Chapter Fourteen

Jonah

With a squeak, she yanked the sweats up and over her dancing-frog-patterned-thong-clad ass and spun to face him. “How nice of you to join the party.”

“Didn’t know I was invited,” Jonah said, thoroughly amused.

“You were supposed to be the host. I was supposed to swing by and pick up your kiddo for daycare. Lunch packed, ready to go was what you told me.”

“I was having coffee with Mrs. Gomez about Raoul’s life insurance policy and, well, I showed up for coffee and she had a huge spread. I think I’m the first guest she’s had over since becoming a widow.”

And Jonah knew how that felt. He’d spent nearly six months avoiding people. It was the only way he knew how to navigate through the grief without pulling the people around him into that pain.

“Last week was the first time she’s shown up to a board meeting since the funeral. She said she only came because you’d stopped by her house earlier and she wanted to help you out. But really you were helping her out.”

“So you no longer think I set out to ruin your meeting?”

“It was more of a hijacking.”

He looked at Waverly, who was sitting on the floor, dressed in ruffles and bows, quietly flipping through a picture book, like she wasn’t a toddler going through her terrible twos. Then he looked at Evie. She looked as if she’d gone through a carwash. The bottom half of her hair was wet, she wasn’t wearing even a stitch of makeup. Then his body registered what she was wearing—one of his shirts—which was sexier than he expected. The usually primped PTA mom looked like she’d rolled out of his bed.

It looked perfect on her.

“Kind of like what you did to my morning,” she added.

“I didn’t mean to.”

“I know, but you did. I barely have enough time for my own family, I can’t completely take on someone else’s. Not without sacrificing my own. I said I’d help, not be a stand-in.”

“I know and it won’t happen again.” She didn’t look convinced. “Let me take you to dinner to make it up to you,” he said. She hesitated. “Nothing behind it. Just a thank-you for going above and beyond.” That was Evie to a T. She put her heart into everything, even if it was at a cost to her. She already had a small country depending on her to keep things afloat. He didn’t want to be one more hole in her boat. “Bet we can stem that tide of suitors even further.”

She seemed to consider his offer. Her eyes softened, her shoulders seemed to sink. That’s when he knew she was going to say yes. And then what? They’d find themselves alone and all the circling they’d been doing would reach its breaking point. And they’d end up in bed and—

He looked at his marital bed and his lungs refused to take in oxygen, his throat refused to open, and his head refused to let him go there. For God’s sake, he still slept sideways in his bed, with his head on one side and his feet hanging off the other.

When Amber passed, waking up without her was too much. The empty space in his bed was a metaphor for what was going on in his chest. So he’d decided to sleep on her side of the mattress. It didn’t help. He tried the middle, sleeping side to side, buying a new mattress. Nothing worked.

He could have slept on the couch but he didn’t want to worry Ryan more than he already was. So Jonah slept sideways—it was the only thing that had worked. And even though he’d become accustomed to his wife’s absence, he still couldn’t manage to make the switch. Which made him wonder if he could sleep with another woman in this room.

He looked up and found Evie studying him intently, understanding and hurt in her gaze. “That’s why we have ground rules, Jonah.”