“You didn’t need to, Jim. I am yours.” She ran a hand through his hair as she stood in front of him for a moment before draining the pasta.
“You liked it though?” he asked.
She nodded, feeling embarrassed to admit that she had liked it.
“Do you want a drink?” He got down from the counter.
“Just water, please.” She finished serving dinner and put it on the table. Sitting opposite her, Jim passed her a glass of water. “I did think we were done with Dean. I thought you’d agreed that, so then when you started with Deanna,” she said tersely making him smile.
“You were jealous.”
“Yes, very, made worse by the fact that she has the serious hots for you and her a lonely divorcee.” Tasha could feel the knot in her stomach re-emerging making her feel sick. She pushed her plate away and shook her head. “I had no idea how that felt. I wanted to punch her in the face and tell her to find a man of her own and to leave mine alone,” she admitted.
“I think I like your violent, jealous streak honey, it matches mine.” He grinned while she frowned.
“But I have never been jealous before and I have loved people before. It scares me to feel so strongly about you, but to know so little about you.”
“Please eat something, Tasha. You’ve eaten very little today. I’m sorry for letting you believe there would be no repercussions for the lifeguard thing. I meant it, I think. Yet I couldn’t get past it, but I am glad you felt jealous, like I do. Now you understand it, but Deanna is nothing.”
She nodded and picked up some pasta on her fork. “I don’t want to play games, not mind games. I can’t play them. I always end up on the losing end of them…I always end up getting hurt by them.”
Jim nodded, understanding that she was serving some kind of notice of game playing being unacceptable, quite rightly. “I don’t want to hurt you, baby.”
“Good.”
“Oh, and for the record, you know more about me than most people, your birthday gift proves that.”
She grinned far too much at the comment that validated her knowledge of him. “How could Sara not know about your interest in astronomy?”
“Because she didn’t listen, didn’t care, wasn’t interested. Take your pick,” he said as he finished the food on his plate.
Tasha felt sad that any of his wives would not have listened, cared or been interested in anything he cared about.
She moved her plate away. “Do you want to watch TV or something?”
“I have a few things I need to do, some emails and stuff. Do you mind?”
“No, of course not.” She offered him a smile that suggested she felt a little better, knowing the reason behind his attention towards Deanna and understanding why he had liked her gift so much.
After kissing her gently on the lips, Jim headed towards his office leaving her bored and restless without him. Despite the number of channels on the TV Tasha couldn’t find anything to watch then had an idea.
She disappeared into the kitchen again where about half an hour later she was sitting watching the timer on the oven counting down when Jim appeared.
“Is your phone on?” His appearance startled her slightly.
“Yes.”
“Sara has been texting you, but you haven’t replied so she text me to ask if she’d offended you.”
She grabbed her phone, knowing she hadn’t heard a text alert. “It must have got knocked onto silent in my bag.”
“Why would Sara think she had offended you?”
Tasha shrugged. “She was a bit weird this morning.”
“Weird how?” He stood before her with an expression of suspicion creeping across his face. She shrugged but he persisted. “How, Tasha?”
“She reminded me that we had staff when I was clearing up after breakfast then she said I should be careful, how she knew we were fond of each other, but as we barely know each other I shouldn’t do anything rash. She’d hate to see me get hurt,” explained Tasha thinking she’d pretty much summed up the other woman’s words.
