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“So where are we going?” Raina asked.
“I thought we could hang out.” Jesse scratched at his arm awkwardly. “I wanted to have a picnic, but it’s—”
“A bit cold,” Raina finished.
“Yeah. So I asked your Jewish friend—I can’t remember her name—to get me some food you can eat, and I set up some blankets and pillows in one of the empty classrooms.”
Raina’s heart melted. Asking Tehilla for help? Setting up a classroom? Jesse had gone through so much effort for her.
“That’s so sweet, Jesse.”
“Really? Okay, good.” Jesse let out an unsteady breath. “Fair warning, this was all done in like a half hour, so there’s a good chance we’ll be eating fruit and crackers.”
“I like fruit and crackers.”
“Good.” Jesse put out a hand to stop her. “It’s this classroom.”
Raina’s eyes widened as they entered the transformed room. A whole host of pillows and blankets had been artfully arranged on the floor, with fairy lights draped over them. A plate of fruit and crackers—as Jesse had predicted—was sitting on the teacher’s desk, with the rest of the desks pushed up against walls. In addition to the fruit and crackers, Tehilla had included assorted desserts as well.
“I didn’t do this!” Jesse was quick to admit. “I just brought the pillows and blankets.”
“It must have been Tehilla,” Raina said with a laugh. “I’ll have to thank her later.”
“Yeah, this is pretty amazing.”
Tentatively, Raina took a seat on one of the pillows as Jesse went to grab the plates from the teacher’s desk. As he sat down next to her, she wrapped one of the fuzzy blankets around her legs.
“Cracker?” he offered.
“Thank you,” Raina said, shivering slightly as their fingers touched.
Jesse frowned. “Are you cold?”
“It’s fine,” Raina tried, but Jesse wasn’t having it.
“Can I touch you?”
Raina paused. On one hand, she trusted Jesse not to do anything inappropriate, but this was more than a casual touch in the hallway. In accordance with her customs, she wasn’t even supposed to be next to him on the blankets.
Raina should be putting distance between them, but…she wanted him. Maybe it didn’t exactly follow what she’d been taught, but Jesse made her happy. And wasn’t that the most important thing?
So Raina nodded, and she couldn’t deny it was a big deal when Jesse moved closer to wrap a gentle arm around her shoulders. But she also couldn’t deny how her body instinctively nestled into his side.
“Is this good?” Jesse asked, offering her a few grapes.
“Yes,” Raina admitted. She glanced up at him shyly. “Thank you for asking.”
* * *
As Raina relaxed into him, Jesse began to chatter about his weekend. No matter how comfortable Raina said she was, Jesse could tell there was a small part of her that was still tense, and he also knew if he gave her something else to focus on, she would forget about it.
“So Nicole asked me to be on her TikTok yesterday. Well, she asked me to make my own TikTok account, but she’s been asking that for years. I haven’t, of course. I’ll agree to make a video with her every once in a while, but I don’t like going on her lives. It’s weird seeing myself on camera.”
Raina frowned. “I’ve never been into social media. I know everyone else has an account or two–-”
“Or seven, in Nicole’s case,” Jesse said with a chuckle.
“I got Instagram this year, but I only follow Gracie’s art account.”
