Welcoming the Bad Boy: A Hero's Welcome Novel (14 page)

Griffin stirred in bed, only semiconscious, but very aware of the hard bulge in his boxers. He was on the edge of a dream about Val and all the things they’d done last night. He sighed and cracked one eye, groaning at the slant of light streaming through his window. It was Saturday morning. He didn’t have to work today, which was one motivating factor toward getting him to sit up. Another factor was that the day would end with seeing Val.

What was wrong with him? A chick hadn’t gotten to him this way since…well, ever.

Griffin shifted uncomfortably, maneuvering himself around the bulge. Val was haunting him even in his dreams. Trooper barked beside him—motivating factor number three.

“Just a minute, Trooper. I’m dealing with an issue here.” He visualized himself naked, in Alaska, cold as fuck, and on display for a group of senior citizen tourists. It was something he’d been doing since high school, when he’d rather have died than leave his room with a boner for his mom to notice. It always worked. One hundred percent of the time. Except this morning, Val kept creeping back into his brain. Her mouth. Her tongue. Her hands running all over his body.

Naked. Alaska. Senior citizens.

Trooper barked again, a little more urgently this time.

“Fine.” He opened his eyes and sat up. Then he rolled his neck and looked over at his furry friend. “If I didn’t love you so much…” he said, pointing a finger. Trooper wagged his tail, then his gaze moved down to the tent between Griffin’s legs. “Quiet, dog. It’s Val’s fault.”

He opened the back door and let Trooper run along the fence while he headed into the kitchen to start the coffee brewing. He had a full day ahead of him. First up was checking on the other woman in his life. His mother was being released from the hospital today and he had offered to drive her back to the nursing home. She was probably better off going with a complete stranger. She seemed to prefer anyone over him these days, and he couldn’t blame her.

After two cups of black coffee, he grabbed his phone and, unable to help himself, texted Val.

Still on for tonight?

Within a minute, she responded.
Looking forward to it. I’m hoping you changed your mind about your rule, though.

Yeah, what had he been thinking telling her they weren’t having sex tonight? He must be crazy for this girl. He leaned against his kitchen counter and rubbed his forehead. Yeah, he was.

No sex. Just me and you on a real date.

Better bring me those chocolates then,
she texted back, which made him laugh. And laughing was good because he wasn’t looking forward to heading over to the hospital to see his mother right now. Or the encounter he’d probably have with her.

His phone beeped again. Glancing at it, he shook his head.

And Sweet Cheeks wants more of those yummy dog treats,
Val texted him.

I’ll see what I can do. Later,
he answered back and headed to the shower to try his luck at visualizing naked, Alaska, senior citizens. Something had to work for his growing problem.

Griffin had never been a fan of hospitals. He was born an adrenaline junkie, which meant he’d often visited the local emergency room for stitches and casts, but he’d never had a bad experience in one per se. They just weren’t his favorite place, with the sterile smells and mind-numbing beeps from every room. He took the elevator and headed to the third floor, where his mother was resting. The plan was to sign the discharge papers and take her home, if you could call Seaside Harbor home. Home was the place where she’d raised him in California, making every holiday like one out of a Hallmark movie. Home was where she’d taught him to read, cook, and bat a ball.

And to forgive.

He remembered being a sullen adolescent after his father had left. He’d been angry at the world and had gotten in a couple of scuffles at school. The principal called his mother half a dozen times that year. The principal could never say anything to make sense of things for Griffin, though. Then his mother had come and gotten him from school one day and she’d made sense. She’d driven away from the school in complete silence. In fact, Griffin was actually scared about what she was going to do. It wasn’t like his mother to be so quiet. She usually yelled. He preferred yelling to the void expression on her face that afternoon. Then she pulled over at a park and got out, walking around to the front of the car and waiting for him to get out and stand beside her.

“Let’s go for a walk,” she’d said when he finally joined her. It wasn’t a question. It was an order at a time when he didn’t like taking orders very much.

They walked in silence for a good five minutes before she spoke again. “There will be times in your life, Griffin, when people will hurt you so badly that you want to curl up and quit. That or start throwing punches at everyone who comes your way.” She glanced over. “Neither of those options is acceptable. You can’t quit and you can’t take your anger out on the world. I know that you miss your father.”

“I don’t—” he started to say.

She held up a hand. “I know you’re angry with him, and you think you hate him.”

“I do hate hi—”

She held up her hand again. Then she stopped walking and turned to face him. “During those times when you’ve been hurt so badly you don’t know what to do, the only thing you can do is forgive. It’s not easy, Griffin. You might have to do it every hour of every day at first. But then you will start to feel better. The hurt and the anger will lessen, and they will eventually go away.”

Griffin lifted his chin. He remembered feeling like he might start crying, and he was too old for crying. Men don’t cry. “He doesn’t deserve to be forgiven,” he’d said through a tight jaw, knowing she was right. The anger inside him was palpable to the point that he was going to explode and hurt himself, or someone else. It scared him.

“No, but
you
deserve to forgive him.” She reached for both of his hands and held them tight.

“Is this one of your lectures? Because I’m not one of your students, you know?”

“I know that. You’re my son. The only child I have. And I love you so, so much. I hope you know that.” Tears had welled in her eyes. “You’re the greatest little boy in the world. Because you’re mine.”

It was something she used to tell him every night as she’d tucked him into bed growing up. She would sing him a lullaby and chase it with that sentence. No matter how many times she said it, it always felt sincere. At some point he’d gotten too old for lullabies, though, and she’d stopped. She’d always had a sense for what he needed, and she’d always given it to him.

Griffin shook his head at the memory as he approached room 325 of Seaside Memorial. Tears stung behind his eyes and his nose was running now. His mother had taught him to love and to forgive—the two most important lessons of his life, and he’d let her down on both.

“Hey, Mom.” He stepped inside the room and held his breath, hoping she’d smile at the sight of him.

Her eyes fluttered open and she looked at him. There was no recognition in her eyes. Her left arm was casted, which filled him with a dull ache.

“Are you here to take me home?” she asked.

For a moment he let himself believe that she knew he was her son. That she was asking him to take her back to the home he’d grown up in.

“To the nursing home,” she added weakly.

She remembered where she lived. That was something.

“I am. I just need to talk to the doctor and have him sign your discharge papers.”

His mother nodded, and then returned to staring at the wall in front of her.

“Do you need anything, Mo—?” He stopped himself from calling her Mom. She got agitated when he did that.

“No. I’m fine,” she told him.

Famous last words.

“Okay. I’ll be back.” He left and blew out a breath, looking around for the doctor. He headed toward the reception area, where several nurses were seated. “My mother is being discharged today.”

One of them nodded. “Room 325?” She pulled out a chart and opened it, pushing a stack of papers in front of him. “Read these and then sign on the highlighted line.” She smiled politely, placing a pen in front of him.

Thirty minutes later, after reading and signing a stack of papers, he wheeled his mother out of the hospital in a courtesy wheelchair. After getting her buckled into his Explorer, he cranked the engine and headed toward Seaside Harbor.

“You’re a good boy,” she said, looking out the window.

A flutter of hope scurried around in his chest.
Because you’re mine.
He willed her to say those words, but she didn’t. She didn’t know him anymore.

He pulled into the nursing home parking lot and got her inside uneventfully. “I’ll call later to check on her,” he told Louise at the front desk.

She nodded. “And I’ll call you if anything changes. Now go out and be young. Do something fun.”

Val came to mind, and he immediately forced himself to think about being naked in Alaska, fucking cold, with senior citizens staring at him.

“Bye, Louise,” he said, then left in a hurry, while he still had some dignity.

Val stared at her reflection in the long mirror on her wall. She’d tried on everything in her closet and decided on the shortest skirt along with the tightest knit top she owned. This was the sexiest outfit she’d worn in quite a while and she hoped it’d be enough to put an end to Griffin’s insistence about them not having sex tonight. To cap the look off, she was also wearing a thong. He was her summer fling, damn it, and she planned to milk that for all it was worth.

Grabbing a cardigan, she headed to the front of her apartment just as the doorbell rang. He was right on time. It was four-thirty
P.M
. Early in the afternoon for a date, but that’s what Griffin wanted. She opened the door and smiled.

“Hi.” Her skin burned under his gaze as he ran his eyes down the length of her.

“Wow. You look amazing.”

“Thank you.” She took in his outfit, too. Dark rinse jeans and a short-sleeved T-shirt, as usual. He was clean-shaven and polished to perfection, even though his eyes screamed jagged edges.

“It’s going to be near impossible to keep my hands off you in that outfit,” he said, dipping to kiss her cheek softly.

“That’s my plan,” she said with a wink.

He shook his head. “There’s a little bit of devil in those angel eyes, you know that?” He handed her a small bouquet of flowers that she hadn’t noticed until now. “As promised.”

“Aww. You didn’t have to get me flowers.”

“Yes, I did. And…” He handed her something else. “Chocolate, as requested.”

The breath caught in her throat. “You really know how to sweep a girl off her feet, Mr. Black.”

“And we’re just getting started.” He glanced at his watch. “But we better hurry if we want to catch that ferry.”

“Ferry?” She’d thought that idea had been eradicated after last night.

“And picnic.” He offered a smooth smile. “Don’t worry. There’s more chocolate.”

Her heart melted just a little. “Let me put these in a vase. I’ll be right back.”

“Where’s the dog?” he asked as she started to walk away.

She glanced back over her shoulder. “And what is the dog’s name?” she asked teasingly.

“SC.”

The man was stubborn as a mule.

“Sweet Cheeks,” she said, pronouncing every syllable, “is with Beth Phillips tonight.” Beth was the sister of Griffin’s friend Lawson. Her ex-husband had been stationed here three years ago, and had abandoned her and their small daughter when he’d gotten new orders. “Sabrina desperately wants a dog, so Beth is seeing how she reacts to a temporary one.”

“You trust that thing around a child?”

Val laughed, filling a crystal vase with water. She pulled the plastic wrap from around the flowers and placed them inside. “Sweet Cheeks is well on her way to reformation. And just in time. Alma is being discharged this coming week.” Val frowned. “I’m going to miss that little critter.”

Griffin shook his head. “Oh, yeah. Me, too.” Sarcasm laced his voice, and Val had to laugh. She headed back toward him. “Okay. Let’s go.”

The wind blew as Val walked beside Griffin toward his Explorer in the driveway. She was glad he hadn’t ridden his motorcycle. She’d have had to run inside and change into her skinny jeans otherwise. Her shortest skirt on the back of Griffin’s bike would not have worked. And she’d spent an insane amount of time on her hair this afternoon. On everything related to her looks. She wanted Griffin to want her, and judging by the look in his eyes, he did.

He walked around and opened his passenger door for her. Lifting her leg to step in, she caught his heated gaze as the fabric of her skirt shimmied high on her thigh. Yep, the outfit was working. She was definitely getting her way tonight.

When he got in beside her, he shook his head. “You’re not a preacher’s daughter.”

“Haven’t you ever heard that conservative parents lead to the most rebellious spawn?”

He reversed out of her driveway and headed toward the Seaside pier. “But you’re not rebellious as far as I can see. You’ve got a smart mouth, but overall you’re sweet. You work at a school and volunteer at a nursing home. Name one bad thing you’ve ever done.”

She straightened. It was true. She talked the talk, but didn’t walk the walk. Except inside her novels. Then she was as naughty as she ever wanted to be. She lifted a shoulder. “I did a few bad things last night. Or have you already forgotten?”

He groaned. “There you go again. Being bad. No sex tonight, remember?”

“We can’t even talk about it?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Definitely not. That’s trouble.”

“So, what can we talk about then?”

He glanced over. “My mother.”

Naked. In Alaska. Fucking cold as ice with an audience of senior citizens.
And a discussion about his mother. There, Griffin’s sex drive was officially dead for the next decade.

“How is she?” Val asked, looking like an angel again. Her blue eyes tilted with concern.

“Better. I picked her up from the hospital this morning and took her back to Seaside Harbor. She still has no idea who I am. So, I guess I can say she’s back to her old self. Or new self.”