He reached over and gave her arm a fleeting caress with the backs of his fingers.
“But I want to,” Griffin said softly. “I want to know everything there is to know about you.”
Her bottom lip started to tremble. She pulled it between her teeth.
“What scares you so much?” Griffin asked.
“Getting hurt,” she admitted in a small voice. She released a deep breath and lifted her shoulders in a hapless shrug. “That’s what scares me, Griffin. Once there’s a real emotional connection, you’ll have the power to hurt me.”
“I won’t hurt you, Indina. I would never hurt you.”
“You don’t know that. Look at what happened between you and your first wife.”
He pulled his hand away and stood. “Don’t do that,” Griffin said. “I didn’t tell you about that just so you could turn around and use it against me.”
“But it’s a valid point.”
“No, it isn’t. What we have could never be as toxic as what I had with Jackie. You’re nothing like her, and I’m not the man I was back when I was married to her.
“Why are you so afraid to even consider that maybe things could work out between us? That we could have the happily ever after? It’s not unheard of, Indina. Just look at all the people in your family.”
“Like who? Like Harrison and Willow?” she asked. “They can barely stand to talk to each other. Do you want to know about Alex and his first wife, Chantal? She died in a car wreck with her lover when Jasmine was just a baby. How’s that for your happily ever after?”
“And you don’t think Alex has found happiness with Renee?” Griffin asked. “And what about all the others? Your cousins and their wives? Your Aunt Margo and Gerald? Your own parents?” he asked. “We could be one of those. Or maybe we won’t, but damn, Indina, just give us a chance.” Griffin ran his hand down his face. “Look, I know when we started this, neither of us were ready for a relationship—”
“Which is why what we have going right now is perfect.”
“Except it’s no longer enough for me,” he said. “I want more.”
She pulled her sweater more securely around her. “So what are you saying? Is this an ultimatum? Either I agree to enter into a real relationship with you or I find myself another fuck buddy?”
The jealousy that came over him at the thought of her lying next to some other man at night was thick enough for Griffin to choke on.
Indina closed her eyes and pitched her head back. With another frustrated breath, she said, “If I’d known this is what would come of this weekend I never would have invited you to come on this cruise.”
Her words hit him like a baseball bat to the chest.
“That didn’t come out right,” Indina said.
Griffin just stared at her. He had to clear his throat before he could speak.
“Do you care for me at all? Do you have any feelings for me outside of what I do for you in bed, or am I just a good lay to you?”
She hesitated a second too long. It was all the answer he needed. He pushed away from the railing and went back into the cabin.
“Griffin,” Indina called after him, but he didn’t stop walking. Not until he reached the top deck and found himself face up on a lounge chair, staring mindlessly at the millions of stars in the sky.
When he returned to their cabin hours later, Indina was already asleep. For the first time in eight months they slept in the same bed without making love.
Chapter 6
“What about Diane’s Daughters?”
“That’s stupid,” Ezra said. “Mom only had one daughter.”
“But the foundation will be for girls, so in a sense they’re all mom’s daughters.” Reid tapped the side of his head. “Think outside the box, man.”
“The Diane Holmes Foundation is just fine,” Ezra said.
“The Diane Holmes Foundation sounds boring. Hey.” A piece of popcorn came flying at Indina’s head. “You plan to have some input or what?” Reid asked.
Indina jumped. “Huh?”
Her brother threw another popcorn kernel at her head. “If you came here to just stare into space you could have stayed your ass home,” Reid said. “And where in the hell is Harrison? He should be here. He’s the one doing all the legal stuff for Mom’s foundation.”
“Shhh,” Ezra told Reid as he looked over his shoulder. “Don’t talk so loud. I think Dad’s in the next room. He’ll hear you.”
“Maybe he should,” Reid said. “I still think if we’re going to set up a foundation in Mom’s name, he should have some input.”
“He will have input. We just want to have the initial groundwork laid so we can present it to him on Mom’s birthday. You know that’s going to be a hard day for him.” Ezra turned to Indina. “And he’s right. We could use your input here. Have you been paying attention at all to this conversation?”
She could lie and say that she had, but Indina had only been listening with half an ear. “I’m sorry,” she said. “What were we discussing?”
“The foundation,” Reid said.
She rolled her eyes. “I know we’re discussing the foundation. Have we established each of our roles yet? That would prevent us all from working on the same thing at the same time.”
“Harrison is handling all the legal stuff, and I’m going to deal with the PR,” Ezra said.
“We haven’t even decided on an official name yet,” Reid interjected. “It’s too early to think about PR.”
“It’s never too early to think about PR,” Ezra said. “And the name will be The Diane Holmes Foundation.”
“Diane’s Daughters is better,” Reid said.
“Okay, okay.” Indina put her hands up. “We first have to decide what our initial goal will be. We know we want to build this into a foundation to help at least one student from the New Orleans area go to medical school—”
“Just one?” Reid asked.
“Of course we
