Griff's Place (Havenwood #4) - Riley Hart Page 0,19
I’d known him ever since he’d moved to Havenwood, a few years earlier. He and Kellan were the best of friends. I knew his grandma had lived in Havenwood and he’d come visit her in the summers as a child, but we’d never met him back then. When she passed away, she left Josh the house and some money. I knew he had family he wasn’t close to, who never came to see him.
But I also knew he was confident and funny. That there wasn’t a damn thing in the world he wouldn’t do for my brother and maybe anyone he cared about. Josh enjoyed sex and laughing and didn’t seem to have a worry in the world, didn’t seem to have anything to hide, but as I watched him avoid looking at me and thought about how he’d just spoken, I wondered if I was wrong about that last part.
He looked at me and gave me a cocky grin. “You think I’m pretty, don’t you?”
An unexpected laugh jumped out of my mouth. His words shouldn’t have surprised me, not coming from Josh. Maybe it was just that I didn’t expect it right then. “Shut up. You wish.”
“You do. I can see it.”
“Pretty conceited is what I think you are.”
“It’s cool, man. I’m used to it. There’s something special about this face. It’s brought stronger men to their knees.”
“Are you saying I’m weak?” I teased.
He frowned. “No. That came out wrong. Not sure there’s a stronger person than you. Not sure at all.” My pulse shot through the roof. It wasn’t often that Josh, or hell, anyone, said things like that to me. I opened my mouth, unsure what was going to come out. Josh beat me to the punch. “Shut up.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You were gonna, though. Let’s go eat.” He pulled the truck into the lot in front of a Western-style diner. I hadn’t even realized we’d arrived in town.
When we got out, he shoved my keys into the pocket of his loose-fitting jeans. He got to the door first and held it open, signaling for me to go inside.
I did. It was a small diner, filled with dark woods just like the cabin and the outside of all the buildings. There wasn’t a hostess, but a woman looked up from the counter in the back and gave us a kind smile. “Y’all can go ’head and seat yourselves anywhere. I’ll be right there.”
I nodded and went for a booth, sitting down as Josh slid in across from me. The waitress came straight over and handed us menus, asking if we wanted anything to drink.
“I’ll take a Coke,” Josh said.
“Same,” I agreed.
“Two Cokes coming up. I’ll be back to take y’all’s order.”
“I’m starving.” Josh opened his menu and began scanning. I did the same, but every few seconds, my eyes kept finding their way to him. To the way his dark hair swept across his forehead, or to the mole above his lip that Kell always called his Marilyn Monroe beauty mark. To the strong set of his jaw, or the way his tongue snaked out to trace his lip, or—
“You keep starin’ at me, I’m gonna go and think you’re in love with me or something.”
Shit. How did he do that? His eyes never left the menu the whole time. “Just trying to figure out how I’m gonna deal with days on end with you.”
Josh looked up at me. “Funny, I’ve been doing the same thing, Grumpy G.”
“I really wish I could think of something to go with your name.”
“Sucks to be you.” He shrugged.
“Jarring Josh?”
“Are you saying I’m disturbing?”
“Jinxed Josh?”
“Totally not bad luck. You really do suck at this.”
I laughed again. Damn it, he always seemed to be able to make me do that. “Wacky Westbrook?”
“Nope. Not gonna work. You need to face the facts here. I’m better at picking nicknames than you are, especially alliterations.”
He might have had a point there. “I don’t want to play this game with you anymore.”
“Sweetheart, that’s because I already won.”
It was said playfully, but still, the word sweetheart sent shivers down my spine, made a tingle form there and then spread throughout my body. That was…unexpected.
“Y’all ready, or you need some more time?” the waitress asked, startling me. She set our drinks in front of us.
My eyes found Josh, but he didn’t seem to be losing his shit the way I was. If that’s what I was doing.