I grinned down at my napkin. Who was this man? He joked and played. Let my siblings run wild through his house. Allowed me to take over his kitchen. I looked up at Griffin, at the beautiful planes of his face. My fingers itched to run over his stubbled cheeks. Instead, I tightened my hold on my napkin. “What about you? Is there something you’re dying to do? Somewhere you’d love to visit?”

Griffin shifted on the bench, going quiet for a moment before answering. “I want to be here. Finish this house. That’s what I want most of all.”

My chest seized at his words. There was so much pain and longing in each one. “You’ve already made incredible progress. And now it’s going even faster.”

“Will’s been great. He has a real knack for this stuff.”

A glowing pride slid through me. “He’s such a good kid. And he works so hard.”

“Thanks to him, we’ve gotten another two bedrooms on the second floor fixed up.”

My eyes widened. “That’s incredible. Were you able to salvage any of the furniture?” He’d gotten rid of so much that he’d been storing in the shop, I wasn’t sure if there was anything left to put back into the rooms.

Griffin rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m sorry about that.”

“About what?”

“Snapping at you when we were cleaning out the shop.”

My fingers began to itch again. This time, I couldn’t resist reaching out. I let my hand briefly squeeze Griffin’s knee, the rough denim burning into my palm. “You don’t have to apologize for having boundaries.”

Griffin grunted. “But I do need to apologize for being an asshole.” He held up a hand before I could speak. “Please don’t punish me for cursing.”

I laughed. “You’re safe since it wasn’t in front of the kids.”

“Thank God.” He began picking at the label of his beer. “I’ve had a lot of people sell me out. My stories, my photos. The only way it didn’t happen was if I was alone, and no one knew who I was. But when I erased myself, I let my family go, too. I lost them and myself all over again. But this time, it was my own damn fault. Our favorite place, the one where I felt closest to them, was almost destroyed—family heirlooms damaged beyond repair.”

“Is that what was in the shop?” I asked. Griffin nodded. It all started to make even more sense. Of course, he’d been on edge. He’d been facing all the damage that people had inflicted on one of the few pieces he had left of his family.