by Laura Drewry
“I don’t know.” Tugging her hand gently, he pulled her up and over his legs so she straddled his thighs. “Can we just not talk about him right now?”
“Gladly.” Her slow, warm smile shot straight through his heart, took a sharp turn and headed south, the results of which were not lost on her when she shimmied her little ass farther up his legs and let out one of her snort-laughs.
“Well…relatively speaking, it is later than it was.”
“Thank God,” he groaned. “I hope you don’t have plans for the rest of the day.”
Before she could give any kind of answer, he scooped her up, squeals and all, and tossed her on the bed. With a quick hop toward the door, he shrugged down at Pete, who was lying just on the other side, whining, as Jack slid the door closed.
“Sorry buddy.”
No wool socks this time. No gumboots or nightshirt big enough to house a three-ring circus. But looking at the buttons and buckles awaiting him now, he almost wished she was in the same get-up as last night. This was going to take some work.
First thing that needed to go was that scarf—what was it with chicks and scarves, anyway? Took him a second to figure out how she’d twisted it, but once that was gone, he could begin unbuttoning the sweater. Starting at the bottom, he worked his way up slowly, silently thanking the brilliant designer who set the buttons at an angle, which meant the last two sat right over the top of her breast.
“What’s the matter?” she smirked. “Suddenly forget how buttons work?”
“Just don’t want to snag anything.”
“Yeah, that’s very thoughtful.” With a quick flick, she shoved his hands away and released the last button herself. “Girlie parts feeling neglected Jack.”
“Well, shit.” He laughed. “We can’t have that.”
He made short work of his own clothes then…damn she was fast! And naked. Completely buck-ass naked standing in the middle of the bed.
Sure, he’d spent most of last night wrapped around her, but it was like he was seeing her again for the first time.
“Hoyumahaa.”
Laughing at his stupidness, she went to reach for him but he ducked, caught her by the ankles, and tipped her onto her back. Instead of lying back and getting ready to enjoy herself, she wrapped her hands around his neck and pulled his face down close to hers.
“We need to make this first one quick, Jack, or I swear to God—”
He’d never moved so fast in his life, but even a quickie with her turned into something more, and when she came apart under him, he waited until she was right there again before he let himself fall with her. And while she recovered, he reacquainted himself with his favorite parts of her.
He’d covered every inch of her last night, more than once, but today was a whole new day and he had big plans for how they were going to spend it.
“Move,” she grunted over a choked laugh. “I can’t breathe.”
“Then we’re both going to have to die right here.” He’d collapsed on top of her God only knew how long ago and had yet to muster the strength to move again.
“On three, ready?” She curled her legs around him, set both hands on his right shoulder, and didn’t even bother counting. “Three!”
With as much of a shove as she could get from her squished position, she pushed and pushed until he finally moaned and rolled over onto his back, grabbing for her as he did. He didn’t have to reach far, because she was already scrambling to get on top of him.
In all the time they’d spent in that bed since last night, she’d never curled up beside him, choosing instead to stretch out right on top of him with her face tucked up against his neck, and that was perfectly okay with Jack. In fact, he couldn’t imagine it getting any better than that.
Groping blindly around them, he finally caught hold of one of her blankets and pulled it up as she wiggled down against him.
“Mmmm,” she breathed. “I’m gonna need a minute.”
She could take as many minutes as she wanted; he wasn’t going anywhere.
—
Jack came to gradually, his senses picking up on things that made him smile even before he opened his eyes. Like the warm scent of her perfume, the way her breath butterflied against his neck, and the feel of her naked body stretched out so silky soft on top of him.
Nothing he’d imagined in the last four years felt anywhere close to as good as this.
“You awake?” she asked, her lips brushing against his neck.
“Hmm.”
She didn’t say anything for a while after that, and Jack didn’t move in case she’d fallen back to sleep. She hadn’t.
“What’s the matter?”
“Nothing.” He smoothed his hand up her back as if that would convince her. It didn’t.
“Jack.” She’d barely moved, face tucked up against him, her fingers swirling circles over his chest. “What’s the matter?”
He propped his free arm behind his head so he could see a little more of her. “We’re a ‘we,’ that’s what you said.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“So maybe we should talk about what the deal is between you and movie-dude?” She’d told him things were complicated, but they didn’t seem that way to him. From what he saw, she and Griffin seemed perfectly comfortable with each other.
“Right, I was going to tell you when you came back this morning,” she said, wiggling down so she could rest her chin on her hand. “But then he showed up.”
“Okay.” He tried not to make that sound like a question, but it sort of came out that way anyway.
“Before I tell you, though, I want you to know that nothing has ever happened between Griffin and me. We’ve had dinner a couple times, and talked a lot over the phone, but that’s it. He’s never so much as hugged me.”
“Jeezus, Snip, what?”
“It’s nothing, well it was, but it’s not now.” She pushed up on her arms so her elbows dug into his stomach a little as she levered herself up. “After Will, I didn’t go out much, and even when I did, I couldn’t…I don’t know…it was hard. I mean, seriously, I went into that marriage so sure it was forever and then wham!”
He started to speak, but she pressed her fingers against his mouth.
“I didn’t just lose my marriage, I lost the family I’d wanted, and I was so mad—not just at him, but at myself, too. In hindsight, I’m really happy Will and I didn’t have kids together, but it’s hard to reconcile that with the fact that I was suddenly on my own, doubting every decision I made, and knowing the chances of me ever having a family were slipping further and further away.”
“Maya.”
“Just listen. When I first met Griffin I didn’t much like him, but then he kept calling me and we got to know each other. Turns out he really is a great guy.”
Jack stiffened, and not in a good way.
“Relax,” she snorted. “It wasn’t like that for either of us. You met him. He’s fun, right? And did you see the way he looked when he mentioned his nephew?”
Jack didn’t smile back at her.
“He’s a little cocky, sure, but he’s Griffin-freakin’-Carr, so what do you expect, right?” She inhaled slowly, as though trying to steady herself, then nodded. “Okay, so last month, the night before you arrived, actually, he called and said he had something important to ask me.”
Jack closed his eyes and clamped his jaw shut tight.
“Not that,” Maya said. “Neither one of us feels that way about the other.”
“Then what?”
“Well. The thing is…he asked me if I’d, um…” She looked down for a second, then shook her hair back a little and brought her gaze back to his. “He asked if I’d consider having a baby with him.”
“He what?” Jack sat up so fast, he knocked her over and had to scramble to right her again, only this time she wasn’t on top of him, she was beside him, and he hated that. And he hated it more when she dug around for his shirt and pulled it over her head.
Then a
gain…she looked awfully damn cute in it.
“It shocked the hell out of me, too,” she said, tugging her hair free from the collar. “And he made it perfectly clear we wouldn’t be married or anything like that, just two people having a baby together. We’d share custody and he’d give me all kinds of financial support.”
Jack let his head roll forward until he stared straight down at the sheet and then didn’t move. He couldn’t. Her words were a lead blanket that she’d thrown over him. Was she pregnant? No, she said Griffin had never touched her…but that didn’t mean anything. There were all sorts of ways, all sorts of treatments, all sorts of clinics…Shit.
Complicated didn’t begin to cover this.
“Jack.” It sounded like she was calling him from the far end of a tunnel instead of right beside him on the bed. “Jack, will you please look at me?”
No. He couldn’t.
For four years he’d kicked himself for letting her go, and now, because he’d shown up a day too late, he was going to lose her again.
It was no secret Maya wanted babies, and here was Griffin-fucking-Carr handing her one on a silver platter. She’d be crazy to say no. With the amount of love she’d give a baby, and the kind of money Carr had to provide for it, there was no downside to it, especially since none of it would involve dealing with the Carsons.
The mattress dipped beside him, and a second later, her hands were wrapped around his and she leaned over, low enough that she could see his face. Still, he didn’t move, just kept staring at the sheet dangling off the side of the bed and wondering how he was going to get off that bed and make it down the stairs. He wasn’t sure how, but he’d find Griffin and when he did…
“I said no.”
The lungful of air he’d been holding rushed out of him in a loud whoosh as he finally looked up then fell straight back against the pillow again.
“Jeezus, Maya.”
“I’m not going to lie, though, I seriously considered it. I even made lists of pros and cons.”
Jack pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes and croaked out a harsh laugh.
“Cons? What the hell could’ve made the con list? He’s too rich? Too good-looking? His private jet doesn’t fly fast enough?”
Maya’s laugh fell lightly over his skin. “Okay, admittedly, the con side of the list was a lot shorter.”
“Yeah, no shit.” He moved his hands from his eyes to his forehead and just looked at her, not sure what the hell he was supposed to say or do, but then she slipped her leg over him again and settled back down on his chest. “I’m not complaining, but why the hell would you say no?”
“Well, it’s the craziest thing, actually. There he was, offering me exactly what I wanted, or what I thought I wanted, and there I was leaning toward saying yes.” She pressed her palm flat over his chest, then stretched her fingers wide. “And then a funny thing happened.”
“What?” With one hand on her upper back and one pressed against the base of her spine, he pulled her in tighter.
Maya tipped her face up and kissed the side of his neck. “You sent over that damned piña colada and screwed up this great and wonderful plan.”
“I—? What?”
“It didn’t make sense to me at first.” Sitting up across his stomach, she took his face in her hands and grinned. “There was just something about this face, about the way you smiled at me…yeah, like that.”
Her lips brushed against his like a feather on the wind, leaving him a huge mushy mess.
“He was offering me a lot, more than I ever thought I’d have, but I realized if I said yes to him, you’d probably never smile at me like that again, and I…” Her slow shrug was enough to send the neck of his shirt sliding down her shoulder. “The thing is, Jack, I really like that smile.”
Jack smoothed her hair off her forehead, his eyes searching through the uncertainty in her eyes for some kind of clue. The longer he looked at her, the deeper she blushed, the more afraid he was to even ask.
“What are you saying, Snip?”
“I’m not saying anything. You’ve only been here a month, Jack, and in another month you’ll be settled back in Seattle and I’ll still be here.” Her voice was so soft, so quiet. “I don’t even have a passport, so realistically…”
“Realistically…” Sitting there with her looking at him like that, like she wasn’t sure how much she should say, Jack almost couldn’t breathe, but he had to do something to ease some of her frown. “Passports are easy to get and then I could take you to the Space Needle and the gum wall.”
Her cute little nose wrinkled. “Please tell me that’s not really a wall of gum.”
“Nah,” he said, smiling up at her. “It’s more like a whole alley.”
She didn’t answer; she didn’t even smile back, just looked down at him with those blue-blue eyes, making every part of him ache for her.
“Stop worrying, Snip. This…us…it’s going to be incredible.”
“Or it’s going to end up in a hot mess and a month from now I’ll be kicking myself for turning movie-dude away.”
“Hot mess, my ass. What are you talking about?”
“Jack.”
“What? You mean because I’m supposed to be best man at your ex-husband’s wedding?” He lifted her hand to his mouth and grinned as he kissed each knuckle. “And you think he might have a bit of a problem with the fact that I’ve spent most of the last twenty-four hours naked with you?”
“It did cross my mind, yeah.”
“Don’t worry about it, Snip.”
“I am worried about it, Jack. Not because I care what he thinks about this, but because I care about what you think and how this is going to affect you.”
Jack cocked his eyebrow and grinned. “I think we both know how it’s affecting me, but if you need me to show you again…”
Still no return grin. “I’m serious. He’s been your best friend for twenty years.”
“And yeah, he’s going to have a big problem with this. I would, too, and no, I don’t expect him to ever like it, but we’re just going to need to find a way to deal with it.”
“And then what? Say the two of you somehow figure out a way to deal with this, what happens then? I would never expect you to cut him out of your life, but at the same time, you can’t expect me to have anything to do with him or his skank. Ever.”
She was right. It was a bit of a hot mess, and it was going to get worse before it got better. If it got better.
“I don’t know.” He tugged her back down on his chest and breathed in her scent until it made everything else fuzzy. “The only thing I know for sure right now is you’re driving me crazy, because you look almost as good in my shirt as you do out of it, so can we please figure everything else out tomorrow?”
“Sorry, I’m busy tomorrow.” Her voice never wavered, but her lips curled softly against his chest. “Deliveries come in Monday and Thursday mornings, no time for anything else.”
“No?” He rolled her onto her back and slid his hands slowly up her belly, taking the shirt with him. “Then we better make good use of what time we have left today.”
“Good idea,” she breathed, arching into his touch. “Time management is key.”
“Mmmm, Snip, I love it when you talk dirty to me.”
Chapter 15
“They don’t know that we know they know we know.”
Phoebe Buffay, Friends, “The One Where Everybody Finds Out”
They didn’t figure it out the next day, or the day after that, and while Jack pretended he wasn’t worried, Maya couldn’t even try to pretend, because she was plenty worried.
Worried that Jack had been right and the two of them really could be something incredible, worried that Will was going to get in there and screw all that up with his “bros before hos” guilt trip. Worried that what she felt for Jack went so far beyond just loving him that she couldn’t remember feeling any other way. Worried that it had all happened so fast. Was it too fast?
/> She worried that even though she was pretty sure Jack felt the same way, neither one of them had so much as breathed the L-word yet, and she really worried that she’d just jinxed it all by telling the girls everything that night at Chalker’s.
“Are you freakin’ kidding me?” Regan gaped at Maya across the table. “I miss all the good stuff now since I moved my salon to the house.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Ellie cried. “My store’s right across the street from hers and I had no idea any of this was going on!”
In perfect sync, the two of them swiveled their heads to look at Jayne, whose eyes got very wide above the rim of her cosmo.
“Oh my God—you knew!” Regan’s fist never lifted off the table but her finger shot out, pointing first at Jayne, then Maya. “How come she knew?”
With a sigh, Maya backed them all up to the day of the football game at Jayne’s and filled in the details Regan and Ellie didn’t know.
“Well, holy crap,” Regan muttered, shaking her head. “So what does this mean?”
“I don’t know; we haven’t quite figured it out, which is why I’m a little freaked out.”
“But he’s going to tell Dickhead, right? I mean, he has to tell him.”
Ellie slapped her hands together as if she was praying. “Please let me be there when that happens. I’ll give you anything you want—seriously, come into the store and pick out whatever you like.”
“Very funny.” Maya took a long sip of her wine, then stared into the swirling red liquid as she rolled the stem of the glass between her hands. “Will’s going to be so pissed. Not because I think he has any regrets over what he did, but because in his mind this’ll be like the worst thing Jack could ever do to him.”
“That’s just stupid,” Ellie said. “I mean I sort of get it, but it’s still stupid.”
“It’s not, actually. Suppose—just suppose—you and Brett broke up and I hooked up with him. Can you imagine how you’d feel?”
“No, because Ponch would never do what Dickhead did.”
“I said ‘suppose.’ ”
“Okay, fine.” Ellie huffed out a breath and shrugged, adding an eye roll for emphasis. “Then yeah, I imagine I’d probably want to kill both of you.”