Jake:I got involved with my employer.
Casey:Wait…are you talking about the principal of Oak Ridge? The seventy-eight-year-old woman from a deeply Christian background?
Jake:No—the hot young author you used to be friends with.
Casey:Seriously?!? Like, how involved? Balls-deep, or like, I think I kind oflike her?
Jake:Did you just say balls deep?
Casey:You think because I’m a schoolteacher that I don’t know euphemismsfor sex? I’m hardly a virgin.
Jake:TMI!!!
Casey:What’s going on, Jake? Why’d you text me?
Jake:I think I might be falling in love.
Casey:You barely know her! It’s been so long since we’ve seen her. You can’tgo throwing that word around.
Jake:I know, and part of me feels like I’m going crazy. I promise you, Casey,this is more than like. So much more.
Casey:Whatever it is, take it slow. Her gran is dying, and who can really sayhow she feels?
Jake:I know. I just needed to tell someone.
Casey:I’m glad you told me. I just want you to be careful. I’m lessonplanning right now, but maybe we can meet up for dinner.
Jake:Love ya, sis. Thanks for listening.
Part of me knows she’s right. I know that Ashlyn’s emotionally compromised, and she’s probably using me as an emotional support cock, but I need to know for sure. I need to see what exactly it is that’s going on between us.
?
Ashlyn
Focus. Breathe. You can do this.
I have three separate projects going, all requiring my attention, but all I can do is think about Jake.
I should be happy. Thrilled that I have a distraction from all the stresses that come with caring for a beloved family member in the later stages of their life, but instead, I feel dreadful foreboding.
I’ve never had to erect a wall for someone I’ve cared about before. The walls have just always been there.
Somehow, Jake got around it.
I knew I had to rebuild if I was going to keep my sanity, so last night, as we climbed off the lounge and went to our respective rooms, I set each brick firmly in place.
Jake is not a man you plan a future with. He’s a jock-headed, thrill ride you use to pass the time. To think anything different would be foolish.
And yet I spent the entire night thinking about him. Wanting him.
I read a chapter of a reasonably tame romance to Gran and tuck her in for nap time before
going down to the kitchen for a glass of wine. Something to calm my nerves.
“So we meet here again,” Jake says, and I turn to see his steel-blue eyes trained on me. “I’ve finished the list you gave me.”
I cock a brow. “Looking for more to do?”
