“You better enjoy every second of it, Griff. I’d kill to be in your shoes.”
What I wasn’t expecting was to come home and find my usually calm-as-can-be mom in an absolute frenzy in the kitchen. Flour dusted the countertops, a pot on the stove was dangerously close to boiling over, and she was muttering under her breath about hownothing was ready.
“Mom?” I hesitated in the doorway, glancing at my dad, who was beside her, fumbling through the cabinets like an idiot.
“Other people are joining us for dinner,” she said, exasperated, barely looking up as she chopped vegetables at lightning speed. “And I swear, if this roast doesn’t come out right, I’m?—”
I wasn’t sure if she meant to finish that sentence, but she waved a hand in the air like that was enough explanation before shoving a grocery list into my hands.
“Go,” she said, already moving to the oven. “We need milk and ice cream.”
I blinked. “Ice cream? For whom?”
She sighed dramatically. “For theguests,Griffin. And hurry, please.”
“Who are the guests?”
“Clients of mine,” Dad said, not even bothering to look at me.
Shaking my head, I grabbed my keys and turned for the door.
So much for a quiet night at home.
As I stepped outside, the cool air hit my face, and I couldn’t help but wonder who exactly was important enough to throw my mom intothiskind of frenzy.
CHAPTER 15
TATUM
PRESENT
It was Sunday night, and instead of joining my best friend at some bar, I was picking up fruit from the local grocery store after one of the most intense and interesting gym sessions I’d had in a while. Never in a million years did I think in the span of one weekend Griffin Silver would steal my first kiss and then correct my form in the gym.
I’d recently started a new health cleanse, a new diet that was strictly fruits, vegetables, and white meat, and in the last week, I’d lost nearly three pounds.
Buying fresh strawberries for my dessert tonight seemed like a better idea than drinking my night away at a bar with Millie. Scanning the twenty different strawberry cartons, I analyzed each one, looking for the biggest, juiciest strawberries.
“Can you hurry up?” a teenage girl asked from my right, rolling her eyes as she looked down at a list in her hand and then at me.
Teenagers. Rude much?
“I’m not stopping you,” I retorted. The thought of smackingher crossed my mind. Man, if I was only just a few years younger…
She sighed and reached around me to grab a carton and then hurried off. I rolled my eyes and focused back on the strawberries in front of me, hoping my peace wouldn’t be disturbed again by some bratty girl with no manners.
Finally, after choosing what I deemed the best, I put it in my shopping cart and then focused on the Honeycrisp apples.
Twenty minutes later, I was browsing the rest of the aisles, my cart full of more fruit than I intended to buy and some protein yogurt to add to my smoothie mix.
Just as I was exiting the frozen food aisle, a loud commotion at the front of the store caught my attention. I quickly looked that way, my heart stopping and lurching into my throat at the sight.
“Don’t move!” a gruff voice yelled.
Panic seized my body, leaving me frozen as I took in the three men running into the store, faces hidden behind black masks, guns pointed in front of them. My hands shook, growing clammy. I couldn’t bring myself to look away, to move—anything. Something in my mind was screaming at me to get down, to hide behind something, but I just continued standing there, making myself an easy target.
My body was completely disconnected from my brain.
Everything and everyone around me came to a halt. A child cried. Someone whispered prayers. And I froze as the three men walked briskly and confidently toward the cashiers, guns raised at the clerks. Things like this never happened in our town. You could leave your door unlocked, and nothing would happen. This was beyond terrifying.
