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/> He moves his hand and lets me grab a fry. I dip it in the ranch and try to suppress my moan. I ate a piece of toast with jam for breakfast, but that was hours ago.
I grab my fork and end up shoveling half of Jace’s cheese fries onto the small extra plate Mindy dropped off.
Jace glares at me. “Did you have to take all my fucking fries?”
I point at his plate. “You have half. This is called sharing, Jace.” I put emphasis on his name since I didn’t say Jacen.
“That’s called, you stole all my fucking fries and I want them back.”
“You ordered like three meals,” I defend. “I’m growing a human, what are you doing?”
“I’m fucking hungry and that’s my food.”
I pick up a fry and make a big show of eating it. “Don’t make me tell Nova you were mean.”
He narrows his eyes. “You wouldn’t.”
“I would, and you know she’d choose my side in this situation.”
He shakes his head. “You’re as crazy as they come.”
I smile widely at him. “Thank you.”
“It wasn’t a compliment,” he grumbles.
“I know.” I smile like a shark.
Jace reluctantly shuts up and I can finally enjoy my—his—fries in peace.
Mindy comes by at one point to refill our drinks and tell us the rest of our food will be ready soon.
“Are you gonna steal the rest of my food too?” Jace asks, fighting a smile.
I shrug. “Depends on if it looks good or not.”
I’m surprised when that gets a gruff laugh from him. He’s not a big laugher. Jace is kind of … intense.
Our food arrives and Mindy clears away the empty plate of cheese fries.
My B.L.T. looks delicious, and despite the fries I just ate my stomach rumbles.
“So, I know I must’ve been your last resort to hang out with. I’m surprised you didn’t go by yourself.”
I frown, growing serious. “I’ve been spending a lot of time on my own lately. Xander’s tired, or at practice, or the gym—and his playing season is going to start soon, so it’s just going to get worse. I get sick of being in the house by myself all day long, since nobody wants to hire me, and now I’m pregnant so they really don’t want to hire me. Rae’s busy working, Cade too, and even Nova. While I’m just cooking a baby. It sucks. Is it bad that I miss living with Rae and Cade? At least then people were running in and out of the house all the time. Now that it’s only Xander and me it’s so … quiet.”
Jace doesn’t come back immediately with something snarky like I expect. Instead, he stares at me, his head tilted to the side like he’s studying me.
“I get that,” he finally says.
“You do?” I ask, my voice small.
“Well, sure.” He wipes his fingers on a napkin. “Right now, Nova’s gone a lot. She has work, and her and Joel are trying to start a business together, so that’s her focus. I work most evenings. It’s hard to see each other. The apartment is quiet a lot and it sucks. So yeah, I get it.”
“I guess you do,” I sigh. “I don’t know if it’s the pregnancy or what, but I feel really emotional about it, which I hate.”
“Right now is a big transition for you,” he reasons. “You’re not in school anymore, you don’t have a job yet, you’re in a new house, and your husband is gone. It’s a lot of new and different things. I think it’s perfectly reasonable for you to feel emotional or off balance about the whole thing. I don’t think it’s because you’re pregnant.”
“Hmm.” I sit back in the booth. “You know, you’re actually kind of smart.”
