Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Aaron
Between texts, phone calls, and the occasional stolen moments with Jenna at ChristmasFest, I feel like things are going well.
We have a quick dinner together on Wednesday night while Colin’s at his mom’s—this time in Jenna’s closet of an office.
It’s not nearly as much fun as the hours we spent together on Monday, but it’s a good chance to connect at least.
“I’m pretty free next week,” I say as we’re finishing up dinner. I brought fast food this time. Nothing fancy, but quick and easy for both of us so we can maximize the short window of time we have together.
She raises her eyebrows, setting down her soda. “Oh, yeah?”
I nod, dipping a fry in ketchup. “Colin’s at his mom’s for most of the week.
This time I’ll get him for dinner on Wednesday for Christmas Eve, and he’ll be with her for Christmas Day.
I have him through Saturday this week, and he goes to her place Saturday night and stays there until the next Saturday.
” My anxiety kicks up a few notches just laying out the plan.
I haven’t mentioned it to Jenna before now because I’ve been avoiding thinking about it.
Her hand on mine surprises me into looking up, and her face is full of compassion. “Is this the first time he’ll be gone for that many nights in a row?”
I nod. “Yeah.” The word sounds like I’m choking on gravel, and Jenna makes a sympathetic noise, rubbing the back of my free hand. I flip it over, capturing her fingers.
She wraps her hand around mine and squeezes. “It sounds like you’re struggling with that.”
I let out a huff of laughter. “Yeah. I …” I search the room, thinking back to the last time I didn’t have Colin in my house for more than a night or two.
“Amelia had him at her place for the first few months while she was on maternity leave. But I stayed the night pretty often to do nighttime feedings and all that. We’d take turns—a week on, a week off.
I stayed in the guest room, and we’d move Colin’s little cot in there with me for those weeks, and then back in her room for her weeks when I’d stay at my own house.
Even on my off weeks, I’d go over there nearly every evening to spend time with him.
This …” I pause to clear my throat and shake my head. “It’ll be weird,” I finish at last.
“I can imagine,” she murmurs, giving my hand another squeeze.
Sucking in a deep breath, I force a smile. “Anyway, that wasn’t my point. My point was that I’ll be available if you want to do something. And also, I won’t have Colin on Christmas Day, and since I know you’ll be alone, I wondered if you’d want to spend it together.”
She brightens, a smile claiming her face. “Spending Christmas together sounds wonderful, though I probably won’t be available for any morning festivities. I expect to collapse sometime on the twenty-fourth and spend the morning in bed. But doing a Christmas dinner sounds lovely.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to suggest she stay the night at my place, but I hold back. We haven’t spent the night together at all, yet. There’s still time between now and then to bring that up depending on how things go over the next week.
She shakes her head slowly. “I can’t believe there’s only a week left of ChristmasFest. It feels like this has been my whole life for so long and now …” Another shake of her head.
I grin. “Don’t worry. The planning for next year’s ChristmasFest starts in January.”
She chokes on her laughter, a lopsided grin on her face. “I’m not sure if that’s reassuring or not.”
Shrugging, I shake my head, still smiling.
“It’ll be good for you to get the picture of the full year of planning and how it works.
You came in halfway through for this year.
And I think you’ll like getting to meet up with everyone in about a month—once the dust has settled and everything’s cleaned up—to discuss how this year went.
You live for dissecting what went well, what could’ve gone better, and proposing ideas for how to make next year even better than this year. ”
Her smile grows wider. “That’s true,” she concedes. “I added a few more things to my list today.”
“Of course you have,” I murmur.
She glares at me. “Please. Like you don’t have a list of your own.”
“Of course I do.” This time I deliberately sound affronted at the thought that I’d be so unorganized.
Laughing, she shakes her head. “See? This is one of the reasons we get along. We both know how to create and execute a plan.”
“And it’s one of the reasons we butted heads at first. Our plans didn’t quite align.”
Pressing her lips together, she hooks her smile to the side. “And now?”
Leaning closer, I rub a hand up her leg. “And now I think our plans align pretty well, don’t you?”
“Does that mean you’ll support my suggestions for changes for next year?” she asks, leaning away from my kiss.
Freezing, I raise an eyebrow. “Only if I think they’re good.”
Her mouth drops open, and she makes a shocked sound. “You mean I don’t just get your unqualified support?”
I shake my head slowly. “And we both know you wouldn’t really want it anyway. You don’t want me to patronize you. But I won’t simply reject your ideas because I’m annoyed with you either.”
A finger comes up between us. “Ha! So you admit that you dismissed my ideas just because you didn’t like me.”
Shrugging, I lean in and kiss her cheek. “I thought we’d moved past this.”
She turns her head and meets my lips with hers. “We have,” she whispers between kisses. “I still like hearing you admit it, though. Especially when you say that I was right about some of the changes I made.”
“Your changes have been brilliant. Everyone’s gushing about the festival.
And social media engagement is way up on the festival’s pages but also the farm’s.
I haven’t monitored anyone else’s, but I assume that’s true across the board.
You have great ideas.” I kiss her more thoroughly, then pull back. “Most of the time.”
She laughs, then hooks an arm around my neck and pulls me in for another kiss. “I guess you’re right that I wouldn’t like it if you just supported my ideas without actually agreeing with me. But I also really like it when you admit that I’m right.”
“You’re often right,” I tell her, kissing her again. “Except when you’re wrong.”
That makes her laugh again, and I rise to my feet, leaning over her so I can kiss her better.
I like when she laughs. I like being the one making her laugh.
And I like that we can banter like this without anyone getting upset.
It seems like it’ll be okay if we disagree in the future if we can laugh about each of us being right about different things now.
I kiss her again. And again. And dammit, I wish we were somewhere other than her tiny office right now, but—
The alarm on my phone goes off, interrupting that train of thought. Groaning, I kiss her one last time before straightening, reaching down to adjust myself in my jeans.
Jenna smirks at me. “Sorry I can’t do anything to help with that.”
Chuckling, I shake my head. “Can we do something on Saturday?”
She raises an eyebrow. “Are you asking for a sex date?”
I bark out a laugh. “I was asking for a date date. If sex is part of that, I’ll be thrilled. But really, I just want to know when I get to see you again.”
Her grin blossoms into that happy smile she gives me sometimes when all seems to be right with her world. “I’d love that.”
I give her one quick kiss, then pick up my coat. “Okay. It’s a date. We’ll talk before then to figure out what we want to do.” I shove all the trash into the fast food bag. “I’ll toss this in one of the big trash cans so it doesn’t stink up your office.”
“You’re so sweet. Thank you.”
“Course. Oh, are you going to be at the Daniels’ Open House tomorrow night?” I ask, halfway through the door.
“Oh, uh …” She scratches her nose. “I’m not sure.”
“Well, since I know Mara would’ve invited you, let me just say that you should come. It’s a big deal. Everyone goes. You’ll have a good time, I promise.”
“You promise, huh?” I dip my chin. She seems to consider that for a second. “Okay. I kinda wasn’t planning on going. I know Mara’s close with all the women who don’t like me, and I didn’t really want to go just to be told what a shit job I’m doing.”
“A—Mara would never let that fly in her house. And B—I know that you know you’re not doing a shit job, and no one really thinks you are either.” She purses her lips like she’s debating arguing with me, but I just shake my head. “I gotta go. See you tomorrow at the Daniels’!”
Her soft, “Bye,” floats out the door after me, and I grin, happy with the way I spent my free time tonight and looking forward to getting more time with her next week.
Sure, it’ll be weird to be without Colin for so long, but I think filling my time with the other person I really want to see is just the antidote I need.