“Yeah, you didn’t get to see very much other than the homeowner being a hot mess the last time, did you?” she said wryly, hopping off the stool.
“A cute hot mess.” He followed her out of the kitchen and through a house that proved to be cheeky and comfortable and perfectly Mabel, with its explosion of purples and greens, corals and blues. At her bedroom door, she gestured to the cat sleeping at the foot of her bed. He cracked open one yellow eye, stretched, and repositioned himself for more sleep.
“You remember Tybalt?”
“I do,” Jake said gravely. “He and I bonded that night. Oh hey!” He gestured to the pot of delicate purple orchids on her bedside table. “I truly thought these would’ve been mulched to fertilize your garden the day you got them.”
She tucked her loose hair behind her ears with a rueful laugh. “They almost were. I sent them home with Dave, and he kept them safe until I asked for them back a few weeks ago.”
A spurt of pleasure raced through him. She hadn’t trashed them, and when she got them back, she put them where she’d see them as she began and ended her day. She really had been thinking about him as much as he’d been thinking about her.
They left Tybalt to his nap, and Jake ducked into the kitchen to check on the food. Then they ambled back to Mabel’s living room, where she settled cross-legged onto one end of the couch and pulled him down onto the cushion next to her.
Now was as good a time as any for a big pronouncement.
“I didn’t come right out and say it last night, but just so we’re clear: I’m all in.” He draped an arm over the couch and watched her absorb his words. Too much, too soon, too demanding—he didn’t care. They’d been doing this dance for far too long for him not to lay his cards on the table.
Still, his whole body tightened as she looked down for a long moment at her fingers laced together on her lap before taking a deep breath.
“Yeah. Me too.” Then she looked up and smiled, and his breath caught in his chest. “Let’s see where this goes.”
Before he could respond, she launched herself at him, latching her arms around his neck and sliding down his body until they were both reclined on the couch with her warm weight on top of him.
“Wait. Wait, Mabel,” Jake said through her kisses. It killed him to stop, but he was doing things right this time, dammit. “If we’re going to do this, I don’t want to keep anything from you about your job.”
“It can wait.” She slid her hands under his shirt and scratched his stomach lightly with her nails.
He grabbed both her wrists. “No. No surprises this time.”
She stilled, body sprawled on top of his, hot eyes on his.
He gulped and made it quick. “As part of my oversight of the station’s financial health following the buyout, I asked my sister to commission a marketing company to do a focus group on the different shows at your station. That will provide some qualitative data to go along with the listenership numbers being released in January.”
“This is weird pillow talk,” she muttered, pulling herself upright to straddle him.
It took effort, but he ignored the hot pleasure of her pressing against his fairly serious hard-on. “Long story short, because you’re killing me with your wiggling, we’ve convened the focus group four times so far, and people chosen to participate rate your morning-show performance incredibly high, and they hate the rotating cast of women on the air with Dave. I haven’t shown the results to Brandon yet, and I don’t know if it’ll do any good, but it’s something.”
Her lazy movement stilled. “Four times? How long has the research been going on?”
“Since October,” he said, wrapping his hands around her hips. “They listened to shows with you and Dave, with Dave when he was solo, then Dave with the other cohosts. They listened to the other shows too. They like you on afternoon drive, but not as much as on mornings.”
She blinked. “Since October,” she said slowly. “So when I was ignoring you and keeping it professional and being generally obtuse, you were still fighting for my old job?”
He tried to keep his shrug casual. “Somebody’s got to look out for the financial health of the station. And taking initiative looks good to the partners.”
Of course, if he impressed the partners too much, he’d find himself back in the Chicago office with a promotion and a raise. But that was ages away, and who could say what would change in his life between now and then? He’d find a way to make it work, but at this moment, Mabel’s glassy eyes were his priority, and his heart clenched when a tear broke loose and streaked down her cheek.
“Oh, sweetheart, no. I didn’t mean to make you cry.” He sat up to brush the moisture away.
“I’m not sad.” She sniffled. “Nobody’s ever commissioned research for me before! This is the nicest thing, Jake.”
He started to repeat his warning. “Again, I don’t know that Brandon will—” But her lips cut him off as she renewed her assault on his mouth.
Being honest in a relationship was a good gambit, he decided thirty minutes later as they shrugged back into their clothes and devoured their dinner at Mabel’s kitchen island, talking nonstop and eating the food right out of the pans.
“You’re staying tonight, right?” She licked a dollop of cupcake icing off her lower lip, and his eyes followed the movement of her tongue the whole way.
“Yep. And I’m planning to be here in the morning when you wake up.”
