Page 21 of Crash
He perked up at her willingness to share about her life. It gave her the courage to share minor details: where she lived, why she was in town, and her terrible emotional support cat. He seemed to soak up any information she shared as if it would sustain his soul. They sat there for maybe close to an hour before he wilted again. The strain was back at the corners of his eyes, though he fought hard to pretend he was fine. His breathing seemed to get heavier the longer she talked.
She paused and rubbed her sweaty hands across the fabric of her dress.
“Well, I have to get going now. I don’t want to keep my ride waiting any longer.”
He nodded reluctantly as she stood up. When he tried to push himself off the chair, his arms collapsed underneath him. She rushed over to help him sit upright just as a nurse came rushing in from the hallway. She must have been keeping watch from outside the door.
“Now, now, Mr. Jones. It’s time for you to rest. Wasn’t it lovely to have a guest for a while?” The home care nurse offered her a tight smile before dismissing her completely.
Quynh left the room and found her way back to the sitting room, where she found Griffin still seated on the uncomfortable bench. He glanced up from his phonewhen she entered and stood up. Phone tucked into his back pocket, he approached her.
They stood toe-to-toe, unspoken words passing between them before he opened his arms up. She didn’t even hesitate; she leapt into his arms and let out a deep breath as his arms came around her to cradle him to his chest.
He seemed to know what she needed without her having to say a single word. Quynh wasn’t much for hugging strangers, but Griffin’s tight bear hug made her feel anchored in a way nothing seemed to lately. For the first time in days, she took a deep, fortifying breath. Her muscles relaxed in his tight grip. The stress of the world practically melted away beneath his touch. Unfortunately, when he loosened his grip, it all came rushing back.
“Ready to get out of here?”
She looked up into his green eyes filled with concern and nodded. He let go of her, letting his fingertips glide down her arms, making her flesh pebble from the soft contact.
The drive back to his shop was quiet, though it wasn’t uncomfortable. She appreciated that he didn’t need to fill the silence with inane small talk. It allowed her the time to process her thoughts and the emotional rollercoaster she couldn’t seem to get off of.
When they pulled into the parking lot, Griffinturned to look at her, one arm braced across the bench of the seat. His fingertips were just a hairsbreadth away from touching her shoulders. Turning in her seat, she looked at him questioningly.
“Are you okay?” Concern etched itself into the lines around his worried eyes.
She opened her mouth instinctively to respond with the socially acceptable answer, but one look at his hard expression, and she knew he wouldn’t appreciate it if she lied to him.
“I’ll be okay.” It was all she could offer. She knew, eventually, she would feel the warmth of the sun on her skin again, once the numbness ebbed away and allowed her to fully process how her life had taken a dramatic and traumatic turn in such a short time. There were so many unanswered questions, but for today, she relished the feeling of having Griffin’s warm gaze on her.
For a brief moment, she wondered what it would be like to have a man like Griffin in her corner. She imagined he’d be caring in the ways he’d unknowingly taken care of her. He offered a virtual stranger a ride, put her up in his apartment, and drove her to see her dying father. Not to mention the way he’d opened his arms to her when he’d taken one look at her face as if he knew exactly what she needed, even when she didn’t have a clue.
What would it be like to be Griffin’s woman?
Oh God, was he seeing other women?
This whole time, she just assumed he was single. He probably had a woman waiting for him. There was no way a man like him was not attached.
With that thought, she scrambled to get out of the truck. She was already halfway inside the lobby by the time Griffin made it out of the truck.
Thankfully, he didn’t follow her as she hightailed it past the office and into the back stairwell. She needed a moment to herself before coming back down. There were still a couple of hours left before the shop closed, and the guys would head home.
Quynh was no coward, but she knew whatever she was feeling toward her gracious stranger was not strictly platonic.
A dangerous notion when she was only in town temporarily.
nine
GRIFFIN
The rest of the day crawled as the minutes inched toward closing time. He heard Julio and Sean wrapping things up and saying their farewells before leaving him alone in the garage bay. Judging by the sounds of the phones ringing in the office and the soft murmurs he heard, he knew Quynh would eventually come back downstairs to help in the office like she said she would.
He pretended he was too busy to notice when she showed her face downstairs again. His body was fully aware of her every move despite his attempts to ignore her. It made little sense to him why he seemed to hang on to her every movement. He couldn’t deny the relief rolling through him at seeing her come back down, fresh-faced with resolve in her eyes.
Whatever happened in the time she disappeared upstairs, tail tucked between her legs and trying to escapehim as if he was the plague, to when she came back downstairs must have revitalized her.
Griffin was never one for many words. He preferred silence over dull conversations, though he wished he possessed at least some skills to lean on in order to extract whatever was bothering her so he could try to fix it. Apparently, Quynh made him want to be a fixer. His work, where he literally fixed cars for a living, and his romantic relationships were always separate. With Quynh, though, he had an irresistible urge to fix whatever was bothering her.
It occupied his thoughts as he finished up the last task for the evening. He swapped cars to bring Quynh’s into the bay. Popping the hood, he looked for any visible problems. Not seeing anything obvious, he slid underneath the car and cursed at what he saw. The splash guard was missing, which left the underbelly of her car completely exposed. Any number of things could cause a car to stop running, but it would take a lot longer than one hour to figure out what was wrong.
