Page 22 of Jasper

No one loved Christmas more than she did. Well, except maybe her grandmother, who she missed dearly. She’d died a few years ago, and Christmas just wasn’t the same. She still loved it, but celebrating without her Gran didn’t seem as special.

And now it looked like she was going to be celebrating with someone who didn’t even like Christmas. Who didn’t like Christmas? Like, not even a little?

Apparently, Jasper.

But she was going to change his mind. He loved to eat. That much, she was sure of, and he loved sugar more than he did food, from what she’d seen.

The one thing she could do?

Bake.

She was going to make all sorts of Christmas goodies, from cookies to candy to yule logs. Cooking real food was a challenge, but baking was something she did well. Her mother was always shocked at that. She said if a person could bake, then they could cook.

Sloane was the exception to the rule.

But it was going to give her the upper hand in this mission to reacquaint Jasper with the joy of Christmas.

And it gave her something to do besides worry about hitmen.

A win-win all around, she decided as she started separating decorations and deciding where they’d go.

The afternoon passed quickly for Sloane. Once she’d started trying to put up decorations, she grew disgusted with the amount of dust that had collected while Jarrod was away. She spent all afternoon cleaning. From vacuuming to washing down walls to mopping floors. She even cleaned all three bathrooms. By the time she was done, the pot roast was ready, but she put it on low heat until Jasper came inside.

She put away the bucket she’d been using to clean the countertops and cabinets in the kitchen. She hated a dirty kitchen. She could let dusty furniture slide, and she tended to vacuum once a week, but her kitchen had to be spotless. She rarely used it back in Florida, aside from the microwave, but there was something about eating in a dirty kitchen that was wrong.

She had, however, put a tree on the island and decorated it. It might be a foot tall and the ornaments tiny, but the mini lights on it made it festive. She loved it. Sloane had found several of them in a trunk upstairs. Jarrod’s mom must have bought them in the years before she died.

With nothing to do until Jasper came inside, she connected her laptop to the TV. Direct TV couldn’t get out here until Monday, so they were stuck until then. Thank God for streaming services. She pulled up TheSanta Clarita Dieton Netflix and hit play while she started putting up decorations in the living room. Who didn’t love zombies? She was suckered in from episode one. Shame Netflix canceled it.

Three episodes later, she glanced at the clock. Almost six. She was starving, and Jasper still hadn’t come inside. Sloane sent him a text to get himself inside. To give him a few more minutes, she made cheddar biscuits. If he didn’t get here by the time they came out of the oven, he was SOL.

She transferred the pot roast to a serving dish and placed it on the island. Still no Jasper, so she texted him that she was eating in fifteen minutes with or without him.

He sent her back an angry emoji, and she laughed.

Sloane was beginning to see why he and Jarrod were friends. Jarrod was as strait-laced as they came and often needed someone to pull him into fun. Jasper seemed to be all about fun, and it made sense the two of them were friends. Jasper helped Jarrod remember there was a little fun to life, and she suspected Jarrod served to curtail Jasper’s mischief to something that wouldn’t get them court-martialed.

“Don’t threaten a man’s meal without expecting serious consequences.”

She was so startled at the sound of his voice, she screamed. Loudly.

“Whoa, there.” Jasper held up his hands. “It’s just me.”

“Sorry.” Good Lord. If she kept doing this, she was going to give herself a heart attack. “Why don’t you get cleaned up, and I’ll get the plates.”

“Sloane, is something going on you’re not telling me about?” He leaned against the doorway and studied her. The look was so intense, she turned away from it. She busied herself with getting the biscuits out of the oven. Jasper was smart and a trained security person as well as an ex-Marine. Of course he was picking up on her weird behavior. She had to get her reactions under control, but no one had ever threatened her life before.

Not that she’d actually been threatened, but they saw her face. Itcouldturn into a threat at any second.

And that was what scared her. The fact was, she should ’fess up and tell him everything, but she was afraid. Jarrod might trust him, but she didn’t. Not yet anyway. It was stupid, but it was what it was.

“I’m just jumpy. I’m not used to having a strange man as a roommate. That’s all.”

He didn’t look like he believed her, but he let it drop. “I’ll be out of the shower in five. Do not, under any circumstances, eat without me.”

“Five minutes.” She waved the biscuit pan in his direction, the smell delicious.

“I thought you couldn’t cook.”

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