That Second Chance (Getting Lucky #1)(84)

You know, my dad could have done something to stop her, but as I take him in, take in the happy look on his face, I have a feeling no one is going to side with me on this.

“Kiss. Kiss. Kiss,” Reid starts chanting, and I shoot him a death glare before the chant can catch on. My eyes speak murder, and thankfully he’s smart enough to realize it.

Knowing this isn’t going to end until I say something, I step up next to Ren and take her hand in mine. My mom sighs, and Jen squeals; my dad nods in appreciation.

Clearing my throat, I address Ren’s parents first. “Mr. and Mrs. Winters, thank you for making the trip to my parents’ house for this extremely odd and embarrassing get-together. Please excuse the decorations; my family has issues. And as for everyone else, I’m going to say this once and only once. Yes, Ren and I are dating, and yes, you all must be chomping at the bit to ask unwelcome questions. That’s not going to happen. I really like this girl, and I don’t need you to scare her away with your antics. So please, let us just do our own thing without your interference.” I bring Ren’s hand up to my mouth and kiss it. “Now, if you’ll excuse us, I need to speak privately with Ren about something. Mr. and Mrs. Winters, make yourselves at home. My family might be overly invasive, but they’re good hosts. Ask them for anything.”

With that, I guide Ren through the sliding glass door, out of the front of the house, and down the side of the yard to my thinking spot, a large, flat stone I loved to escape to as a child. It’s far away from the house and will give us some privacy. I sit us both on it and let out a long sigh.

“I’m so sorry. I had no idea that was happening.”

Ren stares out at the ocean and doesn’t answer right away, making my nerves heighten. Is she mad? Hell, I will renounce my entire family at this point if they made her uncomfortable.

Although I wouldn’t blame her if she wanted a second to take all that in. To work out what she just went through. No one should have to blindly walk into a “congratulations for dating my son” party. That’s not normal. Nothing about my family is normal.

Finally, she looks at me. “So I really am your first since your wife?”

“Yes,” I say, unsure of where she’s going with this.

“You never even went out on a date?”

I shake my head. “No.”

“Why not?”

This is not the conversation I was planning on having with her today . . . or ever, for that matter. How can you tell someone that you believe in a curse that was cast upon you, a curse that maybe even took your wife away from you?

It’s absurd.

Ridiculous.

And yet oddly I think she needs to know where I’m coming from, why I was so hesitant around her at first.

I pull on the back of my neck, feeling awkward as shit. “Have you heard about the Knightly curse?”

She slowly nods. I should have known. There is no way she could have lived here for a few months without hearing about it. Most likely from the same girls who told her about Claire.

“I don’t know much about it, though.” She turns toward me. “Can you tell me more?”

“I really don’t want to, but it’s probably necessary at this point.” I lean back on my hands and look out toward the ocean, the laughter of our families mixing together in the distance. “It was for Brig’s twenty-first birthday. We were down in New Orleans, drunk off our asses, and got mixed up with the wrong person. A palm reader. Pretty sure she was into some shady black magic type of stuff. I can’t remember too much, but what I do remember is her casting some weird spell on us. I honestly didn’t think much about it—I’ve always been super skeptical of that kind of shit.”

“What kind of spell was it?”

“Something about broken love and it not being cured until our minds matured. Honestly, I tried to block it out until a few days after we got home. I was changing smoke detectors for Senior Row, and I got a call from Claire’s phone. It was one of the EMT guys I worked closely with. Claire had had a massive heart attack.” I shake my head as the memories wash over me. “She was so healthy and young. The curse—it was all I could think about as I went through the steps of grief. Broken love. That’s exactly what the curse foretold and what happened to me. So I’ve spent the past two years keeping as far away from women as possible. I didn’t want to inflict my curse on anyone else. But then you drove down a ditch.” I dryly chuckle. “I had no clue you were going to flip my world upside down.”

“And that’s why your family’s so excited? Because you’re finally letting yourself live again?”

“I guess so. Jen’s been a huge advocate for me moving on, never believing in what happened to us in New Orleans, chalking it up to four drunken idiots. She’s over the moon that I’m finally giving in and letting you into my heart.”

Ren’s face softens, her body leaning in toward mine. “I’m in your heart?”

I bring my hand to her cheek and rub my thumb over her soft skin. “Yeah, you’re in there, and it’s terrifying, because I don’t want anything to happen to you. I don’t want . . .” I can’t even say the words; they get caught in my throat.

She tilts her head into my touch. “Griffin, you can’t let a drunken moment dictate your future. You realize that, right? You can’t live in the past.”