Page 89 of The Perfect Distraction

Colton chuckled. “I wasn’t mad at you.”

“What would you call it, then?”

“Jealousy.”

“Oh.”

“Come and sit by me,” he said, patting the space beside him on the couch. They’d started out with a gap between them for when Joey first came home, but she still hesitated.

“You heard him. You’re my girlfriend, and it’s perfectly acceptable for us to sit by each other.”

Nodding, she scooted closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder. Smoothing her hand over his chest, she said, “I guess that makes you my boyfriend, then. Don’t those terms sound funny now that we’re older?”

“I don’t know. I kind of like how they sound,” he said, giving her a squeeze.

There was so much more she wanted to talk about, but for now, she decided to simply enjoy the pleasure of his company.

“How was your visit with Becca?” Colton asked while he twirled a lock of her hair around his finger. “You two look alike, but your personalities seem quite different.”

Beth laughed. “That’s an understatement.” And then she launched into the story of Becca’s outburst at the restaurant the other day and what had transpired with Simon Calloway.

“I’ve met him before. He gave a presentation at Joey’s school during career week.”

“What was your impression of him?”

“He seemed all right—a little arrogant maybe.”

She nodded. “Becca was furious when he tried to sell us a house while we were in line at the pastry shop.”

Colton stopped playing with her hair and glanced down at her curiously. Oops. She hadn’t meant to go there, but it was too late.

“Would you consider…moving here?”

She lifted her head off his chest and met his eyes. “It was really Becca’s idea. She said she’d be able to sell real estate anywhere, and then she suggested she and I could both move here. But I said it wouldn’t be that easy because I’d need to find a teaching job. And besides, who upends their entire life and moves two hundred miles away?”

“You’re rambling,” he said, placing his hand on her arm as if to calm her.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be. I was just surprised, that’s all.”

“Well, that’s Becca for you. She’s the spontaneous one in the family.”

“Beth?”

“Yeah?”

“Just so you know, I would never ask you to upend your life for me.”

Now that he’d brought it up, she decided to give voice to some of her fears. “But what happens after I leave, Colton? How do we do this?”

He sighed. “I honestly don’t know. I’ve never been in this position before.”

“Me neither. I had a boyfriend once who lived thirty miles away, and I thought it was the end of the world.”

Chuckling, he took her hand and gave it a squeeze. “If we want this to work, we’ll make it work,” he said.

Somehow, she didn’t think it would be that simple, but he sounded so positive that she decided to go with it for now.