Page 68 of Just This Once

When I step inside, she takes my leather jacket, hanging it in the closet, and I perform a quick appraisal of the house. It’s a well-maintained Colonial with pictures all over the walls and stacks of shoes next to the door, so I shuck off my boots.

“I’m Andi,” the woman says. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

“You too,” I say reflexively, surprised she knows who I am, and she must see something on my face that makes her explain, “I’m Griffin’s girlfriend. I think you met him in passing.”

“Oh yeah, yeah.”

She waves for me to follow her. “Everybody’s here, but don’t worry about remembering anyone’s name, including mine. I won’t be offended.”

I’m good with names and faces, but I don’t tell her that as I round the corner to the living room and kitchen, where a dozen people are scattered around. Maddie jumps up from where she was on the floor and pulls on my hand. “You’re here! I didn’t know you were coming.”

“I didn’t know either.”

She smiles. “Are you gonna eat with us?”

“I guess so.”

“Mom! Dante’s here!”

I wave to Taryn at her place by the sink, and she waves back with a knife. It’s more threatening than I think she means it to be, and I muffle a chuckle with my hand before Jake holds his hand out for a dap. I’m reintroduced to Taryn’s older brothers, the men from that day at The Nest. There is Griffin, a guy who could legit play a superhero, and Ian, the tattooed and grizzly bear of a man. There are also a bunch of kids besides Taryn’s. Griffin’s got twins, and Ian has a bunch, biologically and a few who just hang around, apparently.

With all the talking and laughing and arms slung around shoulders, it feels like a family. One that accepts and loves as much as they give one another shit. I don’t sense any competition or jealousy. Only affection. Clear and obvious affection.

“Dinner’s ready,” Griffin announces eventually, and I hop in line behind Jake to fill my plate. The food is set up as a buffet in the kitchen, and Taryn stands by the sink, answering questions on where to find extra napkins or to retrieve some ice from the freezer in the garage. It’s not her house, but it might as well be from the way she takes charge.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Griffin asks, pushing her toward me. “Get a plate and sit down. Your hovering is annoying.”

I hold out a plate for her with one hand while tucking her in front of me with the other, her ass brushing up against my groin. No one notices except for us—Taryn, me, and my dick. I shake my leg out like I’m a twelve-year-old with his first boner as she arches her eyebrow. Which, of course, makes her look meaner and hotter. “You all right?”

“Mm-hmm. Yep.”

“Famous last words,” she teases, and I love her.

I love her so much my bones ache with it.

“How are you, really?” she asks, and I exhale the stressfrom my family dinner and inhale the delicious scents of the food spread out in front of us.

“Better now.”

“Good.” Then she scoops me the biggest serving of mashed potatoes, and I am putty in her hands.

Multiple folding tables are set up in the living and dining rooms, and we find open seats between one of Ian’s tatted-up sons and Andi, who animatedly tells stories about her recent time spent in LA. She’s a songwriter, and she names a bunch of people I’ve never heard of, but they are her idols. Griffin sits across from her, staring at her like I imagine I stare at Taryn.

Like she’s a double rainbow.

The northern lights.

The sunrise and the sunset.

Throughout the conversation, I learn there is a fourth Stone sibling, living in upstate New York, who hasn’t been home in years. Taryn is highly respected by her brothers and also protected, if their reaction to a throwaway line about Craig was any indication. Both Ian and Griffin go off on a four-letter-word-fueled tangent about him as soon as the little kids leave the room.

I decide I really like them both.

I like them all.

After dinner, board games get pulled out, along with Andi’s guitar, and everyone finds spots to lounge, helping themselves to second and third servings or pieces of pie. I play a round of Clue with a couple of the kids, Andi, and Taryn, who is, predictably, aterribleloser.

But once nine o’clock hits, everyone starts making plans. Maddie asks to sleep over with her cousin and best friend, Grace, and Jake heads out to a late-night movie with Ian’s boys, which means Taryn will be home all alone tonight.

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