Page 41 of Promised Summer
Instead, my brave girl ran to give me and Jones a hug. And with a “I’ll be fine, Daddy!”, she ran hand-in-hand with Imani into the house. Without even a single glance back.
Jada laughed and clapped my shoulder. “They sure leave the nest quickly, don’t they?”
I nodded, still shocked that she didn’t even spare meanother look. I was happy for her independence, but I could also be heartbroken at the same time.
“I’ll take good care of her, and you’ll be the first one I call if anything happens,” Jada comforted.
“I know you will. Thank you for having Karla over, and feel free to call me if you need anything,” I replied.
Jada gave us both one more round of hugs before sending us off. Jones’ hand found its home on my thigh the entire drive back to his place. The heat from his hand sank through the thin layer of my pants and comforted me.
When I parked outside his cabin, I covered his hand with mine and said, “From now on, I insist you keep your hand here on all our drives.”
“Oh yeah? You like my hand there?”
I nodded, and Jones leaned in to whisper in my ear, “But there’s somewhere else I’d much rather have my hands.”
I shot him a raised eyebrow, and he took that as permission to make his move by sliding his hand up my thigh to fondle my crotch.
“Jones!” I gasped and glanced out the windows to make sure we were alone. “We’re outside!”
Jones merely laughed and snuck a kiss on my cheek before clambering out of my car. “C’mon, I thought of an activity that might take your mind off things,” he said before shutting the door behind him.
I followed him out of the car. “And what’s that?”
“How do you feel about checking out our old stomping grounds?”
“You mean…” I nodded to the small mountain behind Jones’ cabin, and he nodded.
“We haven’t gone back since I bumped into you the day we reunited.”
“You mean the day you saved Karla?” I said, pressing our bodies close and settling my arms over his shoulders.
Jones smiled. “The day fate brought you back into my life and introduced me to that precious little girl.”
“Fine, you win. You’re obviously more romantic than I am,” I mumbled.
He laughed. “If that’s the case…”
Before I knew what was happening, he was bending me backward. I yelped at the sudden action and cried that I was going to fall, but his hand on my lower back steadied me.
“You really are a jerk, aren’t you?” I grumbled, still bent backwards and hanging onto him for dear life.
Jones hummed, obviously delighted. “Yourjerk, remember?” Then he leaned down and kissed me like we were in some princess movie. And like every prince meeting their one true love, I swooned.
Chapter Sixteen
JONES
The hike up the mountain brought up a lot of old feelings. I led Ryan to the main trail as a trip down memory lane. We’d left Lily at home since she was looking a bit tired.
She’d been sleeping a lot these days, which, from what I read online, meant that she was probably going to give birth soon. I still couldn’t get over the fact that my fur baby was gonna be a mama any day now.
The main trail hadn’t changed much from the last time we trekked it together. Hell, I even recognized some of the more notable trees we used to play around on as kids.
“Hey, look! It’s still here,” Ryan called me over to the tree he was examining. He shot his toothy grin my way and read, “‘J & R waz here.’ Spelled with a ‘z’ because we thought that’s how all the cool kids did it.”
I laughed and ran my finger over the letters we’d carvedinto the tree when I was fifteen. “God, it’s been almost a decade and a half since then,” I muttered.
