Page 38 of Home Safe

“Miss Danae! We made cookies!” Jason exclaims when we walk into view. “And I can play cards now!”

I cross the room to hug his neck, glancing at the kitchen in the process. Griffin was not joking about finding flour everywhere. But knowing that Jason had a good time whileIhad a good time puts a messy kitchen in proper perspective.

“You’ll have to teach me how to play this game tomorrow after we go to the store,” I tell Jason. “Thanks so much for staying with him, Samantha.”

Samantha leans in toward Jason. “Hey, you were gonna show Griffin where you have all the posters from camp hung up, remember?”

His eyes light up. “Oh yeah! Come on, Mr. Griffin! Let me show you in my room.” Jason grabs Griffin’s hand and leads him upstairs, chattering away about dropping an egg on the floor while making cookies.

Samantha stands and turns to me. “That was my clever ploy to get Griff out of the room so you can tell me how the night went.”

I burst out laughing but quickly quiet myself. “We had a great time.”

Samantha widens her eyes and makes a “go on” motion with her hands. “You have to give me more intel than that.”

I roll my eyes but can’t hide my smile. “We had great conversation. He’s so easy to talk to. In fact, I think I shared more about myself on our first date than I share with friends who have known me for years,” I say with a shrug.

She nods knowingly. “Yep, that tracks. My brother, the human can opener.”

“The what?”

“I’ve always called Griff the ‘human can opener’ because he can get anyone to open up and start talking about themselves. But not in a manipulative way—just because he’s genuinely interested in what people have to say,” Samantha explains.

“Huh. That makes perfect sense. He seemed to know something personal about every employee we ran into at Capital Grille,” I say.

“Oh, he definitely knows everything about everyone there. He wasn’t putting on a front for you. Griff truly considers all of them friends. That’s part of the reason he always wants to eat there, and why I always beg and plead to go literally anywhere else,” Samantha says with a cheeky grin.

The pitter patter of Jason’s feet on the wooden stairs mingles with the solid clomp of Griffin’s descending footsteps. Something about the sound stabs a pleasant pain through my heart. Samantha gathers her stuff to leave, and we collectively walk toward the front door.

As we stand in the entryway together, the oddness hits me of ending a first date while standing in front of my soon-to-be son and my date’s younger sister. But my life has taken a far-from-typical turn these past couple of months, so I suppose this is a fitting piece of the puzzle. Jason holds my hand as Samantha zips up her boots and Griffin smiles down at me.

“Thanks for tonight,” he says quietly. He gives me a small wink that seems to communicate he’s similarly aware of the uniqueness of our present situation.

I smile warmly in response. “It was a goodfirstdate,” I say, casually emphasizing the word “first” to see how he’ll react.

Fireworks spark in his gray-blue eyes, setting off a series of sparklers in my chest.

“I’ll text you,” he mouths while his back is still to Samantha and the door. As he turns to face her, he brushes one finger down the back of my free hand with a feather-light touch.

I focus on the weight of Jason’s hand in mine to stop myself from melting to the floor.

After getting Jason in bed and the kitchen clean(ish), I indulge in my longest wind-down routine. However, I’m still anything but wound down, lying wide awake in bed. My eyelids won’t even stay shut longer than a few seconds at a time.

My mind is fighting a fierce battle with itself.

You barely know this guy. You can’t trust him yet.

Even though it’s only been a couple of weeks, Griffin has come across as understanding and trustworthy every time we’ve interacted. He was fun to talk with tonight.

Sure, you had fun, but fun isn’t the chief goal. You need stability, especially for Jason. Griffinis chaos.

At least he was honest about how chaotic his life is during baseball season. He’s aware and seemed concerned with how to alleviate that chaos for the people he cares about.

It doesn’t matter how good-looking or smooth-talking he is. Continuing a relationship with Griffin is not a safe choice.

Maybe it’s not safe, but what if it’s still the right choice?

You’re letting the butterflies from that lingering eye contact and sensual hand graze at the end of the night cloud your judgment.

---