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“I’m so glad Mollie took the girls.”

“Think they’re terrorizing Cain?” I asked with a laugh.

“Them and the chickens. I bet it’s so funny.”

Atticus was usually our first point of contact, but Mollie had offered to watch them too. Jade wanted me to lean on the community, so I took her up on her offer.

It went well. Despite Jasmine being younger, they were all wild and had fun playing on Mollie’s seemingly endless land.

Tonight was a good reason to not have them. Jade was a mess, and if she was, I was too.

“We won’t know for a few hours.” I tried to say it in the calmest voice I could muster, but it was hard.

Jade wanted this so badly, and it was a no-brainer that she would be great at the job. Better than great, even. It was like she was made for it.

The town had been more than kind with their reassurances. When they finally got their attentions off me, they focused on her. As time went on, more and more of them seemed thrilled with the idea of her taking over as the mayor. Her phone was alight with messages full of support as votes came in.

“Should I look at the preliminary results again?” she asked.

I took her phone out of her hands. “That site is barely running at best. You’ll drive yourself up a wall if you keep looking.”

“Then distract me.” She fell back onto the couch, arm covering her eyes. I could see how tense her entire body was. “Tell me a story about San Francisco. Oh, or piss me off. You could tell me that you’re leaving again. That might work.”

“Absolutely fucking not.”

“Rage is a great distractor. Just piss me off.”

“Sh.” I covered her mouth. “Just stop.”

I expected her to fight me. Instead, she lowered her arm and her eyes went wide while she stilled.

“Do you like that?”

Jade opened her mouth and I uncovered it. “Kind of? I do like talking, but it was nice to not think for a second. Everything is so loud and scary right now.”

An idea crossed my mind. “Hang on,” I said lowly. A few weeks ago, Jade had brought over her noise-canceling headphones for some quiet time. I grabbed them and put them over her ears.

“It kind of helps. I still have my eyes, though.”

I got up once more and found a tie in the back of the boxes I’d had sent from San Francisco. I took off the headphones for a second to put the tie over her eyes.

Jade went still and then she slowly nodded. I sat in front of her, willing to give her space.

Then she reached out, trying to find me.

I grabbed her hand. It took her a moment to find exactly where I was, but then she crawled onto my lap. I sucked in a shocked breath but didn’t move away.

If she wanted to be close to me, she could.

For a while, there was only the sound of her breathing. I was content to stay there, but Jade reached out once more. Her hand hovered in the air, and I tried to figure out what she was going for.

She angled downward, and her fingertips trailed to my hips. I was tempted to jerk away, but she went farther to touch her own leg. Then she slid between them to my crotch.

“Ah, Jade.” I said it out loud even though I knew she wouldn’t be able to hear me. “I don’t think you want to be there.”

Her fingers brushed over my zipper and fumbled with it for a moment before pulling it down. Then she moved to the button of my jeans.

“Oh. This is exactly what you want.”