But when she arrived at Sykes-Wilcox the next morning, Indina discovered that Griffin had been called to work out of the company’s Baton Rouge offices. He remained there for the rest of the week, not returning to the New Orleans office until yesterday morning. Indina still wasn’t sure if he’d actively avoided seeing her yesterday or if he just happened not to be around for the few hours she was there.
She’d made every excuse she could think of to explain why she’d been in such a funk since leaving that cruise ship, but deep down Indina knew the truth. She’d been miserable because of how she’d left things with Griffin.
This is why I gave up on relationships.
This shit was just way too complicated.
But the more she thought about it, the more Indina had come to realize that it wasn’t complicated at all. She missed him. It was as simple as that.
And it wasn’t just about the sex. She missed Griffin. She missed the easy conversation they had when she walked into his office at work and perched on the edge of his desk. She missed having someone in her corner, someone she could bounce ideas off of, or complain to when she ran into a roadblock.
When she wasn’t thinking about what she missed, she was thinking about what she could have if only she would allow it to happen. She’d gotten a glimpse of it back on that cruise ship. The hours they’d spent talking out on the veranda, holding hands on the beach, lying together all night in bed. That could be her life if she stopped getting in her own way.
She was ready to make that happen. For so long, the thought of placing her heart in someone else’s care had scared her to no end. But Indina knew now that she was willing to take that chance.
She was ready to trust Griffin with her heart.
She stood up so abruptly that her chair nearly tumbled to the floor.
“Watch yourself there, Baby Girl,” her dad said.
“Sorry. I’ve got it,” Indina said, righting the chair and pushing it under the table. “Are we done here?”
“I guess.” Reid shrugged as he shoved a piece of cake into his mouth.
She rounded the table and kissed her dad on the cheek. “I’ll be here for dinner on Sunday.”
“No, we’re going to Margo’s, remember?” he said. “They’re having a picnic.”
“They changed the picnic to Alex and Renee’s,” Reid said.
“Okay then. I’ll see you all at Alex and Renee’s.”
She loved her family, but she had something else she needed to take care of.
There was a man that she could see herself falling in love with—growing old with—and she had to make sure she hadn’t messed things up completely with him. She’d told herself she was done chasing after love, but if it was Griffin’s love that awaited her at the end, she was willing to do a bit more chasing.
Griffin picked up his sketch pencil and tapped it against the blotter before tossing it on his desk. He’d started out using the new drafting program the office had recently switched to, but his work had been for shit. He thought going old school with a pencil and paper could possibly shake him out of his funk, but his brain just was not up for design work today.
His brain hadn’t been in the mood for working at all lately, which didn’t bode well for the project he’d been handed from the Baton Rouge office. Griffin grabbed the pencil again, but just as quickly set it back down. He perched his elbows on his desk and ran his hands down his face.
It didn’t matter how much he tried to distract himself with work, or TV, or any of the other methods he’d attempted in the past week, he couldn’t get Indina off his mind. How in the hell was he supposed to work when what she’d said to him out on that veranda kept replaying over and over again in his mind?
If I’d known this is what would come of this weekend I never would have invited you to come on this cruise.
The mental torture those words inflicted was worse than anything he’d endured, even during the worst moments of his marriage to Jacqueline. That’s how he knew his feelings for Indina ran so much deeper than even he had realized. He’d spent the past week vacillating between cursing himself for pushing her, and being just as upset that he’d waited so long to tell her how he really felt.
Griffin knew he ran the risk of scaring her away. He knew if Indina wasn’t ready to take that next step, he could lose her. He’d come to the point where he was willing to take that risk. He just hadn’t considered how much it would hurt.
It hurt so damn much.
He’d been in agony for over a week, but Griffin knew the agony would have lasted a lot longer if he had kept his feelings bottled in. He couldn’t stomach the thought of going on the way they had been, not after the time he and Indina had spent on that cruise ship. Not after getting to know her and her family. It would have hurt more to return home and only have a part of her, especially after getting a taste of what his life could be like if Indina gave him all of her heart.
And yet, Griffin had lost count of the number of times he’d had to stop himself from calling her and begging for any little crumb she was willing to give him. He’d had to turn off the sound on his text messages after he realized he was damn near getting anxiety attacks every time
