Page 78 of Going All In

Chapter 15

“Let me getthat for you, my lady,” Jake said, grabbing a huge bag of wood chips they were going to spread under the swing sets and other playground equipment.

She batted her eyes. “Why thank you. It’s super heavy.”

“Don’t encourage him,” Ethan grumbled next to her as Jake crouched down and lifted the bag that she probably had no issues carrying.

Jake made quite a show of tossing it over his shoulder and heading toward the swing set in question.

“Aw, it’s adorable. Who knew he was so adorable?” she said, goading the man who’d been a part of her life for as long as she could remember. Ethan had definitely come around to her dating Jake, but it was still a little weird for all of them.

Nerves fluttered in her belly. Even though they’d had this game going for a while, it still made her nervous. And now that they’d added sex into the mix, she was feeling off-balance.

“He’s super adorable,” Penny said, her attention focused on Jake as he walked away.

“Hello. Did you forget about me?” Ethan grumbled.

Penny laughed and turned to her boyfriend. “I could never,” she said, patting his chest, placating him.

He leaned down and kissed the hell out of her. “That’s right,” he said, his voice rough when they finally stopped kissing.

Darcy felt like she was intruding and headed off in Jake’s direction, but not before she grabbed another bag of wood chips. She’d wanted to watch Jake stretch and shift as he carried the other bag, to watch his muscles pull against the back of his t-shirt. And maybe stare at his ass when he walked away.

It was her job to gawk—as his girlfriend, of course.

They were spending the day building a playground for the community and putting in a garden that some of the kids had helped design. Darcy had the opposite of a green thumb. She’d once killed a Christmas cactus her grandmother had kept alive for years and had passed off to Darcy when she’d moved into the memory loss facility. The plant had only lasted six months under her care, and she hadn’t had the heart to tell her grandmother she’d killed it.

Not that her grandmother would’ve remembered giving it to her anyway at that point. It’d broken Darcy’s heart to lose that piece of her grandmother after she’d already lost so much of the woman.

“You okay?” Jake asked, pulling her from her memories.

She pushed the sadness away and gave him a bright smile. “Yep.”

“Let me help you with that,” he said, taking the bag from her and ripping it open so they could spread the wood chips under the swing set.

“You sure you’re okay?” he asked again, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

She shivered under his touch.

“Yeah. Just thinking about my project. I know I said I would relax and have fun today, but I’m always thinking about it.”

“You have another week before you’ll hear back from the committee members, right?”

It still shocked her that he remembered things like that. He really was great at playing his part.

“Yes. I can’t believe you actually retained that.”

He shrugged. “I do listen.”

There was something in his voice. Almost like he was hurt by her statement. Ugh. Why was she so bad at reading him? It made her question everything.

“Hey. Thanks for listening. I’m just used to my family brushing it off.”

“Yeah. Why is that?” he asked.

“My dad and brother are doctors. Real medical doctors. Lydia was never going to follow in that tradition, but I love math and science so they held out hope for me.”

“But you’re amazingly smart, and the next step is getting your doctorate.”

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