Chapter 29
Off-key, ridiculous, out of rhythm, singing woke Jessica.
She pushed out of bed and pulled a jumper over her head before padding down the short hallway to the kitchen.
Teddy was standing at the stove, still in his socks and dark grey tracksuit pants, wearing Sam’s Mario Kart blanket like a cape. Lady Gaga played softly from his phone which was unexpected.
Jessica swallowed a giggle.
She watched as he flipped a pancake and shook his ass to the chorus, tossing in a casual hair flick.
But then he turned around.
And he wasn’t wearing a shirt.
Like at all.
Teddy’s tattoos were on display, and so was all his hard work at the gym and on the footy field.
Her mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out. Made sense. She was incapable of clear thought, so how was she supposed to speak? More importantly, how were they supposed to take it slow when he was in her kitchen looking like a goddamn snack?
Teddy James had spent the night at her house.
Not like spent the night, spent the night.
After they’d finished a quick and easy spaghetti dinner, they’d moved to the couch for more kisses and some wandering hands while she pretended to watch some movie Teddy suggested.
Teddy had fallen asleep halfway through it, and all her attempts to wake him had proved to be futile.
She’d left him on her couch with a few blankets and a forehead kiss that she’d been dreaming about for longer than she’d been able to admit to herself.
Poor guy was knackered after building her a treehouse all day.
Because he likes it when I smile.
“Hi,” he said.
Ah, yes. A greeting would be a good start. Jessica could manage one word and hope others would follow.
“Hey.”
Silence stretched between them, and Jessica opened her mouth.
Teddy gestured around the kitchen, which looked a bit like she’d let Sam try his hand at cooking. “Sorry about all this. I planned to clean everything before you got up. But I spilt my coffee and it went all over my shirt, and um, I was just letting it dry.”
She followed his gaze to where his shirt was hanging over the edge of the sink. A long streak of coffee ran down the middle to the bottom hem.
“Did you burn yourself?”
Teddy shook his head. “Nah, I’m alright.”
He was better than alright. He looked even more magnificent than she’d ever imagined, and that was saying something.
“I can put it back on now that you’re up, though.” Teddy moved towards the sink.
“You don’t have to.” Look at that. More words. She was practically being verbose. Jessica was so busy congratulating herself for managing to pretend she wasn’t about to drown in her own drool that she forgot to tell her mouth it wasn’t supposed to be grinning quite so widely.
Teddy tossed her a flirty wink. “Sorry I crashed out last night. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”
“It’s fine.” She took a deep breath. Even though they’d agreed to take things slow, she could still be brave. “I liked having you here.”
Teddy rubbed the back of his neck and, wow, all his muscles did fantastic things like bunch and flex and dance. She couldn’t wait to watch them move in other ways.
“So, ah, you guys worked hard yesterday.” If she kept going like this, Jessica was going to need to create her own reward chart and put it on the fridge next to Sam’s.
Give herself a gold star for managing to converse when she was pretty sure her brain was preoccupied taking mental snapshots of Teddy’s bare chest, the hollow of his throat, the lines of his abs.
“It was fun,” Teddy said simply, and it was great one of them was relaxed. Although, he’d had coffee, and even if his shirt had worn most of it, that was still more than Jessica had managed. She shuffled towards the kettle and pulled the jar of instant out of the cupboard above it.
“Want one?” she asked. “To drink this time?”
Look at her go. Now she was joking and everything.
“Please.” Teddy turned back to the cooktop and added bacon to a different frypan. “And it doesn’t matter how old we are because apparently, we’re always going to be competitive. Nate and Owen bet Raff and me that we couldn’t get the roof panels assembled before they’d finished the walls.”
“What did the winners get?”
Teddy grinned over his shoulder. “Bragging rights. The ultimate in sibling currency.”
“Ah,” Jessica said, hoping she sounded like she knew what that would be like.
“Anyway, I thought I’d make you breakfast as an apology for taking over your couch.”
Jessica clung to her mug of coffee with both hands. “You don’t have to do that.”
Teddy smiled as his arms stretched wide and he hitched the blanket back around his shoulders. He had more tattoos down the side of his ribs. A couple of trees, a compass and something in a foreign script.
She dragged her gaze back to his face when Teddy laughed.
“You keep telling me that,” he said. “But I like doing stuff for you, Starshine.”
The combination of Teddy’s words and his sleep-rumpled, sexy state was making Jessica lightheaded.
“I seem to have forgotten my manners,” he said, and Jessica blinked.
Teddy rested the spatula on the side of the frypan, gathered the loose blanket under his arms and crossed the room until he was right in front of Jessica.
“What are you doing?” she whispered before swallowing and licking her lips.
Teddy pulled her close until they were chest-to-chest, hip-to-hip. Or more accurately, hip-to-thigh because he was so much taller than she was.
“Good morning,” Teddy murmured, his voice low and rumbly, as he dropped his head towards hers.
Oh, yes, please.
“Good morning.” Jessica shivered, hoping her jumper disguised how hard her nipples were.
She pressed her mouth against his, savouring the scratch of his beard, his soft chuckle as her cold hands settled against his warm skin.
Jessica could get used to mornings like this. She let herself sink into the kiss, relaxing and—
“Yoo-hoo!” Wait a second … is that …
Teddy groaned against her lips and it wasn’t a sexy groan. More of a pained one.
“Is that your mum?”
His shoulders slumped, and the blanket cape slipped down to the middle of Teddy’s back.
“Why is your mother here?” Jessica hissed like she was getting caught doing something she shouldn’t. Which, let the official record reflect, she wasn’t. And even if Teddy had spent the night spent the night, there wasn’t anything wrong with that.
They were adults.
They were fake dating.
And real dating. Maybe. But kind of?
What are we now?
Another loud knock brought Jessica back to the present.
“Theodore Matthew James, I know you’re in there. I can see your car.”
Teddy turned the burner underneath the frypans off. “Shall I get the door?” He slung the blanket he’d been wrapped in over the back of a dining room chair and pulled on his stained shirt.
“Please. I’ll go and get changed.”
Teddy fixed her with a strange look. “Why?”
“Because I’m in my pyjamas?”
“In your own house? On a Sunday morning?”
How could she explain this without sounding like she was being ridiculous?
“Your mum always looks so nice.”
And Jessica wanted to make a good impression now that things between them had changed. Even though Lulu thought they’d already changed. Lordy, this was messy.
Teddy did a slow pan of Jessica’s body, and she did her best not to squirm.
“But you look so cute?”
It was cute how Teddy thought she’d never seen her hair in the morning. Her curls rarely did what she wanted, but they were at their most unruly first thing.
There was another knock.
Jessica waved her hands in front of her body, face and hair. “Nothing about this is cute.”
Teddy tsk-ed, tossing a smile over his shoulder as he headed for the front door. “I like it!”
Jessica scurried into her room, slipping on a pair of leggings and an oversized black denim shirt that fell to mid-thigh.
She paused in front of the full-length mirror propped up against the wall next to her door.
You know what? She did look kind of cute.
And now she’d go and hopefully impress her secret fiancé’s/fake boyfriend’s/whatever-the-hell-were-they-to-each-other-now’s mother.
Teddy didn’t believe Lulu’s claim that she’d left something here yesterday for a second, but before he could call her flimsy excuse out, she’d pushed past him and was sashaying down the hallway. Teddy followed the trail of her lilac-scented perfume.
“Morning, Jessica!” Lulu said. “You look lovely today.”
“Thanks,” Jessica said.
“And not at all like your mother should’ve taken more time to teach you how to use a cup. Honestly, Teddy. You’re supposed to drink the coffee, darling. Not wear it.”
Teddy swallowed a laugh, refusing to take the bait, despite the wet shirt itching against his skin. “She should’ve. But I was the fourth baby, so I barely got any attention.”
Lulu gasped and clutched her chest exaggeratedly. “I hope Sam doesn’t treat you this poorly,” she stage whispered to Jessica before pulling out one of the mismatched dining chairs and sitting down.
“Now. I wanted to confirm numbers for the Riverside cabins. I’ve put you two down for a two-bedroom.”
“Huh?” Jessica looked at Teddy blankly.
Ah. Teddy hadn’t found a way to ask Jessica about this yet.
“Huh, what?” Lulu asked.
Teddy rubbed the back of his neck. “I haven’t told Jessica about Riverside yet, Mum.” He shot Jessica an apologetic look. “I wasn’t trying to keep it from you. I just wasn’t sure if you’d want to come and didn’t want you to feel pressured to say yes.”
“Honestly.” Lulu rapped her knuckles against the pine table. “Why are all my boys so bad at communication? Is it my fault? Did I fail you all?”
Panic crossed Jessica’s face, and Teddy tried to telepathically communicate that it was a rhetorical question. Lulu wasn’t looking for an answer. If he knew his mother—and he did—she wasn’t done.
“First, Owen couldn’t figure out that all he had to do was tell Alice how he felt about her.
Then, Nate couldn’t get out of his own way and be up-front with Eloise about his fears.
And don’t even get me started on Rafferty.
That boy …” She blew out a long breath. “But I expected more of you, Teddy. I thought you’d changed. ”
Ouch. He ducked his head. Based on his mother’s previous rants, he suspected she still wasn’t finished. When the silence stretched for a few beats, he opened his mouth.
But Lulu spoke before he could. “How’s she meant to feel like one of the family if you don’t invite her to our family gatherings?”
When Teddy was growing up, Lulu had rarely raised her voice. He and his brothers wouldn’t have been able to hear her over all the noise they were making anyway. No, she’d chosen to make guilt trips and quiet disappointment her main weapons.
“What’s Riverside?” Jessica asked.
“It’s where we holidayed when the boys were young. It’s two hours away, and it’s recently been renovated. We’re all going to celebrate Wilbur’s birthday. Been so long since we’ve had a big family holiday.”
“I was going to ask you today,” Teddy said to Jessica. “I know we can be a lot to put up with.”
Lulu’s mouth dropped open. Whoops.
“Theodore!”
“I didn’t mean that in a bad way. But it’s a lot to go away with your partner’s family. Okay? I was trying to make sure Jess would be comfortable with the idea. I didn’t want to spring it on her.”
Which, unfortunately, he was doing now.
If Teddy was honest with himself, he’d wanted to be sure he was ready for this too.
It was one thing to pretend they were dating and spend a couple of hours with people.
It was another thing entirely to have to keep up the charade for several days in front of his whole family, especially when he’d been tying himself up in knots wanting more without knowing where Jessica’s feelings were at.
But now that they were fake-and-real-dating …
“When is it?” Jessica asked, eyeing the paper calendar that hung on the wall next to the fridge. This month’s picture was of Sam in a firefighter costume holding a Fireman Sam book.
“Next weekend,” Lulu said. “I had to move it forward because the other weekend was booked out.”
“Ah.” Jessica paled and chewed on her bottom lip.
“Don’t tell me you’re busy?” Lulu rounded on him. “Teddy, she has plans!”
Technically, they both had plans that morning. Plans of the matrimonial variety.
“We could make it work but Sam won’t be able to come unfortunately. He’ll be with his dad,” Jessica said. “And we might be a little bit late.”
Lulu stood and slipped her handbag over her shoulder. “Excellent. Now that’s sorted, I’d better head to the shop. I’ve got a lot of stock to unpack. Walk me out, Teddy?” It might’ve been phrased like a question, but Teddy knew it was an order.
Lulu didn’t say anything until they were standing on the small porch at the front of the cottage. “What are you playing at, Teddy?”
Teddy looked around as though the answer might be hiding somewhere out amongst the agapanthus in the front yard. The balls of purple and white flowers danced in the light breeze. “Nothing?”
“I know you don’t have a lot of experience with relationships, but you need to communicate, Teddy.”
Teddy sighed and decided the path of least resistance would be easiest. “I know.”
“Do you? Really?”
“Yes.”
Lulu slid her arm around his waist and pulled him in for a side hug. “Jessica’s perfect for you.”
“Mum …”
She scoffed and lowered her voice in a terrible impression of what he guessed was his own voice. “‘It’s new. I’m still figuring things out. I’m too young.’ Stop trying to find problems when there aren’t any.”
“Okay, okay.” Teddy slung his arm around Lulu’s shoulder.
“But …”
Wait. What? But? Teddy’s arm fell back to his side.
“But you need to think about what you’re doing. Jessica and Sam have been through a lot.”
Teddy straightened to his full height. “You only told me about it a couple of weeks ago. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to want to see how things went before I asked her to travel with the whole family.
” His tone was decidedly snippy by the end of his little speech.
But damn it. Just because everyone expected Teddy to stuff this up didn’t mean he was going to.
Teddy was allowed to make his own decisions. He was also allowed to choose what he thought was right for his relationship.
“I know you’re trying to help, Mum,” he said, trying to erase some of the shock on Lulu’s face. “But I’ve got this. I know what I’m doing.”
Lulu patted his hand. “If you’re sure.”
He was.