Page 9 of Jaime
“Ah. Okay, thanks.”
She nodded and shut the door as that light feeling slowly sank back down.
Basement suite? I guessed, climbing down the steps and going around the side of the house.
A door with chipped blue paint was set against the wall but down a few steps.
Even on this relatively warm spring day, the cement was damp and wet.
I braced myself and knocked.
It only took a moment for Jaime to open the door. I tried to hide my disappointment as I saw the darkness of his apartment behind him.
Jaime had lost the leather jacket and was in a black t-shirt now. Tattoos snaked around his forearms and his brown hair was a mess, as though he couldn’t keep his hands out of it. Evie was still in his arms; his forearms were flexed as though he’d never even put her down... and he was looking even more nervous than he had at the reading. Despite looking like a picture-perfect bad boy, there was something about Jaime that made me want to wrap him up in a blanket and cuddle him.
I forced a smile.
“Hi,” I said, holding up the baby carrier.
He blinked at it, brows rising before his gaze turned back to my eyes, touched with something like wonder.
“Wow,” he muttered, “you really came.”
“Why wouldn’t I?” I asked, offering it to him.
He shook his head.
“Sorry.”
He reached out, taking the carrier. He looked at it for a moment, then let it fall to his side.
“This will be really helpful,” he said. “Thanks again.”
I nodded.
“No worries... You need a hand figuring it out?”
He swallowed.
“I’m sure I can manage.”
That was my cue to leave, but what Jaime didn’t know, what I had barely even acknowledged, was that I wasn’t just here to give it to him. I was here to see his home, to see the way he was living. and now that I was faced with that fact, I was going to push for it.
“I don’t mind,” I said, offering a smile and gently tugging the carrier back. “Can I come in?”
He stared at me for a long moment and then moved out of the doorway.
“Uh. Sure.”
I stepped into the darkness that was Jaime’s apartment, taking it all in at once.
The basement was finished, but it still felt like a basement. The windows were small and too close to the ceiling to easily look through. The floors were covered in a worn, cream carpet.
We were standing right in the living room. The kitchen was visible through the arch next to me. What looked like a small hall must have led to the washroom and bedroom.
“Um. Can I get you something?” Jaime asked from behind me.
I turned to him. He was biting his full bottom lip, looking up at me.
