Page 3 of Forever Your Touch

Keith was pretty laidback, though, and usually let his sisters do their own thing. He’d intervene when necessary and kept an eye on them, even his older sisters, but he wasn’t a stalker brother. With Jo, he seemed to be in full-on stalker mode, and Mason didn’t dismiss his worry out of hand. If Keith had a bad feeling about this guy, there was probably a good reason.

“I’ll swing by her place after breakfast and check on her. Just text me the address.”

“Thanks, Mase.” The relief in his best friend’s tone was palpable. Keithreallydidn’t like this dude.

Sheryl put his breakfast in front of him, and he flashed her a smile. The scent of bacon hit his nose, and his stomach growled.

“Food’s here. I’ll call you as soon as the recon mission is done.”

With that, he said his goodbyes and dug into the best breakfast in New York.

Chapter Two

Josephine Maxwell stood at the kitchen table folding laundry. She needed to get this done so she could go buy her books at the campus bookstore. Getting them on the Saturday before classes started had never happened before, but it couldn’t be helped. They’d only arrived here last week. She’d come up and registered and all that weeks ago, but they’d put off moving until the last minute.

No, that wasn’t quite true.She’dput off telling her family she was moving from California to New York to be with Ray. Jo knew how her family felt about Ray, especially Keith, but she wouldn’t let their hang-ups stop her from being happy. Ray could be an ass sometimes, but he could be the sweetest man when it came to her. She loved him. And if her family couldn’t get behind that, well, that just sucked for them.

“Jo, have you seen my favorite shirt?” Ray stuck his head in the kitchen, frowning at the mess of unfolded clothes on the table.

“Yeah, I just got it out of the dryer.” She fished it out of the pile and tossed it to him.

He sniffed it. “What’d you wash this in? It stinks.”

“It’s the detergent you bought.” He didn’t look pleased, but there was nothing to be done for it.

“Go get some new stuff today and rewash this shit.” He threw the shirt back at her and strolled into the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee. Jo took a moment to let her eyes sweep over him. Ray wasn’t tall, not even six feet, but that was okay. Jo herself was only five-two. His brown hair showed blond highlights where the sun hit it in front of the window over the sink. Brown eyes met hers over the rim of his cup. She let her eyes travel over his body. Ray wasn’t ripped, and he didn’t have a six-pack, but she didn’t care about that. He was your average, normal guy. She liked normal.

Ray walked over and sat down, picking up her hand. “You happy, Jo? I know moving here was a big deal for you.”

“I am.” She twined her fingers with his.

“Good.” He leaned over and kissed her then settled back in the chair. “Mom wants us to come to dinner tonight.”

That was the one sour spot in this whole move. His parents. They didn’t like her. When they moved here last year, she’d been afraid Ray would as well and leave her behind. Instead, he’d asked her to come with him. He’d told her she could enroll at NYU. He didn’t want her to quit school for him. It was the reason they’d waited originally, but when May came and went, she found it harder to tell her mom and dad she was leaving, so they’d waited some more. August rolled around, and there was no more putting it off.

“I gotta go get my books today. It’s the last day the campus bookstore is open before classes on Monday.”

“That’s fine. Just make sure you’re home before five. I promised Mom we’d be there by five thirty. It’ll be good to eat some decent food.”

Jo bit back the snarky comment on the tip of her tongue. She couldn’t cook. He knew this before he asked her to move in with him. So why did he like to make little digs about it? It wasn’t as if she wasn’t trying to learn.

“Can I use the car?” She started putting all the laundry back in the baskets. No use folding it if she was gonna have to rewash it.

“No. I need it.”

Jo frowned. “You going out?”

“Maybe later.” He shrugged and stood, taking his cup and putting it in the sink.

She pushed down her irritation. She’d bet good money he wouldn’t leave the house today, but it was his car and not hers.

The sound of someone knocking at the door interrupted her irritable thoughts. “Your mom coming by this morning?”

He shook his head. “Mom wouldn’t knock.”

Right. His parents had keys to the house since they were paying the rent on it until Ray got settled. Jo didn’t like it one bit. What if his parents decided to come over and interrupted them having sex? Not something she looked forward to, but she was betting it was gonna happen.

Ray went to answer the door, and she finished cleaning up the table. If she called a cab now, she’d be able to get there and back before five. It was only a little after two. They didn’t live that far from campus.

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