Page 83 of Playing With Temptation

“I do?” It was Jase’s turn to butt in.

“You do.”

“Bedroom furniture?”

“Yes.”

Jase glanced down the table at Lucas and smiled.

He thought I wanted furniture for my son in his home.

It was funny how only a few days ago him thinking that would’ve sent me down an overthinking spiral. But sitting next to him after the fourth family dinner, two of these being two nights in a row, my mind was quiet.

“Not for Lucas,” I whispered.

His brows pulled.

Janis decided to jump in and tell Jase, “Your guest room leaves a lot to be desired, Jason.”

“I agree with you, Janis, but first I need to put his current dressers out of their misery.”

“What’s wrong with my dressers?” Jase asked. “They hold clothes.”

His question shocked me into silence. He’d been married. I knew Shay. She was beautiful and always dressed well, and I’d even been to a party at her childhood home and had seen her bedroom. She had good taste as a teenager. There was no way she hadn’t decorated the house she’d shared with Jase.

“What’s wrong with your dressers?” I sputtered. “Really?”

He shrugged.

“Yes, I agree with you, Rainy.”

“What’s wrong with my dressers?” Jase repeated.

“Honey, they’re so awful I feel it is my duty as the woman in your life to have them removed from your home. Actually they’re so horrible, I don’t even feel bad for over-stepping at this early juncture⁠—”

“Early juncture?”

“Um… yeah, very early juncture, normally it would be an⁠—”

“How do you figure it’s early? I keep telling you and I don’t mind repeating it, but baby, you gotta get with the program. I’ve loved you for more than half my life. That’s not early, that’s fu…freaking past due. If I could I’d pack up your house and move it into mine tomorrow, I would. So you want to toss my dressers, toss ‘em. You want to make my guest room suitable for my mom since she’s the only one who’s ever used it, have at it. But don’t break the bank, because as soon as I can swing you, your furniture’s gonna be in that house.”

I was staring at him with my mouth open.

Juni’s mouth was open, too, but she was using hers to speak. “Yay! Rainy and Lucas are moving in? We can totally move the boxes of Christmas ornaments out of the extra room into the garage and Lucas can have that room. It’s right next to mine.”

What was happening?

I felt a freakout coming on. A big one. A motherlode of a freakout was bubbling up. But then something that Colson said struck me.

“Those boxes are your Christmas ornaments?” I gasped.

“Yeah.”

“Where are the rest?”

“That’s it.”

“Say what? Those four boxes are all your Christmas ornaments?”