by Laura Drewry
God, she was pathetic. She couldn’t even say his name without crying. That had to stop. Right now. Right this very second.
“Sorry.” She swiped her hand across her cheek, lifted her chin, and started herding the whole lot of them toward the door. “Great to see you all, but I, um, I have to close up for a while.”
“Close?” Katie frowned. “But you just opened!”
“And that’s the joy of owning the joint,” Jayne choked over a chuckle. “I can close any time I want.”
“But where are you going?”
Jayne’s grin widened; Katie would love this. “To do something I should have done a long time ago. I just hope I’m not too late.”
Half a second of silence, then Katie squealed and threw her arms around Jayne, all but squishing the baby between them.
“Come on, let’s go.” Katie pressed her hands on her parents’ backs and started shoving them toward the door. “Call me, Jayne. I want to know everything.”
Carter followed last, a twisty little grin on his mouth. “ ’Bout freakin’ time, Jay. I was beginning to think you two’d never get your shit together.”
As they pushed their way up the aisle, Jayne caught sight of T-Squared in front of their store, pointing down the road. That in itself wasn’t enough to make her wonder, but when the brothers went back inside their store and pulled customers out to look, that’s when she got to wondering.
“What’s going on?” Katie stepped outside first, then stopped so abruptly her mom had to steady herself against the door frame to keep from crashing into her.
Jayne was still a good six feet back from the front window when she saw him. Her feet stopped moving, her eyes stopped blinking and her lungs refused to budge even so much as a whisper of a breath.
Nick’s arms literally overflowed with dandelions; so much so that he left a trail as he walked, and he was walking with a purpose, right up until he got to the door; then it was a moment of chaos as he tried to push through everyone to get inside.
Seconds slowed to a crawl, and then suddenly he was there, standing in front of her, dropping bright yellow dandelions all over the floor. His golden brown eyes stared straight at her, his mouth curled into one of those awkward half smiles, half winces like he wasn’t sure if it would be okay to hug her or if he should duck in case she took a swing at him.
It wasn’t that she hadn’t thought about punching him—and hard—over the last few days, but this was Nick. She couldn’t very well stay mad at her best friend forever.
Carter pulled the rubber door stop out from the bottom of the door and started to close it, but poked his head back in for one parting shot. “You might want to start him on One Fish Two Fish—”
Without looking away from her, Nick backed up to the door, shifted most of the load to his left arm, and jerked the door closed, almost catching Carter’s head in the process. The clunk of the deadbolt falling into place echoed throughout the now-empty store.
“I would’ve come back yesterday.” He moved toward her again, slower, lifting his arms ever so slightly. “But it took me a while to round these up.”
Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t cry.
When she finally found her breath, Jayne picked up a couple of the dandelions from the floor, forced a smirk to her lips, and blinked back at him.
“Gonna make me some more necklaces?”
Color rushed up his neck and over his face as he grinned.
“If you want me to.” He was so cute standing there with dandelions spilling over his arms, between his fingers, and all around his feet. Jayne’s heart swelled, her knees shook, and it took three tries to choke back the lump in her throat.
Who was she kidding? She wasn’t ready for this; she could wait another twenty-five years and she still wouldn’t be ready for this. It was too much; she’d never be able to handle it, never be able to tell him what she felt.
Before she knew it, she’d shredded one of the poor dandelions into dozens of pieces, all of which now lay at her feet.
Nick’s eyes softened, his mouth tipped in one of his slow smiles. “Don’t suppose you could find me a vase or two, could you?”
“Vase.” Finally able to blink, Jayne nodded sharply. “Right. Good thing I live with a florist.”
It took more focus than she knew she had to lead him up those thirteen stairs. By the time she made it into the kitchen, her legs shook so bad she thought they might buckle. Luckily she had the counter to hold on to as she reached into the cupboard for a vase.
“Jayne.”
His breath whispered against her neck, his hands—holy crap, those hands—settled on her hips as he turned her to face him. She wasn’t ready. She needed time to find her smirk, to swallow the panic lodged in her throat, to find something to do with her hands.
His first kiss, soft and slow, melted into her, flowing through each cell until she couldn’t focus, couldn’t breathe.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured through his next kiss, his hands sliding slowly up her ribs. Jayne closed her eyes and inhaled a long slow breath. Gillette Foamy, sunshine and sawdust. If she died right now, that was the one thing she’d want to take with her into the afterlife; the scent of comfort, the scent of home. The scent of Nick.
“For … for what?”
“For not kissing you sooner. And a hell of a lot more often.”
Her lips trembled beneath his and she tensed for a second, but he just took the kiss deeper until she sighed, curled her fingers around his neck, and smiled against his mouth.
Nick couldn’t get enough; even when Jayne pulled back, her breath ragged and jittery, he wouldn’t let her go. Her fingers were magic on his neck, in his hair, her light strawberry scent pulling him back again and again, and her hips … if she kept wiggling against him like that … holy shit … there wasn’t nearly enough room in that kitchen for what he wanted to do with her.
“Nick.” Her voice, raspy and soft, smiled when she spoke. “I’m not even sorry I screwed things up between you and Lisa.”
“You didn’t.” He never lifted his mouth from her neck. “It was never right between us. I think I always knew it but thought I could fix it.”
“But she’s pretty and sweet and …”
“She’s not you. Not even close to being you.” He was serious, but seeing her smile like that, so bright, so raw, so real, made him smile, too. And it made him smile even more when she leaned in slowly, tentatively, and kissed him. Jayne—his Jayne—who’d spent so many years squirming out of his arms, was now pulling him closer, tighter, until there wasn’t so much as a whisper of space between them.
“Jayne?” He breathed a kiss against her earlobe, grinning when she shivered in his arms. “I have to tell you something, but I don’t want you to freak out.”
He’d barely got the words out and her whole body tensed. She pulled back, released her hold on him, and gripped the counter on either side until her knuckles whitened. Head down, eyes closed, she heaved a great sigh as if bracing herself for bad news.
With his finger crooked, he lifted her chin up, but still she didn’t open her eyes.
“Look at me, Jayne.”
“No. Just say it.” She didn’t even give him a chance to respond. “Is it me? Is it you? Did your mother disown you?”
He didn’t answer, just cupped her beautiful face between his hands and waited until she opened her eyes. Not surprisingly, it took her a while, but the second she did, he smiled down at her.
“I love you.”
“Nick—”
“No, it’s more than that. I’m stupid-ass-can’t-see-straight-in-love with you, and I’m sorry I didn’t figure it out sooner.”
Bit by bit, her mouth curled into one of her smirks. “Yeah, well, you always were a little slow.”
“True.” He kissed her again, taking his time along the edge of her smirk. “But if I’d known this is what it would be like …”
Her fingers twisted the hem of her T-shirt up into a tight wad as she chewed the
side of her lips. “You don’t think this is a little weird?”
“No. I think everything up till now has been weird. But this … wait.” He frowned down at her. “Do you think it’s weird?”
“A little.” She winced. “Sorry, but come on, Nick, all these years we’ve just been friends, and now—”
“Now it’s this.”
“Yeah. Now it’s this.”
He tucked her hair back behind her ear and sighed quietly over a grin. “This is better.”
Her lips trembled up into one of those weird Jayne smiles that started out as a slow quiver and wobbled until she managed to get hold of it. It seemed to take an awfully long time before she finally sniffed quietly and nodded. “Yeah.”
“The only thing that’d make it better,” he said, grinning hopefully. “Is if you told me how much you loved me, too.”
A sparkle started deep in her blue eyes, her smile steadied, and she raised her left brow in a cheeky arch.
“I waited twelve years for you to say it to me, Nick. I think you can wait another minute or two.”
“But … you didn’t … oh crap.” He set his hands on her hips, then inched them under her shirt until he finally reached skin. Hot skin. Pulse pounding through every pore. “I hate waiting.”
He kissed her once, twice, slowly, determined to wait her out. Third time lucky, even if she did huff out an impatient sigh first.
“Fine. I love you. Are you happy now? I’m stupid-ass-can’t-see-straight-in-love with you, too.” Her gorgeous blue eyes, sparkling against the tears she tried to blink away, stared straight back at him. “God knows I tried not to be, but—”
Nick’s mouth froze a breath away from hers. “You tried not to be?”
“Of course!” The edge of her mouth tipped up ever so slightly before she leaned into him and kissed his chin. “You’re bossy.”
“Yeah, I am.” He tried to catch her mouth with his, but she moved away.
“You think you’re funny.”
“No, you think I’m funny.” When she dodged his mouth for the second time, Nick changed tactics. He moved his hands up her ribs, slowly, until there—that was the little hitch in her throat he was waiting for. Maybe now she’d kiss him again.
“A-and you walk around your house half-naked all the time,” she breathed. “Drives me crazy.”
“That’s an easy fix,” he grinned. “From now on, all naked all the time.” This time she met his mouth full on, pulling him in closer, working every kiss into two or three. “Anything else?”
Her skin flamed as he slid his fingers slowly higher, higher until they touched silk. Who knew his simple little Jayne wore lacy things under her clothes?
“You’re always touching me,” she whispered. “I hate that.”
Nick let his last kiss linger on her lips until she opened her heavy eyes and looked at him. Only then did he murmur against her mouth. “Liar.”
A sigh, a blush. “Yeah.”
“If you thought I touched you a lot before”—he rubbed the side of his nose against hers and nibbled her bottom lip as he spoke—“you might want to brace yourself.”
She slid her fingers down his chest, breathing out a soft whimpering sound when she finally got them under his shirt and splayed across his belly. Nick’s muscles flinched beneath her touch, his every nerve on alert. This was Jayne, his Jayne, who’d always made everything make sense, who’d always tried to avoid his touch, and who was now driving him crazy with wanting her.
None too delicately, he curved his hands around her backside and carried her over to the couch, pressing her tight against him as they moved. He was hard, he was getting harder, and he didn’t care if she knew.
“Oh.” Her single syllable, nothing more than a breath, almost did him in. Then she laughed. “Well that sure takes this friendship to a whole new level, doesn’t it?”
“I hope so.” He pressed a kiss to the corner of her mouth; that sexy, smirking, gorgeous mouth. “We’ve been friends long enough.”
With her sitting facing him on his lap, he slid his pinkie finger under the collar of her shirt, and pulled up the silver chain with the key dangling from it.
“Come home, Jayne. We miss you.”
“Is that right?” She tugged the key out of his hand and tucked it back inside her shirt. “And you won’t mind having me there all the time?”
“Worked out pretty well the first time,” he shrugged, then grinned. “But we’ll have to do something about the sleeping arrangements.”
“Yeah.” The color in her cheeks deepened. “But what would I do with this place? We just got it fixed up.”
“Let Maya have it.” He slid his hands around her waist and held her tight against him. “And let me have you.”
Jayne sucked in a small breath, cupped his face in her hands, and leaned in to kiss him, long and slow.
“You’ve always had me,” she murmured. “I just didn’t know how to tell you.”
“Jayne?”
“Hmm?”
He swallowed hard, tipped her face up to his. “Can we go home now?”
“I can’t leave—today’s my big grand opening, remember?”
The puckered brow, the slight frown … she almost had him until her eyes started to crinkle up around the edges. She pressed a barely there kiss against his Adam’s apple and let her tongue dance across his throat and up the side of his neck until her lips hovered next to his earlobe.
“When we get home,” she whispered, “will you show me how this all-naked-all-the-time thing works?”
Nick almost knocked them both down the stairs in his rush to get her out to his truck. She tried to pull free long enough to lock the back door, but Nick wasn’t about to let her go. Not now, not ever.
EPILOGUE
You look good wearing my future.
Keith Nelson, Some Kind of Wonderful
Nick stood next to the Justice of the Peace, looking out at the scattering of people in his yard. Katie thought they should’ve planned a big afternoon wedding, but there wasn’t a hope in hell Nick was going to wait a minute more than he had to, and Jayne agreed, so by ten o’clock the next Saturday, they were all assembled, waiting for Jayne.
He knew she wouldn’t be late. And she wasn’t.
Walking toward him on Pop’s arm, she’d never been more beautiful. Her dress was a simple cream-colored number Ellie gave her; it fit perfectly, hugging her curves and making Nick wish the ceremony was already over, and the only jewelry she wore was a fresh dandelion chain around her neck, hiding the key she’d refused to take off.
They were still arguing over a ring. She didn’t think one was necessary and he insisted it was. He didn’t want any more Troys or Bretts horning up on his Jayne and a nice big fat diamond would help prevent that.
Jayne set her eyes on Nick and never looked away. He’d bought new black dress pants for the occasion, but at Jayne’s request—and much to his mother’s disgust—he’d forgone a new shirt and instead wore his old blue twill one. He’d even ironed it.
The Justice made short work of things, then paused, looked around at the small crowd. “If anyone here has just cause why they should not be joined in marriage, may he speak now or forever hold his peace.”
As though one body, Jayne, Maya, and Regan all turned glaring eyes on Ellie.
“What?” Ellie cried. “I didn’t say a word. If she wants to marry the big dumb ass, that’s her choice.”
The JP grinned. “For as much as Jayne and Nicholas have exchanged their vows in the presence of these witnesses, even without any rings which Nick assures me are coming”—he shot Nick a pointed look—“by the power vested in me, I declare you to be husband and wife.”
He paused, grinned again, and held both hands up.
“You may kiss your bride.”
And Nick did. Then he kissed her again just for good measure.
For such a small group gathered there in the yard, they sure made a hell of a lot of noise. Jayne squirmed against him
, laughing against his mouth, but Nick took his sweet time, and even after the kiss ended, he never let her go.
He threaded his fingers through hers and pulled her in for a kiss every time he felt the urge, which was pretty often. Seemed he couldn’t do it enough now, even though each kiss made her look like she was going to cry again.
He just wanted to get her alone, was that asking too much? Didn’t these people have other things to do in the middle of the day? It took more effort than he thought he could muster, but he managed to hold off until everyone had the chance to eat and drink.
“Okay, people,” he announced, raising his glass. “Thank you all for coming, thank you all for … well, everything, and now, if you wouldn’t mind … get out.”
“Nick!” Jayne choked on her drink. “You can’t do that.”
“Of course I can.” He turned to Ellie. “My house, my wife, I can do what I want, right?”
“Damn straight,” she snorted. “I can’t believe you let us stay this long.”
“See?”
Jayne’s expression didn’t fool him. Sure, she was embarrassed that he’d kicked everyone out, but that little glint in her eye gave away the real truth. She was glad they were leaving.
With the door locked behind his mother the straggler, Nick took Jayne by the hand and tugged her into the kitchen. He set her laptop on the table, opened her iTunes folder, and clicked the play button.
“What are you—?”
I’m shameless when it comes to loving you, I’ll do anything you want me to …
“I owed you a song.” Nick pulled her into his arms and out into the open floor space around the table. “So what do you think?”
“I think it’s not every day I’d pick a country song over Elton John, but this time …” Jayne curled into his arms and sighed happily against his neck. “Excellent choice.”
“Glad you like it,” he said, breathing a slow kiss against her cheek. “Because it was a toss-up between this and Rick Astley.”
Jayne tipped her face up to his, her brow arched skeptically. “Seriously?”
“Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down …” Nick laughed. “It’s classic eighties, but I couldn’t find it in your music library.”
