Page 58 of Crimson Love

Jett stretches an arm behind me on the sofa and rests his ankle on his other knee. “Laughing gas, huh?”

Felicity starts another complicated line of knots. “Yep. Their food makes the gas. When there are a whole bunch of them—” Felicity pauses what she’s doing and looks over at her husband, “—what do you call a bunch of penguins, dear?”

Harold doesn’t miss a beat. “A waddle. Unless they’re in water, then it’s a raft.”

“Right!” Felicity exclaims. “When they’re in a waddle, and their poo hits the soil—boom. Laughing gas.”

Harold proves once again that he’s a human encyclopedia. “Nitrous oxide. If the waddle is big enough, it’ll affect the researchers.”

I do everything to concentrate on penguin poop rather than the way Jett’s warm body is pressed to mine or the way he’s playing with my hair. “Maybe that’s why penguins always look so happy.”

Felicity turns back to her latest project to creates more knots. “It’s not the ha-ha kind of nitrous oxide. It makes them dizzy and get headaches. If memory serves, it’s not bad for Mother Earth. Just for researchers, apparently.”

“Who would’ve thought,” Jett says as he focuses on the TV, but he doesn’t do it in a sarcastic way. It’s genuine.

After the last few days, I’m not sure there was anything that could make me like him more.

No.

Not like.

He makes me weak in the knees, my nipples hard, and wet between my legs. Penguin poop sure shouldn’t make me feel any of those things.

It’s not just that. It’s the way he’s present and doesn’t act like being here for his welcome-to-Winslet dinner with the Fahnestocks is a chore. Throughout dinner, he asked Harold about his antique truck, answered every question about his new kidney, and talked to Felicity about her summer garden.

The topics of conversation were multiple and varied. I shouldn’t have been worried about Jett. I’ve become so attached to the people in town that I know if I have to leave, it will be just one more knife to the gut.

I thought Jett would want to leave the moment dinner was done. But he followed the Fahnestocks lead, just like I did the first time I was a guest.

Eat, clean the kitchen, and watch wholesome TV that is never fiction. You always learn something, and the highest level of drama is the food chain in the wild. The antelope. No matter how fast they are, it’s always the poor antelope that seems to be dinner for so many predators.

It doesn’t matter how good I slept last night in Jett’s bed, the stress from telling him about my past, worrying about him being bored to death at dinner, and just being with him has gotten to me.

It’s crazy that I survived the last six years and am running from someone like Andrei and still stressed about everything Jett.

I do my best to bite back a yawn, sink into his side, and look over at Felicity. Her dark curly hair is pinned back into a huge banana clip. She’s wearing a leopard-print velour track suit and paisley house slippers. She has her feet perched on a small ottoman upholstered in needlepoint. Felicity never just sits and watches the shows. She simply listens since her hands are always busy.

“That’s new. What are you working on?”

Her fingers don’t stop moving. “Booties. I may do a baby cap after this.”

“Who’s it for?”

Felicity shrugs. “I haven’t decided yet. People have babies all the time. We’ll see who gets this set. I’ve never made booties before, but I thought I may as well give it a go.”

I look at the soft colors she’s knotting. Her yarn is a mix of off-white to the palest of greens. There’s no pink or blue in sight and it looks out of place in her home where color is king. “It’s pretty.”

She smiles as she looks down at her project. “It needs more color, but it’s not bad.”

Harold picks up the remote and flips off the television. “Welp, kiddos, that’s it for tonight.”

It must be nine o’clock. Harold and Felicity are creatures of habit and early to bedders.

I stand and turn to Felicity. “Thank you for dinner and the company. It’s the best day of the week, just like always.”

She shifts her gaze between Jett and me. “It was a wonderful evening and always a wonderful time with you. And now we know Jett Cross. What a story you have. Winslet agrees with the two of you.” She looks back to the man at my side and claps her hands three times. “Ope, you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to make your puppy and kitty some homemade treats.”

Before we got here, we swung by Carl and Winnie’s house so I could meet Panther and Smoke. I’ve never had a pet, but then again, Jett hadn’t either before these two furry creatures showed up on his doorstep. Panther wouldn’t have anything to do with me, but Smoke was friendly to a fault. I’ve never been around Carl and Winnie outside of the Combover. Winnie went on and on about how it’s going to break her heart when Jett takes his pets back, and she didn’t care what Carl said, she was getting a dog of her own when their time there is up.