Keeping Their Love (Griffin Brothers #7)
Read Keeping Their Love (Griffin Brothers #7) Online
Authors: Crystal Perkins
Keeping
Their Love
The
Griffin Brothers Valentine’s novella
by
Crystal Perkins
Copyright © 2015 by Crystal
Perkins
Cover Design by Helen Williams
Ebook
formatting by
Jesse
Gordon
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romance is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands,
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Table of Contents
Alexandra
Marie Roberts
&
Miles Andrew Corrigan
Invite you
celebrate their love
on February 14 at 8:00 PM
Scott, Ryan, Owen,
and Luke Griffin had getaways planned for their wives, whisking them
away for romantic and sexy weekends that they all really need.
Instead, they’ll be attending their niece's wedding—with only
seven days’ notice. While they’re all happy for her, none of them
has a back-up plan. No other gifts, and no idea how to make the
romance happen while attending a wedding at a theme park. They’ve
gamed, built, created, and learned for love. Now they just need to
figure out how to keep it.
This novella
includes characters from both The Griffin Brothers and Corrigan &
Co. series.
The
Griffin Brothers series
Gaming
For Love
(The Griffin Brothers #1)
Building
Our Love
(The Griffin Brothers #2)
Creating
A Love
(The Griffin Brothers #3)
Learning
To Love
(The Griffin Brothers #4)
Designing
The Love
(The Griffin Brothers #5)
Working
On Love
(The Griffin Brothers #6)
Corrigan
& Co. series
Fielding
Her SECRET
(Corrigan & Co. #1)
This book is for Terri-Lynn Jeavons, who asked
me to write a
Valentine’s novella for the Griffins!
Miles
I’m nervous as fuck.
Alex and I kept this secret for the last two months. Not from
everyone—she needed help from Stella and Quinn, so they knew, but
we wanted to keep everyone else in the dark until we knew we could
have everything ready. Now we’ve gathered everyone here, at her
grandparent’s house, to tell them the good news. I can only hope
they’re all too happy to be angry.
“Thanks for getting
together tonight, everyone. We really appreciate it,” Alex says as
she stands.
“Of course we’re
here. Anything for you, Baby Girl,” her Uncle Scott tells her.
I stand next to Alex.
We
are
in this
together, after all. She smiles at me, and nods. I turn to look at
her family, and mine. “Two months ago, I asked Alex to marry me.
She said yes, and we’ve been working since then to set everything
in motion. We’re getting married at Disneyland next week. On
Valentine’s Day.”
There’s a stunned
silence following my announcement. Shit. We weren’t expecting this.
Some anger for keeping this from everyone, followed by happiness for
us? Sure, we braced for that. But silence? No plan for that. Neither
one of us have a quiet family.
“This is a little
sudden, isn’t it?” Maggie Griffin finally asks, breaking the
silence.
“We’ve been in love
for almost seven years, Grandma. How is that sudden?”
“I just meant that
you haven’t been officially together long, maybe you should wait.”
“We’re not waiting.
If you don’t want to be there, then don’t. You’ve always fought
our relationship, and I’m tired of it.”
“Xandy,” I say,
turning to calm her down.
“No, Miles. She’s
right. I
do
love you
and I know how happy you make my granddaughter, but I have been
cautious. You’ve given me no reason to doubt you, and I am very
sorry that I’ve held back. I would be delighted to be at your
wedding.”
She walks over and hugs
me tight. I hold her back just as hard. I know that my girl wouldn’t
be who she is without this strong woman. The Griffins are the best
family I know, and next to my own Gram, Maggie Griffin is the best
role model a woman could have. I owe her so much. I owe them all so
much.
“You couldn’t have
told us all a little sooner?” Scott asks. When I look over at him,
he looks a little panicked. I have no idea why.
* * *
Scott
Shit. Fuck. Fuck. Shit.
This cannot be happening. It just can’t. I’ve been planning
Valentine’s Day for me and Yas for months now. My mom agreed to
watch Dave while I take my wife for a romantic weekend to Paris. It’s
where I asked her to marry me, and with as tough as things have been
for her lately, I want to pamper and spoil her. She’s too
independent and stubborn to let me bail out her bookstore again, but
I know she’ll let her guard down in Paris. If we were going there,
which apparently we now aren’t.
So what am I going to
do? I have a week, a
fucking
week, to come up with a new plan. Because Paris was it. All of it. I
was going to let her pick out her own piece of jewelry, or whatever,
before we had dinner in the Musee d’Orsay and a romantic boat ride
down the Seine. I can’t just go out and buy her something. This is
my wife. The mother of my child, and the woman I love more than life
itself. Not someone I’ve just started dating. A store bought gift
just isn’t enough.
“We wanted to have
everything in place so that none of you would feel obligated to
help,” Alex answers, breaking me out of my thoughts.
“I appreciate that,
sweetheart, I really do. I’m happy for both of you, but this is
more than a little bit of a shock,” Ryan tells her. I know he must
be freaking out too because he also had some big plans for
Valentine’s Day.
* * *
Ryan
Damn it all to hell
because that’s where I am right now. Deep down in Hell. Right along
with my brothers. Why did Alex and Miles think it was okay to get
married on Valentine’s Day, especially with no warning? She’s
young, but he should know better. Scratch that, he has no sense when
it comes to my niece. He loves her too much. Which is usually a good
thing. Not this time, though.
Chloe fell in love with
Seattle when we went there a few years ago. We even got married there
in the first building we designed together. And even though she loves
Vegas and her friends, I know she’d love to live in that city at
least part of the year. So I built us a house. It’s smaller than
our house here, but perfect for us and Erin to spend our summers in.
It’s on the water, and I gave her the same dressing room and closet
that she has in our house here. I didn’t decorate it yet, because
that’s all her. But the structure’s done.
Our friend, Kevin, who
helped Chloe when she first came to work for me, agreed to watch Erin
since I knew my mom was already watching Dave. I can only imagine
what a fashionable little diva I’d be coming back to after leaving
her with him for the weekend, but it would be worth it. For both of
us. And let’s be honest, I’m so tightly wrapped around my little
girl’s finger that there’s no way to unwind me. She can have
whatever she wants, when she wants it. For now, at least. She’ll
need to get a job like I had to, but not yet.
Just like my little
girl, I’ll do anything for my wife. She’s truly my soul mate and
the love of my life. And now I have nothing to give her on
Valentine’s Day. Sure, I’ll still give her the house, but if I
can’t give it to her that day, what the hell am I going to give
her? Like I said, I’m in Hell.
“We know it’s
sudden, but it’ll be great. We can all go to Disney again. The kids
will have so much fun.”
“Yeah, Al. It’ll be
great,” Owen tells her with a fake smile on his face. He’s way
more screwed than I am, and I know it.
* * *
Owen
Holy fucking shit! This
cannot be happening. It just can’t. I can’t bring the sexy back
with Candi at freaking Disneyland. And certainly not with Hope
joining us. I’d arranged for our friend—and her honorary second
grandmother, Cyndi Evans, to watch her. But we can’t leave her
behind if we’re going to Disneyland. What kind of parents would we
be if we did that?
The terrible twos are
behind us, but the stubborn threes have descended, making Candi want
to pull her hair out. Hope is just like us, and while we should have
expected it, neither one of us were prepared to have a strong-willed
mini us. Don’t get me wrong, my little girl is amazing, smart, and
beautiful—just not perfect. Which is just the way she should be.
But it’s hard to keep up the romance when she’s demanding our
attention at all hours of the day and night.
And we need that
romance. We’ve managed a quickie here and there, but I haven’t
been able to worship Candi’s beautiful body in months. If that’s
not a crime against humanity, I don’t know what is. I’d planned a
romantic getaway to a private island for us. One where we’d only
pack enough clothes for the plane ride. And maybe an itty bitty
bikini for my wife. One that I could tear off of her whenever I
wanted. But I should know that the best laid plans don’t always
work out. Even when you really, really,
really,
need them to.
“Yeah. We’re all
really happy for you,” Luke tells her. His smile’s just as fake
as mine, though, because he may be the one who needed that week the
most of all.
* * *
Luke
It’s over. My fucking
marriage is going to be over while my niece’s begins, and there’s
not a damn thing I can do about it. Olivia’s been getting more
distant and moody every day. She barely lets me kiss her, and there’s
definitely been no sex for the past month. I don’t know what I did
or how I hurt her—I pretty much worship the ground she walks on.
But I did something, and now I have no way to fix it.
She hasn’t said she’s
going to divorce me, but she refuses to tell me what’s wrong and
won’t stop crying. I’d do anything to stop that crying. Anything.
Even the yelling’s better.
I was planning to take
her to Chicago for Valentine’s Day. We’ve never been to my
hometown together, so I thought it would be the perfect place to
romance her and undo whatever it is I did. Now that can’t happen.
We’re going to the happiest place on earth with my entire family
and our friends. Which means no romance and maybe even no marriage.
I’m going to have to
come up with something. Some last ditch idea. But with only a week,
where I still have to teach every day, I don’t know what I’m
going to do. Curling up in the corner and crying probably isn’t the
best idea, but it’s all I really want to do at the moment.
“I’m glad you’re
all good with this. Disneyland is way better than Vegas for
Valentine’s Day. We’re all going to have so much fun,” Alex
says as Miles leans over to kiss her.
Disneyland
is
better than Vegas. But it’s not better than Paris, Seattle,
Chicago, or a tropical island. At least not for me and my brothers.
We all share uneasy glances with each other as our women hug Alex,
peppering her with questions about her dress and everything else. I
catch Miles looking at us curiously, and I know he’ll be asking us
about why we look so freaked out. I for one, will be more than happy
to unload on him. Possibly with a fist. I know Alex has him whipped,
but he has to know a week isn’t enough notice when you’re dealing
with the most romantic holiday of the year. Little bastard.