Borrowing Trouble (23 page)

“What?”

She ran out of the room only to return a few minutes later, holding a small rectangular velvet box. “I still have to wrap it.” She flipped up the lid and a gold necklace with a diamond pendant twinkled under the lights.

Brady whistled. “Big-ticket item.”

“Every young woman should have a special piece of jewelry from her family,” Sam said, and Brady wanted to say,
Spoken like a true socialite
. “Anyway, it doesn't compare to what Griffin gave her . . . well, may as well have given her.”

“What's that?”

“A Lexus SUV.”

“Get out,” Brady said. “He gave her a freaking car?”

“It's used, but barely. Rhys says it's worth nearly thirty-five-thousand dollars and Griff sold it to her for four thousand.”

“That certainly trumps my fifty-dollar iTunes card.”

“Griff in is a good guy.” Sam assessed the kitchen. “You need help in here? I could do the dishes.”

“I've got it covered, unless you're done with everything else.”

“I am,” she said, sounding surprised. “This is the easiest party I've ever organized. The birthday girl is incredibly low maintenance. Told Maddy and me to do whatever we wanted.”

“Same with the food,” Brady said. “She had a vision for a cookout. Since it's February, we did the next best thing.”

“I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to the food. I'm so sick of Richard's pretentious dishes. Every Breyer hotel event has to have beef Wellington. Do you know how tired that dish is?”

“Tell that to Gordon Ramsay.” But secretly Brady agreed that it was pretty tired. “Richard is okay. Nothing wrong with sticking to the classics.”

“Nothing wrong with it as long as you're not an insufferable ass too.”

“What's going on now?” Sam had never gotten along with Nate's corporate chef. Brady would never come out and say it, but Richard was a prick.

“He just fights everything,” Sam said. “Any suggestion to switch up the menu with lighter dishes or something more festive, and he balks. People, especially in California, don't eat all those rich foods anymore.”

“Has Nate talked to him?”

“Nate shouldn't have to intercede. I'm Breyer Hotels' corporate event planner. Richard needs to take direction from me. But he doesn't like women.”

It wasn't that Richard didn't like women; he didn't like having them as his boss. Brady could understand Sam's frustration, but he didn't like bad-mouthing other chefs.

“Sorry,” Sam said. “I was just venting and you don't need to hear this while you're in the middle of preparing for a big party. Did you see the beautiful pastries Emily brought?”

“I did. It's gonna be one hell of a dessert table.”

Brady looked at the time and got to work on the cheese sauce for the nachos. While that was cooking, he began slicing cabbage for a spicy slaw he planned to use as a topping for his mini fried-chicken sandwiches. By the time all his prep work was done, salads made, and oven preheated, some of his helpers had arrived. He'd assembled an experienced catering team that he used regularly. A number of the servers and line cooks moonlighted from their permanent jobs at hotels and restaurants in Reno and Glory Junction. Brady put them to work building sandwiches and sliders and plating.

When the first gaggle of guests streamed in, Brady sent servers out with passed hors d' oeuvres. Sam had seen to the setup of the bar and had hired Floyd from the Ponderosa to serve drinks, wine, and beer.

“Hey.” Sloane wandered in wearing a simple black cocktail dress that clung to her curves and showed enough cleavage to make him hyperventilate. She'd dressed up for Jake and Cecilia's wedding, but tonight she took his breath away.

“You look beautiful.” He couldn't restrain himself and kissed her in the middle of the kitchen for anyone to see. If she stood there much longer in that dress, he'd hoist her up on the counter and have it over her head in no time. And wouldn't that be a show?

The things this woman did to him.

“Will you be able to come out and mingle for a little while?” she asked.

“I'm planning on it once everything is under control in the kitchen. Even brought a change of clothes.”

She beamed up at him and again he felt that magic pull. Shit, he was so unprepared for these feelings, so ill equipped to parse and compartmentalize them and put them in the proper place. Under different circumstances he might've let himself go and just enjoy the euphoria of being this deeply infatuated with a woman. But how could he?

And it seemed as if the powers wanted to reinforce that point because right at that moment his phone vibrated with a call from Santa Monica Police Department's Detective Rinek.

 

Griffin planned to stay for thirty minutes, no more. Just enough time to circle the room, show his face, and wish Lina happy birthday. Then he'd be on his way, social obligation taken care of. Someone passed with a tray of sliders and he grabbed one. May as well eat, he figured, and hit the buffet table, where he loaded up a plate.

“Hey, Griff.” Nate rushed by him.

It looked like the family was about to make a toast. Maddy, holding Emma, along with Rhys, Samuel, and Sam, stood by the bar waiting for Nate. Once they were all assembled, Rhys cleared his throat. In an effort to hush the room, a few guests clinked their glasses with pieces of flatware.

Rhys stepped up as the room finally grew quiet. “We just wanted to thank everyone for coming and celebrating my sister's birthday. Ordinarily, we would've waited to do something like this for her twenty-first. But given that she was accepted into the prestigious engineering department at the University of Nevada and she's home again with the people who love her, we figured we had a lot to celebrate. So why wait? Lina”—he searched the room—“where are you?” She waved her arm in the middle of the crowd and a shout went up. “Just wanted to say how very proud we are of you. Happy birthday, little sister.”

The guests hooted and hollered as they broke up to mingle, leaving Griffin with his first glimpse of Lina. She was so stunning that his mouth went dry. Her hair had been swept back in an intricate twist that involved a braid with loose tendrils framing her face. Griff took in her strapless dress, shapely shoulders, tiny waist, and mile-long legs. He'd never seen her look so sophisticated.

“Gorgeous, right?” Darla came up alongside him. “I did her hair.”

“Incredible,” was all he could manage to say.

“Check it out.” Harlee, who'd squeezed in next to them, showed Griffin a photo of a beaming Lina on her camera. “I just posted it on the
Trib
's website. She's a star. What's wrong with you?”

“Nothing,” Griff said.

“You looked really far away there for a second.” Harlee felt his head and smirked. “A little hot, perhaps? Go say hi.” She pushed him directly at Lina. Damn, she was strong. Griff stumbled and almost lost his plate. He put it on an empty tray and walked toward Lina. She was surrounded by people he didn't know, probably her friends from school. A few of the guys stood way too close for Griff 's taste.

“You came.” Lina separated herself from the group and smiled up at him. Griffin thought for sure his heart would pound out of his chest.

“Happy birthday.” He'd forgotten to bring a gift and felt a little stupid.

“Thank you. Come meet my friends.” She took his arm and introduced him to the circle of folks she'd been hanging with.

As they all stood, talking, Griffin absently put his arm around Lina. She didn't seem to be bothered by it, so he left it there. He couldn't help but notice that a few of the clingier dudes had backed off. One had even started scoping out other women, which suited Griff just fine.

“Hey, you two, I want to get a picture.” Maddy motioned for Griffin and Lina to move closer and snapped a photo. “Now with the whole group.” Lina's school friends gathered around and Maddy got the shot.

The two McCreedy boys and Lina's little brother came running up. Maddy wanted a picture of Lina with them, too. Griff started to move away, but Maddy told him to stay put.

“All five of you.” She shot a few more, then did a couple with just Lina and Samuel.

“Let me take one of you, Lina, Samuel, Emma, and Rhys,” Griff suggested.

“That would be great.” Maddy sent Samuel after Rhys, who had baby Emma.

They returned a few minutes later and Griff got a family shot of them standing on the inn's killer staircase.

“Now that's a good picture,” Clay said, and put his drink down on a nearby table. “Griff, get on the staircase with them and I'll take it.”

Griffin waited for someone to point out the fact that he wasn't part of the family. But when no one did, he caved and got in the shot. Rhys wanted a picture of the McCreedy clan. So they spent another fifteen minutes switching people in and out of various shots—some taken on the veranda. There was a family portrait of the Shepards and Nate and Samantha Breyer, which Griff took. The whole thing was getting kind of out of hand.

All Griff wanted to do was steal some private time with Lina. But as she was the guest of honor, no one would leave her alone. Donna and her husband, Trevor, Ethel and Stu, the Millers, who owned Nugget Farm Supply, the Gaitlins, whose son played basketball with Samuel, and Pam from the yoga studio and her husband. Griffin couldn't even remember his name. They all wanted a piece of Lina.

So he just waited with his hands shoved in his pockets. Colin stood with him for a few minutes, but after a while the crush of people became too much for Colin. He had a social anxiety disorder that he'd nearly whupped. Still, this many people sent him over the edge.

Finally, sensing that Griffin wanted a few minutes alone, Lina took him by the hand to one of the upstairs rooms. Maddy and Nate had closed the place to overnight guests for the party. Given Lina's dress and the way she looked tonight, Griffin didn't think a vacant room with a bed was the best choice for a private place to talk.

As he looked around the suite, he realized something. “This was my room when I first came to Nugget. This was the first place you and I made out.” It had been more than making out. They'd done everything but the deed itself.

Lina's face turned red. “I snuck in and made a fool of myself.”

“That's not the way I remember it.”

He wrapped his arms around her, backed her up to the foot of the bed, and kissed her like a starving man. Carried away, he found the zipper on the back of her dress, pulled it down, and tugged the hemline until the little number floated around her feet like froth in a milkshake. Her bra, like the dress, was strapless, held up only by two perfect breasts, and her panties consisted of nothing more than a strip of lace.

“You make me crazy,” he whispered in her ear. “You're so beautiful.”

“I have a room full of guests downstairs.” But she continued to kiss him back, pulling Griffin against her until he thought he'd explode.

He slipped away just fast enough to lock the door, came back, peeled Lina's panties down her silky legs, and found her wet center with his hand. She moaned, going down on the bed, and pushing herself up with her elbows.

“Ah, Jesus, I want to take a picture of you like that.” With her breasts thrust forward and naked from the waist down. He came down on top of her, spreading her legs apart with his knee so he could feel her heat.

“Don't you dare.” She kept kissing him. “Griff? We have to stop.”

“What? You don't like this?” She'd always been the one to initiate sex in the past. He'd always been the one to stop her before they went too far.

“I like it so much that pretty soon I won't be able to stop. But it's completely inappropriate.”

As much as it gave him blue balls to admit it, she was right. When had impulsive little Lina Shepard shown good judgment? When they'd first started seeing each other, she used to pull all kinds of stunts to get him to take her virginity, including stripping naked in places where they could easily have gotten caught.

He rolled off her and tried to catch his breath. And she started putting her clothes back on.

“One of us should go down first,” Lina said, and tried to zip the back of her dress.

He finished the job and spun her around. “Where are we at, Lina?”

She held his gaze. “You tell me, since you're always the one with the rules.”

He wanted to say that someone had had to be the adult. “I miss you. Do you miss me?”

There was a long pause before she said, “Yes. But you hurt me, Griffin.”

“I was trying to do what was right. I was trying to give you a chance to be a college student. You know that, because we've been over it a hundred times before.”

“If you'd really loved me you wouldn't have let me go.”

“I loved . . . love . . . you so much it hurts. You were eighteen when I met you. Eighteen, Lina.”

“And what, twenty is the magic number?”

“It's still too damn young. But not being with you . . . it's killing me. Did Rhys tell you that we talked?”

“No. What did he say?”

“He said he was sick of seeing us moon over each other.”

She smiled. “I didn't realize we were that obvious.”

“You're not.”

Her face grew somber. “I've got a lot going on right now. School, work, my family. Maybe we could just go slow. Date. See where things go.”

“That didn't work for you before.”

“I'm a different person now.” Definitely more mature, Griffin thought. “Do you think we could try that?”