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For as much as I insisted that Jamie didn’t have to answer me, I wish she would already. Not knowing this particular fate is driving me crazy. Not necessarily because she might not move in, but because I don’t know what she’ll do. The unknown of her answer bothers me more than whatever her answer might be.
“Brent?” Jamie calls my name from the bed later when we’re back on the ship and getting ready for dinner.
I step out of the bathroom and walk over to her. “What is it?”
“How would us living together work?”
Thank goodness I’m not the only one thinking about this still. “What do you mean exactly?” I sit down next to her. “You’d move in. We’d figure out how to take care of the house together as partners. We’d buy groceries together. It’ll be fairly simple.”
“But you have a mortgage, right? What about that? Or the utilities?”
I shake my head. “You can help with the utilities if you want, but the mortgage is my debt, not yours.”
“You know, you have this tone you use when you don’t want anyone to argue with you. It’s annoyingly effective.”
Her words make me smile. “I’ll try to use it more often, then.”
“You think we can do it? It’s not too soon?” There’s so much hope in her voice. She wants this as badly as I do; that much is clear with her hope that I’ll reassure her that this is the right decision not only for her, but for us.
“Wouldn’t ask if I didn’t think we could do it. And no, I don’t think it’s too soon. You’ve spent a lot of nights at my house and now, we’re spending an entire week together and we haven’t tried to get away from one another. It’s been great.” She nods in agreement. I lean over to kiss her cheek as there’s a knock on our door. “Honey, there’s still time to think about it. And even if the answer is no, we’ll be fine.”
I stand and hold out my hand for hers. She takes it as she stands. “Part of me thinks I should say yes because how can I say no to a man as good as you? Maybe you should stop being so nice to me and that’ll make this easier.”
I open the door for her and slap her ass as she walks by me. “There you go.”
“That’s not what I meant!” she exclaims with a laugh.
“We did not need to see that,” Gregory tells m
e.
“I have to agree,” Logan adds. “Although, I’m not sure when I would like to see anyone get their ass slapped.”
“And we have no idea why doing that,” Kayla slaps Logan’s behind playfully as we walk toward the elevator, “has to do with whatever Jamie actually meant. It’s all very disturbing.”
“If it makes y’all feel better, it wasn’t sexual,” Jamie says, making all of them groan. That apparently doesn’t help.
Meals have been going well ever since Jamie and Kayla talked. They can now carry on a conversation with ease. They’re even planning to go to a trivia game later tonight. There’s some rated R movie playing in the theater, so us guys are going to watch that. I have to admit, I’m slightly nervous about leaving the two of them to their own devices. Is it too soon to really trust that they are on good solid ground with one another?
“Jamie?” Kayla’s voice pulls me out of my own head as we eat dessert. “Are you okay? This is the second night in a row that you’ve been quiet through dinner.”
She’s showing concern; that’s a good sign that things will stay as they are now.
“I’m fine. Thanks for asking.” Jamie flicks her gaze to me. “Just a lot on my mind.”
I definitely should’ve waited until we got home. Now, I have her all distracted while we’re on the trip. After dinner, we have time before their trivia game and our movie. I pull Jamie outside to the balcony and we sit on a nearby bench.
“Wanting alone time with me already? We’re still in public, you know,” she teases, cuddling into my side since neither of us have our coats and it’s cold, the wind bustling by. Her hair flies into my face constantly.
“I wanted to talk to you in semi-privacy for a moment,” I explain.
“What is it?” she asks with concern.
“Stop thinking about whether or not you’ll move in with me. It’s distracting you and pulling you away from the here and now. Enjoy the cruise with me and think about it when we get home.”
“I wouldn’t have to think about it at all if I was brave enough to go for a run and clear my head.”
“We’ll go after the movie,” I decide. Jamie looks up at me with wide eyes. “We’re going,” I repeat before she can protest. “You need to clear your head and running is the best way you know how. I’ll run with you, so you have nothing to worry about.”
