Just One Touch - Leo & Jasmine (Crossroads Book 16)

by Melanie Shawn

  The next thing she knew, she felt the bench dip beside her. Opening her eyes, she saw Mabel sitting there. At first, she was slightly disorientated. When she looked around and saw where she was, she realized she must have fallen asleep.

  “Hi, Mabel.” She sat up and pasted a smile on her face, hoping that no one had noticed. “Did you see the heat-activated massage oil?”

  Mabel and Margie were two of her best customers. They were always interested in new products. The senior scene in Harper’s Crossing had shifted since the M&M sisters came to town. They were certainly spicing things up.

  “I sure did. They’re all good. I’m going to take the cherry flavor, it’s sweet without being too sweet. But that’s not why I woke you.”

  Shit. So people had noticed. And Mabel had already tested out the product and chosen a flavor. How long had she been asleep? She wiped her mouth to make sure she hadn’t drooled.

  Mabel leaned in closer to her. “I came to tell you that Jessica just showed up and she’s got a rock on her left hand.”

  “What?” Jasmine’s brain felt like Swiss cheese, so it took her a moment to comprehend what Mabel was talking about. “A rock?”

  “Three o’clock.” Mabel nodded in the direction of the entrance and Jasmine followed her gaze. When she did, she saw Jessica proudly displaying her left hand. Several women were gathered around admiring what Jasmine recognized immediately.

  Her ring. Jessica was wearing her engagement ring.

  Before she could figure out how she felt about that, Sophie was standing in front of her. “I’m going to ask her to leave. I can’t believe she’s doing this. Just stay here.”

  “No.” Jasmine reached out and grabbed her friend’s wrist. “No, don’t. It’s fine.”

  Sophie turned back to face her, concern etched on her face. “It’s not a problem. I’ll even ban her from ever stepping foot in here again. I’ve never liked her, so this is just an excuse really.”

  “I appreciate the loyalty, but honestly, I don’t care.” The weird thing was, she didn’t. If anything, Jasmine figured that the two of them deserved each other.

  “Are you sure?” Sophie asked, her forehead wrinkling.

  “Yeah, are you sure?” Mabel seconded, hitting her fist into her palm. “One punch, and I’ll knock her tailored pencil skirt-covered ass on the ground. She won’t see it coming from me.”

  Jasmine had to smile at the visual of eighty something year old Mabel knocking Jessica out. The really funny thing was, Jasmine didn’t have any doubts that the senior could and would be able to do just that.

  She understood why her friends would be concerned. They had no clue that she’d known that Jessica was pregnant and had been living with Corbin for a week. Out of all the shocks she’d faced concerning the blonde bombshell, seeing her wearing the engagement ring that Corbin had originally given Jasmine was at the bottom of the list.

  “No, Mabel.” Jasmine placed her hand on Mabel’s arm to keep her in place. She didn’t trust the woman not to go rogue and take matters into her own hands, no matter how much she protested. “It doesn’t bother me.”

  “What the actual fuck?” Leah hate-whispered as she appeared beside Sophie. Her eyes were round with anger and Jasmine could feel the rage radiating from her. “Who the hell does she think she is?”

  “Apparently, Corbin’s fiancée,” Jasmine quipped, hoping to lighten the mood.

  “How are you not freaking out right now?!”

  Because freaking out took energy, which was the one thing Jasmine did not have at the moment thanks to her body being busy growing a person.

  Jasmine had been worried about how her friends would take the news that not only was she pregnant, but Jessica was as well. And after seeing their reactions to Jessica’s ring, she knew she’d been right to be concerned.

  “If I wasn’t pregnant, I’d kick her ass!” Leah rubbed her belly. “She’s lucky that Lance knocked me up because if he hadn’t, I’d be knocking her out.”

  “You’re pregnant?!” Mabel clapped her hands together.

  “Yep.” A wide smile broke on Leah’s face.

  Katie Sloan, Sophie’s sister-in-law, joined the group. Katie was an attorney and worked at a law firm located a few doors down from Barks, Balls & Bellyrubs. Jasmine wasn’t sure if she specialized in family law, but she figured she would need to have an agreement drawn up with Corbin if he wanted to be a part of the baby’s life. Or if he didn’t. Either way, she wanted everything in writing.

  Leaning in, Katie asked, “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing.” Jasmine didn’t care about having attention directed at her when she was teaching a class, but this sort was very uncomfortable. “Nothing is going on.”

  She didn’t need anyone making a bigger deal of this than it was. Her hope was that if everyone saw that it didn’t bother her, then they would take her lead.

  “Did I hear someone say that they’re pregnant?” Katie’s eyes scanned the three women.

  “Yes you did!” Leah announced proudly lifting her hand in the air. “I am.”

  “Seriously?” Katie smiled from ear to ear. “So am I! And so is Amber!”

  And so am I. And so is Jessica. Jasmine thought silently.

  Was there something in the water? She’d heard about baby booms, but this was ridiculous.

  Jasmine watched as the women hugged and congratulated one another, talking about their due dates and how they found out about their pregnancies.

  They talked about how their significant others took the news. They talked about what sex they hoped their little one would be. The consensus was that all any of them really wanted was a healthy baby.

  Which was exactly what she wanted, too—but she kept her news and her dreams to herself.

  Due to her childhood, Jasmine had always felt like an outsider. That’s what happened when you started a new school every few months and moved to dozens of different homes before the age of ten. That’s what happened when you didn’t have any family to call your own. That’s what happened when you were always on the outside looking in. So, feeling like an outsider was basically her default setting.

  But as she sat and watched her friends celebrate their happy news, she felt more like she was on the outside looking in than she ever had before.

  All her life, she’d wanted to be a mom. She’d wanted to have someone else in this world that shared her blood. Now, that was happening, and she hadn’t even told the father. She hadn’t told Nan, she hadn’t told Meg. The only person she’d told was Leo.

  Maybe that was why she’d been thinking about him so much. Maybe that was why she’d developed what could only be described as a crush bordering on obsession with him. Maybe that was why she couldn’t seem to go ten minutes without thinking about him.

  Memories that she’d replayed hundreds of times played in her mind yet again. Walking into exam room four and seeing him for the first time. Him kneeling in front of her and taking her hands in his. Her slipping in her driveway and falling into his arms.

  She sighed. Or maybe the way she was feeling was because he really was that amazing a human being. For some reason, that explanation made her sadder than if it was just a silly crush. Because that explanation meant that when he left in a year, there was a very good possibility he’d be taking her heart with him.

  Chapter 14

  Seth Sloan lifted his beer and sipped it. He and Leo were at the bar waiting for Cam to show up. It didn’t surprise Leo in the slightest that their friend was late, even though he’d been the one to set this night up. In high school, he’d had detention nearly every day, not to mention Saturday school pretty much every weekend, because of tardiness. At their graduation ceremony, the principal even gave him a watch along with his diploma as a joke.

  “So, how is it? Being back in town.”

  “It’s both completely the same and totally different,” Leo said.

  “Yeah,” Seth agreed. “I get that.”

  Like Leo, Seth had le
ft Harper’s Crossing immediately after high school. He’d joined the Marines and only come back a few years earlier after being medically discharged. Since then, he’d gone into the private security business with Cam.

  Leo had always respected Seth. Despite them being the same age, he’d actually sort of looked up to him.

  Seth had stepped in and helped raise his four younger brothers after his mom passed away, leaving their father to raise five sons alone. And even before she’d passed, Seth had taken on a lot of the responsibility because she’d been in and out of the hospital so much.

  Leo remembered during high school, when everyone was partying and goofing off, Seth was making sure that his brothers were going to school, doing their homework, and generally not getting into trouble. That was no easy feat considering they were pre-teen and teenage boys.

  “How are your brothers doing?”

  “Good.”

  “I heard they all settled down.”

  “They did.” Seth had always been a man of few words so Leo wasn’t surprised by his short answers.

  “Did Riley really end up with Eddie’s little sister?” Riley Sloan was only a couple years younger than Seth and Leo and he and Eddie Thomas had been inseparable during high school. Those two had been wild. Out of all of Seth’s brothers, Leo remembered Riley giving him the hardest time. Probably because they were the closest in age.

  “Yeah, he did. He and Chelle have been married a few years and have a little girl. And Eddie’s married to Haley.”

  “Haley? Wait, your cousin Haley?” Leo had heard that Haley owned the lingerie store, Tempting, that he’d seen down the street from the office, but he hadn’t heard that she was married to Eddie Thomas.

  “Yep. All my cousins are married now, too.”

  “Damn, is there something in the water?” Leo joked.

  “Maybe,” Seth answered seriously.

  Eddie and Haley, damn, Leo still remembered Haley as a little girl. Of course, he knew that she wasn’t since she owned her own business, but it was weird—when he’d left his hometown, it was like all the people there had stopped aging in his mind.

  “And Eddie has a kid, right?” he asked, trying to wrap his brain around things.

  “Emily.” Seth nodded. “She’s almost a teenager.”

  “Damn.” He remembered hearing about Eddie having a baby right out of high school. To think of that baby getting ready to go to high school herself was crazy. “And Bobby ended up with Sophie.”

  Bobby Sloan was the youngest of the Sloan brothers, so Leo knew him the least. But, Leo seemed to remember that he was the most like Seth. Physically, they were mirror images of each other, both with jet-black hair and light eyes. But it went beyond appearances, their personalities were also the same: strong, silent types.

  “Yeah, he’s been in love with her since he was a kid.”

  “Who did Jason end up with?”

  “Do you remember Katie Lawson?”

  The name sounded familiar. Then it clicked. “Yeah, wasn’t she dating Sophie’s older brother Nick?”

  “She was.”

  “Something happened to him, right?” Leo had the vaguest memory of a tragedy, but he couldn’t quite recall what it was.

  “He died in a car accident right after graduation,” Seth explained.

  “Oh, shit. That’s right.”

  “Katie moved to California right after that and was gone for ten years. She came back for Soph and Bobby’s wedding and she and Jason have been together ever since.”

  Not to speak, or think, ill of the dead, but Leo had always thought that Katie deserved better than Nick. He wasn’t exactly faithful and Katie’d seemed like a sweet girl. He hoped that she and Jason were happy.

  “I’m gonna be honest, the only one that really shocked me was Alex.” Alex Sloan was the middle brother in the Sloan family, and he was the quintessential ladies’ man. He’d had girlfriends since kindergarten.

  Leo remembered that Alex had been a freshman when he and Seth were seniors, and he’d dated Ariel Farmer, who was a senior—not to mention homecoming queen. He’d dumped her for Beth Reyes, also a senior, and the prom queen. Never in a million years had Leo thought Alex would settle down. “How in the hell did that happen?”

  Seth grinned. “We like to joke that he got hit on the head and that’s what finally did it.”

  “Did he?”

  “Sort of. He’s a fireman, and was at a fire when a beam fell on him. It knocked him out cold and when he came to, he opened his eyes, saw Jamie for the first time, and asked her to marry him.”

  “No shit?”

  “No shit. There was a room full of witnesses.” Seth grinned and took another swig of his beer. “We give him a hard time, but the truth is, Jamie and Joey are amazing.”

  “He has a kid?”

  “She came as a package deal. He’s a stepfather.”

  Stepfather. That was a role that Leo had never considered before. He’d barely even given any consideration to having his own kids, much less raising someone else’s.

  Jasmine’s face popped up in his head when he heard his name. Or, rather his nickname.

  “DiCaprio!” Cam shouted from the entry of the bar, holding his hands up in the air before crossing the room to join his friends. His large hand clapped Leo on the shoulder and Seth smirked, clearly enjoying their friend’s use of his old nickname. “How’s Harper’s Crossing’s MEB?”

  “Do you mean MVP?” Leo had won the Most Valuable Player award in baseball, both sophomore and junior years.

  “Nah, M.E.B,” Cameron emphasized each letter. “Most. Eligible. Bachelor. From what Meg says, every woman under fifty, and some over, have been in to see you. They’ve been dragging their poor animals to appointments as excuses to get some one-on-one time with the MEB.”

  Leo’d had his suspicions that not all of the cases he’d been treating were really necessary. He didn’t want to believe that anyone would actually do that, but the evidence was definitely leaning that way.

  “I’m just new, that’s all.” Leo shrugged.

  Cam wiped his hands together conspiratorially. “Meg and I have bets on who’s going to land you. And we’re not the only ones.”

  This was something Leo definitely didn’t miss about small-town living. Everyone stuck their noses in everyone else’s business. “What are you talking about?”

  “Pretty much the entire town has money in the pool. There’s a bracket and everything.”

  “A bracket?” Leo parroted.

  “Yep, like March Madness. And my money’s on Kimberly Shaw to take the whole thing, so if you wouldn’t mind doing me a solid.” Cam winked and gave him a nudge with his elbow.

  “Are you seriously asking me to date someone so you can win a bet?”

  “Yeah, you owe me one.”

  Leo looked at Seth to see if he had any idea what their friend was talking about. His friend just grinned; clearly communicating that Leo was on his own.

  “I owe you one?” Leo repeated.

  “Remember that time I kept Leanna Jenson ocupado so you and Krissy Clemons could make out in the closet in her parents’ basement?” Cam asked.

  “That was in seventh grade, and if memory serves we were playing seven minutes in heaven. You weren’t keeping Leanna busy, it was a game.”

  “Whatever! Come on, I was a great wingman. Doesn’t that count for anything?”

  Leo shook his head as he downed the last of his beer.

  “Just think about it.” Cam gave his shoulder one more squeeze before waving Chris, the bartender over. “Three of your finest lager on tap.”

  Chris nodded and grabbed three pint glasses.

  “This round’s on me, fellas. Meg’s about to pop. This is the last night out I’m going to be having for a long time.”

  “Four under five, that’s crazy, man.” Leo couldn’t picture his friend having one kid, much less four.

  “I know.” Cam grinned from ear to ear as Chris delivered the drinks. �
��I fucking love it. They drive me crazy but I would happily die for any of them. Seriously, though, you should think about it.” Cam nudged Leo again. “You and Miss Shaw would make pretty babies. When are you gonna settle down, let someone make an honest man of you?”

  “Why? Is there a separate bracket for that?”

  Even though he joked off the idea, the question had made Jasmine’s smiling face, once again, pop into Leo’s head. He did his best to ignore it. Never in his life had he been so captivated by another person. From the first time he’d seen her picture, it was like she’d been sprinkled with magic dust. There was something so special about her. So different.

  He seriously doubted that anyone had Jasmine on their dating brackets. And for good reason. He shouldn’t be thinking about her that way, either. But he just couldn’t help himself.

  Cam extended his arm in a sweeping gesture that took in the entire crowded bar. “You’ve got your pick. They’re lining up to be the one you put a baby in.”

  Leo ignored Cam’s ridiculous statement and took a sip of his beer.

  “Speaking of, are you and Amber ever going to procreate?”

  Leo was happy that the interrogation had turned away from him. And he was a little curious to see what his friend’s answer would be.

  Seth would make a great dad, there was no doubt about that. But Leo remembered that he’d always talked about not wanting kids after he’d had to do so much for his brothers. That was totally understandable. He’d practically raised his younger siblings.

  “Amber’s pregnant,” Seth stated in usual Seth form. No build up. No frills. Just the facts, ma’am, like the old Dragnet show Leo’s grandparents watched.

  “No shit!” Cameron’s eyes widened.

  “No shit,” Seth shot back, and a small grin spread across his face.

  “Congratulations, man!” Cam pulled Seth into a bear hug.

  “Congratulations!” Leo smiled, ignoring the twinge of something that he didn’t quite recognize as it pinched in his chest. It took him a hot minute to realize what he was experiencing: the sting of envy.