Chapter Fifteen #2
“What time is dinner there?” Sawyer asked, picking up their coats.
“Early afternoon.”
“Why don’t you come to my mom’s after that?”
Jenna blinked at her in surprise.
“We don’t eat until later. I know my mom would love to see you. You could meet my dad. And I don’t want to have to listen to Courtney complain about how she’s bigger than the Goodyear Blimp all by myself.”
“I mean, that’s a reason in itself right there.”
“Exactly.”
Jenna was surprised by how much she was not wavering. “You’re sure your mom wouldn’t mind?”
“Are you kidding? She likes you better than me.”
“Duh.” She bumped Sawyer with a hip. “Okay.”
Sawyer blinked in clear surprise. “Okay?”
“Yeah. Okay. Sounds fun.”
“Oh my God. Fantastic. Excellent. I’m so excited.” There was that radiant smile, and it warmed Jenna, lit her up in all the dark corners.
Jenna paid for the books she’d picked out, then they put on their coats and strolled together out into the brisk November air. “Snow stopped,” Jenna observed.
“More’s coming tomorrow.”
Jenna looked up at Sawyer, her dark hair slightly tousled, her arms folded in an obvious attempt to ward off the cold. “Thank you for coming today. I didn’t expect to have company. It was nice.”
“You’re welcome.” Sawyer glanced at her with a soft smile. “I had a good time with you. It’s fun to watch you in your element.”
They reached their cars, which happened to be parked side by side. Sawyer’s was running, as she’d used her remote starter to warm it up. She took Jenna’s keys and started hers, and they stood there.
“It’s funny that we’re, like, saying goodbye when we’re driving to the same place.” Sawyer’s breath left her mouth on a cloud of vapor.
“I was thinking the same thing.” Again, Jenna’s proximity to Sawyer was doing things to her body, causing heartbeats she could feel and a throbbing she could really feel. She wet her lips and said, “How do you feel about Thai food and a movie at my place?”
Sawyer leaned close, her lips only a couple of inches from Jenna’s as she said softly, “I feel very, very positive about those things.”
“I was hoping you would. Meet you there?”
“Deal.”
Sawyer’s plan had been to pop into the library, say hi to Jenna, drop off some coffee, and leave.
But there was something—she couldn’t put a finger on it—just something that made her stay.
She hadn’t had any plans for her Sunday other than doing some cleaning and maybe watching a movie, but she’d ended up at the library for hours, and she wasn’t even the slightest bit mad about it.
And now she had a date.
In her own house, she took off her jeans and sweater and switched them out for joggers and a cozy hoodie, as she’d been ordered to change into comfy clothes for her stay next door.
Big, fluffy socks came next. She pulled her hair into a messy bun, slid her glasses back on, grabbed a bottle of white wine from the wine rack she’d just refilled last week, stepped into her slippers, and headed across the porch.
A quick knock and she let herself in, once again enveloped in the warmth and inviting feeling of Jenna’s home.
The fireplace crackled, a couple candles burned on end tables, and the whole place smelled deliciously like cinnamon.
Jenna came down the stairs then, all cozy like Sawyer in joggers and a sweatshirt, hair up, feet bare, looking at her phone. She glanced up and smiled at Sawyer, and Sawyer was pretty sure something inside her melted. Simply melted.
“Hi.” Jenna held up the phone. “Know what you want?”
“Pad Thai,” Sawyer said.
“Wow. You didn’t miss a beat.”
She shrugged. “I love Pad Thai.”
“Protein?”
“Chicken, please.” Arnold had wandered in from the kitchen, licking his lips, saw Sawyer, and picked up the pace.
She squatted down to love on him. “Hi, buddy. Hi. Hi. How are you? How was dinner? Delicious, I hope?” When she glanced back up at Jenna, there was an expression on her face Sawyer couldn’t specify.
It was soft, held a bit of yearning, definitely positive.
A beat passed and Jenna cleared her throat.
“Could you let him out back? He just ate. I’ll finish up ordering.”
“You got it.” She gave Arnold a pat on his side. “Come on, big guy.”
Standing at the back door and watching Arnold as he sniffed, peed, sniffed some more, peed again, had a domestic feel to it that Sawyer didn’t expect. A comfort. It covered her like a warm blanket around her shoulders with its familiarity and coziness.
She liked being here.
She liked it a lot.
Less than an hour later, they were on the couch, side by side, plates of Thai food and glasses of wine on the coffee table in front of them, a drama ready to go on the TV.
“We can watch a rom-com, you know,” Sawyer said with a soft chuckle. “I’m not anti-romance.”
“Oh, but your blog says different,” Jenna countered, but her tone was playful.
“I will never live that blog down.”
“Not ever.”
That moment of comfort Sawyer had felt in the kitchen stretched into an entire evening of it. They ate, they drank, they watched, all side by side with their thighs pressed together—which Sawyer was keenly, keenly aware of.
She tried hard to pay attention to the movie.
She really did. Pretty sure it was about a woman building her own company from the ground up…
a food company of some sort…or something like that?
Frustrated with her inability to concentrate, it only got worse when Jenna sighed and sort of snuggled a bit closer without actually snuggling.
How that could possibly make sense, Sawyer didn’t know, but it was the only way her brain could describe the way Jenna was somehow closer to her now, head leaning against Sawyer’s arm.
She could feel her—her warmth, her presence.
She could smell her. God, could she smell her, that delicious scent that somehow seemed to wrap around Sawyer, teasing her, running its imaginary nails along her skin and causing goose bumps to erupt on her arms.
And then came the moment when she ventured a glance.
She’d been dutifully staring at the TV—despite having almost no clue what she was watching because she was paying it so little attention—when she finally turned her head to look at Jenna.
Just look. She simply wanted a peek at the beautiful woman next to her.
And Jenna was looking back at her.
That was all it took.
She turned slightly, grasped Jenna’s face in both hands, and crushed their mouths together like she couldn’t wait another second to kiss her. Because she couldn’t.
Jenna released a sound that was a combination sigh/hum, and it did things to Sawyer. Sexy things. Erotic things. She pulled her closer.
What was it about kissing Jenna Murphy that seemed to elevate…
well, everything? Sawyer couldn’t figure it out.
She’d kissed plenty of women in her lifetime, and none of them had felt like this.
It was sexy and sensual and an enormous turn-on, yes.
But it also made her feel safe and wanted and cared for. Held. Valued.
Okay. Getting kind of deep here.
She pulled back only enough to catch her breath and gaze into the rich brown of Jenna’s eyes.
“You okay?” Jenna asked on a whisper.
Sawyer nodded, and her smile came all on its own. “Hundred percent. I just really, really like kissing you.” Oh, God. What a juvenile thing to say. But the thought was driven out by the way Jenna’s face lit up.
“Oh, yeah? Well, I really, really like kissing you too.”
“What a happy coincidence,” she whispered, and kissed her again.
Things went from zero to sixty very quickly, which wasn’t a surprise to Sawyer, given how badly she wanted Jenna.
They were practically horizontal on the couch, Jenna on the bottom, Sawyer with her hand under Jenna’s shirt and pressed against the warm skin of her stomach, when Jenna wrenched her mouth free and whispered, “Wait.”
Sawyer pulled back immediately, breathless. “What? Did I hurt you?”
“No.” Jenna shook her head as Sawyer sat up and Jenna followed suit. “No, not at all. I just…” She cleared her throat and used a finger to swipe at the corner of her mouth. “I just think maybe we should stop.”
“Oh. Okay. Yeah, sure. Whatever you want.” Sawyer was doing a shitty job of hiding her disappointment, and she knew it.
Jenna reached out and grasped her arm. “For now. Just for now.”
Sawyer nodded. “Okay.” She took a deep breath and willed her own heart to slow down. After a moment, she said it again, but this time, with more confidence. “Okay.”
Jenna turned and tucked a leg under her butt so she was facing Sawyer.
Still holding on to her arm, she said, “Listen. That was—I was gonna say fun, but no. That’s the wrong word.
It was hot. Kissing you is…” She gazed off into the room and swallowed audibly.
“It’s fucking hot,” she said quietly, returning her gaze to Sawyer, and her words sent a shot of dampness to Sawyer’s center.
She groaned softly, and Jenna laughed. “Exactly. And given everything we’ve…
” She looked up at the ceiling as if maybe the words were painted on it.
“Everything we’ve been dealing with, I just don’t want us to move too fast. Does that make sense?
” She asked it softly, a slight expression of worry on her gorgeous face.
Sawyer nodded. “It does. Yeah.”
“Okay. Good. Do you”—she indicated the TV—“wanna keep watching?”