Five

Jack

An Ex by Another Name

I could stay here forever.

Jill and I had ended up relocating to her computer at her house, rather than staying at the shop. The snow had been pouring down when we’d walked home. Almost as if I’d been dreaming, she’d invited me to stay for dinner after I’d gotten a basic website going for her. It still needed a lot of work, but at least, she had a landing spot on the web.

“Stay for dinner?” she’d asked after I’d demonstrated that a search now brought up her shop based on the SEO I’d used for it a couple hours earlier.

“Yes. Can I help?”

“No. Consider it a thank you for the work on my site.”

“No problem.” I followed her from the office and took a seat at the breakfast bar between her living room and the kitchen. “How is everything?”

She paused as she pulled food from the fridge. “Fine.”

Fine? Her tone said anything but that.

“Things are going okay at the store?”

She took a long breath while she bit her lip then turned toward the counter beside the stove. “No. Not really.”

“What’s wrong?” I leaned forward on my elbows, fighting the urge to get up and go to her. My arms ached to wrap around her while I demanded she tell me what was wrong, so I could make it better.

She lifted a shoulder, not looking at me. “You know. The sales are still good, but the business expenses have doubled. Honestly, I’m thinking of moving back home.”

“No,” I denied.

“You know the only reason I came to Cherish Cove to open the store with you was because you had friends here and thought this would be a great place for business. And it is. It was. Don’t get me wrong. I love this town, and I’ve made so many friends here, but it might just be time to hang it up and head back to Missouri. I’m thirty-two. Maybe, it’s time to stop…playing…around.” Her voice trailed off, the last words barely audible.

“No,” I repeated, my feet moving me around the counter before I could even think better of it. Grasping her shoulders, I turned her toward me, and her glistening eyes broke my heart. Lifting my hands, I cupped her face. “We can make this work. No matter what you think, I did not cheat on you. I never would.”

“Jack…”

“I have a bigger retail space. Move in with me there. We had a ton of ideas. We’ll do them. There’s space for both of us.”

“Your store name is stupid,” she muttered, her eyes pinned on my neck.

“We’ll change it. We’ll come up with something that works for both of us—because Happily Ever After doesn’t exactly work for me. Not as a bookstore name anyway.”

“Jack,” she sighed again.

Using my thumbs, I lifted her chin, forcing her to look up at me.

“Stay,” I half-begged, leaning in and feeling her jagged breaths wafting over my lips.

“Fuck it,” she muttered. Startling me, she went to her toes and moved closer to me to meet my mouth halfway. Her arms wrapped around my neck as we kissed, relief almost buckling my knees at having her in my arms after so long. Our lips moved together desperately, needed forcing the kiss to deepen.

I pressed her against the cabinet while my hands skimmed along her sides, up her back, into her silky hair. Jill never tried to stop me, just pressing closer and lifting her leg around my hip. Without a second thought, I seated her on the counter, and her other leg wrapped around me, too.

“Fucking hell, Jill,” I muttered against her lips. “You have no idea how much I’ve missed you.”

She didn’t answer, just sealed her lips over mine again. I pressed her mouth open, sliding my tongue along hers to explore. She groaned, arching into me, her hands skimming back to splay on my chest—exploring, not pushing me away. Good.

My ears started to ring as all my blood drained down to my dick that throbbed against her, begging for more. More wasn’t on the menu as suddenly Jill pushed me back.

“It’s my mom,” she gasped out. “If I don’t answer, she’ll just keep calling.”

“Okay,” I breathed, out of breath myself. I knew she wasn’t exaggerating. Her mom did have a tendency to keep calling, immediately thinking her little chick was in trouble if she didn’t respond promptly.

My hand swiped over my lips as I tilted back my head, moving away just far enough for her to get down and go retrieve her phone from her purse.

“Mom,” she exclaimed when she answered the phone. When I glanced over, I saw she was actually using her tablet and she was on facetime. Probably not a great idea with her mussed hair and swollen lips.

“Is everything okay? Was I interrupting anything?”

“Uh…”

I moved closer. “Hi, Mrs. Burke.”

“Jack, so good to see you,” she gushed. “Jill told me yesterday that you two were back together.”

“She did, did she?” I chuckled, wrapping my arms around my girl and pulling her closer to my side. “Tell me more. What else did she say?”

“Stop it,” Jill groaned, jabbing her elbow into my side. Her cheeks had turned rosy, blushing a deeper color than she’d already been from our kiss.

“Nothing much. Just that she had a boyfriend and I didn’t need to set her up with anyone down here.”

“You definitely don’t,” I replied, my tone going harder than it probably should with my not-quite-girlfriend’s mother.

She laughed. “Don’t worry. Since I know Jill has you, I’ll drop that idea. Now, Jill says she might not be able to come home for Christmas. What do you think? Can you two manage it?”

I glanced down at Jill, knowing how much she looked forward to seeing her family each year. I wondered if it was due to financial issues from the store. If so, I would fix it. “Jill and I will talk seriously about it. I’m sure we can swing something.”

“Jack,” she whispered, and I lifted a brow at her, daring her to out the lie she’d told her mom.

Jill turned back to the tablet. “We’ll talk about it, Mom. You know… It’s the Christmas season, and we work in retail and all…”

“I know.”

I kissed the top of Jill’s head. “I’m going to head home, so you can talk to your mom. Don’t forget we have a date tomorrow night.”

“A date ? I mean…how could I?” she corrected after her initial surprise.

“Good. I’ll be over to walk you to work in the morning. Night, Mrs. Burke.” I gave her a small wave.

“Night, sweetheart,” she called. “Good to see you again.” She waited until I was out of her sight, but I could still hear her as I put on my coat. “My God, honey, he’s gotten even more handsome. You need to lock that man down. Pronto.”

“Mom,” Jill groaned, but her mom wasn’t wrong. Some lockdown needed to happen, and if I had my way, I would finally get my ring on Jill’s finger.

Pronto.

Seemed like suddenly I was an ex going by another name: Boyfriend.