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I blink. “Prostate Cancer?”
“Yeah. Dad says it’s early stage. Treatable. But, it’s…” He looks lost for a second.
“Scary,” I say.
He nods.
“She cheats on him. She… isn’t a good person. She and I are in the middle of a war. It’s not fun to be at war with your own mother, but it’s always kinda been that way with her. And there’s other family bullshit happening, too, so, yeah, I get it, Carly. Family shit made me move to New York to escape it all. But, it’s my family. A few things’ve happened recently letting me know I need to man up and stop trying to hide from it.”
I reach across the table and squeeze his hand.
He squeezes mine, too, and stares at our hands for a second, looking deep in thought. His phone makes noise and lets go of me so he can fetch it from his leather jacket, which is on the back of the chair.
I get up and put my empty water bottle in the recycling bin.
“This is Jude. Got your tiara. Your panties, too.” He smirks. “It’s right now held up in evidence, but…”
I whirl around and kind of throw myself into his arms and start to cry, which means I’m sort of on his lap as he’s sitting at the table, still.
He puts his phone down, then stands, holding onto me, squeezes and then rubs his hands up and down my back.
“Gosh, what a drama queen I am. Sorry.” I wipe my eyes. “That tiara just meant a lot. It… I can’t even describe. Thank you.”
I’m still in his arms. I wipe my eyes with my fingers.
His eyes drop to my mouth and his head lowers and then he’s kissing me. He moves us so that my back is against the wall and I’m kissing him, too. I’m kissing him with everything I’ve got.
His hands are on my face, in my hair, and then around my waist again. His lips are strong. And soft. And he tastes incredible. He’s kissing me with hunger. My lips are tingling. My tummy is dipping. I break away, breathless.
What am I doing?
My eyes are on him. He’s still got his arms around me.
I try to pull away. He resists at first, but then sees what’s probably a panicked look on my face and he lets go.
“I should go make up your bed. Can you, uh, help me? It might take two of us to pull that bed out. It’s a bit stubborn.”
He cocks an eyebrow.
“And it may take all your strength to put it back in, in the morning. It’s kind of a, uh… beast.”
I’m trying for nonchalance. Pretending that didn’t just happen. But, wow. My heart is about to beat straight out of my chest.
He chuckles. “A beast?”
“Don’t fire me if you wake up with a sore back in the morning. You know what a sofa bed is like.” I continue trying to make light of things because it all feels so heavy in here right now. I wave at him to follow me.
His look changes to one of confusion. “Nope. Can’t say that I do.”
Of course. He’s probably never slept in anything but high-end mattresses with bazillion thread count sheets.
“The bar across the middle. It digs in your back.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
“Oh God, I’m going to have to pay your chiropractor bill for the next three months.”
He laughs as we move through the dining room, then the family room, and I hear him snicker as he eyeballs framed photos on the walls.
