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“I really like my teacher this year. Ms. Mason is really nice. I wish she were going to be my teacher next year too.”
“Ms. Mason from Rickman Elementary?” I ask and she nods, making me smile. “My nephews Archer and Alex both had her and loved her. My niece is in Ms. Wallace’s class this year. Serenity like her.”
“Serenity’s nice to me at lunch,” Cleo states, her eyes brightening more. “The girls in my class don’t like me though.”
“They just don’t know you, honey. Hopefully with this party they’ll get to know you more and see how fun you are, and they should be inviting you to do things with them,” Adam assures her, tugging on the end of her ponytail that’s about to fall out.
“I agree with your Uncle Adam. They’ll be begging to come to this party and to be your friend afterwards, I’m sure,” I promise, giving them both a smile. “For now, how about we figure out the rest of what we want to do with the party and then I’ll get to work on those ideas. Hopefully I’ll have something worked up for you to see by Friday afternoon,” I add, and Cleo’s little smile is everything my heart needs.
I don’t bother telling them that most people see the words party by Celebrations by Jas and immediately accept, even if they didn’t want to originally. Most people know who I am when it comes to throwing parties, and the parents of Serenity’s classmates definitely do, so I know they’ll come regardless of how amazing the party is going to be.
“Sounds great,” Adam agrees, and we settle in, planning out the rest of the potential cake idea, food and snacks, and getting Cleo’s favorite colors to make sure the cake includes them.
“I will say I know a couple of the kids in Serenity’s class have food allergies, so I’ll include some allergy free versions for them as well for food and cake choices,” I tell Adam as Cleo skips ahead of us towards the door as they get ready to leave. “We’ve done the same with some of Serenity’s parties where the entire grade’s been invited, and we’ve never had an issue with the kids being upset with it.”
“I never even thought of that, so thank you for it. I put my cell number on the info sheet, if you need something, you can call or text me. For anything,” Adam adds stopping us a few feet away from Cleo. “If I’m not reading things right, you can tell me, but to me it feels like there’s something going on here. Cleo is the only thing besides work in my life right now, but I wouldn’t mind if there weren’t more with the right person.”
“I feel the same,” I admit, smiling more when his deep green eyes sparkle, lighting up, making my heart flutter. “I didn’t want to feel this way when I thought you were married, but now…I’d like to see you again for sure.”
“Somewhere we’re not talking about work or my niece’s party?” he asks, and I nod, my eyes fluttering shut when he slips a piece of hair back behind my ear. “Are you free Saturday night? I’ll see if I can find a sitter and we could go out to dinner, see if we still feel the same?”
“I’d like that,” I agree, giving him a grin. “I’ll text you, so you have my number.”
“I’d kiss those tempting lips, but I don’t want my niece looking on for the first time,” he whispers before stepping away and over to Cleo. The look he gives me as he slides through the door wraps me in a wave of warmth, and I never want to forget it, or this. Not ever.
Chapter 4
Adam
The ding of my phone brings my attention straight down to it. I can’t fight the grin that hits seeing it’s Jasmine. I swear my heart was going to jump out of my chest when I got the first one from her. I felt like a teenage boy asking their crush out when I threw caution to the wind and asked if there was any way she was feeling what I was Wednesday when I met her.
It seemed like a million hours went past before she said she felt it too, confirmed that her reaction to me at first was thinking I was married. Hell, if the shoes were reversed, I’d have been ready to murder someone, so the only man alive that knew how heavenly her kiss, let alone anything else was, was me.
Shit, I’m still tempted to track down every last man she’s seen to take them out for even getting to spend time with her.
Warmth floods me seeing the message that Jasmine has plans to show to us and I shoot back one telling her we’ll be there after I pick Cleo up from school. She’s been going on and on about Jasmine as well, even with spending barely an hour with her. It seems she knows as well as I do that Jasmine belongs with us.
I watch the clock move slowly until I can leave the office without looking like I’m slacking off. I’ve prided myself with being one of the crew. I know every job in this company, done most of them myself at some point to help out, so the last thing I want is anyone thinking that just because I’ve made this place more profitable than my father ever did, that I’m better than them now.
I’m not. I wouldn’t be anywhere close to where I am without them, and to show them that, every employees gets a percentage of the company’s profits after a two-year investment period. Some of the positions take a bit longer to train and get up to quota than others, and it can cause turnover, which only slows us down further.
It doesn’t usually take too long to get new employees in here to start training them when it happens, it’s just the hassle of losing those months of investment. That’s what had me choosing the two-year marker to have employees earning their percentage.
Although, if we make the upcoming deal with Cartwright Construction to manufacture the hardware for the new furniture line they’re starting, I’m looking at needing to hire on a third shift rather than just the current two that work for me. Hell, if they choose to let us handle the production of their ready-to-assemble furniture entirely, I’ll need another building to use for storage.
I have the machinery to handle it all, just not the staff and space to hold the inventory prior to shipping it this second. It’s all in the proposal I finished this morning, ready for the meeting next week. I’m looking forward to it, but not nearly as much as seeing Jasmine again.
Cleo’s face lights up when I tell her we’re going to stop by to see Jasmine before heading home. I know she’s down that the other girls in her class are going to some party tomorrow, so hopefully, this will make her feel better. I already intend to take her to see a new movie after brunch, which will still give me plenty of time to take Jasmine out to dinner.
The second I open the door, Cleo takes off towards Jasmine who’s talking to another woman. She doesn’t begin to scold or ignore her, instead she kneels down, still talking to the woman before giving Cleo a hug in return. It hits me right in heart seeing that.
Even before Marcy got sick to the point that she had no energy to do things, she was never like this with her. Hell, she reminded me more of Mom than anything with some of the ways she’s shoo Cleo away if something more ‘important’ was happening. Jasmine is nothing like that, and it amps up my desire for her immensely. I’d love to be able to rush over to her, have her arms wrap around and hold me the way she is with my niece.
I guess I didn’t realize until now how starved for affection I’ve been. From the day Cleo came into my home, she’s given me little hugs. At first, I think it was because Marcy told her to do it to be socially polite, but now, they’re real hugs.
With everything that happened with that Tina woman, I made sure Cleo knew she didn’t have to hug anyone she didn’t want, as well as that she didn’t have to let others touch her even in a friendly way, like with a touch to the hand or shoulder, unless she wanted them to. Or if someone tried to touch her in any other way, she was allowed to scream and fight and I’d never punish her for it, regardless of what the school policy said.
If someone hurts my girl, they’ll pay. And I’m pretty sure that now applies to Jasmine as well with the way these feelings are hitting me.
