Page 40 of Challenged By You
It immediately rings in my hand.
I answer without looking at the screen, snapping, “What is it, Mom? I’m almost there.”
“I’m guessing you had a bad day?” comes Jonas’s hesitant voice.
“Jonas, God. I’m so sorry.” Scrubbing my hand up and down over my face, I realize Elle’s little stunt with the chocolate earlier somehow managed to splatter some in my hair. “I’m just on my way home.”
“Please tell me you’re not on a subway at this hour. I respect your budget, but…”
“Elle and I are splitting an Uber. I’m not careless with my safety, Jonas,” I reprimand him. “I know what’s waiting for me at home.”
“No, you really don’t,” he says mysteriously.
“I don’t?”
“Nope.”
“Want to enlighten me?” I face Elle and shrug since she’s so blatantly listening in.
“You’ll find out soon enough.” Then he asks a strange question: “How do you feel about chocolate?”
I let out the first real laugh in hours. “I was practically baptized in it,” I say blandly. Swiping a finger across my hairline, I smear it on Elle’s cheek, who cackles.
Jonas is quiet for a moment. “Why do I feel like I missing something?”
I laugh softly. “Since you just made me feel about a million times better before I have to go get the kids from my mother, I’ll take a picture before I text you the story.”
“Promise?”
“Absolutely.” The car pulls up outside my building. “Listen, we’re getting out of our ride now, and I really want to get Annie and Chris. I need to let you go.” Elle and I walk toward the entrance.
“Okay.” I hear footsteps. Elle must too, because her head snaps up. But the odd part is I heard them through the phone as well. He continues. “I just thought I’d drop these by for you first.” Jonas steps out of the shadows holding a familiar brown-and-silver bag. “I thought if they were small enough you could share them with the kids.”
Taken completely by surprise, I blurt out, “After the day I’ve had, you don’t know how good it is to see you.”
“Judging by the amount of chocolate in your hairline, I’m guessing it was fairly atrocious?”
“That was Elle. She’s ruthless in the kitchen.”
“And don’t you forget it,” the woman in question jokes. Clearing her throat, she says, “Hi, Jonas. Night, Jonas. Thanks for the snack.” Plucking the bag of Kisses right out of my hand, she walks to the entrance.
“Hi,” we both say simultaneously. His face transforms to a combination of humor and tenderness, and I’m afraid all the chocolate in my hair is going to drip onto the sidewalk with how warm my insides are getting.
“How long have you been here?” I ask, stepping closer.
“Not long at all.” His nose twitches.
I laugh, releasing tension from my mother’s call. “God, you’re such a bad liar.”
“What makes you say that?” He tugs a clump of my hair away from the others. “You look…good enough to eat.” My breath catches at the intensity in his eyes. “Was I lying just then, Trina?”
“No. But, Jonas, I’m filthy. There was a chocolate war…”
“Tell me tomorrow when you’re more relaxed. I just wanted—no, needed—to see you.”
Elle’s voice floats at us through the dark. “I’m available to babysit tomorrow. Just throwing that out there in case anyone cares to take me up on it.” Jonas’s fingers tighten against the drying chocolate. It’s a small tug of pain blanking my mind to everything but what it would be like if he pulled my hair when he tipped my head to the side and nibbled along the side of my neck. My lips curve as the little fantasy runs through my head.
“Trust me, I wouldn’t mind a taste when the time’s right,” Jonas murmurs, causing me to blush furiously.
