Laurie might’ve run for the hills if I told her that, though. She’d had an emotional day as it was and the last thing I wanted was to pile onto it.
Soon, when the opportunity presented itself, I would do it. In the meantime, I settled for the truth without being too specific. “Everything is easier and better when we’re together because we’re good together.”
“That we are,” she agreed, giving me another kiss before bending over to put the pan in the oven. “Have you thought about what we’re going to do about that?”
“About us?” I asked, trying to ignore the fact that her perfect ass was pressed up against my crotch before she stood up again. Images from last night kept replaying in my brain and I wondered if we had time before Jamie dropped the girls off.
“Yes. About us.” She stood up and placed her palms on either side of my neck, peering up into my eyes. “Unless you fried my brain last night, I vaguely remember something about you still being my lawyer. Isn’t it frowned upon to date clients?”
“Let them frown,” I said, resting my forehead against hers. “I don’t give a fuck.”
“You might not, but I do. I don’t want you jeopardizing your career for me.”
“I told you I’d be fine going into interior design with you,” I said until a much more serious threat came to me. With a heavy sigh, I lifted my head away from hers before I shook it. “We have a big meeting set up with the movie production company on Monday. I didn’t want to tell you last night because we agreed not to talk business, but I set it up before I left the office yesterday.”
Her eyes widened. “Really? Wow. You work fast.”
“Yes, really, and yes, I do. All jokes aside, I really love what I do and so do you. I wouldn’t want to fuck it up for both of us and they’d definitely try to use it against us if they found out.”
“So what do we do?” She kissed my chin. “Not see each other again outside of work until it’s over?”
“Hey, no,” I whispered, coaxing her face up until she looked at me again. “We’ll just have to keep our relationship on the down low until I win the case. Then we can be open about it.”
“Relationship?” she asked with a coy smile.
“You heard me.” I lowered my mouth to hers, groaning when her soft lips brushed against mine.
The kiss was tender and sweet, but it soon turned into something more. Just when I was about to rip her clothes off for round number God only knew how many, a knock at the door signaled Jamie’s arrival.
She chuckled into my mouth. “I’d better get that. You have a situation to take care of before they see you. To be continued, okay?”
“To be continued.” I pressed another firm kiss on her mouth before stepping back and turning away from her to take a deep breath while dragging my hands over my face and through my hair.
Fuck. Of all the terrible fucking timing.
And yet, I was looking forward to seeing Allie. I just needed a minute to get my shit together, and then I’d be ready to spend the rest of the day and night with my girls.
All three of them.
Chapter 33
Laurie
It had been a long time since I’d had as many mouths to feed as I had that evening. My pots and pans were on the stove, my chicken was roasting in the oven, and I had a glass of red wine on the counter beside me.
Even though Jamie’s interruption earlier had caused whatever the lady version of blue balls was, I’d honestly been happy that Katie was home. I was also happy that Jacob and Allie were still there.
If I was being honest with myself, which I was making a point of being, I could admit that I’d missed this. Missed cooking for a family while hearing laughter coming from the other room. Missed feeling like I was really home. I’d even missed doing the dishes and cleaning while I was waiting for the food to be cooked.
For too long, the house had felt like a shell, and now suddenly, it was a home. It reminded me of the days when I used to cook for Katie, Katherine, and our parents every third weekend. We’d alternated between all our houses, but my parents and I had come to an unspoken agreement when Katherine died not to do it anymore.
It’d felt too empty without her, and we all just kept looking at the chair she should’ve been in. I still missed her obviously. More than I would ever be able to say.
But every day with Jacob was making me feel more and more like myself again. More like there was a me left underneath everything that had been piled on top of me.
I was thriving in the kitchen preparing a hearty fall meal for everyone while listening to them laughing their heads off as Jacob played with the girls in the living room. I loved hearing that sound filling up the house. It was yet another thing that I could definitely get used to.
Smiling as I sipped my wine and waited for the timer on the potatoes to go off, I took a moment to take it all in. Only two months ago, I’d been standing in this very same kitchen completely out of depth and feeling like I’d never learn how to swim again.
I hadn’t met Jacob or Allie yet, but I would shortly. There was no telling where I’d have been if I hadn’t met them, but I didn’t waste time thinking about that.
Jacob had been right earlier when he said I would’ve gotten there by myself eventually. I could see now that I would have. Slowly but surely as I returned to myself, I was rediscovering so many things about me that I’d thought were completely out of reach.
He was just helping me get there now, sooner than I might have by myself, and making it a lot more fun in the process. I’d noticed the bag of clothing he’d purchased earlier while complaining that shopping for clothes online supposedly wasn’t manly at all, and I was planning on asking him to leave it there if he wanted to.
Somehow, I knew that what we had brewing between us wasn’t just a fleeting thing. It wasn’t very old, but it was very real. Maybe I should’ve been worried about how fast I was falling, but I wasn’t.
The thing about Jacob was that, despite what I’d thought about him at the beginning, he was a man of his word and his word was his honor. He was old school that way. In all the conversations we’d had, he’d been completely frank and honest with me. He wasn’t the type who was going to uproot Allie and bolt because we’d become too much for him, nor was he the type who needed to sow his wild oats after his divorce to prove he still had it.
Katherine would’ve said he was one of the few guys out there who really had the grown-up thing down to a T. No ifs, buts, or maybes about it.
And she would’ve been right. He wasn’t some kid at heart who still wanted to fuck around, nor was he stuck in a life crisis while not being able to accept who he was.
He was completely confident in his own skin and the fact that he’d spent the day sweating his ass off in his underwear to help me get everything unpacked just proved it. I’d gotten vulnerable and unsexy in front of him, and he’d gone and done the exact same thing. Even if he could never be completely unsexy no matter how hard he tried.
The timer on the oven went off, and I dished everything up. When I was done, I walked to the doorway to give them a warning. “Dinner’s ready. If you guys want it hot, you better come help me carry all these trays. Did you set the table?”