Page 34 of Stay With Me (Griffin’s Den #2)

THIRTY-FOUR

Noah

I finish putting away the leftover Chinese food, which seems to be another thing we can add to the growing list of food she likes.

“You look happy again.” Carter claps my shoulder and walks up next to me.

I shrug. “I didn’t realize how alone I felt after my divorce. They bring a joy into my life I didn’t realize I was missing.”

“The right person always catches you when you least expect it,” Luke says as he walks by to rinse his plate.

Knowing part of Luna and Jess’s story, I wish I could have met them sooner. I want to give them a life where they don’t have to be on the run all the time and can work on healing.

“How much is Sam going to whine when Jess wins at Mario Kart ?” Luke asks.

I laugh as I watch him set everything up for us to play. “A lot. That girl is naturally good at the game, and while I don’t let her play every day, when I do, she wants to learn everything about it. I was thinking about introducing her to Zelda or Pokémon to see what other games she likes.”

“I can picture her being a gamer girl. Maybe if she prefers gaming, she won’t be interested in boys in a few years,” Carter says, giving me a shit-eating grin.

I grunt when he says that. I dread the day when she decides she wants to date.

“You know it’s going to happen. We were interested in girls starting around her age.” Carter laughs.

“I know, that’s the problem. I know what boys think about,” I admit.

“Between the four of us, we’ll scare any boy who thinks they can pull any funny business,” Luke says.

“You bet we will,” Carter?says.

Jess walks into the kitchen with her plate. “Can we make s’mores after I win in Mario Kart ?”

“Yeah, pip-squeak, we can do that, and if you don’t want to play Mario Kart , we can just go make a fire in the backyard if you want,” I tell her as I take her plate from her.

“No, I want to beat Uncle Sam in a tournament,?and that’ll be my reward.”

I just look at her. That’s the first time she’s used any kind of term like that before someone’s name. I meet Sam’s eyes above her head, and the look on his face is priceless.

He blinks twice before he breaks out into a huge smile. “I’ve been practicing. I’m not going to take it easy on you just because you’re the youngest person here.”

Jess just turns and smiles at him. “If I win, you have to let me paint your fingernails with the new nail polish you got me.”

“You’re on, kid. Let’s go. Who else is playing?” Sam says.

“I’ll sit out and get the firepit ready for when Jess beats all of you,” I tell them as I stick my fist out to her for her to knock my knuckles.

The look of pure joy on her face hits me square in the chest. It took some time for her to warm up to us, but more and more, she’s coming into her own, and I’m so proud of how brave she is with how much her life has changed.

Jess heads into the living room with Sam, and next to me, Carter?asks softly, “Has she told you guys or the therapist how she got away?”

I shake my head. “No. We want to ask, but the therapist said she wants to wait a couple of sessions to see if she’ll tell any of us naturally.

My biggest fear is for her to shut down because we push her to answer all these questions.

I mean, we pepper in questions here and there and will have her elaborate on things when she makes comments, but it hasn’t come up. ”

“Are you going to have her talk to the FBI with Luna?” Luke asks.

“No, that was something Luna was adamant about. She'll talk to them, and depending on the questions they have for her, if we know the answer, we’ll answer, or we’ll write down a list and give Jess the choice to answer them herself before they leave town,” I tell them.

“I think that’s the best choice. Just let us know who you want to watch her that day, and we’ll make it work,” Carter tells me.

“We will. I don’t know how Luna will be after that. If she’s okay, I was going to have everyone over for a bonfire after to surround her with her support system.”

“She’s strong. She’ll be okay, but just let us know,” Luke says, and he’s right, so all I can do is nod.

She is the strongest person I know.

“Are you guys coming or what? We’re ready!” Jess yells from the couch.

“We’re coming, kiddo,” Carter yells back.

As they get started, I walk to the pantry to grab everything needed for s’mores. I can’t help but smirk as I recall the look on Luna’s beautiful face when she came apart for me and how embarrassed she was as we walked out and Abby walked in.

Just thinking about it has me half hard again, and while I’m glad she’s spending time with the girls, I’m ready to pick up where we left off when she gets home.

“Don’t burn it!” Jess yells at Carter.

He’s helping her roast a marshmallow as she paints Sam’s nails.

“I’m a professional, kid. I’m not going to burn it.” Carter scoffs.

“You burned the last two. I don’t think I like the burned ones after taking my no-thank-you bites.”

I just laugh. “Do you need help not burning them, Carter?”

“No, I got this. You just didn’t make a prime s’mores making fire,” he tells me.

“My fire is just fine. What are you talking about?” I throw my hands up.

“It’s a fine bonfire, but it isn’t the best for roasting the marshmallows.” He rotates the marshmallow like it’s on a rotisserie.

“Whatever you say, dude. I think you’re delusional.” But then my marshmallow catches on fire.

“See, you can’t even not burn one!” He points accusingly at my marshmallow engulfed in flames.

“I like mine burned!” I blow out the fire.

“Roasting is an art. Both of you suck at it,” Luke says as he gets his a perfect golden brown, makes a s’more, and hands it to Jess.

“Thanks! This looks perfect.” She beams at him.

“Ya hear that? Mine is perfect,” Luke says with a smirk.

I roll my eyes. “Hand me the Reese’s. I ran out over here.”

“I never thought about doing that, and I swear it’s better than se—sunshine,” Sam says, eyes flicking down to Jess to see if we’re going to have to come up with what he might have said.

“Yeah, I much prefer Reese’s to sunshine,” Luke says with a laugh.

“It’s the only way my mom will eat them, so this is how I’ve always eaten them. Plus, peanut butter makes everything a little better.” I unwrap the candy to build my s’mores. “One more, Jess, I don’t want you to get sick from so much junk food. Your sister will get mad at me.”

“Two more?” She counters.

“One more, and maybe we can make more another day this week,” I tell her.

“Deal,” she says as she finishes Sam’s nails and takes a bite of her s’more. “That color looks good on you. I think I did a really good job.”

“Yeah, Sam, your nails look great. It’s for sure your color.” Carter?laughs.

“You’re just jealous she didn’t offer to do your nails,” Sam retorts as he starts to make one of his own s’mores.

I laugh because I know all of us wouldn’t care if she painted our nails. As we’re all talking, my phone vibrates. Looking down, I see it’s Luna.

Luna: Do you mind picking me up? Well, us, Am is texting Luke to come pick her and Pam up.

Me: Of course I can. What about Abby? I can take her home, or I can bring Carter?or Sam to drive her home.

Luna: She said to ask Carter .?.?. She said she needs her car tomorrow for an important meeting in the morning and doesn’t want anyone going out of their way and Carter lives by her.

Me: That tracks. Carter and Sam drove together, so Carter doesn’t have his car here?.?.?. I’ll ask Sam to stay with Jess while we come get you. See you soon, my Lunabella

Luna: See you soon, Noah.

Sliding my phone into my pocket, I see Luke doing the same, and he smirks. “Did you get the same text as me?”

“That they’re ready to be picked up?” He nods, so I say, “Come on, you’re with us. Sam, can you get Jess to bed and put the fire out?”

I see a tic in Sam’s jaw before he says, “Of course. Jess and I got cleanup duty, isn’t that right, kiddo?”

“Yeah.” She yawns.

“I’ll be right back. It shouldn’t take that long.”

“No problem, man, we’ll be here,” Sam says without looking at us.

I look at Luke, who shrugs, and we walk through the backdoor to the kitchen. I grab my keys. “What was that about?” I ask him.

“I don’t know. I told him not to piss off Abby, but here we are.” Luke grabs his keys by the door.

“I did tell Abby if she needed a ride, to let me know. We live two blocks from each other, and since she drove, that’s why I didn’t,” Carter adds.

I just shrug. “I hope they figure it out. Now, let’s go get the girls.”

We walk to my truck and head to The Bar with Luke following us.