Page 81 of Playing With Temptation

“Shh,” I hushed him. “It’s all good.”

“Rainy—”

“Jason, if your mom doesn’t hate me, let’s not give her a reason to. And the kids.”

“First, the kids went somewhere with your mom. And as much as I love my mom, right now, I’m more concerned about you than what she thinks.”

I closed my eyes and admitted, “I hate this part of me.”

“What part?”

“This part. The part of me that reacts really bad when I’m taken off guard. The part that shuts down and blurts out things before thinking.”

“I love that part of you.”

My eyes popped open so I could stare at him in disbelief.

“You don’t shut down or react poorly. You react honestly. You don’t hide. You don’t fake your way through it. So you might hate it but I love it, always have. It’s one of the things about you I’ve always admired.”

He looked like he was telling the truth.

“You admire my freakouts?”

“You don’t freak out.”

Yes, I did.

I freaked out all the time.

“Um, Jase the other day in the parking lot of the ice cream shop I was so nervous to meet your kids I prayed for diarrhea. If that’s not considered a freakout, I don’t know what is,” I blurted out.

Jase’s body started shaking, then the shaking turned into big, wracking quakes before his laughter finally became audible and I realized my mouth had once again disengaged from my brain.

I turned my horrified eyes to Janis to see her smiling at me.

“Um…”

“I’ve missed my girl,” she said in the sweetest voice. “Do you think my son will let you go now so I get a hug? And just a warning, the men folk are out on the sun porch.”

Men folk?

Janis was a hoot.

“I’m really sorry I messed up so huge with Jase,” I told her, and since I’d already started down the road of honesty I continued. “I’m sorry I stopped taking your calls, too. I was⁠—”

“Rainy, darlin’, I was twenty once,” Janis cut me off. “Water under the bridge. Now come here so I can give you a hug, then you can introduce me to your son. Your mom tells me all the time how smart he is and how handsome, but I’d like to see for myself.”

I looked back at Jase who had thankfully stopped laughing.

“You can erase the diarrhea comment from your memory,” I told him. “That never happened.”

“Consider it forgotten,” he lied through a smile.

“Just so you know, that’s one of the many reasons I fell in love with you and never stopped.”

“What reason?” he asked, not in a growl, or a grunt, but his voice was thick with emotion.

“I know I’m safe with you no matter what.”