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“What is it?”
“If it’s okay with you, I’d like to be just EJ to Jackson. No more mister. Think about it.”
Oh, wow. Elias is asking a lot of me tonight. Taking away the mister, the formality, is a big deal. He’s getting even closer to my son by taking that away. He’s removing another one of our layers, damn it.
“I’m okay with it,” I whisper. How can I say no? I’m currently in his bed, in his arms, with my son on the other side and it’s all on Christmas Eve. Elias doesn’t ask for much; he can have this. “I know it probably doesn’t seem like it all the time, but I am glad I’m here and with you.”
“Does this mean I get a good night kiss?”
Smiling, I lift my head and press a chaste kiss to his lips. Elias pulls me even closer and soon, I’m drifting to sleep.
When I wake up in the morning, Jackson’s head is on my chest and his little body is turned sideways, his feet hanging off the side of the bed. But what I notice is how hot his forehead feels against my chest and the fact that Elias’s arm is around my waist. I move his arm with one hand and with my other, feel Jackson’s forehead.
Oh, no.
He’s burning up. Jackson moans as he wakes up. “Momma,” he whines. He shifts and crawls over my body, hugging me and burying his face in my neck.
“Do you feel bad?” I ask and he nods into my neck.
“What’s the matter?” Elias grumbles as he rouses awake.
“Jackson’s sick. Pretty sure he has a fever. You might want to get away while you can.”
Elias rubs Jackson’s back. “What’s wrong, J-man?”
“My throat hurts,” he mumbles.
Great. He probably has strep. I nudge Elias with my elbow. “Go. He’s likely contagious. You don’t need it and you don’t need to spread it. We’ll hang in here today.”
Elias frowns. “It’s Christmas.”
“And he’s sick.”
Although he doesn’t look like he wants to, he gets out of bed and leaves us to get ready for the day. I’m tempted to check on Bree, but her baby monitor is quiet; she might still be asleep. Plus, I need to follow my own advice and keep Jackson’s germs to myself.
Jackson falls back asleep in my arms. I rub his back and run my fingers through his hair, hoping it soothes him. But then, I hear sounds from Bree’s baby monitor. At first, it sounds like Elias’s mom, Alice, talking to Bree. There’s nothing wrong with that. If she’s in there, then Derek must already be awake and downstairs.
“What do you think about our son dating his nanny, James?” Alice says. “I don’t like it.”
My body stiffens. There’s a brief pause and James says, “It’s none of our business.”
“It will be when they break up and I have to move down here again because he’s without a nanny. This is a disaster waiting to happen, James. I like her, I do, but this blurs the lines, and if something goes wrong, I have to come back. Not that I don’t love my granddaughter and wouldn’t do it, but it’s not the ideal situation. And we both know Elias James doesn’t always do well with picking a good woman. Just look at what happened with Bree’s mom.”
“It’s none of our business,” James repeats. “EJ is happy. She does her job well. That’s all we need to
worry about.”
It’s decided. I like James better than Alice, although I worry about the same things she does. I hear Elias step out of his bathroom at the same time we hear Alice’s voice again. “I’m not so sure I like them together is all.”
Elias peeks into the fort. For a moment, I’m completely distracted by his body because he only has a towel wrapped around his waist. “Is she talking about us?”
I nod. “Has been for the past few minutes.”
Without another word, he storms out of his bedroom and his voice filters through the baby monitor. “Ma. We can hear you.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” she replies. “But you can understand why we’re worried—”
“Yeah. I’m sure for the same reasons we’ve already thought of, but it’s not stopping us, so keep it to yourself. The last thing I need is for you to get into Raelynn’s head and cause her to change her mind.”
