Page 41 of Under One Roof

He jerks back. “What?”

“Elsa,” I say quietly. “Your ex-girlfriend.”

He frowns. “I…I’m not sure what you mean.”

On another slow turn, I see her again and sigh. “The kids told me that she wasn’t very nice to them.”

His brows shoot up toward his hairline. “I had no idea.”

“Overheard her saying she would send them to boarding school when she married you. Were you going to marry her?”

His fingers adjust their grip on my waist, as if making sure I can’t go anywhere, and he takes a deep breath before explaining, “We were together for about a year. She was the one serious relationship I had, and, yes, we had talked about marriage, but I never once told her I’d propose. It was a planning sort of conversation, you know?”

I snort. Yeah, I know. Griffin Stone and his schedules.

“If I’d known she ever said that, I would have ended it immediately.”

I nod, peeking over his shoulder to see Elsa is no longer watching us—good—and when I glance back at Griffin, he’s gazing at me with a curious twist to his lips. Not quite a frown, but not quite a smile either.

“You’re really upset about that?” he asks, and I nod.

“I couldn’t believe that you would ever be with someone who wouldn’t treat your kids right.”

He shakes his head, wincing. “I wouldn’t. I only wish they would have told me.”

“If it makes you feel better, I think they would tell you now.”

“It does make me feel better,” he says, gliding one of his hands up my back, so he’s holding me more like a hug, tugging me right up against him. “Also makes me like you even more for defending Logan and Gracie.”

“I will always defend them,” I promise, and he bends like he wants to seal it with a kiss, but stops himself, close enough that his warm breath wafts over my mouth. I am immensely disappointed, but I can’t blame him. One of us has to keep our head.

He doesn’t say anything for long seconds, but by the time he finally does, the song is over, and his fingers release their grip on me. “Thanks for the dance, Andi.”

“Thanks for bringing me to the party, Griff.”

His smile is fleeting, but the gift of witnessing it is enough for now.

Chapter14

Griffin

In the three days after Ian’s party, Logan and Gracie both came down with a stomach bug that had apparently taken out nearly the whole of the fifth grade, class by class. Grace was the first to succumb, looking a little green around the gills when she got off the bus. By the time I got dinner on the table, she was running to the bathroom. Logan hit the deck the next day. It lasted about twenty-four hours, and I was home to take care of them, but it was Andi who really stepped up. With both kids sick, it was difficult for me to clean the house and do their laundry while also chasing them around with puke buckets, crackers, and Gatorade. She didn’t need to help since these were technically her days off, but she did. She wiped their foreheads with cool cloths and sat with them when they couldn’t sleep. At one point, I stood in shadows outside Grace’s doorway as Andi stroked my daughter’s head, singing softly to her. It was the most maternalistic care my children had ever received, which both broke my heart and mended it back together.

So it shouldn’t surprise me when I find her lying on the couch after I arrive home from work, but it makes my own stomach turn all the same to see her looking so ill. “Andi, you okay?” I rush over and sink to my haunches, setting my palm on her forehead. Her skin is hot and damp. “How long have you been like this?”

She swats at me, though there’s no energy behind it, her hand missing me completely. “I’m fine. I just need a rest.”

“You’re sick.”

“I am not,” she insists, rolling from her side to her back with a groan.

“Have you eaten today?”

“Um…”

“How about liquids? Did you drink any water?”

“This morning, yeah.” She angles her head back, her eyes heavy with exhaustion, and I already know what she’s going to say. “I couldn’t keep it down.”

---