for a while without really realizing it. After Toby signed Su Casa over to me three years ago, my life changed for the better. Jase had finally transferred the reins to Jeremiah, and it was my turn to work. Somehow, the business fell into my lap.
I wanted to reach out to tell him thank you and ask him why, after all this time, did he believe in me.
The worst part, I wanted to tell him about Lev.
His son.
Tears prick my eyes as Ace grabs his little brother. His mask doesn’t drop until he’s nearing the corner, then he’s like the rest of us, wrapped around Lev’s little finger. The power that little boy has over us all is freeing in every way.
Jason grabs my hips and kisses me, taking my mind away for a breath. He consumes me, leaving me breathless as his lips own mine once again. It’s like this every time—my body gets hot, and my heart beats a little too quickly.
I’m madly in love with him.
My heart beats to watch his do the same.
“Fuck, I missed you today.”
“I missed you, too,” I whisper against his lips. He gives me one more before smacking my ass. When I yelp, a mischievous smile comes over him, and I’m stuck in my mind, wondering how I could be in this place.
Happy.
In love.
Alive.
“I met someone today,” I mention when he starts setting the table. Since we went to counseling and struggled through our issues, we made it our mission to have dinners together—all of us—always talking. No phones or technology are allowed.
The moments around this table are just us.
Our family.
“Yeah? Is that why you were gone?” he asks with a smile.
“How—”
“Came home to surprise you with a little one-on-one time,” he teases with a smirk. God, I’ve missed that smirk. We rarely have time to fool around with Lev so still young and disastrous. He gets into everything. When we do, it’s usually a fast fucking against the shelves in the pantry or him eating me out while I’m on the dryer, pretending to do laundry. As always, though, my favorite times are when Lev is at Millie’s, and Jase spends every waking moment inside me.
It’s like we’re teens again, unable to stop pushing boundaries, not wanting to spare a moment.
“Don’t pout, Peaches. I have it on good authority that Lev, Jazzy, and Ace have a date with their grandparents tomorrow.” My face heats, and he saunters over to me, taking my mouth again, sending shivers up and down my spine. “And tomorrow, when they’re gone, I’m going to fuck you so hard, you’ll be feeling me for days.”
A moan shakes free, and it almost makes me forget why I needed Ace to take Lev. Shaking my lustful fog that Jase has no issue putting me in, I press a hand to his chest to force some distance. He’s the best distraction, but a distraction nonetheless.
“For the past few weeks, I’ve been talking with a local chef. Her and her husband are looking to expand into Hollow Ridge, and she asked me for my opinion.” His eyebrows shoot up, almost as if he’s as surprised as me.
“Why you?”
“She had the same teacher as me in culinary school,” I say, wondering out loud. “Which maybe piqued my interest a little.”
He laughs lightly. “That or you were happy someone cares about food as much as you do.”
Smacking his arm softly, I watch him grab a finger full of guac and pop it in his mouth. “You’re incorrigible.”
“Yet you love me,” he teases.
“You’re distracting me, Jase,” I complain, shooing him away from the food.
“Okay, Peaches. Talk,” he mocks, leaning against the kitchen table. His legs are widened, lazy, and fogging my brain a little too much. Closing my eyes for resolve, I finally open them to a smirking Jase with that tongue-in-cheek look I adore so much. “So, what happened?” He gestures for me to keep going.
“She showed up as I was ordering and told me she had to use the bathroom. After a half hour, I got nervous and went inside, and she wasn’t there. She made a huge deal about this meetup and then basically stood me up.”
“That’s odd,” he muses, scratching his head. “Did she seem on drugs? Maybe one of Nate’s—”
“No, no, nothing like that. She was young, seemed really nice, but something made her not come back to the table.”
“Maybe she was too nervous to meet her idol?”
“Perhaps,” I accept with a shrug. “But when I went on Facebook