Page 34 of Jumping In

BLAKE:Maybe?

ME:You’re both going

AUSTIN:Wtf why?

ME:I’m asking MJ to go with me. But I might need some backup

AUSTIN:Ooooo fuck yes! Operation Woo is a go!

Blake liked “I’m asking MJ to go with me. But I might need some backup”

Shaking my head and rolling my eyes, I step out of my car and pocket my phone. Fucking Austin always naming shit something stupid. I don’t really think I need backup, especially after the time MJ and I spent together on Sunday. But the town might have some feelings about seeing us together. It’d be nice to have my friends there as a buffer.

Walking the familiar path from my car to Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence’s front door, my stomach clenches in suspense. I ring the doorbell and tap my hand against my thigh rhythmically. MJ answersthe door looking cute as fuck in a dress covered in flowers. It’s low-cut in the front and my eyes instantly zero in on her breasts as they rise and fall with her breath.Fuck.Me.

“There you are!” she says breathlessly.

“Sorry, had a late night.” Not a lie. I was up late finishing the annotations for her. I’m also not late, but usually I’ve been showing up for these meetings ten, maybe fifteen, minutes early. Today I’m only five minutes early, which means there’s only enough time for MJ to usher me in and lead me straight to her father’s home office.

The meeting with Mr. Lawrence flies by. Henry is still refusing to meet about a plea deal so we will probably go to trial. Mr. Lawrence is sure the evidence will find me guilty, so he wants to work on building the case around me being an upstanding citizen until this point. He wants to sway the judge into a lesser sentence once I am found guilty. I’m supposed to come back next week with a list of things I do around town to prove I’m an asset to the community and fuck if I don’t even know where to start. Besides keeping everyone’s vehicles up to snuff, I try to avoid the community at all costs.

My eyes continue to be drawn to MJ, and I’m pretty sure Mr. Lawrence notices. He either knows I’m eyeing his daughter or thinks I have a new fascination with the painting above the loveseat she’s sitting on.

I must zone out because MJ clears her throat, and we lock eyes. She raises an eyebrow and then looks toward her father quickly.Shit.

“Sorry, sir, I missed that.”

Mr. Lawrence looks annoyed but doesn’t acknowledge my lack of attention. “I think we’ve covered enough today. Let’s pick back up on Monday.”

We all stand. I shake Mr. Lawrence’s hand, MJ tells him she’ll send the notes over later, and then she leads me out of the office and to the front door. My stomach is in knots, but I want to do this in person.

When we hit the foyer, I turn to her. We both break the silence, as we seem to do a lot, talking over each other. I look down to see her arm outstretched with the book I bought her Sunday. It’s filled to the brim with sticky tabs and my heart races. Looking up at her face, a soft smile stretches across her mouth.

“Sorry, you go first.” I nod to her.

“I know you said you read it already, but I thought maybe you’d like to see my thoughts?”

I reach forward and take the book from her. “Of course. I can’t wait to read through it again.” I take the book from her and slide my backpack around to the front of my body. Unzipping it and slipping the new book in, I pull out the one I annotated for her. “Actually, here’s this one back, too. All annotated for you.”

She bobs up and down on her toes, and my eyes immediately go to her tits. I reach across and hand her the book and then replace my bag on my shoulder.

“Thanks. I can’t wait to read it later tonight,” she says, tucking the book under her arm.

“Actually—” Trying to calm my nerves, I run my fingers through my hair. “I saw they’re having a Movie in the Park on Friday.” I wince internally. They have Movie in the Park every Friday, dumbass. MJ seems to be holding back a laugh, but her eyes give her away.

“Yeah, they’re playingParent Trap. You know, the one with Lindsay Lohan?” she asks, nodding and masking her face back to neutral.

“Right, yeah. I remember that one. Would you, uh . . .” I pause, and she stands there, letting the silence surround us. She slowly nods, nudging me along. “Would you want to go together? Like old times?” I blurt out.

Her face lights up and it hits me, I would do anything to keep her face lit up just like this. “I can pick you up at seven?” I offer, to which she nods. “We could swing by Spoon and get some fancy drinks from Beck and Sophie? Like old times,” I suggest.

She nods enthusiastically now. “Yeah, Mac, that sounds fun.”

I comb my fingers through my hair, turning toward the door to head out to my car. Looking over my shoulder, I see her still standing in the doorway. “See you later!” I call out, feeling on top of the world.

Finishing as much work as possible through the rest of the day, I’m able to close the shop by mid-afternoon. I stroll down the beaten path tomy parents’ house behind the shop with a little extra pep in my step. Walking through the front door, I smell Mom’s stew and groan in gratitude. Led by my nose, my feet carry me to the kitchen where my mom is humming away at the stove while Dad sits at the small table in the nook with a magazine in hand.

“Hey, Ma. Pops.” I walk up behind my mom, giving her a quick hug and a kiss on her cheek. I sidestep to the deep farmhouse style sink to wash my hands before greeting my dad. Stirring her stew at the stove, Mom also has vegetables strewn across the island in various stages of chopping. The off-white countertops have some kind of spice sprinkled all over, and I can’t help but chuckle. Mom’s cooking is some of the best, but her methods are a little scattered, to say the least.

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