Knox made the shape of an hourglass with his hands. “Not unless she has a rockin’ body.”
Riley motioned for them to cross the street. “And if your dick is all it takes to put visions of veils in her head, cut your losses and get out. Fast.”
Everything the guys said made sense. Deep down, Griff knew he’d been an ass. That he owed Chloe an apology, if nothing else. He just had absolutely zero idea what to say or how to say it to her. All he knew was that he still wanted her. Wanted to keep hanging out with her. For the short term, at least.
The concrete path curved around the striking northern pavilion of the World War II Memorial, sheltering the bronze statue of eagles and a laurel wreath. The guys always picked up their pace here. It was too easy to be sucked into the simple grandeur of the place.
It was Griff’s favorite memorial in all of D.C. Somehow it managed to capture the pain and enormity of lives lost, innumerable sacrifices made across the world, while still emphasizing the bravery and dignity of American soldiers as they helped preserve freedom for all. Whenever Griff stopped at the Coast Guard seal at the base of the bronze flagpole, he choked up a little. Not that he’d ever admit it. But the Coast Guard was his life. Saving people wasn’t a choice—it was all he knew, all he’d ever wanted to do. But here, confronted with the stark truth of the enormous sacrifice asked of everyone in military service, yeah, it gave him pause.
Josh made a time-out sign with his hands. “Shouldn’t we be saving all this awesome advice we’re giving Griff for the podcast?”
“Depends on if we do it or not.” Griff paused, looked at each of them. “You ready to vote?”
Riley gave a thumbs-up. “I say we do it. Yeah, we bitch and moan sometimes about the blog, but overall we’ve had a great time. We’ve gotten to know a ton of people. And I think we’ve helped some of them with our honesty. Isn’t that how it all started? By trying to find a way to be honest and help one another through whatever shit the world threw at us?”
Trust Ry to get to the core of the matter. Griffin nodded. “That’s it in a nutshell.”
“Any excuse for us to hang out shooting the breeze isn’t a bad thing. Now we’ll just get paid for it,” Knox said with a greedy grin.
“Says the guy with more money than all four of us put together.”
But there were five of them. “That raises another question. What about Logan?”
There was a volley of WTF looks back and forth before Josh spoke up. “Haven’t heard from him. Radio silence either means he’s shacked up with someone exotic, that he’s someplace dangerous doing something more dangerous, or he’s fallen off a cliff and we’ll find out about it eventually.”
“Then he’ll find out about this eventually. Majority rules, same as always.”
Ry took charge. “Hands. Let’s see ’em. Who wants to do the podcast?”
Simultaneously, four hands shot into the air. Then Griff dropped his. “Hang on. We can’t make this official until I talk to my CO.”
“Why?” Knox asked.
“Remember why I’m grounded? The accidental publicity that could’ve gone very wrong? Since I won’t be representing the Coast Guard, I think it’ll be fine. But I can’t move forward until he gives me the all clear.”
“Good point.” Riley nodded. “I should probably run this by my superiors, too.”
“Okay. Revote. If everyone gets a signed note saying they can play, who wants to do the podcast?”
Again, four hands shot into the air.
“That’s done. And if it isn’t fun, we’ll quit. No big deal.” He started to cross the street, but it was blocked by a motorcade. Judging by the length of it, the president, his entire cabinet, and a few foreign leaders were taking the scenic route back to the White House. Annoyed, he put a hand to the back of his neck and scanned for a way around. “I’ll head in to the base tomorrow to get the green light…” Griff’s voice trailed off. “Isn’t that Chloe?”
“How the hell would we know? Are virgins as easy to spot as hookers?”
Griff pointed across the pond in Constitution Gardens to the small island that was a memorial to the signers of the Declaration. “You see that couple? The woman in the pink top with the brown hair?”
Josh made a visor with his hand. “You mean the one all cozied up to that guy?”
“Yeah.” Was she already on a date? Chloe had run right out and lined up a replacement while he was still figuring some stuff out? As if she’d find anyone better for the job.
After a short wolf whistle, Knox said, “She’s pretty. Maybe you won’t have to do the virginity deed after all.”
Griff’s jaw muscles tightened until his teeth clenched. “Like hell I won’t.” He hadn’t slept with every woman under thirty in the DelMarVa peninsula like Knox, but he did have a decent string of more-than-satisfied customers. If his lovemaking had a page on Yelp, it’d be chock-full of five-star reviews. Chloe deserved a guy who could do it right, not some dickless wonder fumbling around.
“Thought you didn’t want to deal with it.”
“I don’t. But I damn sure don’t want anyone else fucking it up.” Griff tossed his bottle to Riley. “Start the game without me.” And then he took off at a sprint.
Chapter 9
It was just far enough around the top of the pond that Griffin was panting when he stopped at the semicircle of hewn stones, each containing one of the fifty-six signatures from the Declaration.
“Hey.” It came out as more of a whoosh of air than a word, but it was enough to get Chloe’s attention. And that of the guy with the crook of his elbow draped around her neck.
“Griffin? What are you doing here?”
He decided against mentioning that he’d been listening to his friends try to talk him into having sex with her. So he gestured at his shorts and D.C. United jersey. “We’ve got our weekly soccer game. Usually we play on the Mall, but we had to move it up here today on account of a Boy Scout troop.”
“Oh. I didn’t know you played soccer.”
Guess they still had a lot to learn about each other. Griffin didn’t like to lead with his tragic story of how the ACSs turned into lifelong brothers. He mentioned that he shared a house with his friends, but held off on going any deeper until he decided it was worth opening up that wound all over again. It had been on the tip of his tongue to tell Chloe…until she’d shared her own tragedy. Then he’d again been ready to tell her, right before she dropped the virginity bombshell. And now he was wondering if he’d ever get another chance to tell her.
“Not everyone spends their life cooped up inside like you do,” teased the man with his hand perilously close to her boob. Griff wanted to lean forward and swat it away. Instead, he fisted his hands at his sides and tried, tried, to act casual. Because it was too soon to be jealous. He didn’t have a claim on Chloe. He just wanted to prevent an inexperienced hack from ruining sex for her for the rest of her life. Purely altruistic motives. Yeah, right.
Chloe gave him a fond smile. “I think you spend enough time outside for both of us. David’s a professional golfer,” she said to Griff.
It explained the deep tan. Didn’t explain why she let him hang all over her. Was Griff really being passed over for a guy who considered five hours of slow walking to be a sport?
“Can I talk to you?” he blurted.
“Certainly. You can call me in about an hour. We’ll be finished by then.”
Anything could happen in that hour. A quick run to a hotel room or to this David’s apartment and they could be between the sheets. “This can’t wait.”
With a disapproving squint, Chloe said, “I’m spending time with David now. You’ll have to wait.”
She was the one who was good at waiting. Being a twenty-seven-year-old virgin proved it. Griff? Not so much. He was a man of action. A man who knew when it was time to take a leap. And the time to try and save whatever their relationship was? It was right the hell now.
It felt disrespectful to sit on one of
the historic signatures. But every single one of those men had made a name for himself by coloring outside the lines. Griff didn’t think they’d mind as he planted his ass on Button Gwinnet’s gold-etched scrawl.
“Look, I can’t wait.” He took Chloe’s hand. Tried to ignore that despite his doing so, David still didn’t remove his hand from her elbow. “I can’t wait an hour to tell you that I was an idiot. A judgmental idiot. Could I have handled it better? Oh, yeah. And I’m really sorry that I didn’t. I’m also sorry if I hurt you, or pissed you off.”
One eyebrow arched up. That was all it took to let him know that his apology hadn’t gone far enough and she was still in some level of a well-deserved snit. “Both, actually.”
No surprise there. “I figured that from the way you shoved me out the door.” Now, in hindsight, with his intelligence no longer muted with shock, Griff could see each stupid step he took wrong that day, each unfeeling word he’d spit out. And only hoped he hadn’t ruined things irrevocably. “But my idiocy doesn’t change the fact that I want you. That I want to see where this thing goes.”
That eyebrow of hers winged up again. “Do you really? Even with everything you now know about me?”
How was this guy not clueing in to their conversation? David still hadn’t let go. If anything, it looked like he was snuggling Chloe tighter into his embrace. Griff was about a minute away from grabbing her and carting her off in a fireman’s carry to listen to the rest of his apology. Except he had a strong suspicion that wouldn’t work in his favor.
“Everything I know about you adds up to a special woman who intrigues the hell out of me. And I don’t know nearly enough.”
Chloe tilted her head to the side, as if considering. That was a good sign. David pressing his lips to the top of her shiny hair was not. It was, however, enough to push Griff over the edge. “Ditch this guy. Give me another chance. I won’t screw up a second time.”
Laughter rumbled from David’s too-tan, too-close-to-Chloe throat. “I’d say you already did. She’s never gonna ditch me. I’m her brother.”
Griff looked to Chloe, who nodded in confirmation. Then she elbowed her brother in the ribs. “Griffin didn’t screw up again. He came to fight for me. That’s wonderfully romantic.”
“You think?”
“I appreciate your apology, Lieutenant. Now I need a promise. You can’t ever look at me that way again. Like I’m untouchable. Undesirable.”
“I never thought of you as undesirable.” Yeah, it was weird admitting that in front of her brother. Couldn’t embarrass himself any more, though. And he had to keep going until Chloe agreed to see him again. Confronted with the possibility she was the one backing off, instead of him, made Griff realize his whole thing about her virginity was stupid. Juvenile. That he didn’t want a one-night stand. He could have that with anyone. He wanted to be with Chloe. For a while, at least.
“You looked at me the way I look at lima beans.”
“The responsibility you were handing over to me—that was undesirable. That’s it. Chloe, you’re beautiful. You revved my motor from that first time I saw you in the coffee shop. All I want to do is hold you, and touch you, and—”
David cut him off by rising halfway off the bench. “Don’t go any further. I’ve already heard way more than I want to.”
“I haven’t.” Chloe’s cheeks were pink. Almost the same shade as her glossy pink lips. “David, you should leave now.”
“What about the brownies? You didn’t even unpack them yet.”
Chloe rummaged in the knapsack at her feet. Then she thrust a container at her brother. “Here. Take them all and go. Because Griff’s going to keep telling me how beautiful I am, and then I’m going to kiss him for a very, very long time.”
Success! Griff squeezed Chloe’s hand, then let go to fish in his pocket for his phone. He needed to text the guys that he’d be very, very late to the game.
David pecked Chloe on the forehead, and then turned to Griff. “I don’t know what you did to hurt Chloe, and I’m sure I don’t want to know the details. But if you hurt her again, I’ll come for you. With my eight iron aimed right at your skull.”
Griff didn’t mind the threat at all. It was the appropriate response from a brother to the scene he’d just witnessed. “Message received.” Griff tossed him a salute.
“Oh my God. I recognize you now.”
It had been thirteen days since the leaked video of his rescue. Griff had assumed that particular news cycle had run its course. Once it did, he’d get his wings unclipped. David recognizing him wasn’t a good sign that he’d passed out of the public consciousness.
“You’re one of the soccer kids.”
“David, he’s a grown man,” Chloe corrected with a laugh. “Current outfit notwithstanding.”
Griff knew exactly where this was going. And it wasn’t at all the way he wanted Chloe to find out. She’d shared her private catastrophe with him only a few days ago. He didn’t want to be seen as trying to one-up her with his own. Everyone had baggage. Both of theirs just came with extensive media coverage.
“You’re the one from that bus tragedy in the Alps years ago. You and your soccer buddies. I read all the stories on it. You were their leader, weren’t you? Got everyone out. Dude, what you did was so brave.” David reached out to pump his hand.
Griff didn’t think he’d done anything brave. And he wasn’t his friends’ leader. They all worked together to get out of there. He’d gone round and round in this argument with his therapist after the accident. Every report that came out mirrored David’s take. Rained accolades down on him.
The truth was that Griff wouldn’t have had the strength to do anything without his friends. All he did, to his way of thinking, was figure out the best chance for survival. That wasn’t bravery. It was desperation.
David backed away with a wave. “Honor to meet you. I’ll leave you two alone. Just remember this is an important, somber site—probably under watch by the National Park Service. Don’t do anything to get yourselves arrested.”
Chloe waited until her brother passed the copse of trees surrounding the memorial. Then she crossed her legs and looked at Griffin expectantly. “Is there something I should know about you? Something, perhaps, that the rest of the world already knows?”
Scrubbing his palms across his eyes, Griff sighed. He had a feeling the promised kisses were now off the table. And that he’d probably miss all of the soccer game.
“In high school, my soccer team got the chance to play in a world competition. Logan, Knox, Josh, Riley, and I took a field trip in between games to see the sites. To see all the hot foreign girls, to be honest.”
“Sounds about right for high school boys.”
“The next day, Logan wasn’t anywhere to be found. We left on the bus without him. It crashed off the edge of a mountain. Exploded into a big fireball. Killed our driver. Injured all of us, pretty badly. We were stranded, in the snow, in the middle of nowhere, in a cave. No jackets left once we’d used the only one we had for bandages. No cellphones. No idea of how anyone would find us, or when. No food or water.”
Chloe’s jaw tightened. “That sounds extremely dire.”
“Yeah.” A harsh laugh pushed out of his throat. Talk about an understatement. Even now, telling the story on this clear spring day with freaking cherry blossoms hanging overhead, Griff broke out in a light sweat as the memory threatened to engulf him. Flashbacks. Nightmares. Panic attacks. They’d all had them to varying degrees. Fewer with every passing year, but never fully gone. “It was the most scared I’ve ever been. Odds seemed good that we’d die.”
She grabbed his hand, pulled him down to sit next to her. Then, blue eyes steady on his, Chloe said, “But you didn’t.”
“No. After the first day—and a cold-as-hell night—I convinced everyone that we had to save ourselves.”
“Even with your injuries?”
“I didn’t say it was a walk in the park.” There’d been the time when Kno
x’s injured leg gave out, and he almost tumbled off another cliff. Then Josh kept passing out from his concussion. They’d laughed and made jokes out of it, but every damn time it happened, Griff had gone cold to his core, positive that Josh had died. “But it was our only chance at survival. The reward was worth the risk.”
“You saved them.” Chloe’s eyes were bright with tears.
“It’s not like I flew in on a helicopter with a medical team and choppered us out. Logan did that, after we’d walked, limped—hell, even crawled partway—for another day and night. The press got the story and a lot of vivid pictures. They branded us the Americani Calcio Sopravvissuti, or the ACSs. American soccer survivors—which made it sound like we were almost killed by a ball. And the five of us became brothers, for life.”
“You saved them,” she said again, in a nonnegotiable tone.
“We couldn’t have done it without one another. Solo, it wouldn’t have worked. We made lame jokes, and thought about what we’d do when we got home, and literally supported one another.”
Stubbornly, Chloe said, “You saved them.”
Griff rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. Wasn’t this what the therapist tried to get him to accept? Even though it felt like an insult to the strength and bravery of all his friends, Griffin knew that without his coming up with the plan, and pushing everyone to their limits and beyond, their bones would still be in that Italian cave. Chloe’s insistence finally made him see that.
“When it comes right down to it? Maybe. I guess I did. But I was saving myself, too, so it doesn’t feel right to take credit.”
Putting her other hand to her heart, Chloe said in a thick voice, “That’s why you save people now, isn’t it? You found your calling in that cave.”
“It felt good to know that I could make a difference. That’s all I try to do.”
Risking It All Page 11
