Page 24 of With This Wish

Billie makes a throaty sound next to us. “Gross,” she says, grabbing her purse from where I dropped it on the counter. “Save it for another time, Romeo. Bye, Maya.” I chuckle and smile at Maya as Billie pushes me out the door and into the chilly midmorning air.

As we walk over to Billie’s sports car, I reach over and lightly punch her on the shoulder. “Thanks for coming,” I tell her, opening the passenger door of the shiny red car and slipping inside.

“You’re welcome,” she says. She looks at me for a moment as she turns on the car. “I know you need help, even though you would never ask for it.”

As she starts to drive toward the cabin, I realize that she might be expecting to stay with me, something that would put a definite stop to things going anywhere physical with Maya tonight. “So, did you want to bunk with me again, or…?”

Billie scoffs, giving me some serious side-eye. “Even if I did want to stay in your cabin, which I do not, that place is like a monument to taxidermy with all the heads on the walls.” I watch her visibly shudder before she points out the window to a historic-looking hotel. “I’m staying there for the time being. They might not have an on-call masseuse like I was hoping for, but the room has a flat screen and not a stuffed squirrel in sight. Besides,” she says with a smirk, “I saw you and Maya looking all gooey-eyed at one another. I know where things are headed and I want to be as far away as possible.”

“Thank you,” I tell her sincerely. Billie may be known as a selfish party girl, but the selfish part couldn’t be further from the truth. She is always thinking of others, and it’s a shame more people don’t see that. “You’re a good friend.”

“Duh,” she sasses, a smirk on her face. “And you’re welcome.” Billie increases her speed as we leave the downtown area. “Now, walk me through your business plan so I can poke holes in it and tell you how boring it sounds.”

I laugh and tell her all about my business plan, as well as a few other plans I have for my future. Plans that include one special little boy, and one very special woman who I cannot wait to spend the evening with.

Chapter Nineteen

Maya

After spending most of the day helping customers, catching up on emails, and working on a few of my crochet projects, I finally made it upstairs with just enough time to get ready for my date with Jake tonight. There was really no need to ask him how to dress. It’s cold out, and whether we’re inside or outside, the occasion calls for warm clothes. After a quick shower, I head over to my dresser and pull out some fleece-lined black leggings and a gray sweater. When I get to my underwear drawer, I groan when I see the complete lack of anything even remotely sexy. I’m not planning on us sleeping together tonight, but if it happened I wouldn’t be upset about it. What is upsetting is the fact that if we do end up getting naked, I’ll be showing off a pair of pink cotton briefs with a mismatched blue bra. “Oh, well.” Pushing my worries about being sexy aside for now, I get dressed.

Fully dressed and feeling slightly better about myself, I march into the bathroom and start to style my hair, or attempt to anyway. “Mommy, uppy,” JJ calls to me from the doorway as I’m pulling a brush through my long hair.

“Mommy’s getting ready for a date, little man,” I tell him. When I look over and see the hopeful look on his face, I cave and grab him, setting him on the counter and handing over a clean makeup brush to play with. “You can watch Mommy put on her makeup. Hopefully she hasn’t forgotten how to do it because it’s been more than a little while.” The last time I wore makeup was sometime during pregnancy. After a certain point, my body ached and I was just too tired to bother with it and never really picked up the habit again.

After getting my hair sorted as best as I can for someone in dire need of a haircut, I start in on some eye shadow, laughing when JJ tries to copy my movements with the oversized brush I gave him. “Here, baby. Keep it out of your eyes.” I show him how to swipe the brush gently across his cheeks and he laughs as it tickles his sensitive skin. “There you go.”

“Makeup at two years old?” Carter asks, clucking his tongue from just outside the bathroom. “Mom would be appalled.”

I smile at the mention of our mom. Even though it’s still not easy, talking about our parents has become a lot less painful over the years. “There’s no makeup on it,” I tell him. “Even though she made me wait until I was fourteen, you know she would make an exception for him.”

Carter smiles sadly. “Yeah, she would be spoiling him rotten every chance she got.” When he sees my misty eyes, he winces. “Sorry, Mai. I wasn’t trying to make you sad.”

Managing to blink the moisture away, I reach over and pat his arm. “It’s fine,” I tell him. After releasing a slow breath, I turn and resume my work in front of the mirror. It’s hard not to think about how much my parents are missing out on or how much my son would have loved them, but focusing on the present helps. It might also help if we spoke of them more often than we do now. “I know it’s hard, but I actually miss talking about them.”

Carter nods. “Same. Let’s try to do it more,” he says, kicking at the tile with a socked foot. “I know I haven’t dealt with it as well as I could have, but I want to try and do better.”

“That sounds nice, and I’ll try to do better too.” I say, just as there’s a knock at the door. “Crap.” JJ repeats my word and I close my eyes tightly. He’ll probably drop it from his vocabulary soon enough, and it could have been much worse, but still. “Okay, baby. You go with Caju and I’ll be back to say bye-bye in a minute.” Once JJ is safely in Carter’s care, I rush into my room and throw on a pair of wool socks and my boots.

When I step out of the room, Jake is inside, already holding onto JJ and pulling silly faces to make him smile. Jake playing with our son is sexy enough, but when you add on to that the tight jeans, light-brown sweater that pulls across his chest, and green coat that’s fitted enough to cling to his biceps, the man is downright dangerous to my already accelerating libido. As I walk over to two of them, Jake’s eyes meet mine and they darken a bit as they rake up and down my body, showing me he’s just as affected by me as I am him. “Hey, Beautiful,” he says, leaning over and kissing my cheek. “You ready to go?”

I nod before holding out my arms to JJ to give him the biggest hug imaginable. There have been times we’ve been apart, but it doesn’t happen often, so leaving him is still a little difficult. “Okay, little man. Have fun with your uncle and be good like I know you always are. I love you.”

“Wuv oo, Mommy,” he says before I pass him over to Carter.

Jake leans over and gives him a little goodbye hug too before he grabs my coat and holds it open for me. With one more final wave to our little boy, we head out the door and descend the stairs to the parking lot behind the store. Jake opens the passenger door for me and I slip inside, running a hand over the soft leather as Jake climbs in on his side. “Nice ride,” I comment, looking over at Jake to see him shrug a shoulder.

“I do all right,” he says with a wink before starting the car. He does more than all right, but it’s not the fancy car or clothes I’m interested in. It’s the man behind all that I want. The man who is thoughtful, attentive, and so very fine that I don’t think I’ll be able to make it through dinner without wanting to jump him. “Do you like French food?” he asks, driving out toward the edge of town. “I had a place in mind, but we can go wherever you want. Tonight is all about you.”

I smile at his words, and reach over to grab his hand, holding it tightly as my arms rest on the console separating us. Even that small touch has my skin warming up even more than it already is, but tonight is about more than sex and I need to remember that. “I do like French food, but how about we make tonight all about us? So, if you aren’t a fan, we should pass.”

Jake shakes his head, smiling at me as he pulls into a spot in front of Belle Nuit, the nicest restaurant in town. I would worry about being underdressed, but luckily we’re still in the mountains of Colorado, so it’s not like there’s much of a dress code besides dress for the weather and be sure to leave your pet elk at home. “I should have known you weren’t going to let me spoil you.” Jake shakes his head at me with a smile as he leaves the car and comes over to open my door for me.

I place my hand in the one he offers as he helps me out of the SUV. Since we’re alone and in no danger of being interrupted, I take the opportunity to lean into him and rest my hands on his chest. As much as I want to go out on this date, there’s something I want more. It’s not in me to normally be so bold, but I have wanted him for so long. I need a little something to hold me over until I get exactly what I want. “How about we have some food and then go back to your place and spoil each other?” I brush my lips against his in a kiss and pull back to see Jake’s eyes darken and hear something that sounds suspiciously like a growl come from his chest. “Unless you have other plans,” I say, smirking at the look of untethered need on his face.

“Plans change,” he says gruffly, tugging on my hand and quickly pulling me through the doors of the restaurant. After removing our coats and following the hostess to a table that looks out onto the lake, we take a seat, staring across at one another, barely hiding our desire to eat and leave as quickly as possible.

Needing a distraction from the man across from me, I gaze around the restaurant and admire the pale-blue walls and gorgeous artwork but have to stop when Jake appears in front of me. He’s taken his chair and pulled it to my side of the small table and wrapped his arm around my shoulder. “Needed a better view of the lake, did you?” I ask, a hint of teasing in my voice.

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