Page 33 of Fire in You

“It is,” Teresa agreed, stabbing a sausage link with a fork. “Which I’m sure Cam will be thrilled with once Ava gets older.”

Avery rolled her eyes. “He’s going to be one of those dads. You know? The kind that cleans a shotgun in front of the boys Ava dates.”

Teresa arched a brow. “Does Cam even own a gun?”

“No, but I bet he will once Ava hits sixteen.”

I laughed as I cut another large section of the omelet.

“Thank you again for watching Ava and Alex for us,” Avery said for the hundredth time. “You have no idea how hard it is to get out on time when you have kids.” She pointed her fork at Teresa. “At least with Jack, he’s always been old enough to not need constant attention. Just wait until the baby comes. Getting laid becomes an Olympic sport. Thanks to Jillian, we were finally able to hopefullynotmake baby number three.”

Chalk that up to things I never needed to know happened when I watched their kids.

“Yeah, but we have built-in babysitting,” Teresa replied. “Jack.”

“True,” Avery said.

Teresa giggled as she rubbed her swollen belly. “Either way, if there’s a will, there’s a way,” she said, dipping the sausage link in a pool of syrup. “By the way, Jillian, don’t think we didn’t notice how you skimmed the details on your date.”

“Mmm?” I mumbled around a mouthful of egg and cheese.

Avery raised her brows. “So, you said you had a good time and that you guys were getting dinner on Wednesday, but did you guys, you know . . .” She elbowed me in the side. “Did you kiss? Did you do more?”

“Did you have sex?” Teresa asked.

I coughed, nearly choking on a piece of diced bacon. “No. No sex. Not that there is anything wrong with sex on the first date,” I hastily advised, because seriously, I saw nothing wrong with that. It just wasn’t how I moved since that seemed fast and I was like a three-legged turtle when it came to relationships. “He did try to kiss me.”

“Try?” Teresa’s brow creased.

Reaching for my glass of Coke, I shrugged a shoulder. “I turned my head when he leaned down. I didn’t mean to. I just wasn’t thinking.”

“Oh,” Avery said, sounding disappointed.

“What?” I asked.

“Nothing.” She cut off a piece of steak.

I took a drink and then placed the cup down. “That didn’t sound like nothing.”

“I think it was more of a ‘if you want to be kissed by someone you don’t turn your head from them’ kind of thing,” Teresa explained.

“I want to be kissed by him!” I exclaimed, and then flushed when the snowy-haired woman across from us looked over at me. “I do. It’s just . . . I don’t have a lot of experience.”

Teresa’s eyes widened like blue saucers. “Are you—?”

“No. I’m not a virgin,” I said, shifting uncomfortably. “I’ve only been in one relationship.”

“That guy was a dick,” Avery said.

“Yeah, I know that, but there wasn’t anyone before that? After him?” Teresa asked.

I shook my head. “It’s not easy for me . . .” I trailed off as I scooped up a huge piece of omelet. What was I about to say to them? That it wasn’t easy because I wasn’t entirely comfortable with the way I looked?

God, that sounded lame when you said it out loud. Hell, I hadn’t been exactly comfortablebeforeeverything. Would they truly understand that? Teresa and Avery were very pretty women, beautiful in their own ways.

“I just suck at the whole dating thing,” I continued. “I have really bad taste in guys. I mean, I’m not saying Grady is bad. It’s just that . . . I don’t know what I’m saying. Please ignore me.”

Teresa glanced over at Avery and then leaned forward as far as her belly would allow, which wasn’t far at all. “We all sucked at dating. Especially Avery.”

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