Chapter 91

The rest of the week blew by in a whirl of retail days and cozy nights. She and Jon had fallen into a routine of alternating houses every few days and each of them started leaving clothes and toiletries behind at the other’s house.

They were wrapped together on his bed watching TV, with his head in her lap. She was idly playing with his hair with her nose buried in a book. All the shows she watched were repeats during the holidays and Jon was hogging the remote to channel surf through sports programs. If he wasn’t watching a game he was listening to some guy drone on about it on Sports Center.

“What are you doing for New Year’s,” he asked absently as he switched the channel yet again.

“Hmm?” she slowly drew out of the JD Robb book she’d been dying to read all week. One good thing about running a bookstore was the advanced shipping she got to snag from.

“Get your pretty nose out of the book, darlin’.” He said and pulled down on the top of it.

She blinked at him as the grisly murder scene that the lead character was working slowly faded, she grinned and blushed. “Sorry about that,” she grabbed her bookmark and set the book on the bedside table she’d taken over in his bedroom. “You have my undivided attention.”

“As it should be,” he replied with a smirk.

She tugged his hair until he lifted his head and he made an exaggerated kissy face at her. She bit his lower lip, “Smart ass.”

He pouted comically. “Hey, that’s no way to treat these lips.” His hand came up and tangled in her hair and brought her down for a slow and rather thorough kiss that had nothing to do with sports or a murder mystery. He pulled back and settled himself back into her lap with an even more devilish smirk, “Much better.”

When her brain started working again she dumped him off her lap. “Pretty low there, buddy.”

“I can kiss lower,” he said with a sneaky grin and rolled onto his stomach.

Her heart pounded as he crawled her way. He was wearing a ratty old Giants T-shirt and a pair of boxers with his hair tousled from her fingers. He couldn’t have looked more sexy and tempting if he had a legion of makeup and wardrobe people. “You get back,” she said with a laugh as she backed off the bed. “You asked me a question, let’s not get distracted here.”

He hopped off the bed and reached for her. “I’ll remember my question later.”

He dragged her in and rubbed his two days growth of beard along the side of her neck just where it would have the best effect. She shivered and let a groan free. “You don’t play fair,” she moaned as he flicked his tongue along the sensitive skin just behind her ear.

“Nope.” His voice was gravely with a touch of sex as he tugged on her earlobe and pushed her nightshirt aside to get to her neck. He nibbled his way across the muscle that connected to her shoulder and she gave up. No way could she hold out when he was going for all the good spots.

She pulled at his t-shirt until she could get it over his head as he slid the last button free letting her shirt puddle to the floor on top of the faded blue cotton. “You better remember the question if it’s important,” she muttered right before his mouth stole the last of her brain cells.

He certainly didn’t remember the question later and neither did she when they both landed in a sweaty heap in the center of the bed. He curled around her back and situated them as they always slept and pressed a tired kiss to the back of her neck.

She smoothed her hand over his hair roughened forearm as he gathered her into the curve of his body and slept. When she woke the next morning it was Jon that had disappeared early for once.

Tessa rolled onto her back and since he wasn’t there to see her, she indulged in a luxurious stretch and cuddled into his side of the bed. She grabbed for his pillow and found a scribbled note that explained his early departure. His ties to Philly would probably take him from her bed a lot more once the practices started. Today was just a meeting. She set the note on the table and buried her nose into the sateen pillowcase.

She drew in the spicy male shampoo he used and sighed. It wasn’t often that she got time to herself in the morning. Just to lay there without the distraction of his warm body was nice for a change. They were starting to flow into the relaxing phase of things, instead of the intense and near manic beginning they shared.

She didn’t worry about the ifs and whys of every little thing. She just loved being with him. In fact, she wasn’t quite sure how she’d deal with life without him once his job took him away from her. She’d grown far too used to his warm presence behind her at night. Even when they rolled apart in sleep, they were always touching in some way, even if it was just twined legs or a careless brush of fingers. She’d always been the type to want her space, but everything seemed different with him.

She figured that one of these days she’d just look at him as the guy that hogged the covers and snored, when he was her…what?

Husband? Mate?

The sweet, soft thoughts turned a little panicky as she bounded out of bed. “Don’t get ahead of yourself, girl,” she said to the empty room. It was too easy to think of forever when things were going this well. Before she could think about it too hard, she stepped into the shower and got ready for the day.


~


She pulled into her own driveway and stared at her front door twelve hours later. Just the thought of getting up again and walking even as far as her door was enough to give serious thought to sleeping in her car. It had been one of the longest days in history. Everyone and their brother had been out to do their shopping. Evidently the Thursday before a holiday was the perfect day to go shopping.

Well, she wanted to take a long weekend dammit. She wanted a Friday, Saturday and Sunday off for once. She opened the door and swung a foot out, hovering over the pavement before she finally set it down. Her entire foot throbbed. She was fairly certain she’d only sat down for an hour in the entire day. And it hadn’t been all at once, that was for sure.

She grabbed her laptop, purse and grocery bag of Lean Cuisine dinners and hobbled her way up the drive. With arms full she heard the distant buzzing ring of her cell. She hip checked the front door open and punched in her security code then crouched to drop everything and shut the door with a sigh.

Her entire body rebelled at the thought of standing again, so she just let herself collapse and started digging in her purse. Fumbling with the phone when she saw his name on her display she muttered, “crap,” and finally got it open. “Hello!”

“Hey babe,” he said with a voice that equaled hers in weariness.

She tucked her phone in the crook of her ear and shoulder and unzipped her boot. “You sound like your day was just as shitty as mine.”

“If I didn’t have to be here for a meeting in the morning I’d be crawling my way up your driveway and begging for mercy.”

She tugged one boot off and felt her foot immediately swell two sizes at least. “Oh, does that mean you aren’t coming in tonight?” She dropped her hand to the other boot, suddenly too tired to even look at the zipper. She knew she sounded pathetic, but was too tired to stop herself.

“I’m sorry, Tessa.”

“I know, it’s okay.”

The weariness turned to amusement. “I do believe you’re pouting.”

“No I’m not.”

His laugh was low and sexy. “Oh yeah you are.” He paused as she grunted a little. “What are you doing over there?”

”Trying to get my stupid boots off,” she said and wrestled with the other zipper.

“Sounds like you need some help.”

“Believe me if you could see me right now you’d just end up laughing too hard to help me.” She looked around at the laptop case on its side, her purse half strewn across the hardwood floor and her favorite calf skin, eight hundred dollar boots in a heap. And there she was, sitting in the middle of it all with her legs wide open with her corduroy skirt hiked up to her butt and not an ounce of ladylike professionalism to be found.

She sagged forward and bit her lip against the need to just have a good cry. All she could focus on was that she had to sleep without him tonight. She blamed the exhaustion when she blurted out, “I just can’t sleep without you these days.”

“If I just didn’t send my pilot to a hotel I’d come home right now,” he said with absolute seriousness.

She covered a sniffle with a snort and finally got the zipper over her swollen ankle and kicked off the boot. “Shut up.”

“I’m serious.”

Suddenly feeling very selfish and very stupid she sat up and dabbed at the corner of each eye where a few frustrated tears had started to form. “As much as I’d love for you to bring your perfectly delicious self home right now that would just be silly.”

She could hear the serious tone blend with the obvious exhaustion. “I would though. I’m not going to make the same mistakes, Tessa. I’ll do anything to keep you happy.”

Knowing there was something else going on that her too tired brain was not catching up with she stopped kneading her thumb over the arch of her stocking clad foot. “What’s goin’ on, Jon?”

“Nothing.”

“Babe, I’m just feeling sorry for myself. As much as I’d love for you to indulge my every want and need, I do have to get used to sleeping without you. You’ll be touring soon and you’ll have to do overnights in Philly when the Soul season starts. What else has you so quick to do the impossible?”

“I made too many excuses not to be home before, Tessa. I won’t make those mistakes again.”

“I’m not Dot,” she said quietly.

“Of course you’re not,” he snapped then huffed out a breath. “This is coming out wrong over the phone.”

”Maybe we’re both too tired for this conversation, darlin’.”

“No, I need to say this.”

“Okay,” she said quietly. She could feel the frustration coming off him in waves even through the phone. He hadn’t said much after his conversation with Dorothea. She respected his need to process things before he talked to her. She and Jon were very much the same when it came to working things out in their heads.

“I’ve been thinking a lot today during the downtimes between the zillion fucking meetings I had today.”

She smiled and folded her legs under herself to try and stand up. “Thinking…got it.”

“I’m being serious here,” he said sternly but ruined it by chuckling. “I’m trying to pour my heart out here and you’re giving me shit.”

She cleared her throat and tried desperately not to giggle. “Right, serious talk, got it.”

“Oh hell,” he laughed and she could hear him settling into a chair or his bed. “I want to move things along.”

“And the warp speed we’ve been moving at is too slow?” She stood and bit back a moan as her feet pulsed in time with her heartbeat. Hobbling yet again she made it to her kitchen and dumped the frozen dinners inside.

“You think you’re funny.”

She jammed the plastic bag in the kitchen drawer and slowly made her way to the couch. “I know I’m funny, there’s a difference.”

“I want to take you out Sunday night.”

Her mouth dropped open. “In public?” she squeaked. She had to have heard him wrong.

“It’s a party, actually.”

“A New Year’s Eve party?”

“That’d be the one.”

“With people,” she said dimly. She was pretty sure she sounded a bit simple, but she wanted to make sure she was hearing him correctly.

“Famous people even,” he said with a snort.

“Let me back up a bit here. Sunday? As in two days from now?” The figurative light bulb went off in her head. “Would this be the question you were going to ask me last night?”

“As a matter of fact…”

“Dammit, Jon! Who’s party?”

“It’s no big deal. It’s at Elton’s place in the City.”

Her jaw dropped. “Elton John?”

“Yeah, he has a shin dig every year. It’s one of those things where you start at one house and end up at three or four more by the time the night is over.”

“Elton.”

“Right,” he said patiently.

“Elton John, the famous Diva. That Elton, right?”

“Right.”

“You are a horrible man!”

He laughed and she could hear him switch ears. “Why am I horrible?”

“You couldn’t start out with dinner or something? You want me to go out with you for the first time to a friggin’ spectacle at Elton John’s house?”

“It’s not a spectacle it-“

“Jon, you seem to forget that I’m a fan. I used to love when you went to these society things because there were tons of pictures of you. Do you know why there’s tons of pictures of you?”

“There’s tons of photographers?” He asked with way too much humor in his voice.

“There’s tons of photographers!!” She agreed with a voice just shy of hysteria.

“Guess you should get a hot dress. We could go shopping tomorrow after you close.”

“Oh my God. What is wrong with you!? How in the hell am I going to find a dress and…” her mind whirled with the things she’d need to do. Manicure, pedicure to be sure and her hair? She hadn’t gotten it cut since way before Thanksgiving.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of--” the line went silent for a second. “Hey, babe I gotta go. I’ve been waiting for this call all day.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Love you,” he said quickly and was gone.

Thank God she was already sitting on something soft because she would have hurt herself if she’d still been in the kitchen. “Elton John?” she said out loud, still horrified. She turned her head into one of the throw pillows and screamed.