Page 11 of Lawson & Jill

Chapter 4

Luckily, when Law checked out his fridge, he had milk that wasn’t expired, so he had time to clean up. He was hoping he could talk her into a dinner out. There was a good seafood place not too far from his house.

When he got out of the shower and stood in front of the mirror to shave, his reflection confronted him with something he hadn’t seen in a long while. A real grin.

“Where have you been?” he asked his reflection.

Good question.

Law damn near dropped his razor as his head whipped around at the sound of Xavier’s voice.

“What the hell?!”

Great. Now he was having auditory hallucinations.

“I am not my mother.” His voice was emphatic. She was the one who swore that Xavier had talked to her. That was so not his gig.

However...

Law sighed as he smeared shaving cream on his face. His big brother Xave would be giving him a great deal of shit for having his head so far up his ass for the last thirteen months.

“Not my fault,” he muttered as he started swiping through the foam. “The blame totally lies on you, Xavier Winston Thorne.”

He tilted his head, then realized he was waiting for some sort of rebuttal and rolled his eyes.

“Lawson, you have problems.”

He concentrated on shaving. Not an easy task, because had to work around that damn smile. The thought of seeing Jill, and Xavier giving him shit from the grave, all of it made him happy. Only fifty percent of it meant he was crazy.

By the time he had a pair of chinos and a T-shirt on, he heard her car pulling up next to his truck in the driveway. Chocolate chip cookies were nice, but a chance to see the pretty brunette was definitely the high point of the afternoon. He had the door open and stood at the top of his porch by the time she got out of her car. She was balancing a plate and she blew him away. Yeah, she filled out the tank top really well, but it was the way her eyes lit up that really tickled him.

“Let me help you with that,” he said as he jogged down his steps.

“That’d be great.” Jill handed over the plate, then reached in for a plastic grocery bag.

“What’s in there?”

“I actually baked more than the two-dozen cookies that I admitted to. Here are the other three.” She handed him the bag with a Tupperware container in it. “I figured you could have these for later.”

“Sweet.”

She glanced over his shoulder. “You have a nice set-up.”

“My mother insisted on going furniture shopping the last time she was in the States.”

“You said she lived in Belgium, right? That seems odd when her sons were all in the U.S. military.”

Law took the opportunity to place his hand on her lower back and guide her up the stairs. “It’s a long and complicated story.”

“Just the kind I like.” She sat down on the loveseat instead of a chair, he noted with satisfaction.

“Did you really want milk?” Law asked as he opened the screen door.

“Absolutely.”

He went inside and poured two glasses. He brought them out along with some paper towels.

“So, what do you want to know?” He asked as he settled in beside her.