Pieces For You (21 page)

Within minutes the last thread of his control broke, his hips joining my motion.  With a final groan, his body tensed and my name slipped from his lips. 

When he was once again coherent, he kissed me softly, and I could feel his grin against my lips.

“Awfully pleased with yourself, aren’t you?” he asked, humor in his voice.

“Hell yeah.  I earned this smile.”

“You did.”

We fell silent as the weight of sleep pressed down upon me.  My eyes closed and I drifted off to sleep as Griffin hummed me a lullaby.

"Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them."  -Oscar Wilde

I woke slowly, sunlight making the inside of my eyelids glow.  I was incredibly comfortable and didn’t want to get up—and warm, I was exceptionally warm.  I curled the fingers of my right hand into my bed, but my bed was not a bed, it was a person.  Griffin.

I gasped loudly, and the warm chest beneath me rumbled with laughter.

“You…you’re still here,” I exclaimed, crossing my hands on his chest before resting my chin on top, a huge smile painted across my face.

“I am.  Good morning, beautiful,” he said with humor.

“Holy shit!  I slept all freaking night,” I said in stunned appreciation, “and I didn’t have a nightmare.  Not. A. One.”

“Nope.  You slept like a baby, even drooled a little.”

“I did not,” I said, trying to subtly check his chest for wet spots.

He wiped the corner of my lips with his thumb.  I launched myself at him, kissing him like he was mine, which of course he was—morning breath be damned.  When we finally broke apart, wicked thoughts filled my mind.

“Oh no you don’t.  I know that look.  As tempting as you are, I don’t need Hunter barging in with the safety off.”

“I can be quiet,” I said, as I slid his thigh between my legs, getting started without him. 

In the end, I got my way
and
I was quiet—it was an extra happy wake-up call for us both.  Afterward, I left Griffin in my room to dress and headed to the kitchen with a goofy smile on my face to pour a cup of coffee.  I popped as many Eggos in the toaster oven as I could fit before joining Huntleigh at the dining table.

“Good morning,” Ev said, eyeing me suspiciously, unable to discern the source of my Disney-level good mood.

“I slept amazing last night, best sleep I’ve ever had,” I answered her unspoken question.

“That’s fantast—”

“And I had an orgasm!” I said, entirely too loudly. “Actually, scratch that…I had two orgasms!”

Hunter choked on his sip of coffee and Ev pounded on his back casually, accustomed to my unexpected overshares.

“I’m not going to ‘too much information’ you this time because I know what a big deal this is.  Was it as good as you remembered?”

“Better… I swear I couldn’t feel my toes for like ten minutes.”

“Holy hell, I’m still here,” Hunter objected.

Ev and I both waved him off.

“I’m so happy for you.  You must be relieved.  You didn’t say much, but I knew you were really worried,” Ev said.

“I was terrified I would never get it back.  I swear when G—”

“Morning, everybody,” Griffin said as he entered, completely unaware of what he had just walked into.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Hunter lamented.  “I don’t need to know this shit.”

“Griffin, I don’t know if I should punch you or kiss you,” Ev said.

Griffin looked completely lost.

“He’s getting punched if you kiss him,” Hunter cautioned.

“Oh, by the way, Griff stayed over last night,” I stated the obvious.

“Yeah, got that,” Hunter grumbled, clearly wishing he was elsewhere.

I moved to my man’s side and quickly explained his less-than-ideal timing.  He shrugged before kissing my lips and heading toward the kitchen.  “Need coffee, Lo?” Griffin asked solicitously, unfazed.

“No thanks, I’ve got one but you can check the toaster oven.  I threw some Eggos in there for us.”

“Mmm… breakfast too.  Just when I thought this morning couldn’t get any better.”

Griff emerged from the kitchen with a heaping plate of waffles, which he rested carefully on the table before sitting down.  I moved to sit next to him, but he pulled me onto his lap—a much better seat, in my opinion.  I had just taken my first bite when there was a knock at the door.

“I’ll get it,” I said with a mouth full of food.

I looked through the peephole to find a uniformed officer on the other side of the door.  Shit!  What now?  I released the security chain and opened the door.

“Samantha Whitney?” he asked formally.

Griffin was at my back and Hunter at my side before I could respond.

“Special Agent Hunter Charles, FBI.  How can I help you, officer?”

The young policeman looked extremely uncomfortable.

“I’m sorry to bother you on a Sunday morning, sir.  I’m Deputy Sherriff Lienmieter from the Suffolk County Sherriff’s office.  I’m afraid I have to serve Miss Whitney with a Warrant of Eviction.  She has until Wednesday to appeal the judgment or vacate the premises.”

Hunter snatched the paperwork from the man’s hands and scanned it.

“This states that Miss Whitney failed to appear at her eviction hearing, but she was never informed of any such hearing.”

“Then she has grounds for appeal.  I suggest she obtains an Order to Show Cause, which will stay the eviction until a hearing takes place.  I’m sorry, Special Agent Charles.  If there was anything I could do…this came from the top.”

Hunter nodded as the Deputy Sherriff left us.  When the door was firmly closed, I walked to the couch dazed and threw myself down in a heap.  Griffin followed, sitting beside me.  I wasn’t falling apart, but I was definitely in shock.  Hunter and Ev joined us and we sat in silence as Hunter read the details of the warrant.  Before speaking a word to any of us, he flipped open his phone and sent a text message.

“Okay, here’s the situation,” he began calmly, obviously in professional-Hunter mode.  “Your parents managed to schedule an eviction hearing without your knowledge and won by default when you didn’t show.  You can appeal the eviction if you have grounds.  Is your name on the deed?”

“I assumed so.  I am positive it’s on the title to the car because I saw it when I renewed the registration and updated my address.  I don’t recall ever seeing the deed for the apartment, but it was given to me as a gift more than four years ago.  I recall them saying something about write-offs and tax benefits once I graduated college.  Maybe they hadn’t transferred the actual deed to me.  Can they really do this?”

“They never actually gave you the gift if your name isn’t on the deed.  You’ll have to get an attorney to represent you and request a copy, but I’m not optimistic.”  Hunter sighed.  “Sam, it took a lot of clout to pull this off.  The Sherriff’s Department doesn’t usually handle eviction warrants on the weekends.  You should fight this, but I think you need to prepare yourself for the prospect of losing.  At the very least, you can delay the eviction for a few weeks.”

“No,” I said firmly.  “If this really isn’t
my
apartment, then I don’t want to stay here.  We’ll find another place.  I have money.  I’ll hire a lawyer to investigate if I have grounds, but I am not going to stay here if I don’t have a chance of winning the case.  No sense in delaying the inevitable and indebting myself to them further.”

Griffin’s arm wrapped around my waist and squeezed me, conveying his approval.  He understood my need to sever these ties with my family and the importance of only fighting battles that could be won.

“I hear you, but I don’t think you should sign a lease and tie yourself to another apartment until you have a clearer picture of your legal options,” Ev said.

“You’ll move in with me,” Hunter said, suddenly very pleased, “…both of you.  My apartment is only one bedroom, but I’ll buy a pull-out couch today for Sam.  It’s not a permanent solution, but I was planning to buy a house sometime this year anyway—this is as good a time as any to start our search.  It won’t fix the issue immediately, but…it could become our permanent solution,” he said, looking at Ev as if the sun had just risen after a year of night.

“Did you just ask me to move in with you?” Ev asked, shocked.

“This wasn’t how I was planning to ask you, but my plans never seem to come to fruition the way I expect when you’re involved.”  He held her face between his hands and kissed her lips once with devotion in his eyes.  “Everleigh, I love you with all my heart.  I want to fall asleep with you every night and wake up with you each morning.  I want to fight with you about who used the last of the toilet paper and didn’t replace the roll.  I want to cook you breakfast for dinner when we get sick of take-out.  I want to see your clothes hanging in the closet next to mine when I get dressed.  I want to know that we are both equally tied to the place we call ‘home.’  Will you move in with me, buy a house, and make a home with me—our home?”

Tears filled my eyes; I was so touched by his heartfelt request.  His every word expressed he wanted her by his side every day.  She deserved this, the unwavering love of a good man who knew her value, one who saw her flaws and accepted them as a part of her without trying to change them.

She kissed him softly as she whispered “yes” against his lips.

I was so glad I was here to see them take the next step in their relationship, but it reaffirmed a concern that had been flitting through my conscience with increasing frequency.  They needed their space, time alone as a couple.  I couldn’t have made it through those first two months after TPC without them by my side.  They were self-sacrificing, gracious, supportive, and loving every step of the way—deciding together to make my recovery their priority.  I didn’t believe their relationship suffered from that choice, but it must have been difficult for a new couple that just wanted to get lost in one another.  It was time for me to repay their charity by freeing them from the Sam-shaped cage in which they had willingly sealed themselves.

“Actually, I’ve been thinking you two need your space.  I can never thank you enough for all you’ve done for me…but I’m better now, I don’t need babysitters anymore.  Save the money on the couch and put it toward the house.  I’m going to stay in a hotel until the apartment situation gets sorted out and then I’ll decide what to do.  I may just let them have this place either way—rid myself of the reminder.”

Hunter nodded, easily accepting my decision, but Ev looked conflicted.

“And if I need you, I’ll come crash on the couch for the night…just not every night.  Have you even considered where I would organize my wardrobe in Hunter’s apartment?  You’d both be forced to store your clothes in the kitchen if I moved in, because I sure as hell would be taking over all the closet space,” I joked, hoping to lighten the mood.  “It’s time to cut the apron strings, fly from the nest—and you two need an empty nest to make the tree shake without concern of an audience.”

Ev nodded, but I could see she was feeling the same way I was.  As happy as she was to be moving in with Hunter, it would mark the end of an era.  We had been attached at the hip most of our lives but now we were growing up—not growing apart, but growing.  It was exciting and a little bit sad.

“It was bound to happen at some point,” I assured her.  “You found your penguin, your mate for life.  It’s time for you to start building your life with Hunter and time for me to live on my own and be independent.  I need to prove to myself that I can do it, so one day I can find my own nest-mate.” 

Griffin leaned into my side, his lips kissing the base of my neck and gliding up to my ear.

“Do you have any particular Big Bird in mind to join you in the nest?”

I shivered from the warmth of his breath against the shell of my ear.  Hot damn, the man could even make Sesame Street sound sexy.

“Maybe, someday,” I answered coyly.

“There’s no reason to waste your money on a hotel and I’m not sure if it is the safest option at the moment,” Griffin said, his concern evident.  “I have a guest room and my house isn’t far from here.  You can store your furniture and whatever else you need in my garage—you’d have to arrange for a storage unit if you stay in a hotel.”

Hmm…stay with Griffin?  Not live with him like Ev and Hunter were talking about, but still.  Staying with him for a period of time, seeing him every day—the idea had its merits.  My only hesitation was that our romantic relationship was only beginning; I didn’t want him to get sick of me.  On the flip side, it would certainly let me know early on if we had the potential to go the long haul.  Plus, I would feel safer knowing a big, strong man was in the house with me, even if he wasn’t armed like Hunter.  I didn’t want to admit it, but living alone scared me slightly—I needed to do it, to push myself.  However, the prospect of having Griffin’s muscles handy was appealing in the short term, in more ways than one.  Either way it would be temporary; he wasn’t asking me to move in with him.  I teetered on the edge of decision.