Page 49 of On the Line

He laughs again. “Just friends, eh?”

“Yes, actually. Wearejust friends. And because she’s my friend, I don’t want you going anywhere near her.”

“I see how it is.” His chest shakes with laughter, because Colt can’t take anything seriously. Everything’s a fucking game with him, which makes him a lot of fun to hang out with, but not someone I’d want near anyone I actually cared about. “Don’t worry—”

He stops speaking when my phone starts buzzing on the table, Lauren’s name flashing across the screen.

Colt nods down where we both look at the phone. “That her?”

I reach for the phone and tell Colt, “Don’t fucking sayanything.” Because he has the emotional maturity of a ten-year-old, it wouldn’t be the first time he’d yelled something highly inappropriate right when I answer the phone.

“What are you doing right now?” she asks the minute the call connects. Her voice is slightly panicked.

“Just finishing up a meeting with Colt, why? Is everything okay?”

Across from me, Colt cocks an eyebrow, mouthsJust friends,and nods with the assurance of someone who knows he’s right.

“Not really. I’m kind of stuck at work. There’s this delivery of marketing swag coming in for the charity game. I said I’d stay and sign for it, since I live the closest and everyone else had a longer drive home in this weather. The truck was supposed to be here an hour ago and I can’t leave until it arrives, but Tammy’s at my house with the twins and she needs to go home. Her husband’s going to come pick her up because of the weather.” Her voice goes high-pitched and speeds up when she says, “I need someone to be home with my girls until I can get there. Paige is in New York for work and Morgan went with her so she could see Petra, Jules is still out in Wellesley at the jobsite and traffic on Route 9 is apparently at a standstill, and Audrey said Graham came home from school with a sore throat and a fever.”

“So I’m your last resort?” I tease as I stand and walk over to my closet to grab my coat.

“My last hope, is more like it.”

“That’s better,” I say. “I’ll head straight to your house.”

She breathes a sigh of relief. “You’re amazing.”

“You have no idea.”

She lets out a laugh that’s half snort, and meanwhile, Colt rolls his eyes.

“I’ll let Tammy know you’re coming. And—” She pauses. “—and thank you, Jameson. Really. I don’t know what I’d have done if you weren’t able to help me.”

“I’ll see you soon. Drive safely, okay?”

CHAPTER15

LAUREN

It’s well past six when I pull into my driveway, and if I didn’t have four-wheel drive there’s no way I’d make it up the hill in the six-plus inches of snow that have fallen in the last few hours. At this point, it’s coming down so hard and so fast that I can barely see five feet in front of me, and I feel lucky to have made it home at all. The roads were empty, a sure sign that I shouldn’t have been out driving on them either.

When my single-wide driveway levels off at the top of the hill, it widens to accommodate two cars. Jameson’s Maserati is sitting off to the side, next to the sunroom, leaving room for me to pull into my garage.

He’s shoveled the path from the garage to the back door, and I pause once I’m in the sunroom, as I do almost every night I come home, appreciating how good I have it now—how supported I feel by my friends and family, how happy I am at my job, how much I love my new house, how my girls are happy and healthy and settling into our new life here with remarkable ease.

I drop my boots and coat in their spot and head into the kitchen. It smells amazing in here, and through the opening into the living area I see Jameson sitting on the couch with Ivy on one side of him, Iris on the other, and his arms looped around both girls. And they’re watchingTangled—the movie I never used to want to watch with them because I hated how much Flynn Rider reminded me of Jameson Flynn.

The man in question is currently in his suit pants with the sleeves of his dress shirt rolled up to his elbows. The top two buttons of his shirt are open, and he looks so fucking delicious sitting here, in my space, with my girls, that I need to remind myself to breathe.

I ran off and married someone else when he turned me down, and he never wanted to settle down or have kids in the first place. And yet, I just came home to him on my couch with my kids. I have to remind myself that this is not going to be a repeated thing, even though, in this moment, I wish this was the norm.

But it makes no sense—we make no sense. Settled down with kids—this isn’t the life he wants. I’ve known that about him for years. And I need to remember it, because even though he’s made it clear he wantsme, I come with a whole lot of additional baggage that I don’t think he’s ready for. Coming over and watching my kids for a couple hours while I’m stuck at work does not mean he wants to settle down like this.

But seeing him here still makes me smile. And that’s when Jameson looks up, sees me grinning like a lunatic in the doorway, and sends a wink my way that has heat flashing through my body so hot, and so fast, that I turn away in embarrassment, heading back into the kitchen. I need to get a handle on this whole flushing situation if I’m going to continue spending time with him, because I can’t keep picturing us having sex every time he looks at me.

I lift the lid on the pot simmering on my stove to find pasta sauce bubbling away. There’s another pot next to it, full of hot water, so I turn it on to bring it back up to a boil.

Behind me, the movie pauses and Jameson says, “Mom’s home.”

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