“The supper is optional for me,” he told his wife as he came to a standstill behind her and kissed her neck. “Good night?”
“Hmmm, interesting. Abby wants a baby, but I know you know that.”
“Yeah, she and Bobby have mentioned it. Was that the highlight of your night out?”
“Yes, it kind of was,” Tasha replied with a slightly disappointed expression that made Jim laugh.
“So nobody tried hitting on you or touching you? No podium dancing or vomiting in shoes?” he asked with a throaty laugh.
“No. Horrifyingly boring night.”
With another laugh Jim said, “Thank you for keeping it tame and for taking care of Philip. I was half expecting to get a call from the police station asking me to come and bail one or both of you out for some kind of naked dancing on tables.”
Tasha turned to face Jim and looked at him with a disbelieving and alarmed expression at his choice of words.
“What?”
Tasha replayed her own words to Philip about not telling Jim unless he asked about near naked dancing.
“Nobody was naked, but there was a little table top dancing and a few clothes shed,” she admitted but Jim’s response clearly showed that her words had been misunderstood.
“What? You had better be joking here because if you are really telling me that you danced on tables after removing items of clothes you and your ass will be sorry and you will be grounded for life, Natasha.”
“No, not me.” She frowned. “Although I might do it next time if me and my ass have to pay for it,” she teased, but Jim ignored that.
“Then who was on the table?”
“Philip. He met some people he knew, had a couple of drinks and let off some steam. No more. I got him coffee and we talked. He just wants Juan to love him, like you love me, completely and unconditionally and right now he doesn’t know if he does.”
“Promise me you weren’t thrown out of anywhere or removed by the police?”
“I promise.”
“I think Juan and I really do need a chat because Philip can’t carry on like this. They both need to know what they want for themselves and from each other.”
“Yes, they do,” she agreed with a smile.
“It makes me so happy that you are beginning to understand just how I love you baby.”
“You make it easy for me to believe it even if I don’t always understand why me…”
“I intend to make sure you believe it and readily accept it because it’s no more than you deserve, Tasha. I assume Philip didn’t want me to know about his naked dancing?”
Tasha nodded at his assumption about his son, but chose to ignore the words about what she deserved.
“Okay, our secret,” he whispered as he landed a single kiss on Tasha’s lips before looking down at Connor, who smelling the offer of a meal was becoming fraught.
“Can you undo my dress please?”
“Anytime, baby.” Jim laughed as he undid the neck fastening that allowed the dress to fall down enough to enable feeding.
“You can carry on to bed if you want to. He’s probably only going to have a top up so I won’t be long,” Tasha told her husband as she sat down and began to feed her son.
“I’ll go and lock the house up and I will see you next door, Mrs Maybury. I need my one on one time too, honey,” Jim told her with a grin and a wink that only served to make Tasha smile and flush.
Chapter 26
The sound of raised voices caused Tasha to wake before Jim's alarm went off. Nudging him as he lay behind her she recognised one voice as Philip's.
