“Do you still carry the Sealy Posturepedic Hybrid Elite?” Bree asked.
“We sure do. One of our best sellers. It’s right over here.” He led them over to the display bed.
“Yeah, that’s fine,” she said. “Do you have it in stock or does it have to be delivered from the warehouse?”
“I need to check the database, if you don’t mind waiting for a few minutes.”
Bree sat on the end of the bed after the salesman left and flopped back. Jase joined her, but lay down on his side with his head propped on one hand. He rested his other hand on her stomach, his fingers teasing the bottom of her t-shirt.
“That was quick,” he said.
“What?”
“Picking out a mattress.”
Bree shifted her gaze from the ceiling to Jase. “I liked my mattress. I don’t need a different one, I just need a new one. Why waste time looking for something else when I’m perfectly happy with what I had?”
“Not too many people think that way. They always want bigger and better.”
“My grandparents lived frugally, even when they didn’t need to. I never knew we had money when I was growing up. Having it makes life comfortable, but I still live well within my means.”
He toyed with a lock of her hair spread out over her head. “Did your grandparents raise you?”
“Yeah. My parents died in a car wreck when I was a year and a half.”
“Shit. I’m sorry. You don’t have any other family?”
She watched Jase twirl the end of her hair around his forefinger. “I have two uncles and an aunt.”
“Why didn’t you live with them?” He seemed fascinated with the way the end of her hair curled around his finger, then let it fall back to the mattress.
“I asked Gran that one time when I was around ten or so. She said, ‘You were my Katie’s, so that makes you mine.’”
“That’s sweet.” Jase’s fingers brushed her neck as he moved the lock of hair off her neck where it had fallen, sending goose bumps down her chest and pebbling her nipples under the light padding of her bra.
“I know now it was more complicated than that. My mom was the oldest. None of them were really in a position in their lives to be able to take me in and raise me.”
“That couldn’t have been easy, though. Losing your parents at such a young age,” he said.
She shrugged. “It was all I ever knew. I didn’t realize until elementary school that not all kids lived with their grandparents.”
“Still. I can’t even imagine.”
“You and Tim seem pretty close. What about your sister?”
“We were really close growing up. She broke my parents’ hearts by marrying an Air Force guy. They live out in Colorado Springs.”
She tilted her head. “Why did it break their hearts?”
“Well, it broke my mom’s heart because they moved so far away. It broke my dad’s heart because she married a zoomie,” he said, grinning.
Bree pushed Jase’s shoulder, barely budging him. “Whatever.”
Jase leaned forward and kissed her quickly. “I saw your pictures at your house. How long were you in the Air Force?”
“Eight years.”
“What did you do? Something medical, I’m guessing.”
