Page 20 of Griffin
Cormac pushed the thick hair out of his eyes. "You know, now that you mention it, some nurse attention might not be too bad."
"Oh brother, could you two be dorkier?" Robyn said.
Tawny jumped off the wall, walked over to Cormac and gave him a long kiss. I looked over at Robyn. "Funny, from this vantage point, it looked like he fell on his ass." We all had another laugh as Tawny took Cormac's hand and led him into the house.
"Fin, we heard you were here." Olivia and Rachel came around the corner. "We've been waiting for you." Rachel looked down from under a long curtain of brown bangs. "Where's your drink? What would you like? I'm going back inside for a refill." She lifted her cup.
Crusoe cleared his throat loudly. "Uh, what about me. I'm here too."
Olivia laughed as she sat down next to him and dropped her arm around his shoulder. "How could we forget the hottest, most adorable Stone on the beach?"
"I'm all right with the hottest label, but my mom likes to call me adorable, so let's stick with hottest, yeah?"
Rachel pointed at me, still waiting for my drink order. "I'll be in soon to get a drink," I told her. She strolled off.
"Hey, there's your sister," Olivia said. "I haven't seen Jules in months. God, she's gorgeous. I'm so jealous of that long blonde hair. Hey, Jules," she called and waved.
Jules spotted us and headed our direction. She was wearing a long black coat. I grabbed the end of it. "Hey, Dracula, nice of you to wear your cape tonight."
Crusoe laughed.
Jules yanked the fabric from my hand. "God, you're such a fashion lump. This coat is warm and stylish." She twirled the long end around once.
"I love it," Olivia said. "Oh my god, Jules, have you been following the Banana Bandana saga?"
Jules' eyes practically popped from her face in excitement. "Can you believe that Toby just called an Uber and left Roxi alone with the van in the middle of Zion? What a jerk."
"Was this the guy who was messing around with the park ranger?" I asked. I remembered vaguely hearing about the whole drama while Jules made pancakes.
Crusoe looked over at me. "Are you following any of this convo, or are they speaking a different language?"
Jules rolled her eyes at Crusoe and motioned for him to move down the wall, so she could sit with Olivia and exchange opinions on the whole thing. I was sure Toby's reputation was going to suffer greatly in the exchange.
Crusoe moved closer to me then prodded me with an elbow. "New hot girl alert," he said. "Never seen her before."
I looked toward the house. Shay was standing with her hands in her pockets, her thin shoulders lifted in a shy shrug. She was wearing big gold hoop earrings, and her short hair stood up and away from her beautiful face.
"You came," I said.
"Figures," Crusoe grumbled behind me as I walked in Shay's direction.
"You came," I repeated. I'd completely written off the possibility.
"I went back and forth about it a dozen times and then I finally said, what the heck? In fact, today has been a steady stream of 'what the hecks.' And I haven't felt this good in a long time. I even pulled out my—" She stopped. "You don't need to hear the boring details of my day, but it's been a good one, and I thought I'd keep the streak going."
"I'm glad you did. Drink?" I asked.
"Yes, please." I didn't hesitate to take her hand. I led her through the screen door. The tiny front room was packed with people. Jaxon was in the center of it all telling some story that had everyone laughing. He took the time to scowl my direction as I passed through with Shay in tow. Stella was in the kitchen with another group. She was blending up fruity drinks, and the whole place smelled like fruit punch.
Stella spotted me. "Fin, there you are. Want to try my Hawaiian punch and rum concoction? Guaranteed to give you a buzz and make your lips red." She smiled at Shay. "Welcome. I'm Stella, this guy's favorite cousin. Wait, you're the woman from the pier."
Shay stepped past me to introduce herself. "That's me, and I have learned my lesson about eating scones on the pier. I'm Shay."
"You're working for Colt," Stella said and then looked slyly my direction.
I ignored the sly look. "I'm going to skip the fruit punch drink and have a beer." I looked at Shay. "How about you?"
"You know, I had a very bad experience once with fruit punch at my friend's birthday party. I learned the hard way that hot dogs, strawberry cake and fruit punch are not always a good combo. I'll stick with a beer."
