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“Can we go there later today or sometime tomorrow so I can submit an application?” I asked.
He nodded. “I’ll take you this afternoon.”
Warmth and appreciation moved through me. I knew how big of a deal this was to Jesse. He was the kind of guy he was, and I knew every protective instinct inside him didn’t want me being anywhere that might have put me in a vulnerable position.
So, the fact that he was willing to compromise and not only suggest a place I might be able to work, but also be the one to drive me there, spoke volumes. Clearly, my happiness was important enough to him to figure out a way to make it work.
Having finished my breakfast, I leaned toward him, placed my hand on his thigh, and whispered in his ear, “Thank you for seeing my side.”
I then kissed him along his jaw.
I’d only just started when I felt movement and heard our plates being moved across the island. The next thing I knew, Jesse put his hands to my hips and lifted me onto the counter, where he stood between my legs.
His mouth descended on mine as one of his hands cupped me behind my head. Jesse’s other hand began exploring. It moved from my thigh up my side and over to my breast. He squeezed me there, his thumb swiping up from the bottom and over my nipple.
Loving the way it felt, I moaned and scooted closer to the edge of the counter. My hands slipped beneath his tee, and I relished the feel of his warm skin underneath my palms.
“You know,” I started, when he tore his mouth from mine and started kissing me along my jaw and down the side of my throat. “We haven’t had sex on the kitchen counter yet. If you’re not opposed to it, that might be fun.”
Jesse straightened upright and pulled his face from my neck. A curious look washed over him, and I wondered if I’d said something wrong. I didn’t think I had. I mean, I was offering sex. Maybe he had a thing about doing it on the same spot that he ate and prepared his food.
No.
No, that wasn’t it.
Jesse was not an uptight guy. In fact, I could see him preferring the sex over the food.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” I questioned him.
He shook his head. “I was just wondering what’s next?”
“Next?” I repeated.
Nodding, he clarified, “On your list. It’s been so many years since I saw you with your journal, and as soon as you said that we hadn’t had sex on the kitchen counter, I wondered if it was something you were planning to check off on your list.”
Shit.
I hadn’t been prepared for this conversation. I hadn’t intended for what I’d said to him to lead us here.
I swallowed hard, trying to come up with something to say, but I was failing. What exactly could I tell him? If I gave him the truth, how would he feel?
By some miracle, I got lucky. My phone started buzzing on the counter beside me, and I immediately reached out for it. When I lifted it in my hand and looked down at the display, I noted that I didn’t recognize the number. It was probably a spam call, something I would have usually ignored, but I was willing to answer if it meant that I would have a bit more time to delay addressing the words Jesse had just said to me.
“Hello?” I answered.
“Sawyer?”
I had expected a robotic voice to come through the line, or at the very least, one of those voices that immediately indicated to me that someone was calling from a call center, the ones that were surrounded by other voices in the background. That, unfortunately, was not what came through the line.
It was a voice I hadn’t heard my whole life, but it was one that I’d recognized quickly. It was also one that had me regretting answering the phone.
“Eric?”
A rush of air came through the line. “Thank God you’re okay,” he said.
“I’m fine,” I said, realizing that the last he’d heard from me, I had agreed to meet him for dinner.
“You stood me up.”
