“Okay.” I shrugged but it felt like a muscle spasm. “I’m going to get up. Put on some clothes. Be a human again. I just need a minute.”
Stopping beside the bed, Noah ran his palm down my cheek. “I need a lot more than a minute and all I did was watch. Stay here, sweetheart. Close your eyes. You deserve it.”
* * *
Jaime wasbusy folding laundry on her bed when I called late Sunday evening. Noah was negotiating the terms of a bath with Gennie, and I was still an uncoordinated, boneless wreck after the events of this afternoon. Tremors still ran up and down my inner thighs and I didn’t think I’d be able to sit down for a week without thinking of Noah. It only made sense for me to skulk away to my new bedroom under the pretense of lesson planning but really to confess my sins to my best friend.
That was what everyone did when hiding from their fake husband after giving him a sex toy show.
“What’s shaking, doll?”
“My legs.” No point in drawing this out. “You told me so.”
She pinned a towel under her chin as she brought the edges together. “I’m gonna need you to be more specific.”
“Noah. And…you know.”
She sifted through her basket, draping a skirt over the side and tossing smaller items to the bed. “But Idon’tknow. What did your Daddy Bread Baker do and why do we love him for it?”
“We don’tlove him,” I said.
“We don’t love him because you are very busy remembering what actual love is all about. It will take time for you to recognize it and stop pushing it away.”
“I am not pushing anything away,” I argued. “As a matter of fact, I didn’t push him away when he invited me to come home with him last night.”
“Ohhhhh.” She nodded. “I take it that dough rises.”
My cheeks were hot and I couldn’t suppress my grin when I said, “Something like that.”
Jaime settled back against her headboard, sipping her water for a moment. Then, “Is this where you tell me it was a one-time deal and it’s never happening again?”
“Well, it wasn’t just the one time. There were two times. And then another—um, thing. And I moved in with him because the villagers gathered outside his house and essentially threw flowers and wine at us and then broke into song.”
She closed her eyes and dragged a fingertip over her brows. “Is that small-town speak forhe rocked my world so hard that my neighbors know his name?”
“Okay, so, he did—”
“Knew it.” She gave a slow, smug nod.
“—but there were actual people at his house this morning and now I have to live with him.”
“Have to live with him. Get to live with him.” She held up her hands. “What’s the difference?”
“We only moved me in here because—”
“The reason isn’t too important,” she interrupted. “I know it seems like it is but this was bound to happen. One way or another.”
I glared at her. “Have you been reading tea leaves again?”
“I’m not dignifying that with a response.” She sniffed. “I will only say that I hope you’re cozy and comfortable shacking up with your Daddy Bread Baker.”
“You really need to stop calling him that.”
“I like it. I think it fits.” She took another sip. “And I told you so.”
chaptertwenty-five
Noah
