Page 159 of Come Back to Me

“You’re welcome, sir.”

He walks behind the vehicle and plops down on the driver’s seat. “Please don’t call me that when we’re in public.”

“Why?”

“I won’t be able to keep my hands off you.”

Goddamn.

“What if I want your hands all over me?”

“Don’t tempt me, Angel.”

I rest my elbows on the console. “You love me.”

“More than you know.”

We pull up at the Kaplan family house around 3 p.m.

Grayson wanted to leave a little earlier in case we ran into holiday traffic, which we did, but it wasn’t too bad. It could’ve been worse.

Holiday traffic in Sunset Cove is a nightmare. Most of the time, we’re sitting there for hours and waiting for cars to move. On an average day, we sit in traffic for up to an hour.

Last week at Sweet & Salty felt like we were on overdrive every day until Wednesday. I don’t work on Tuesdays, but I heard from Willow that we had a line out the door.

I’m a firm believer that our social media presence is why we’ve been so busy so far this holiday season.

We’ve grown a community of around 50,000 followers on Instagram, which is our main method of communication with everybody besides our website. Laura says this is all because of me, and I’m happy I had the opportunity to help usbe discovered by readers in town, out of state, and who are from different countries.

After a busy week at the store, I can’t wait to unplug and do nothing for a little while.

Today, I get to spend Thanksgiving with some of my favorite people: Laura, Noah, Lizzie, Dani, Celia, Dana, and Grayson.

Lizzie is Noah’s older sister that I haven’t seen in several years. I do remember how she helped Grayson with the annotated copy ofShatter Mehe gave me for my sweet sixteen.

Celia is Dani’s mom. I don’t remember if I’ve met her before because I wasn’t friends with Dani back in high school.

Dana has been living here with Laura. She seems really happy here from what Grayson has told me. I couldn’t be more thrilled for her.

On the flip side, Willow is spending Thanksgiving with her dad because it’s an annual thing she’s done since she started college. Bella is spending the holiday with her family, and so are Sage and Xander.

When we walk up to the front door, Grayson rings the doorbell. Eventually, I hear a dog barking. Once the door opens, Sammy comes running out to Grayson and waits to be pet. Sammy is the Kaplan family’s golden retriever.

Grayson pets Sammy’s head. “Hey buddy, have you been behaving?”

Sammy comes over to me, and I pet the sides of his face with both of my hands. “Hi Sammy, do you remember me?”

Noah walks out the front door. “Of course he remembers you, Violet. You have a memorable face.”

“Thanks for that one,” I say.

“I wasn’t trying to be funny. I was being serious,” Noah says.

Grayson puts his arm around Noah’s neck. “Okay, give us the low down on who’s here so far.”

“Literally everybody is here. It’s mostly my family, so they’re all here. Lizzie got here this morning. Your mom is here becauseshe lives here.” He laughs. “Dani and Celia got here a couple of hours ago. C’mon, follow me.”

We all walk inside the house, and I don’t know how I forgot how pretty it is. There’s so much light coming through the windows. It’s so cozy in here with the way the living room is set up.