Page 51 of Playing With Temptation

He ended his text with a few winky faces.

His woman?

Needless to say, my text thread with Jase was no longer empty.

It started Wednesday evening around Lucas’s bedtime when he texted me to ask how bad the pickup line was. After he had a good laugh at my misery, he asked me more about my work. And since I decided I was no longer going to be cagey after he’d shared openly and honestly about Shay—and the girl from the bar that I’d not only misread but completely overreacted to—I told him about work. I talked about how I started my business, built it, and how and why I was selective about the clients I took.

In return, he told me about Juni and Colson and the week-on, week-off custody agreement. He went on to tell me Shay was getting married and that was happening soon. Shay’s fiancé’s name was Hunter and by all accounts he seemed like a good guy—my opinion based on the fact that Jase said he was good to the kids and both of them liked him. And by the by, Hunter was not the man Shay had cheated on him with. That man was her married boss. According to Jase it got messy for Shay at work and she eventually quit.

Hunter had been cool with Jase from the beginning and that hadn’t stopped. Jase also told me that Hunter loved Shay and as bad as the divorce had been, she was still the mother of his children and he wanted her happy. I thought that said a lot about the kind of man Jase was. Though truth be told, that was not a new revelation. That was just the Jase I’d always known.

We called it a night when he admitted his shoulder was giving him some pain and he needed a pill.

It was silly but I liked that we texted. I liked sitting in my bed, in my jammies, holding my phone watching the dots bounce while I waited to see what he had to say next.

Thursday our texting marathon continued.

He asked me about Lucas. We talked more about his kids. Colson loved riding his skateboard and had no fear. Juni was a girl’s girl and loved all things pink and sparkly and she’d recently gotten into something called diamond art. Since I had no clue what that was I looked it up on the magic rectangle—popularly known as a cellphone—and found that diamond art looked like fun so I bought a Paint by Diamonds red cardinal kit that would look amazing next to the bright-yellow canary Zoe gave me for my birthday.

Unfortunately, I had to end our texts because I had work to do. Then school pickup and homework and that pesky chore that came around every evening called dinner.

But I did get a text while I was getting ready for bed.

I can’t stop thinking about you.

No lie, I must’ve stared at the screen of my phone for a full three minutes letting that declaration sink in. Letting it clean away some of the regret for the first time since I’d instigated the worst mistake of my life. And finally allowing myself to remember the boy I’d fallen in love with.

That was pure Jase of yore. Even as a teenager, he had been open and honest with me. He’d never withheld his thoughts or feelings, making it easy for me to share mine.

And just with that text he’d torn down another wall.

Which meant I gave him my truth.

I’ve never stopped thinking about you.

I sent that, then followed up with:

And thank you for accepting my apology and being so cool about it.

After I sent that, my stomach did a somersault.

Jase hadn’t actually said he’d accepted my apology. I had just assumed by the way he’d guided us out of the painful awkwardness that he’d forgiven me. However, reading that text I realized that was a tad presumptuous. Not only that, but it was late at night and if he came back with a rebuke or didn’t respond at all, I wouldn’t’ve slept a wink.

Thankfully, he texted back.

We were young. We both made mistakes. It’s done. It’s in the past. Now is now, and straight up, I’m not letting you get away a second time.

I read that text three times. I didn’t know what mistakes he thought he made and it was too late at night to ask. Not to mention, not a conversation to have over text.

So I let that lie.

Sleep well, Jason.

Sweet dreams, baby.

That brought us to today and this morning’s text from him.

Time for lunch today?