The Happy Ever After Playlist - Abby Jimenez Page 0,59

sense now.”

I loved seeing her experiencing my world. I wanted to show her everything. But it was more than that. I wanted to share everything with her. Like I didn’t want there to be anything that she wasn’t a part of. I wouldn’t have come this weekend if she hadn’t come with me. I would have stayed in California to be with her.

Distance from her was starting to feel like the tension on a bungee cord. The farther away I got, the stronger the urge to come back to her. And the cord felt like it was getting shorter. Like my threshold for not being with her was lowering.

What would I do if I couldn’t see her when I was on tour? It would kill me. And how would I even explain to her why she couldn’t visit? I messed around with some unstable, violent woman that I’m being forced to tour with? She might hurt you and I can’t make you safe? Here’s a song she wrote about me having sex with her, sitting in the Top 10? God, the whole fucking thing made me cringe. I was waiting to see if Ernie could get Lola off the ticket before I sat down to discuss the situation with Sloan. I wasn’t coming at her with this until I had some sort of game plan.

“You better go,” she whispered. “They’re going to think something is going on between us.”

I grinned. “Isn’t there?”

She squeezed herself sideways and out from under me and continued on to the bathroom as I watched her walk down the hall. She stopped in the doorway and made a shooing motion at me before she went in, smiling and shaking her head.

I stared after her, long after she’d shut the door, and I wondered offhandedly if this was what Dad had felt like when he met Mom…

And somehow I knew that it was.

Chapter 23

Sloan

♪ Into Dust | Mazzy Star

Jason staggered into the kitchen at 7:00 a.m. with Tucker and found me not only awake and caffeinated but showered, dressed, and cooking with his mom.

Patricia and I had coordinated the start time for breakfast last night, and I took my cooking duties very seriously. Apparently we were expecting a large crowd.

“Good morning, ladies.” He slid open the back door and let Tucker out. He poured himself a black coffee, looking unbelievably adorable with his messy hair in his eyes.

His plaid pajama bottoms and gray T-shirt made me want to wrap my arms around his waist to see what his chest smelled like. My heart picked up a little thinking about it.

He held his mug in his hand and came around to the stove and gave Patricia a peck on the cheek. Then he turned to me where I stood cutting a melon by the sink. “Did you sleep well?” he asked. Before I could reply, he leaned in and gave me a swift kiss too, only he put mine on the lips. In front of his mom.

I knocked over a container of blueberries.

Nothing was inappropriate about the kiss. It was kind of sweet, actually. I’d just been under the impression we were going to be totally hands off in front of his parents. He’d kissed me good night last night, but only after walking me to my room, and the hallway had been empty.

Patricia smiled down at her frying pan.

In typical Jason fashion, he grinned at the victory of catching me off guard. He popped a blueberry into his smiling mouth and then seemed to decide he’d embarrassed me enough for one morning and excused himself to take a shower.

“Sorry,” I said to Patricia, picking up blueberries from the counter, my face hot. “It’s like he has to fluster me once a day or a baby bunny dies somewhere or something. He’s very committed to it.”

She laughed heartily. “He learned it from his father. I think they like the color it puts in our cheeks.”

I smiled. Hanging out with Patricia was my idea of a good time. I loved her.

A half hour later, Jason came back in and helped with dishes and cleanup as Patricia and I cooked. He found any chance he could to put a hand on my back or to stand close to me. Patricia totally noticed it. She kept smiling at us.

People started to filter in for breakfast around 8:30. Two cousins of Jason’s, three of Jason’s friends, and a neighbor were joining the Larsen men to do some work around the property, and