AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Prom was great. We had a lot of fun.” Especially after the dance. Alone in our hotel room. My skin warms, and I look away from Remy. “But now I find out the whole time he had this big secret he was hiding.” How long has Griff actually known?
“He wasn’t hiding it,” Remy says. “He was trying to find the right time to tell you.” He lifts his gaze to the sky. “As much as it nauseates me to admit it, you’re the only person that could stop him.”
“Is that why he waited until he’d already signed a bunch of papers and couldn’t back out?”
Remy shifts his gaze to me again. This time his eyes are wide with surprise. “I didn’t realize it was finalized. I think I’ve been hoping he might decide not to do it myself.”
“Oh.” For some reason, that admission steals the wind out of my anger at Remy. “Really?”
“Of course.” He forces a cocky grin onto his face, but it doesn’t quite sit right. “I depend on him for a lot of stuff.”
As if he won’t miss Griff. “That’s it?”
“No,” he says with exaggerated patience. “But I can’t even guilt him about abandoning me because he went behind my back and asked Dex for help while he’s gone. Before he even told me he was considering this.”
If I wasn’t still stung over everything, I might laugh at Remy’s indignant tone. “Good.”
“You two will be fine,” Remy says.
I sniffle, hating this so much. “It feels like we just…we barely got to be a couple out in the open?—”
Oh, shit. Too late, I realize what I just admitted.
“You think I didn’t know you two were up to something?” Remy chuckles.
Oooh, that’s right. Griff said Remy tried to set him up with those girls on purpose. I should be furious with him, but it seems insignificant now.
“I don’t care,” Remy continues. “But I wish he hadn’t felt like he had to sneak around. You’re not a secret to be kept.”
“He didn’t make me feel that way.” Not too much anyway. “You’re important to him, and he didn’t want to wreck your friendship if you went all crazy big brother.”
“Yeah, I know,” he answers in a dry tone. “Am I really that awful?”
“You’ve been surprisingly chill.”
He runs his hands through his hair like he’s having some internal battle. “He doesn’t want to be away from you all summer. You realize that, right? He’s not running away from you—he’s trying to run toward a future for the two of you.”
I sniffle, hating how pathetic I sound. “What do you mean? How?”
“He didn’t tell you?”
Shame crawls over my skin. “We didn’t get into a lot of details.”
“There’s a cash prize if he makes it to the final four.” He frowns and cocks his head. “Or final two? I don’t remember.” He waves it off as if it’s not important. “It’s a lot of money, though. More than he can make restoring cars in Johnsonville.”
“But I don’t want him to put himself in danger and say it’s for us. You said Grandpa left me money for school. I’ll graduate and find a good job.” I wish I felt as confident as I sound. “Together, we’ll be fine.”
“That’s not how Griff operates. He’ll never accept sponging off of you.” He tips his head back and runs his hand over the top of his head. “Christ, he barely wanted to take the small amount of money Gramps left him.”
“Why? Nana and Grandpa loved Griff.”
“Yeah, they did. And that’s how I convinced him to accept it. Then we turned around and bought The Castle with that money.”
“You have to have earned that back by now.” For a while, it seemed like they hosted fight nights there every weekend.
“Yes and no. It’s…a lot.” Remy shakes his head. “What I’m trying to say is, Griff doesn’t have a family who gave him any kind of head start.” He pulls a disgusted face. “If anything, his parents left him in a deficit. With his mom’s issues, she’s basically an emotional and financial vampire. He barely got to be a kid at all.”
“As bad as Dad is, we had Mom for a little while. And our grandparents,” I whisper in agreement.
