Chapter 15 #2
“An hour?” I whine. My stomach rumbles.
Jamie chuckles. “Upset to have me hanging around that much longer?”
I roll my eyes. “Stay as long as you want.”
“Be careful. I can be a very inconsiderate houseguest.”
I snort. “I highly doubt you could ever be inconsiderate.” I give him a look. “Try. Right now.”
His brow scrunches. “Try what?”
“Do something inconsiderate.”
His lips roll, eyes bouncing around like he’s rifling through his brain. “Uh … like what?”
A laugh pushes out of me. “Exactly.”
His eyes narrow, like he’s ready to rise to a challenge. “I can be inconsiderate. Look. I’ll do … this.”
He pulls open my refrigerator door and then strolls away, plopping himself on the couch and kicking his feet up on the coffee table. He turns a triumphant face in my direction.
“See? I left the refrigerator door open.”
I can’t stop laughing. I shake my head as I push the door closed. Even when he’s trying to be inconsiderate, he’s adorable.
I take a seat next to him on the couch. His weight presses on the cushion where he’s seated, making more of a dip than I expect. I slide toward him. Our hips touch. I don’t pull away.
“Have a good visit home for Christmas?” Jamie asks.
My stomach sinks a little bit. “Actually, I didn’t go home.”
Concern etches on Jamie’s face. “Why not?” Then he blinks. “Actually, don’t answer that if you don’t want to. Obviously. It’s rude to ask.”
“No, it’s fine.” I take a deep breath. “My parents and I aren’t getting along right now.”
He frowns. “That’s too bad.”
Yet again, even though I’m always so closed off about telling others my personal business, I feel like I want to share the details with Jamie. Like it’ll take a weight off my chest.
“They didn’t agree with me taking this gap year,” I begin. I push out a cynical laugh. “To put it lightly.”
“You’re still fighting over that?”
“We both dug our heels in. I wasn’t going to consider not doing this, and they weren’t going to consider accepting it. We haven’t spoken since I told them what I was doing and then moved here in August.”
“Why do they have such a problem with it?” he asks.
“My parents are very … conventional. They think everything in life has to be done a certain way. You need to do well in school, go to a good college, study something practical that will give you a good career, and then you need to work and start thinking about having a family. To them, life means following a blueprint. There’s no room in it to take an off-ramp for a little while and try something out of the ordinary. ”
“Well, I’m really fucking glad that you don’t share their philosophy,” Jamie says, a glimmer in his green eyes.
A warm glow fills my cheeks. Our gazes feel tethered for a beat, but I pull mine away when the hum between us threatens to get too intense.
“Honestly, I never thought I’d do something like this, either. If you’d told me just a month before I made this decision that I was going to, I wouldn’t have believed it.”
“What happened?”
I hesitate. Should I share this part of my story with Jamie?
Telling him everything else that I usually keep bottled up has felt liberating, though. What the hell, why not?
“My ex cheated on me.”
His eyes flash. His nostrils flare. Muscles tick at the sides of his jaw.
“Does he have an address?” His voice is a dark rasp that I’ve never heard before.
My stomach feels upside down as I take in his lowered brow and the protective fire turning his eyes into burning emeralds.
“Well, he still lives at Cornell,” I say with a smirk.
Jamie looks contemplative. “Hm. I could make the drive and be back by morning. But it’s probably really cold there, too. Digging a hole in the frozen ground is what would hold me up.”
I laugh. The last traces of resentment I’m still holding onto feel like they’re floating away.
“No need to commit a murder for my sake. I’m over him.
Honestly, I was over him the moment I found out.
He wasn’t right for me, but I wasn’t sure how to end things.
When I caught him, it was more of a relief than anything else.
Plus, Adam definitely would have talked me out of my gap year idea.
He was a lot like my parents in the way he saw life.
Him cheating was a convenient, clean cut to sever our relationship.
” I huff an ironic laugh. “Sometimes, I want to thank him.”
Jamie hums reluctantly, his expression turning contemplative. “I see what you’re saying. I’m still going to hate him forever, though.”
I smile. “If you insist.”
He pushes up from the couch. I miss the feel of his leg against mine. “The chili’s gotta be ready now.”
“Wow.” The word heaves out of me. I’m so full. I’m slumped into the couch, and I couldn’t stand up if you paid me. “That was amazing.”
Jamie’s cheeks turn rosy. I’m not sure if it’s from the praise for his cooking or my choice of words. Knowing him, probably both.
He gathers our bowls—which have been emptied and refilled multiple times—and carries them to the kitchen.
When I hear the sink running, I call to him, “You better not be doing the dishes.”
“Of course I am.”
I scoff. “Turn the water off and get back here. I’ll take care of them tomorrow.”
“But then—”
I cut him off. “Damn it, Jamie, stop being so stupidly selfless and leave the dishes alone.”
His laugh is velvet smooth as he saunters back to the couch. “Fine, have it your way,” he says with a crooked smile. He sits back down where he was. His knee knocks against mine. “Getting about ready to kick me out?”
The hailstorm gave way to freezing rain, which isn’t forecast to stop any time soon. The streets are treacherous.
I pretend to hum thoughtfully. “Hm, if I made you walk home and you ended up slipping and breaking your neck, I might feel somewhat guilty for a couple weeks.”
“Wow, a couple?”
I tilt my head back and forth like I’m weighing my thoughts. “Well, a week and a half at least.”
“You know, it’s that extra half week of consideration that really warms my heart.”
“Then,” I whistle, pulling up my arm to jab my thumb over my shoulder, “you’re out of my mind forever.”
Jamie laughs. “Fair enough.”
“I think we’re stuck with each other tonight.”
“No complaints on my end.”
His eyes are a little too nice to look at right now, when he’s wearing a smile that reaches right to them. I pull away a bit and grab my remote. “Should we watch something?”
He perks up. “I know exactly what we should watch.”
“Yeah?”
“Your suggestion the other week.”
I quirk a brow. “Remind me?”
“X-Files.”
“Sure. I’ve never watched it.”
I find the streaming service it’s on, and we start the first episode. It’s pretty good. It hooks my attention fast, and I love the ‘90s vibes.
I also love the actor playing the main character.
A whistle of appreciation sighs out of me when there’s a scene of Mulder wearing a pair of slutty little glasses. I fan myself. “Sheesh.”
Jamie side-eyes me. “What?”
“He is so hot.”
I could swear jealousy rolls off Jamie in waves. He grunts in response.
An arch smile hooks on my face. I can’t resist messing with him.
“He’s exactly my type. Dark hair.”
Jamie can only grunt in reply again. This time it’s a gruffer sound, and it’s accompanied by a flare of his nostrils.
I bite my bottom lip to stifle a laugh.
“Jamie, you can’t be jealous of a TV character from thirty years ago.”
“Who’s jealous?” he asks. But the raspy, displeased sound in his voice betrays him.
“You,” I accuse.
He glances at me, and when he sees the impish grin on my face, his sour expression melts away.
“This is my reward for risking my life to bring you dinner. You teasing me.”
I pat his knee. “You’ll get over it.”
We watch a couple more episodes, exchanging commentary now and then. Eventually, I sense Jamie’s broad frame slackening against the cushions. His eyes are closed, his breathing rhythmic and peaceful, and he’s not responding to my low whispers of his name.
Watching him sleep sends a strangely peaceful feeling over me. “At least one of us will get a good night’s rest,” I say.
Despite my sarcastic comment, my own eyelids soon feel heavy. A calm, languid feeling permeates through me, deep into my bones. I slouch down, telling myself I’m just relaxing and resting my eyes for a minute.
My stomach doesn’t feel heavy anymore, just full and satisfied. Warmth radiates from Jamie’s muscle-wrapped body, curling around me. The steady rhythm of his breathing becomes hypnotic. There’s something so comforting and relaxing about the way he fills the space next to me.
For the first time in I couldn’t even say how long, without a struggle, effortlessly, I sink into sleep.