“Twat.” He twirled some of my hair around his finger. “What are your plans for tomorrow?”
“What I was going to do was go to Searcy’s around nine. Watch the kids open presents and help with breakfast,” I answered. “Clean up. Oh, and I have to prepare for my job interview.”
“Your job interview?” he questioned.
I sat up and reached for a cookie that was on the bedside table. “I have a job interview the day after tomorrow. The big boss knew it was bad timing, but he goes out of town every year to visit his family in Italy, and won’t be back again until mid-February. He said it was either now or then. I chose now.”
“What is it and where?” he questioned.
I gave him the basics of the job and what I would be expected to do there.
He listened intently while I ate the cookie over his chest, dropping crumbs all over him. He didn’t seem to mind, though, and even picked up a chocolate chip and popped it into his mouth.
“Do you want this job?” he questioned.
I scrunched up my nose. “I want it because it’ll be a great job. I really wanted a different job, but I’m not really willing to move to make it happen.”
“Move where?” he asked.
“Forney,” I answered. “It’s not super far away in the grand scheme of things, but they want me within fifteen miles.”
“Why aren’t you willing to move?” he questioned.
I opened my mouth and then closed it, really considering what he was asking.
Why wasn’t I willing to move?
“Anders. Kent. Pane. Cassidy. Dalton. Searcy,” I answered, then hesitated. “You.”
His lips twitched.
In all honesty, I liked living where I was living. I liked even more that Jasper lived next to me.
I may not have always gotten along with him, but I liked him being next to me.
I felt safer.
And I always knew that if I needed anything, he’d be there.
“Seeing you grumpy every time I opened your mail or ate your food was always a highlight of my day.”
He snorted. “You do know, correct, that sometimes I only let you eat it was because I liked you?”
I gasped. “You like me, Jasper Madden?”
He twisted us so that he was once again hovering over me, my forgotten cookie still in my hand above his head.
“I’ve liked you for entirely way too long,” he said. “You were practical jailbait when you first came on my radar.”
I hummed. “Is that right?”
“That’s right,” he said. “But you’re all grown up now, aren’t you?”
I fed him the last bite of my cookie and watched his eyes dance before saying, “Doc won’t care that much.”
“Doc will care a lot,” he disagreed. “But I don’t think I really give a shit.”
Twenty-Two
