Redemption 4 - Helen's Release

by Helen's Release (Loose-Id) (lit)

  A charming red flush bloomed on her cheeks. “You’re not going to let me live that down, are you?”

  “I’m sure you can convince me to do most anything.”

  Clearing her throat, Helen fidgeted. “I’m not big on drinks.”

  With her former husband, he wasn’t surprised. Wives of alcoholics didn’t normally tend to be heavy drinkers.

  “They don’t have to be of the spirit variety. I’d be happy to just sip coffee with you.”

  “Not much toasting can be done with coffee.”

  “Says who?”

  A ghost of a smile trickled across her pale pink lips, making Griffin want to chase after it with his own mouth. “You don’t take no for an answer.”

  “I learned early in life, no isn’t always the final the answer.”

  “You’re incorrigible.”

  And you’re breathtaking. Griffin ached to say the words, but he knew instinctively she would bolt if he did. Playing games wasn’t his way, but he knew with every fiber of his being that Helen would see any sign of desire from him as trying to talk his way into her bed. Although her bed was exactly where he wanted to be, for Griffin, it wasn’t just about sex.

  He could get sex anywhere.

  He knew his worth. Griffin’s bank account was as healthy as he liked to keep his body. Even though he’d be pushing fifty in a few years, Griffin still liked to think he was in the prime of his life. The only thing missing from it was a wonderful woman to spend it with, but luckily for him, he’d already met her in the form of one very lovely Helen Weller.

  “Is that a yes?”

  Helen sighed heavily before nodding. “Fine, I’ll meet you for coffee. Can I hope this will be the end of you harping on me about this subject?”

  “Oh, you can always hope.”

  Helen giggled at his sarcastic retort. If his eyes had been closed, he could almost imagine she was a young girl with her first lover. “So, where and when will the great event take place?”

  “How about right now?”

  “Now? Uh, okay, I guess. Why don’t we go to Samantha’s Diner? I can really blow my diet and have a piece of pie, too.”

  “A piece of pie from Samantha’s sounds great, but there is no way in hell you need to be on a diet.” Griffin looked her up and down, appraising her figure appreciatively. Although she might have gained a few pounds in the last year, he thought it made her look healthy. Besides, he wasn’t into model-thin waifs who starved themselves.

  Helen rolled her eyes in disbelief, but refrained from commenting. “Okay, I guess I’ll just meet you there.”

  “I don’t think so. I invited you out, and I’ll be driving you to the diner.” Griffin had wondered when and how he was going to get a break with Helen. Now that he had found a chink in her armor, he wasn’t planning on backing off.

  “Why would you waste time driving me to the diner and then have to worry about driving back here? Oh, this is ridiculous. I don’t know why I even agreed to this foolishness.”

  “It’s no worry to drive you, and you agreed because you’re fascinated by me.”

  Helen shook her head in resignation. “Fine, one cup of coffee and a piece of pie, but then I’ve got to get home.”

  “Yes, ma’am. You’re in charge.”

  Helen stared at him a moment longer, as if she were trying to decide if he were kidding or not. She obviously wasn’t used to the teasing and compliments, something Griffin was sure he could easily change. After a moment of silence, she excused herself to quickly freshen up, and Griffin shrugged into his coat. He grinned, happy with the way the day was rounding out. His delight didn’t last too long, however.

  “I don’t want to have to come and talk to you about hitting on my mother-in-law. Do not make me go there.” Marc stepped out of the shadows of the library into the foyer.

  “Do you always spy on your guests?”

  “You know I do.” Marc snorted. The question was a rhetorical one at best.

  “Just like you know there’s no reason for you to be concerned about Helen and myself.”

  Marc hesitated for a second, as if he was unsure of what to say.

  It was so unlike him that it bothered Griffin. “Come on, Marc, you know me. I’m not going to hurt her.”

  “What makes you think it’s her I’m worried about?”

  Griffin smiled, taking Marc’s comment as a jest, but the younger man didn’t return his grin. “You worry too much.”

  “Trust me, I don’t like feeling this.”

  “What, emotions?”

  Marc’s frown made Griffin want to smile all the more. After a decade of watching the other’s man back, he was finally going to see what it was like to sit on the sideline and have absolutely no say in the goings on of the people he loved. Griffin thought it was poetic justice.

  “I should let her break your heart.” Marc sounded like a perturbed schoolgirl.

  “If she does, will you come over to eat ice cream with me and braid my hair?”

  “Get out of my house.” Griffin roared with amusement. Marc was worried. It must be freezing in hell.

  “Just as soon as my date comes out of the restroom, I will.”

  “Now it’s a date?”

  “I’m ready, Griffin.” Helen breezed into the room, halting the conversation cold. It was a good thing for Griffin, though, because he was more than sure Marc wasn’t going to like what he had to say.

  “See you later, Marc.” Slapping him casually on the arm, Griffin added, “Congrats on the news again.”

  “Thanks. Drive carefully.” There was a warning in Marc’s eyes that had very little to do with driving.

  “I will.”

  “Tell Lily to rest, and I’ll call her later this evening,” Helen added as Griffin began to hustle her out to the car.

  “Better tell her tomorrow instead.”

  “Griffin.” Heat bloomed in Helen’s checks as she cast her gaze nervously from his to Marc’s.

  “I have a reputation to protect, Helen.” Griffin winked. “I can’t have you getting home too soon.” Griffin smiled wolfishly at Marc as the door was slammed in his face.

  “Is everything alright with Marc? He seemed a little … disturbed.”

  “Oh, he’s fine. New father syndrome and all that. Worry is just his new middle name.”

  Helen didn’t seem too convinced by Griffin’s explanation, but he didn’t much care. The shoe was on the other foot with Marc now, and Griffin was looking forward to the fireworks.

  Gently guiding Helen with a hand under her elbow, Griffin walked toward his car. Sweeping open the door, he bowed comically. “Your chariot, milady.”

  “Thank you, kind sir.” Helen giggled. “I swear, Griffin. You can take me from anger to confusion to laughter in about three seconds flat.” Helen stepped into the car and quickly arranged herself before Griffin shut the door.

  Griffin barely restrained his grin as he thought about just where he wanted to take her. He knew he was moving pretty fast, especially for Helen, but when the time was right, he had to take the bull by the horns.

  “Well, I’m glad I can get you to laugh. Isn’t humor supposed to be the basis of a good relationship?”

  “Relationship? Don’t you think you’re being awfully presumptuous?”

  “Do you realize when you get nervous you repeat whatever was just said and then try to insult me?”

  “Insult you? I never did any such thing. Why, I …” Griffin raised his eyebrows pointedly as Helen gasped and then began laughing hysterically.

  “Oh, my goodness, you’re right. I never realized.”

  “That’s okay, I have a feeling we’ll both be learning a lot about each other, as well as ourselves.” At least Griffin certainly hoped so.

  Chapter Two

  Helen sat in the car on the drive over to the diner contemplating how her life had been turned upside down in just a few hours. Leaving her condo earlier in the day, she would never have guessed she’d be having coffee w
ith Griffin Powers this evening.

  Griffin was her son-in-law’s security expert, but he was also Marc’s surrogate father. Therefore, she’d had many occasions in the last year to run into him. Although always unfailingly polite, today was the first time he had ever been teasing and, dare she think, flirty with her.

  “Penny for your thoughts.” Griffin’s words startled Helen, and she blushed in the darkened interior of the car. There was no way in hell she was going to tell him she had just been wondering if he was flirting with her. Quick, think up a lie.

  “Oh, just wondering how Lily is feeling.” Stupid, stupid, stupid. The one thing she didn’t want bring up was the whole grandmother issue.

  “Hmm, why is it I don’t believe you?” Fortunately Griffin didn’t seem to be in the mood to pursue the line of questioning and flipped on the radio, tuning it to an oldies station. Of course, this was the music she’d grown up with. Along that line of thought, she began to wonder just how old Griffin was. He was certainly younger than she. But how much younger?

  She needed to get a grip on herself. When had she started to think of Griffin as anything more than an extension of Marc? If she were honest with herself, it was probably soon after her husband’s car accident. After he died, she had felt free, released from the prison of fifteen years of daily verbal and mental abuse. Like awakening from a long sleep, she had suddenly become aware of all the things the world had to offer. Although she couldn’t imagine being in a relationship anymore, she certainly could appreciate a good-looking man.

  “Here we are.” Griffin interrupted her wayward thoughts, and once again Helen could feel heat bloom on her cheeks. Walking into the diner a few minutes later, Helen prayed she didn’t have any more errant thoughts that would cause her to blush. The harsh fluorescent lights wouldn’t hide much.

  “I hope they have cherry pie. It’s my favorite.” Good, innocuous conversation. Next she could talk about the weather.

  “Pie,” the way he said the word, made her tingle inside. “Now I’m a man who enjoys a good slice of pie.”

  Breathe! Helen’s brain screamed, as she fought with all of her might to keep her eyes level with his. There was a teasing glint to his hazel eyes that had Helen second-guessing his definition of pie.

  “Ye-yes…” she stuttered. “Pies are nice.”

  Griffin chuckled in his lazy way. “Nice, indeed.”

  Pies are nice. Good Lord, she sounded simple. Luckily for Helen, she didn’t have much time to further wow him with her brilliance, because a waitress came forward to shepherd them to a table. Unluckily for Helen, though, Griffin used the opportunity to move in closer.

  He placed his hand on the small of her back, leading her toward a booth in the back of the semi-crowded diner. His touch startled her, her muscles tensed at his touch. Helen couldn’t remember the last time she had been touched by a man she hadn’t been related to in one form or the other. It was unnerving to say the least.

  Helen tried to quicken her step in order to avoid his touch, but Griffin followed suit, and sped up as well. Short of telling him to take his hands off of her, Helen was stuck. The short trek to the booth seemed to take an eon, and when they arrived, Helen made sure to sit down on the edge and not scoot over, forcing Griffin to sit in front of her instead of next to her.

  If he noticed, he didn’t say anything; instead he graciously thanked the hostess and picked up his menu. Following his lead, Helen picked up her menu, even though she couldn’t eat a bite to save her life. The plastic sheet would make a good cover, though, and give her a minute to compose her rickety nerves.

  “You’re in luck, Helen. They have pie.” Jeez, could he please stop saying that word?

  “I’m not really hungry, after all. Coffee will do for me.”

  “Not hungry.” Much to her dismay, Griffin tipped her menu down so he could see her face. “Please tell me you’re not one of those women who only eat lettuce leaves and sprouts.”

  “I am at the age where I should be more careful of what I eat.”

  The lack of stress in her life this last year had heralded the return of her appetite, and she had indulged herself.

  Unfortunately, at her age the weight wouldn’t come off as easily as it had when she was younger. She was resigned to being pleasantly plump.

  “You dwell way too much on your age. It’s just a number.”

  How like a man to say something like that. “Speaking of numbers, how old are you?”

  “How old do you want me to be?” Griffin teased.

  “Can’t you answer a simple question?” Helen decided to go on the offensive. Better to be questioning him than to be the one questioned.

  “Sure I can. I just don’t see why the number matters.”

  “Well, if it doesn’t matter, why don’t you just answer the question?”

  “Ahh, there’s the rub. It does seem to matter to you. Why is that, I wonder?” Griffin seemed to delight in turning things back on her.

  “I just wondered why a man, obviously younger than myself, is wasting his time having coffee with me, when he could be out with some hot young thing.”

  Griffin’s guffaws caused people in the diner to actually turn around and look back in their direction. Helen was mortified. She never wanted to be the center of attention, and now everyone was probably wondering what was going on at their booth.

  “Do you mind? It wasn’t that funny.”

  “Yes, it was. A little insulting, too, I might add. You’re making me out to be some guy who values fluff over substance. I thought you knew me a little better than that.”

  “I don’t really know you at all.”

  Griffin smiled wolfishly. “We need to rectify that immediately. What do you want to know? I’m an open book.”

  “I want to know how old you are.” Helen realized her response was probably louder than she intended, but he just seemed to know how to push her buttons.

  “Okay, let’s make a deal. I’ll answer a question if you answer a question; nothing is off-limits.”

  “I don’t know. There may be some things off-limits.” Helen wasn’t sure what kind of questions he planned to ask, but she suddenly felt the need to protect herself.

  “How about you get three freebies? But you better use them well, because if you use them up, you won’t get anymore.”

  “Is asking you your age really such a big thing?”

  “No,” he admitted. “But I can’t help but believe that to you, it’s just another roadblock.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Is that your question?”

  “What?”

  “I’m ready to play twenty questions, so is that your first question?”

  She was getting nowhere fast. “No. ‘How old are you?’ is my first question.”

  “Forty-five.” Griffin chuckled when Helen’s gaze immediately flashed to his graying temples. “They’ve been like that since I was twenty-eight. One day I woke up, and bam, old man gray.”

  “You don’t look old.” Hell, he wasn’t old. Forty-five seemed like light years away from her own fifty years. Besides, there was something very attractive about the graying hair. He looked dashing, for lack of a better word. “If it bothers you so much, why don’t you cover it?”

  “I never said it bothered me, and the way I look at it, I’ve earned every single one.”

  Helen wanted to roll her eyes. Only a man would be so casual and self-assured about graying hair. “I do admit there are a few more now than before I started working for Marc, but the majority of them belong to hard living.”

  “Hard living?” Now that was something Helen knew a lot about. Much more than she wanted to actually, but unlike her, Griffin didn’t appear as if a silver spoon had been far from his cradle. “I would have never guessed.”

  Griffin gave a nonchalant shrug. “Don’t let the suit fool you. Marc and I have more in common than you might think.” Before Helen could dig deeper into his comment, the waitress came back to take their ord
er. After requesting just coffee for the both of them, Griffin settled back in his chair with a very content look on his face. “My turn, I believe.”

  Fair was fair. “I do reserve the right to use my three passes at any time.”

  “Of course.” There was something about the predatory look in his eyes that warned Helen she wasn’t as safe as she thought. “When was the last time you were properly romanced by a man?”

  Well, that was an easy question. “I’ll pass.”

  Griffin roared with laughter, once again turning everyone’s attention in their direction, but this time Helen was prepared for it, so she didn’t even bat an eye.

  “Okay, then, what do you consider a romantic evening?”

  “Wait a minute. Isn’t it my turn? I passed on that last question.”

  “You forgot to read the fine print. I said you got three freebies. I didn’t say I still wasn’t getting twenty questions. I just get to ask twenty-three questions and get twenty answers.”

  “That’s not fair.”

  “I think we both know life is never fair.” Griffin’s serious words stunned Helen, wondering how much he knew about her life. She was definitely going to have to have a talk with Lily after this evening. “Now, answer the question.”

  Helen reviewed her life and realized she had never really experienced a romantic evening. Even before her marriage, the time she’d spent with Logan’s father, Jack Crane, was usually on furtive dates in the backseat of his old beat-up Chevy. They were two high school students who thought they were in love. Romance wasn’t really in the cards.

  Helen realized they had been sitting in silence for a while now and thought of a nice, pat answer. It was time to get this game over and done with. “A candlelit dinner, I guess.”

  Griffin stared back at her for a moment and then nodded, ever so slightly, as if he were filing the information in a secret vault. “Good enough. Your turn.”

  “How did you and Marc meet?”

  “We met through a mutual friend. Marc was starting his business, and I had recently left the marines. I was looking to get into the private security racket and my friend introduced us. I’ve been with him since the ground floor.” Griffin’s words were said with pride in Marc’s accomplishments.