Jamie
When Jamie checked his phone, there was a text from Allan: I know the horse has left the barn but for the record I said I’m glad you found Jo and I hope you stay together. Anything else you want me to say? He couldn’t entirely tell the face the little emoji was making, but it was probably meant to convey the idea that, even if Allan recited it perfectly, it might get mangled in translation.
Jamie considered the question. He was already dressed and ready to load the truck, waiting for Jo to get out of the shower because she wanted to help him. What the hell? Nothing ventured … You can tell her you’ve been thinking about it long and hard and you’d like to move back to take care of her. Send. Let Allan decide it was a joke if he wanted.
Jo came down the stairs, hair still a little damp despite his hairdryer, and poked her head into the kitchen. “Do you load up and go down there without coffee?”
“Ricky brings me coffee.” He stuck his phone in his pocket. “I think it’s so I don’t chew him out if he’s late.” Then he blinked, because maybe there was another part to that question. “I can get some started for you, if you want.”
“No, that’s okay.” She had her backpack, because she always had her backpack, except this morning it felt like she was leaving him. Jo slipped into her shoes, face turned mostly away from him. “I figure I’ve got to go back and pick up another change of clothes, anyway, so I can grab coffee somewhere on my way by.”
Uh. She was in a different dress from yesterday, because Jo apparently lived in dresses, at least during the summer, and it wasn’t like she’d spilled anything on it.
She caught his eye and apparently his confusion. “So I can stay tonight, too?”
Oh. Right. “Of course.” She’d turned it into a request sort of question, like maybe he hadn’t reacted because he didn’t want her to stay.
Jo caught his hand and squeezed it before they left the house, Jamie locking it behind them since she had all her stuff. He wasn’t sure what Mom would think of him giving Jo a key. If it were his own place, then of course, but …
She put her backpack in her car while he went to open the garage and then helped him load up the food truck. He usually did it alone, so the two of them made quick work of it, and then Jo took his face in both her hands and kissed him softly. They were in his driveway, so it wasn’t entirely public, but she kept it toned down, anyway. And he had this fleeting thought, not necessarily an urge, that he could pull her into the garage, hit the button, and keep on kissing her as the door closed. But he hesitated, and they honestly didn’t have time, so he just caught Jo’s smile as she waved and went to get into her car and left first.
Right. Okay. Jamie got his keys and his phone out of his pockets, climbed into the food truck, stuck the phone in the cup holder, and started the engine. He had to proceed as though it were any other day, and nothing important—or significant—had happened. Was this normal? Or were other people just not as affected by this kind of thing, possibly because, by the time they’d hit their late forties, it wasn’t new anymore? You had people like Shane, who were sick of their wives before they’d even married them, but also people like Allan, who happily looked forward to the next relationship despite the end of his most recent one, and where did Jamie fall?
The farmer’s market wasn’t working in his favor today. It gave him too much time to think. Jo was happy about the apartment, which was good, but she also wasn’t ready to even talk about a wedding, and that … well. It shouldn’t be disappointing, because who really talked marriage after a couple months? Even if he’d actually asked, and she’d said yes, imagine telling everyone about it. Ricky and Chase wouldn’t have a leg to stand on, but even their group, the ones who’d seen it from the beginning, would probably hesitate before they responded. Besides, it was Jamie’s first relationship, ever, so the fact that it was his longest—and he was somehow convinced it was going to last—wasn’t much of an argument.
And okay, maybe Jo had a point: he’d gotten the apartment so they didn’t have to make these decisions and have these discussions just now, except having the apartment meant he wanted to move right on to looking at houses, asking her what her dreams and absolutely nevers were, and focusing on narrowing that search and getting the next step nailed down. Yeah, it would help if she committed to forever. She’d done it before, with Jake, so obviously it wasn’t one of her absolutely nevers, but …
She’d done it before, with Jake, and when it ended she had everything ripped out from under her feet and ended up running back home to try to rebuild from scratch. Right. Jake was only photographs and speculation to him, but he was real to Jo, and Jo’s only point of comparison for a relationship. Especially a relationship that included words like forever and wedding.
Now he’d talked himself around to feeling like a jerk again. Thinking he was doing it all wrong, even though she’d told him this very morning that she thought he was doing a lot right. They had the apartment, so he should be grateful for that and give it time before he wanted to reach for the next step. Hell, the apartment was a promise: an entire year. That was a long time, much longer than her lease at Brent and Amanda’s, so why wasn’t it enough?
Chapter Forty-Three – coming November 12
