Page 8 of Merrick
Chapter 5
MERRICK
I follow Jemma back to her place, so we can drop off her SUV before heading out for dinner. I wait in the truck, unable to take my eyes off her as she bends back into the driver’s side for something she dropped. I feel my dick stiffen even harder than it’s been since the night of the Fireman’s Ball. No amount of taking care of myself in the shower these past days has done anything to ease the stiffness. Nothing but sinking myself deep in Jemma and making love to her like the world is about to end will do anything to make this subside.
I shift in my seat as Jemma opens the door and steps in.
“Do you know where you want to eat?” I ask.
There aren’t a lot of places in town to offer a date-worthy ambiance. We decide to head down the mountain and try to see if there are any good options in Ashville.
We find a small restaurant just outside of town, tucked away from the city. It’s not crowded inside, and we can get one of the booths that line the wall. I want to slide into the booth seat next to her to limit as much space between us, but I don’t want to be weird, so I take the bench across from her. The hostess hands us our menus.
“Subtle,” Jemma whispers under her breath.
“Pardon?” I ask.
She looks up at me like I should know what she's talking about. When I only stare back at her in confusion, she sighs.
"The hostess." She nods her head over her shoulder. “She wasn’t being too subtle about trying to get your attention.”
For the first time, I look at the hostess and see her staring at me. She smiles and waves to me. I don’t respond, and I look back at Jemma. She’s watching me, probably looking for some reaction on my part that says I’m enjoying the young woman’s attention. Little does Jemma know that no woman holds a candle to her in my eyes.
“Ignore her.” I look down at the menu in my hands. “I know I will be.”
Jemma doesn't say anything. I glance up at her, and see she's trying to hide a smile that’s trying to peek out.
“You honestly didn’t notice her trying to flirt with you?”
“No, I didn’t. My focus was already on the most beautiful woman in the restaurant to notice anyone else.”
Her smile breaks free with this admission.
“I wasn’t sure you were ever going to ask me out,” Jemma says, looking down at the menu.
I stare at her incredulously. “Why would you think that?”
She shrugs. "It's been a week since the Fireman's Ball, and you didn't call."
I’m beyond trying to keep up a pretense with her about how I feel.
“I picked up the phone to call you a hundred times. I just couldn’t be sure that you were feeling what I was feeling that night. I needed to see you again, to make sure that it wasn’t all in my head.”
“It’s not all in your head.” She stares at me with an expression of want I’ve never seen in her eyes before. “I’ve had feelings for you for a while now."
The sound of brakes screeching and cars crashing into one another sound off in my head. This is news to me.How much fucking time did we waste not saying anything to one another about how we feel?
“You have? For how long?”
She looks down at her lap like she’s suddenly unsure about how much she should say. “Since before Christmas.”
It takes me a moment to process this new information. The waiter comes by, and we both order. I'm not even sure what I ordered. I just picked the first thing on the menu.
After opening up to one another about how we feel, it’s like a wall between us, the one every new couple has when they just start dating and getting to know one another, crumbles down.
We talk about everything and don’t hold back for fear of what the other might think. I admit to her about my nearly life-long crush on her and how I joined the fire department to bulk up to try and get her attention. I talk about my big family and how I hope to have a house full of kids one day.
“People say that until they see the chaos of having a child entails.” Jemma laughs. “And that’s coming from someone with only one kid.”
