“This is about Griffin?” I ask tentatively. “Do you…love him?”
Max stands so quickly that I step back as he comes around the bed like a bull and grabs my arm, swinging me to the floor.
Dropping to my knees, I stare up at him mutely, his eyes wild as he glares at me. “If you ever say that again…”
Nodding, I breathe a sigh of relief when he lets me go, and sadly, I watch him stalk toward the door before stopping at the threshold.
“He’s always wanted you,” he says quietly before exiting and closing the door behind him.
Stunned, I watch him go before shouting outside makes me jump out of my skin, and I hurry to put everything back, praying Griffin doesn’t notice anything out of order.
But it’s a stupid thought because I don’t even know how it looked to begin with.
∞∞∞
Thankfully, I finish and escape, but I sweated like a pig the whole time and was sure he would walk in at any damn moment.
Now I’m shaking like a leaf from adrenaline overload and standing in the kitchen staring into the refrigerator blankly. I didn’t eat dinner yesterday, and I’m starving, but I’m also freaked the fuck out.
“Hungry?” Griffin asks behind me, and I gasp, jumping a foot before turning around and giving him a weak smile.
He glares at me suspiciously because, yeah, I’m acting suspicious. Moron.
“What’s going on?” he growls, stepping into my space.
Looking up at him, I try to find some semblance of calm, but now I’m trembling even more, and when he glances down and back at my face, he’s grim as he shoves me into a chair. “Did you eat yesterday?”
“Yes,” I whisper, sitting on my hands as he opens the refrigerator.
Get your shit together, Halsey.
“When?” he asks, turning back with sandwich fixings in his hands.
“Um,” I mumble. Is he making me a sandwich?
He just rolls his eyes and commences with chopping up a tomato and lettuce before spreading it all on bread with mayo and turkey. All the while, I stare like an idiot.
When he’s done, he takes a bite, and I relax because this I expect, but he smiles at me devilishly and shoves the plate my way to my further confusion.
When I stare at him like he’s grown two heads, he turns away and says, “Eat.”
Not knowing what to do, I eat, feeling immediately calmer when the food hits my belly, thank fuck.
I’m halfway through the sandwich, uncomfortable under Griffin’s scrutiny as he stares at me broodily, when Max comes into the kitchen, followed by the chick who came with us and whose name I never gleaned.
My stomach clenches immediately, and I drop my sandwich to my plate as Griffin glances at them and back to me with a crease between his brows.
“Hey, baby,” the bitch says in a breathy tone, sidling up to Griffin as Max smirks and grabs a beer.
“What’s going on in here?” Max asks with a gleam in his eyes.
Glancing away because I get the sick sensation that he brought the chick with him to stir up trouble, I slide from my seat as I consider his quiet words from before.
Max is convinced Griffin has always been hung up on me, but if that’s so, he’s done an outstanding job of hiding it, and poor Max is in the same boat as me, loving someone who will never love us the way we need.
Inexplicably sad, I glance at Griffin to find him watching me with a frown, and when I turn to Max, I see jealousy and malice. I guess before, I never saw it, but now it’s clear. Does he even hate me for the adoption shit? Or was it this all along?
“Yo, Hals?” Max says.