AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Sshh, it’s going to be okay, sweetheart. We’ll have your appointment this afternoon, and you can ask her all the hard questions. She might not have answers though.”
I groaned. “I know. I’m just feeling sorry for myself.”
Jake stood up and pulled me to my feet, then wrapped me in a hug. As though I’d done it a hundred times before, I laid my head on his chest. I released a shaky breath as he ran a hand up and down my back.
“You’re allowed to feel sorry for yourself,” he said. I smiled, my cheek brushing his soft T-shirt. “But maybe you’re also a bit… hungry?” he offered with a tentative tone.
I leaned back and raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, are you suggesting that I’m hangry?”
His hands were still around my waist, not that I minded.
“Not so much hangry as… hungry-motional, maybe?”
I didn’t want to admit it, but he might be right. Everything looked a little clearer after some food. And we had been at the imaging center for nearly two hours.
“Well, we’ve got about three hours to kill before my neurologist appointment. Any ideas?”
Jake released me, and I grabbed my purse before we headed out of the small consultation room.
“I’m up for whatever you’d like. There’s a new Italian place here the guys at the station have been raving about.”
As we walked into the sunshine, he looked up at the clear blue sky. “It’s a beautiful day. We could grab some sandwiches and have a picnic over at Jaycee Park or DePauw?”
“Oh, I love DePauw! Let’s do that.”
We walked through the grocery store and grabbed enough food to feed six people lunch. When he grabbed a package of mint Oreos, my mouth fell open. “Those are my favorite!”
At his expression, I sagged slightly, a frown tugging at my lips. “Which, of course, you already knew. Which is why you grabbed them,” I added lamely.
Jake immediately softened. “Oh, I’m sorry. I just… I wanted to make you smile by getting something I knew you liked. I didn’t think about how it would be upsetting to you.”
I shook my head. “No, it’s okay. It’s not like I want you to pretend you don’t know things. It’s just… I keep forgetting that this isn’t as new for you as it is for me.”
Jake stared at the Oreos in his hands. “Is that a problem?”
“I’m not sure yet,” I said honestly.
ChapterNine
JAKE
Iwas kicking myself for my careless slip in the grocery store. I hadn’t thought twice about grabbing the mint Oreos, but the instant I saw how Monica’s face dropped from excited to distraught, I felt terrible.
The last thing I wanted was to scare her away or make her feel like I was rushing her into a relationship she wasn’t ready for. We were just friends. Going for a picnic on a summer day.
I couldn’t say I had actually ever been on a picnic with a friend. It was something Monica and I hadn’t done before.
“Well, you and I have never had a picnic together. So, this is new for both of us,” I offered, trying to reassure her that we had plenty of experiences to discover together. Enough to last a lifetime if I had anything to say about it.
Monica’s smile was guarded, but at least she wasn’t quite so sad.
“Should we put the Oreos back?”
She shook her head. “No, obviously, I want them. Tell me something about you that I already know. Or knew, I guess.” She grabbed a random package of cookies off the shelf. “What’re your favorite cookies?”
I smiled at her openness. “Something you knew but forgot about me?” I grabbed the cookies from her hands and put them back on the shelf. “Definitely not those.”
“Nutter Butters?” she asked. “Chips Ahoy?”
