Page 90 of Fierce-Jonah

“We are,” he said. He was going through his food pretty well and drinking. The coloring was back in his face too.

“I like what we’ve got, Jonah. I hope you don’t think I want you to change anything.”

He looked up at her. “I need to make more time for you.”

She sighed. “You heard my sisters and me talking yesterday, didn’t you?”

“Bits and pieces.”

“Don’t worry about them. I don’t want their life. I like the one we’ve got.”

“Maybe I want to make the changes for us and not them,” he said. “Maybe I need to stop putting my career first. It’s just a gym.”

That comment just pissed her off. “It’s not just a gym. It’s your life. I get it. I appreciate you wanting to spend more time with me. That is why I go there too.”

“I can have both and give you both. I know it. I’ve always known it but haven’t really found the right person to do it with before.”

“Oh wow,” she said, her heart racing and her eyelashes fluttering at him. “Are you saying I’m the right person?”

“Well, you did take care of me last night,” he said, smirking. “No one else ever has.”

“Then they are a piece of shit person,” she said.

He snorted. “My mother would agree. She is the only other one that has taken care of me and it’s been a long time since then.”

She moved over and gave him a hug from behind and a kiss on the neck. “You know I love you, right? Not sure you want to hear it, but I feel the need to say it.”

“Good,” he said. “Because I wanted to hear it so I could say it back.”

“I’ve waited a long time to find someone I could say that to,” she said. “I listened to my sisters yesterday talk about their marriages and criticize me, then talk down to me a little, praise me some more, say they were jealous of me on top of it. So many things I didn’t expect to hear along with things I normally heard. I had such mixed reactions to it all.”

“Like what?” he asked, reaching for the plate to get more food. She was glad she’d made as much as she had for him.

“It just made me realize even more that I’m hoping for things from other people and need to stop. Sarah said some nice things to me. Emily is struggling and I wouldn’t want her life for anything. She says she loves Tom, but it sounds like he treats her like shit, but then she gives it right back to him.”

“To each their own,” he said. “I don’t want to be in a relationship like that.”

“Neither do I. Bill is a bit of a pushover, but it works for them. Sarah likes to be in charge and Bill dotes on her.”

“Again, works for them,” he said.

“I’m not like either one of them. I’m tired of comparing myself to them too. It goes back to me saying I like what we’ve got. I love you. If it’s working for us, who is anyone to judge?”

“Exactly what I wanted to hear,” he said. “I love you too.”

She was waiting for him to say the words, not just that he was happy she said them. “Which is why I want to spend Thanksgiving with your family,” she said. “Raina brought it up last night and I know we haven’t talked about it, but I’m not in the mood to deal with the negativity of my family. My mother will be annoyed I don’t show up, but that annoyance will be much less than the frustration of sitting there and watching or listening to the comments.”

“Whatever you want to do,” he said.

“I just want to be with you. How is that?”

“It’s where I want you.”

33

Full Of Ourselves

“Thank you for having me for dinner today,” Megan said to Jami.

---