Jacques intended to hold the ground he’d gained, and he felt instinctively that he needed to keep her close to doit.
“You are insane. Do you know that?” she asked, clearly exasperated, but she came back to bed all the same, leaving cellophane fortune cookie wrappers and an empty carton of fried rice there in the middle of the bed. Jacques leaned forward and collected these items and moved them to the nightstand besidehim.
He sat back against the headboard and pulled her into the crook of his arm. This. This was how he wanted each day to end. No matter where they were. No matter what they did. Jacques wanted the day to close with Rainey tucked againsthim.
He reached over to the nightstand again, plucked up the TV remote, and handed it to her. Rainey eyed him but made no move to switch on the TV. Archie, sensing that the bed was no longer a dining tableandthat he wouldn’t be kicked like he’d nearly been during their lovemaking, jumped on the mattress and turned around twice before settlingdown.
“I don’t get to clear the dishes, but I do get to choose the channel? Is that right?” Rainey asked, disbelief dripping from herwords.
Jacques suppressed a chuckle but saidnothing.
“It’s every woman’s dream,” she breathed in mockawe.
He narrowed his eyes at her teasing. “Just don’t pick somethingstupid.”
Rainey arched a brow. “And what would be stupid? I need anexample.”
Jacques shrugged, giving more attention to the way her hazel eyes sparked with amusement than answering her question. “I don’t know.HouseHunters.”
Rainey gasped. “I loveHouseHunters.”
His eyes rounded, but before he could speak, Rainey’s horrified expression teetered, and her smile won out. “Just kidding. I hate realityTV.”
“What do you like?” he asked, wondering if he could guess before sheanswered.
She shrugged beneath his arm. “I usually read, but—” she said, reaching over to the side of the bed and pulling out the little sack that carried her yarn and hooks. “—if I want to crochet, I sometimes put onGilmoreGirls.”
“WhyGilmoreGirls?”
Again, the shrug. “Because it’s nostalgic, and comfortable, and I’ve seen every episode already, so I don’t have to pay too much attention.” Her cheeks pinked. “Besides, I’ve always had a thing for JaredPadalecki.”
Jacques blinked, savoring the chance to tease her. “The guy fromSupernatural?He was inGilmoreGirls?”
Rainey mimed a horrified gasp. “Of course! How could you not know that?” Then she narrowed mischievous eyes at him. “You know, you’ve got a little of that Dean-Forester-Sam-Winchester thing going foryou.”
Jacques nodded, his expression deadpan. “I see how it is. You’re into me because of your lifelong Jared Padalecki crush.” He forced his mouth into a grim line. “I don’t feel cheap atall.”
Sputtering a laugh, Rainey swatted him on the elbow. Before she could withdraw, Jacques tagged her hand and brought it to hislips.
Rainey pretended to ignore him. Blushing, she flicked on the TV, flipped through about four channels, and then shoved the remote back at him. “Here. You take it. I’m good with whatever. Besides, I should have finished these bynow.”
Jacques frowned.Thesecould have only meant the lacey crochet band she held that was about two inches wide. The yarn she used was a pale green that reminded him of pistachio icecream.
“And what are these?” heasked.
She looped her index fingers through the ring and held it up to him. “Well, sometime tomorrow, I hope they’ll be a pair of beachshorts?”
He could only blink. Shorts made out ofyarn?
His confusion must have shown on his face because she reached over to the nightstand and took up her phone. “Here. Look. I’m makingthese.”
Rainey pulled up a picture, and Jacques nearly choked on his tongue. The lacey shorts in the image had maybe a one-inch inseam and a scalloped edge that fell just barely below the pattern model’s butt cheeks. And if that weren’t skimpy enough, the intricate pattern left finger-sized holes all over the front and back, rendering a peep-show ofskin.
“Y-you’re going to wearthose?”
She looked at him as though she were waiting for him to say something more, and when he didn’t, she said. “Um… yeah. I’m going to wear them to the beach… with my bikinibottoms.”
Jacques swallowed. She was going to wear them. To the beach. With her bikinibottoms.
