As our lips connect, my whole body tingles. When his tongue licks the seam of my lips, I open willingly for him. His fingers tighten their grip on me as his tongue rolls with mine.

If I had known what I was missing when it came to kissing, I might have tried it sooner.

Far too soon, he breaks the kiss and pulls away. I notice that he has to adjust himself, and I can’t help but stare. I know he wanted to move slow to make sure I was ready, but the more time I spend with him, the more ready I feel.

He groans. “Baby, you can’t look at me like that. I have to go to work now.”

“Okay,” I say, a smile taking over my face.

“I’ll see you when I get home, but don’t wait up for me.”

I nod and peek around him when I hear a car driving up.

“Were you expecting anyone?”

“Not until later,” I say as I squint, and Noah moves to stand in front of me.

“Oh, it’s just Am,” he says and steps back to my side.

“Hey, Luna, Noah! How’s it going?” She asks as she hops out, Penny in tow.

“Not bad. I’m just about to head off,” Noah says, and he bends to give me a quick kiss. “See you later.”

“See ya,” I say back.

“Yeah, see ya later. Sorry you can’t hang with the cool kids today,” Am says with a smirk.

“That’s okay. You girls have fun and don’t drive poor Farmer Joe crazy.”

“Who, us?” Amelia sounds like she’s offended, and I just laugh.

“Yeah, you guys. Have a good one,” he says as he hops in his truck and pulls away.

Once he’s gone, I turn to Amelia. “What are you doing here so early?”

She shrugs, and we start walking to the porch. “Kristen and I are ahead, and I got all my paperwork and testing done for the day. So I figured I’d head over here. Talk to Farmer Joe about some things and hang with you guys.”

I open the front door for her. “Well, I’m not going to complain. I don’t have much to do today, but I do want to get ahead on some cleaning.”

“I’m in no rush. How did the meeting at the school go?”

“Great!” I say and then dive into what Cassidy told us.

How Jess is progressing well. How they’re also going to look into having some of the classes outdoors in hopes of making science classes more interesting for the kids as the weather permits.

“I probably would have done so much better in school if my teachers did something like that,” she tells me.

I nod because I don’t know, but I assume I would have as well. The idea of sitting for so long doesn’t sound like something I would like.

“I know we talked about Jess coming and hanging out at the farm, but if you want, it can be a weekly thing. Kristen and I can help her with her homework, and since she said during our dinner that she likes farming and helping Farmer Joe here at the farm, maybe she would like to learn differently? There would be math involved.”

I laugh at her pitch. “Funny, she just asked earlier if you would teach her about your farm, but yeah, I don’t have a problem with it. I think it would be good to expose her to something like that.”

“Cool. I can’t let Sam be the cool uncle without putting up a fight to be the coolest aunt.”

Shaking my head, I just laugh as she sits down at the counter, Penny lying at her feet, and I start cleaning up the mud room.

“Speaking of Jess, where is she?”

“Off with Farmer Joe looking at the goats, I think, but she’s going to be very excited to see Penny. She asked about her.”

“It’s why I brought her. What’s the update about the meeting with the FBI?”

As I start to dust, I tell her what Noah told me and that we’re setting up a meeting. I confess my nerves about The Family possibly being on their way here and how I can protect the town from them.

Our conversation gets cut short when Jess and Joe come in, and we turn to lighter topics.

Even with all my worries about everything happening, watching some of the people I care about the most together in the same room, having a good time, makes me realize that everything isn’t that bad.

I need to remember to stay in the moment, something I never allowed myself to do until Jess came to town.

Experiencing how quickly everything moves and having her around makes me appreciate the small moments so much more.

So for the rest of the day, I push thoughts of The Family to the back of my mind and focus on spending time with people I care about.