Page 28 of Yours and Mine (Friends with Benefits)

“Hmm. You may be right. She asked me the other day if I’d be okay if she went out. I thought she meant with a friend, but I didn’t realize she might have meant your father.”

“Let’s fix them up. This weekend we can set up a dinner for them in the back yard. Oh, and we can bake a cake together.”

“You want to bake?”

“I’ve been meaning to try a cake for a while now. You know that.”

“So, it’d be like a secret date?”

“Sure, if you want to call it that. So? Are we gonna do it?”

“Anything to make you happy, Jo.”

He then gestured with his finger in a come-hither motion. I leaned over the window and kissed Nick’s waiting lips. That night was the first night I’d ever had a wet dream.

Chapter 7

Friday night, ready with my hairnet, I met Nick in the back of the store. His serious expression made me want to giggle, but I kept it inside. If there was anything Nick didn’t joke about, it was baking.

“What are you two up to?” Marge joined us in the back.

“It’s Jo’s first cake. Want to meet us in the back yard tomorrow night to try it out?”

We’d made a plan to ask my father to do the same, and then we’d leave them alone with a bottle of wine for the evening.

“Sure, but why tomorrow night?”

“Because there won’t be time to try it tonight. It won’t be ready.”

Her brows scrunched. Marge lowered her hands to her hips. “Should I be worried?”

“No,” we replied at the same time, and looked at each other surreptitiously.

“Okay, holler if you need anything. I closed the store up, Nick. I’m going out for a walk.”

“Thanks, Mom.”

As soon as she closed the door, I turned to Nick. “I knew it! My father said he was going on a walk too.”

“How long do you think this has been going on?” he asked.

“I don’t know. Years? It must have been a while. I mean, we’ve been sneaking around for almost a year and a half, and no one has a clue.”

“Oh, the irony.” He laughed. “One day, when our kids are old, we’ll tell our parents the truth about what’s been going on, and they’ll have a heart attack.”

I froze. “You think about us that way?” I asked.

“Yeah, don’t you?”

“I do too.”

We were standing facing each other. I could smell his sweet chocolate breath mixed with his cologne and lifted my hands to his chest, slowly sliding them over his pecs, over his shoulders, and around his neck. When we were like this, just the two of us, nothing else mattered. I could have remained in his arms forever, sharing the same space and breathing the same air.

“There’s no one else I’d rather be with, Nick.”

“Tell me you’re mine,” he breathed, and a need for something deep I couldn’t understand rolled off his body.

“I’m yours, Nick.”

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