“Agreed.”
“I bet you are ready to have me get out of your hair.”
“Not at all. Come up for dinner tonight at Austin’s.”
“Oh.”
His family would know. That was the thing. They would figure it out immediately, because she and Flynn had been honest with them from the start. So they would see the difference.
“I don’t care if they know,” he said.
“Really?”
She was amazed that he had read her quite so accurately.
“Yes. Really. Anyway, Carson and Austin are going to harass me no matter what my circumstances are. So they might as well harass me for this.”
“What about Cassidy?”
“Well, she’s the worst.”
Jessie smiled. She liked Cassidy a lot.
“I’m going to have to go back up to my place and get some clothes.”
He nodded. “Fair. Maybe you should bring a bag down?”
He was inviting her to stay with him.
“I mean, I have rehearsals, and … Yeah. Okay.”
He laughed. And he didn’t tell her how much to bring. Didn’t put any parameters on her stay. So when they got back to his place, she climbed in her truck and made the trek back to her house. She went inside and grabbed her little turquoise carry-on-size suitcase and began to fill it with some of her favorite things.
She wished she had sexier underwear. Not that he had made any complaints.
She got all packed up and drove up toward Flynn’s house, but took the turn that would take her to Austin’s instead.
The parking spaces in front of the house were filled with cars, and she wondered who was here tonight. Probably just his family. And he had invited her.
She swallowed hard, the realization making her throat scratchy.
It was … nice. That he had invited her. And she had to wonder if it was just about sex or the mayoral race or … She wasn’t sure.
When she walked into the house, the women were seated in the living room: Perry, Millie, and Cassidy. She could hear the sounds of the men talking from the kitchen.
“Hi,” Jessie said.
“Jessie!” Millie said. “Sit down.”
“Oh, I …”
“The men are cooking,” Perry said.
“Fuck the patriarchy,” said Cassidy.
Well. Jessie was certainly doing that lately.
“Right on,” she said.
