of him.
Now I needed the ice. I dipped into the freezer and took a breath. Time to get this under control. I couldn’t let his voice echo inside me, so deep and rumbling and shaded with promise.
But who could blame me? I hadn’t had any relief from the last time he touched me. Four days of lying in bed, aching, thinking about him. I remembered the moments together, but my fingers couldn’t replicate that heated brush of his hand.
Until I finally came and just let myself feel what I felt for him without shame, I’d never be able to concentrate again. I rested his ice pack on the back of my neck. Too bad I couldn’t find a tranquilizer in his damn freezer.
Something buzzed around the kitchen. I frowned and checked the cabinet.
Why Jude decided to stash his cellphone next to the plates was beyond me, but it was the same reason he sometimes left the remote in the fridge and his keys in the door. That worried me more than the pain in his knees.
An alert jingled his phone.
8:00 – Laundry
I shut it off.
Another popped up.
10:00 - Bed
Responsible. I shut it off too. Another immediately appeared.
“Wow…” I cleared it, though it had already been snoozed.
7:30 – Pay Bills (Phone/Internet)
Jude was disciplined, but I hadn’t realized quite how structured he lived. I shouldn’t have pried, but I checked the other scheduled events. Most of them related to Phillip, but the dog didn’t need any help. Lamps were broken when he was hungry, toilet paper stolen when we slept an extra ten minutes, and he now stood on the tables to demand his afternoon walk. He was hard to ignore, even for a disturbingly forgetful running back.
I retuned the phone and ice to Jude. He frowned as he scrolled through the reminders.
“You have a lot of alerts,” I said.
“It’s the easiest way to stay on top of things.”
Was it?
“I’m a procrastinator,” he said. “This way, something pops up, I do it right away. I don’t give myself the option to delay it…except this laundry. Not sure I want to move.”
“I’ll do the laundry.”
“You don’t have to. I can take care of myself.”
Said the man practically salivating for the ice pack in my hand. I jingled it over him.
“Regular season doesn’t count,” he said.
“Right. Where do you want the ice?”
“Everywhere.”
I couldn’t help myself. “Don’t give me any ideas.”
“Why?” He met my gaze, the grey in his eyes heating to silver. “I might like the way you think.”
“Let’s hope you’re not injured there.”
“No…that’s fully operational, Doc.”
I knew better than to tease. I did it anyway. “Even when the rest of you is one big bruise?”
“That wouldn’t stop a man.” His voice traced with the hint of a growl. “Wouldn’t stop me.”
“But your knees, arms, back, shoulders, legs…everything hurts.”
“You learn to live with it. Besides, these injuries give me reason to be…creative.”
“Creative.”
“Don’t believe me?”
“Oh, I believe you. Just wondering what a man who can’t move could do for a lady.”
I wondered a little too hard.
“You’d be surprised,” he said. “And impressed.”
“You must be a man of many talents, Jude Owens.”
“There’s so much you don’t know about me, Rory Merriweather.”
That I believed. I hesitated, but Jude patted the couch.
“You gonna stay?” he asked. “I could use the company.”
Awkward conversations like these needed to come with an instruction manual.
So You’ve Been Felt Up By Your Best Guy Friend: A Guide To Handle Life’s Sticky Situations. Or 101 Home Ingredient Recipes To Get The Stains Out Of Your Sofa.
It killed me that the thousands of dollars I’d spent on those anatomy, physiology, chemistry, and biology books never included instructions on how to deal with a surge of hormones.
Whoremones.
Hopefully Jude would understand. The pregnancy made me a little crazy, and I could pin all of my feelings on the baby. Of course, that meant I’d be birthing a scapegoat and not a child, but I’d have many years and lots of candy to make-up for that.
“Um…” So far, so awkward. “I think we should talk.”
Jude rested the other icepack on his shoulder and gave a pleased murmur. “I agree.”
I launched right into it, speaking a little too fast. “Pregnancy is one weird thought, feeling, behavior, and…fluid after another. I know I’ve been acting a crazier than usual lately. A little more forward.”
“Flirty.”
“Yeah, that.” I sighed. “Well, it’s just…the other day at the charity event? Sometimes, when I’m with you, it’s like there’s an itch I can’t scratch.”
“Can’t reach it?”
I cleared my throat. “No, it’s embarrassing.”
“I share a locker