Corbet's

9. | GRIFFIN

"Yeah? Like in one of the eight Nordstrom garment bags I saw you hauling in yesterday?" Lauren asked.

Mrs. Armstrong sniffed, looking annoyed her daughter wouldn't indulge her. "They're throwing a Gala in my honor tonight, Lauren. I needed dress options."

Lauren and her mom were basically the same person. That was why they butted heads so much. But poking and prodding each other was also their way of showing affection. Lauren's dad passed away when she was five, and it'd just been Lauren, her mom, and her two older brothers since. They'd developed kind of a weird family dynamic (not that Griffin's was one to talk), especially since Lauren's brothers had gone off to college a few years ago. That was around the time Lauren started calling her mom by her first name.

"A Gala? That's exciting," Griffin said. "My parents are going to some lame fundraiser tonight. What's it for?"

Ms. Armstrong waved a hand through the air. "Another day, another bestseller the publisher wants to thank me for. They tried to fly me to New York for it, but Wilmington's the farthest I'll travel during the summer. When you're the best editor in-house, girls, they work to accommodate you. Remember that."

"Way to be modest, Veronica," Lauren said dryly.

Her mom gave her a sharp look. "After fifteen years of paying career dues under mountains of manuscripts, modesty becomes flippant once you become the expert, Lauren. I'm good at what I do. They respect me and pay me well for it. I'm not going to hide it."

These kinds of conversations always made Griffin a little uncomfortable around Lauren's mom. She was a bit intense, and she was exactly the type of career woman Lauren was going to turn into once she left for California. Not that it was necessarily a bad thing... It was just... A lot to be around.

"As always, wise words from the Book of Veronica," Lauren said, but she was smiling genuinely at her mother now.

"It was edited well," Griffin said.

Ms. Armstrong laughed, the sound filling the entire kitchen. She came over to give Griffin another hug.

"Oh, Griff, I've missed you," she said, giving her a squeeze. She pulled back and held her by the shoulders. "Hey, Lauren told me that you have an old friend in town this summer."

"What?" Griffin asked, cocking her head to the side.

Ms. Armstrong's smile turned devious. "A very handsome old friend? Rumor has it he was your knight in shining armor the other night."

"Charlie?" Griffin's eyes bugged out. She glared across the kitchen at Lauren. "That's the story you're telling people? It's not even true!"

"Oh, calm down, Griff," Lauren laughed. "It's just Veronica. And he did pretty much come to your rescue. He dropped Mary Kyle on her face to catch you from hitting the ground. It was awesome."

"Sounds like a very nice young man to me," Ms. Armstrong said.

"Well, he's not," Griffin muttered. "He's a pain in my ass."

Lauren and Ms. Armstrong smirked and exchanged conspiratorial looks. 

"You guys are the worst," Griffin said, right as the back patio door swung open.

"Ladies!" Evan sang, strolling in with his arms spread wide. Charlie and Matty followed in behind him, and Griffin went back to stirring the pasta so she wouldn't accidentally catch Charlie's eye.

"Evan, darling," Ms. Armstrong said, blowing him air kisses until he wrapped her in a hug. "It's about time you came to see me."

"Please, Ms. Armstrong. You know you're the only reason I come back to Corbet's every summer," Evan said. "Great dress, by the way."