Page 22 of Follow Your Bliss

“You really don’t have to—”

“With some bacon.”

Her head popped up from behind a dresser, eyes lit with hope. “You have bacon?”

I laughed. “I’ll call you when it’s ready.”

I went back down the hall and started cooking. Her morning reminded me of my first day after I got home from leaving Kasey. All my shit in boxes in a crappy little apartment, no job, no idea what to do next. I laid on my mattress on the floor that night, crying, wishing that everything in my life was different. That I hadn’t messed up with my family and friends, that I’d been enough for Kasey to stay. If I hadn’t doomscrolled across an Instagram ad for therapy, I don’t know how I would’ve gotten through it. No one should have to go through big changes in their lives alone. Why wasn’t this Isaac guy down here helping her? Why weren’t her mom and Lily helping her?

“Come and get it!” I called down the hallway.

“Girl.” Rose’s voice came from behind me. “The smell of bacon already floated me down the hallway like a cartoon character.”

I turned and handed her a loaded plate. “Sit down and relax. Eat. You’re not gonna get done any faster by not taking care of yourself.”

She grabbed a half-finished Diet Coke from the fridge and sat at the table, immediately grabbing the fork I’d set at her place. “Thank you so much.”

“You’re very welcome.”

“Ohmygod, this is so good,” she mumbled around a mouthful of eggs.

I grabbed a Steno pad and a pencil and sat across from her. “I’m glad. Listen, I’ve got a lot of work to get to today, but—”

She covered her mouth, her eyes big. “Wait, you’re not eating?”

“I already ate, but I didn’t think you’d let me make you something if you knew.” I sat the pad and pencil next to her plate. “Before you go back to—”

She stood up with a shaky breath and came around to my side of the table, wrapping her arms around my neck from the side, her head against my back. “Thank you,” she said softly.

I patted her arm, and she pressed a quick, warm kiss to my cheek, radiating electricity to every nerve ending.

“I appreciate you.” She went back to her seat and kept eating, wiping tears from her face.

My cheeks burned. “I’m glad I could help. And hey.” I tapped the steno pad. “I’m serious about the table. Sketch or list out what you need, we’ll come up with a design, and then we’ll start filming. Deal?”

Her answering smile made me feel like a better man than I was. “That would be amazing. You’re literally my knight in shining flesh.”

“No problem.” I saluted her like a fucking idiot, grabbed my water bottle, and left before I indulged my sudden impulse to kiss the top of her head and tell her everything was going to be okay.

Chapter 5

Steely Dan

Rose

I moved in almost a week ago, but I was barely settled in. But I did get two more dresses done. I left my books, my TV, my Nintendo Switch—really all my fun stuff except my favorite vibrator, of course—in boxes while I worked on Becca’s dresses so I wouldn’t be distracted.

Not that Jason hadn’t been a distraction. A welcome one.

I wasnotprepared that first night, when he asked if he could take a shower just as I was going to bed. He must’ve thought I was already asleep when he came out of the bathroom, but I was awake enough to see him walk through my bedroomwet and wearing only a towel around his waist.

All that beautiful, still-damp skin, smelling like his manly soap. Fuck me. He was viscerally, biologically attractive to me, like his skin was a salt lick and I was a deer.

I smoothed the pinned-out fabric into place and grabbed my shears. Deck Daddy wasn’t a distraction I needed or should want. I was with Isaac. Even though he’d been out on tour for the past two months and barely answered my texts anymore.

Nope, I wouldn’t think about Deck Daddy smelling like soap in a towel, or Deck Daddy all sweaty from his run helping me set up my bed and cooking me breakfast to make sure I was taken care of. Or the easy rhythm we’d fallen into, cooking together, sharing meals, and working on my table. Woodworking reminded me of sewing, turning flat raw materials into three-dimensional, finished objects. It was exciting to learn something new, and Jason made everything fun. He was so patient explaining everything, teaching me how to use his tools, laughing his sexy laugh when I said something else ridiculous. His praise and support every time I posted one of my designs on Instagram or made show-off-able progress on Becca’s dresses made me start to feel like I could handle this.

Nope nope nope. He was the marryin’ kind. I wasn’t, and anyway, I was seeing Isaac.

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