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She swatted me, but she smiled. “I think you’ll have to fight Grant and George for that title.”
“Oh, really?” I teased, reaching under the blanket to tickle her until she squealed. “Do you think anyone else will show up?”
“Like who? Jonah?” She laughed, shaking her head. “I mean, he could, but he has nothing he can say to me that will change my mind. He didn’t want this with me as much as I didn’t want it with him. He probably feels free right now.”
“He was in for the money, though.”
“Well, yeah, and that might be the only reason he’d show up at all to try to take me back.”
She sighed heavily. “That was only her first shot at negotiations. That’s what she’s doing. She could come back here and offer you money to let me go, you know?”
“Well, I’ll have to hear her out then—”
“Pete! I’m being serious right now. I’m just glad my dad wasn’t the one who showed up. He’s a lot better at this kind of thing, you know. That’s why he’s richer than God. He can talk anyone into doing his bidding. He has for years. I guess in a way he was the reason I even started dating Jonah in the first place.”
“Really?”
“Oh, yeah. Finding out I was going on a date with Jonah Lawley was the first and only time my parents said they were proud of me.”
My stomach twisted.
“Who would win in a fight, me or your dad?” I asked, trying to lighten the mood.
She rolled her eyes and stretched out her legs. “You, of course. My dad is old. You and Jonah… Well, I don’t know. He’s a cheater, through and through. He’d try to cheat his way out of a fight.”
“You can’t cheat your way out of someone punching you clean in the jaw.” I shrugged.
It was silent for a while as we both considered the crushing, almost suffocating truth of it all.
“Did you just jinx us by bringing them up? Are they going to show up here now, and your new man is going to have fight both your ex-fiancé and your dear old daddy?”
“Did you just say jinx?” She laughed, throwing her head back. “God, I forget how old you are sometimes.”
“I’m only ten years older than you!”
“Eleven years.” She winked.
I wanted to reach out and bend her over the couch to teach her a lesson, but I maintained my composure as I fixed her with a devilish smile.
“Well, you’re into an old, grouchy man who hates holidays. What does that say about you?”
“That I have good taste,” she mused, her voice lifted and flirty.
I leaned over and kissed her, running my tongue along her lower lip. She shuddered, wrapping her arms around my neck.
“I think watching you beat up Jonah would turn me on,” she rasped, kissing my neck. “But I don’t want him to hurt you.”
“You really think I’d let that man get close enough to hurt me?”
“I just… you know how I feel about this situation and dragging you into it, and your friends into it. I feel awful. I just want it all to end, but I feel like… I just feel like we’re waiting for the other shoe to drop—”
“The other shoe to drop? And you think I’m old—”
“I’m serious, Pete.”
“I know,” I said, calming down enough to give her a look of sheer understanding. “I have your back, remember? Whatever is coming our way, I got you. My friends got you. We’re going to be okay. We’re going to make it through this, I promise. And then—” I lay down, wrapping my arms around her and nestling her close. “Then we can move on and make real plans together. Our future will be laid out in front of us, and we’ll look back on this and laugh, hopefully.”
“I don’t feel much like laughing yet.”
