Page 118 of Breaking News

Xander pushed away from the counter and began to walk past me, stopping when his shoulder lined up with mine.

“I, uh… hope you get that job. You were a talented reporter before you became a shitty CEO,” he muttered, his eyes fixed ahead, almost like he was embarrassed to be almost complimenting me like this.

“Thank you, I think?”

“Whatever.” He slid open the door and walked into the backyard without another word. I took a few seconds to reel from that conversation before I reentered the backyard after him, finding Jill leaning against one column of the pergola as she listened to Owen finish a story.

“So anyway,” he was saying, “that’s why we’re taking off for a couple of weeks. Just going to enjoy the open road to get ourmind off things until she has to get back for the new school year.” As I walked up, Sarah slipped her hand in his, and he gave her a faint smile before kissing her on the forehead.

When Jill noticed me beside her, she held out her hand, and I took it in mine like it was the most natural thing in the world. Something squeezed on my heart when she smiled at me. I could barely handle how beautiful she looked beneath the patio lights, or the fact that, somehow, she was mine.

I stared at her like a lovesick idiot the whole way between the two houses, making her laugh. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

I smirked. “Just waiting to see if the sprinklers turn on again. Thought maybe I’d get lucky and see you soaking wet like the first time you came over.”

She giggled, giving me a hard shove. I caught her wrist and turned her push into an embrace, yanking her toward me and wrapping my arms around her waist. She didn’t fight it. She settled into me, putting her hands on my chest. I lowered my mouth to kiss her, right there between the Gardners’ loud air conditioning unit and the crooked dogwood tree in my side yard. She kissed me back, gripping my necktie to anchor herself to me, and I felt the rest of the world fade like background noise.

When we pulled apart, she whispered, “I missed you.”

I smiled, my mouth still hovering an inch away from hers. “You missed me already? We just had dinner last night.”

I’d taken her to an Italian restaurant in the next town over, far enough from Woodvale to avoid nosey stares and judgmental looks. Dinner turned into a slow drive through the country, which turned into me pulling off onto some quiet gravel road near the river, where she ended up in my lap. Our dessert had absolutely nothing to do with tiramisu.

She made me feel like I was twenty again.

Which was a miracle, considering I would be a grandpa in a matter of months.

“I always miss you,” she said, and I kissed her again to let her know I felt the same way.

We rounded the corner toward the front of the house, her hand still tucked in mine as we climbed the porch steps. I opened the door, and the chattering inside the living room came to a stop as the kids turned toward us. Jillian slipped out of her sandals by the front door, greeting them with a shy smile.

“Hey! You came!” Olivia clapped in excitement, coming over to us with Richie.

“I never say no to pizza,” Jill joked, tucking her hair behind her ears.

I cleared my throat, suddenly remembering I needed to do some introductions. “Jill, this is Olivia’s boyfriend, Richie.”

Richie stepped forward to shake her hand. “Nice to meet you,” he said, his eyes locked on her face like he was afraid to let them drift any lower.Smart.

“And this kid over here is my son, Caleb,” I said, pointing at the loveseat, where he was all stretched out with a Minecraft blanket. He stared at her with curiosity and gave her a little wave.

“It’s so great to finally meet you, Caleb,” she said, one of the rare times I caught a flicker of nervousness in her voice. I watched her lick her lips like she was searching for something—anything—to say that would make him like her. “I like your blanket. Do you have a Nintendo Switch, by any chance?”

Caleb perked up a little. “Yeah?”

“Me too,” Jill said, crossing her arms. “I tried to play Minecraft once, but those green guys kept blowing up my house.”

“Creepers?”

“Yeah,” Jill said with a laugh. “I hate those things.”

Caleb cracked a smile, and I could tell he accepted her. For a second, I pictured him sitting beside her on the couch someday, showing her how to build a Minecraft house that could withstand a creeper explosion.

I was getting ahead of myself, though.

By the time the pizza arrived, we’d dimmed the lights and Olivia had the movie queued up on the TV. I set the boxes on the coffee table in front of the sectional and grabbed a slice before sinking down beside Jillian, our knees touching as Olivia clicked the remote to start the movie.

“Final Destination, huh?” Jill asked, looking up from her pepperoni pizza. Her toes curled against my thigh on the cushion. “Is that the movie with the logs on the back of the truck?”

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