Steph fumed. She couldn’t believe Griff was acting like this. Especially after he’d been so sweet to her brother. After he promised to take care of him no matter what. Was that his plan? To win her over through Joey? She wouldn’t let him manipulate her that way.
“Griff, you don’t have to take care of Joey after the divorce. I absolve you of all responsibility. Dave and I will take care of him.”
Griff stared at her, incredulous. “You’re turning down my money?”
Steph felt a little sick at the thought of uprooting Joey, but what could she do? This was wrong. Plain and simple.
“Yes,” she said.
Griff was silent, looking out the window. He turned back to her. “You’d just let Dave take my place?”
“You can still have a relationship with Joey. He loves you. I won’t stand between you. But, I won’t let you use him to get to me.”
The window separating them from the driver rolled down. “We have to stop for gas,” a feminine voice said. “There’s a lot of traffic up ahead. I don’t want to stall out.”
“Fine,” Griff said.
“And then I need to go home,” Steph said.
“We’re skipping Grinaldi’s,” Griff added with a frown.
They pulled off at the next rest stop. The driver, a woman dressed plainly in a hoodie and jeans, opened the back door. “This thing takes a while to fill up. Why don’t you get yourself a snack or something?”
Griff pulled Steph out of the car with him. “Come on.”
She followed him to the small gas station mart. “Who is that? Why was she hiding behind a tree at Horizon Village?”
“Mandy. She’s just part of the Griffin Huntley machine. She’s harmless.”
She glanced over her shoulder to find the woman watching them. Griff slung his arm around her shoulder and whispered in her ear, “How about a Yoo-hoo?”
She laughed. He used to tease her about still liking Yoo-hoo chocolate drink as an adult. “I’d love one,” she said.
He smiled down at her for a moment, then headed to the gas mart to get one. She was glad he seemed to have no hard feelings over her rejection.
~ ~ ~
Dave was somewhere between jealousy and a white-hot rage after his sister emailed him the news story about Griffin and Stephanie. It was one of those stupid gossip websites talking about the famous couple getting back together. A rumor he could handle. That could be a lie. But this picture of Griffin and Steph didn’t lie. Griffin had his arm around Steph, who was beaming up at him. Griffin was smiling down at her like she was his.
He took a few deep breaths, forcing himself to think rationally. There was only one explanation that made sense. Steph had lied to him. She’d said they were just visiting her brother. Yet she still wasn’t back from what should’ve been a day trip. She was just hanging out with Griffin at sunset, smiling at him, letting him touch her.
Dammit. He should’ve known. How could he ever have thought for even one nanosecond that he could compete with Griffin Huntley, rock star? He was just a middle school math teacher. The most exciting thing he could offer Steph was help grading her papers.
His cell rang. Steph’s number. He couldn’t answer. He was too furious. He felt like a complete fool, and he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from spewing his anger all over her. He quickly shut off the phone.
~ ~ ~
Steph grew increasingly worried on the ride back home. Dave wasn’t answering his cell. That wasn’t like him. He was expecting her call, too.
“No answer, huh?” Griff asked. “He probably forgot to charge it.”
“No, he charges it every night.” She tried again and it went straight to voicemail. He wasn’t answering the phone at his house either.
Griff started humming a melody to himself. “I wrote this song a few days ago. For you. It’s called ‘Missing Limb.’”
She wanted to cover her ears, as juvenile as that was. Then he sang about love and loss. About how he wished he had amnesia so he could forget her. About how she was a part of him. The best part.
What was she supposed to do about Griff? When he was focused on her, she felt the sincerity of his words, the love behind them. But once his attention shifted, it was like she didn’t exist. All she wanted was a divorce so she could move on. Here he was, not wanting to let her go. He loved her in his way. It just wasn’t the way she needed to be loved. And, in that moment, she finally understood that her marriage hadn’t been a huge mistake, it had been founded in love. It just couldn’t sustain itself through abandonment, betrayal, and multiple infidelities, she thought wryly. What marriage could?