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I dress quickly in the first pair of dark jeans and t-shirt I can find, while Jaime dons last night’s dress. She looked stunning yesterday with her styled hair and makeup, but today, in the morning light with her bedhead and her face makeup-free, she’s gorgeous. She’s simply the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid eyes on.
“I can’t believe I’m about to do the walk of shame. With my entire family here. This is so embarrassing,” she mumbles as she attempts to tame her wild locks by finger-combing them. It doesn’t work.
“At least SWAT isn’t here. Or the National Guard. I heard your grandma tell your grandpa to call them off.”
“Oh God,” she groans loudly, dropping her head to her chest to hide her face.
Before I can reassure her, there’s an insistent knock on the bedroom door, followed quickly by the jingling of the doorknob. Thank Christ I locked that thing.
“Jaime! Now is not the time for a quickie. Your entire family is out here waiting to make sure you’re breathing, and all you’re interested in doing is another quick ride on the bologna pony! You and ‘Oh God’ need to get out here right now!” Emma hollers through the doorway.
Jaime practically flies across the room and throws the lock. When she opens the door, Emma is standing there with a smirk and eyes full of laughter. “I wasn’t…we weren’t…” she tries to defend to her grandma, but can’t seem to get the words out.
“Come on, sweetie. Grandpa just pulled up. We’re going for breakfast.” And with that, Emma turns and walks away, leaving a stunned Jaime gaping in the doorway.
***
It’s easy to get lost in the shuffle when you’re seating twelve at a table in the middle of Fran’s Diner in downtown Jupiter Bay. If the restaurant was quiet before we arrived, you wouldn’t know it now that we’re here.
When Lexi and Chris pulled up, with Grandpa in tow, the entire family convened upon my small living room until she and I were both ready to go. There was no getting out of breakfast since the entire Summer clan was wide awake and had been scouring the town, looking for Jaime at seven in the morning.
So here we are. I managed to throw on a clean pair of jeans and a t-shirt, while Jaime is sitting next to me, beautifully mussed up and with a slight glow to her face that screams sex. And, hell, if that thought doesn’t make my chest puff out with some sort of male pride. Her bedhead is tamed into a messy bun, she’s make-up free and wearing last night’s dress, all while sitting in the middle of a busy diner, surrounded by Sunday churchgoers and her massive family.
She’s still the most gorgeous woman in the room.
I come from a larger family, growing up with three siblings, but I don’t remember it being as noisy as it is with the Summer group all vying to speak over the person sitting next to them. And the laughter. I’ve never seen so many bright smiles and heard so much jovial laughter in my life.
I like it. A lot.
“Sorry that this is happening. My family doesn’t quite understand the idea of boundaries. You shouldn’t have been subjected to the early wake-up call or interrogation.” Jaime sets her hand down on my thigh as she speaks, not close enough to be suggestive, but close enough to cause a rise in my pants.
“Don’t worry about it, beautiful. Your family is great. They care about you a lot,” I remind her, thankful that she has such a big, loving family.
“Is this your first run-in with the family?” Josh asks on my left side. I’ve visited with him off and on throughout breakfast, and I’ve discovered I like the young banker.
“Well, as a whole, yes, though I met Emma and Orval last week.”
Josh must pick up on my facial expression because he laughs quietly, as to not draw attention from the rest of the table. “Oh, I remember my first run-in with them. I’m pretty sure Orval slipped a condom in my coat pocket.”
“I’d believe it. He asked me about protection that first night, too.”
“Crazy ol’ man,” Josh mumbles with laughter in his eyes as we both glance across the table where Orval is feeding Emma eggs from his fork.
The look the oldest member of the family gives his wife is full of love and causes a hitch in my breath. I realize that I want that. Someday? Now? The sooner the better if you ask me, but I’m definitely ready for that all-consuming, powerful love those two have shared for decades.
And I might want that with Jaime.
That thought would usually cause me to laugh uncomfortably, but not today. Today, I relish in the idea of becoming something more, something great with her. I feel it in my soul that she’s special, and I plan to take full advantage of discovering the depth of the connection.
“He’s great,” I tell Josh with a hidden grin.
“So, Jaime, are you and Ryan, like, dating now?” AJ asks from across the table.
I feel Jaime tense beside me, her hand clenching my leg where she’s left it resting for the last several minutes.
“Of course they’re dating, now. A girl doesn’t bed a man like that and then let him slip through her fingers. I mean, look at her! She’s glowing in that post-sex way that I always get with Grandpa.” Gasps are heard on both sides of the table.
“We’re all so glad to see you out and living your life again, Jaime. Especially with one who makes you scream ‘Oh God’ with a house full of family. That must be some trouser snake he’s carrying,” Emma chimes in with a wink.
I don’t have time to let mortification settle in that Emma just referred to my penis as a trouser snake. My focus is pulled to Jaime. I can feel her retreating away from me immediately, and it only gets worse as the breakfast winds down. She sits beside me, ramrod straight, but appears miles away, lost in thought. I wish I could see what’s going on in that beautiful little head of hers, but at the same time, I’m kinda glad I can’t. I probably won’t like it.
When it’s time to leave, I attempt to contribute towards the bill, but Jaime’s dad won’t hear of it. Instead, I drop a few extra bills on the table for the tip, and escort Jaime outside. She hugs each of her sisters, as well as her dad and grandparents, before stepping silently towards my truck, yet to say anything to me.
The ride back to my place is quiet, and not in a comfortable sense. Something happened between the blueberry waffles and now, that has caused her to withdraw from me. We went from playful and touching to distant and apprehensive in a matter of minutes, and I don’t like it.
Not one bit.
