Page 84 of Barefoot Dreams
Maybe I’m still drunk…
I’m still searching his eyes, my heart hammering out of my chest when Griffin presses his lips to my forehead and says, “You are wild, gorgeous, unpredictable, brutally yourself and the brightest ray of sunshine with a heart of gold.” He smiles, reaching over to tuck in a wayward hair behind my ear. “You are also slightly forbidden and slightly my best friend’s little sister I wasn’t supposed to touch…but you were never a mistake.”
“Sweet daisies.” My breath leaves my body. Why is he saying all these perfect words? Did I die and wake up in heaven? Good to know I was doing something right with my life that I ended up here. “Griffin…I-I still don’t understand.”
“I’ve wanted to call you mine for a long time, Birdy.”
“But…but you avoided me all this time.” Griffin is shaking his head with a pained expression.
“Well, when we were kids, I was an idiot. But when I came back, I had to. I had to if I wanted to survive because somehow, in the span of a few weeks, you found your way back under my skin. Something I didn’t think was possible, but I should’ve known better. You were always the best at anything you touched. Why would my heart be any different?” His mouth curls into a lop-sided smile before it drops again.
“Last night…when I saw you at LP’s I thought I might lose it. There you were so heart-stoppingly beautiful in one of your handmade skirts…and not mine. I had no idea you’d be my blind date. None. Because I was sure there was no way. You had Owen. But then…then you said you were single, and I felt the floor drop from beneath my feet and I didn’t know what to do with all those feelings that crashed over me.” Griffin takes a long breath and exhales it slowly, gathering his thoughts. “Last night I handled it all wrong.”
I open my mouth but before I can say anything he rushes to correct himself. “Not a mistake! We established that. But I wish the first time I tasted your lips were in broad daylight and clear mind.” His eyes zero in on the said mouth and the pads of his fingers lightly slide across my lips as my breaths grow more and more labored.
“I wish the first time I touched your body was after I deserved it, after I broke every last rule and promise and declared you as mine.” His fingers leave my lips to trail down my neck, brushing over my collar bone as a hoard of goose bumps takes off across the expanse of my skin until it travels lower, down the curve of my breast and pebbled nipples.
“I wish the first time I woke up in bed with you, I’d spend the whole morning counting each and every freckle on your skin. With my lips and tongue.” His heated gaze pierces through mine and I can no longer feel my own heartbeat.
It's too wild, too fast to keep track of.
“So, no, I don’t think we’ve had the talk yet, Julie. Do you mind if we do it now?” Griffin asks and a small squeak leaves my throat.
There’s more?
He arches one of his eyebrows in question, but I’ve lost my ability to form words. For the first time in my life, I don’t feel the need to say the first thing that comes to my mind because it’s utterly, devastatingly blank.
So I nod.
Or stumble-nod.
Is that a thing? It should be.
“I like you, Julie Lovinski. I should’ve led with that last night. I like you very, very much and I’d like to beg you for a second chance.”
“A second chance?”
He nods. “Yes, a second chance to have our first date. To do it right. To treat you like you deserve to be treated.”
“Griffin,” I whisper as the tears start anew. Griffin likes me, and oh, sweet daisies, my heart is about to explode.
“I’ll, um, I’ll understand if that’s not what you want.” He swallows hard, suddenly looking just as terrified as he was last night but now, I know the reason behind it.
It’s me. I’m the reason. And this reason is speechless.
I’ve lived nearly twenty years in fervent dreams to hear him say he likes me. Nearly twenty years and all it took was one blind date…
“But I’m begging you, give me this one chance. One opportunity to make it right. You mean more than I am capable of explaining right now. So, I’m begging you just one try to do it all over again.” All of a sudden, Griffin is on his knees in front of me, his eyes looking up pleadingly as the palms of his hands are splayed over my thighs, holding me tight, as if terrified I’ll try to leave again.
My heart finally explodes, every hopeless dream, tear, and question leaking out of it. Making room for something new. Something bigger. Something so bright it’s quickly taking over.
Love.
So much love and hope I can’t contain it. So, I simply drop to my knees, next to Griffin, shaking my head.
“No?” His voice is full of broken desperation as I keep shaking my head. “Little J—”
“No, I don’t want to give you another chance. I don’t want to make it right.”
