Side by side, we do research and toss around ideas into the wee hours. Eventually, Iris lays her head on her outstretched arm.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” I ask when I glance up and our eyes connect.
She strokes her fingertips reverently across my knuckles. “You fixed me, Jude. My heart was in pieces before you got here. And now, I feel whole again. You fixed me.”
I grab her little hand and kiss the inside of her palm. “You fixed me first. I was broken, body and spirit. You put me back together with your shy smiles and your sweet affection. You have this way of seeing the parts of me that nobody else notices. I’m still trying to figure out how you do it.”
She just smiles. “Shy girls get a bad wrap. Everybody thinks we’re boring or we’re cold. Everybody expects the heroine to be bold and sassy and larger-than-life. But us quiet ones, we have our own superpowers, you know?”
I brush my fingertips down the bridge of her nose. “I didn’t know it before…but I sure as hell know it now.”
When I look up from my work a few minutes later, she’s breathing evenly, soundly asleep.
I chuckle to myself as I tenderly brush breadcrumbs from her forehead.
This woman is everything I didn’t realize I needed. And it’s fucking time I make it official, make her mine.
41
Jude
Iris meets my eyes across the room and my lips curl into an insta-smile. From my seat here on my parents’ couch, I have a great view of her curvy, little body where she and Penny are in the kitchen, talking and laughing and helping my mother prepare some healthy game day snacks for the rest of us.
The girl makes me salivate, wearing nothing fancier that her jeans and a T-shirt. She’s quickly becoming a delicious habit I can’t kick. And what’s worse, I don’t want to. The more time we spend together, the more I become wrapped up in the woman she is, the more I want to find a way to make this work.
I get a sharp elbow to the ribs, and I grunt at my abuser. Cannon’s eyes dart suggestively between Iris and me. He’s trying to hold a conversation with me with just his eyebrows.
I pretend like I don’t know what the hell my idiot brother is silently asking. I shove his arm away. The faintest grin dances on Walker’s face where he’s sitting in a recliner, observing the interaction. Lexi is here, too, fluttering back and forth between the bathroom and Cannon’s lap. My brother is content to feed grapes to his pregnant wife and tend to her every need. We’re crowded around my parents’ television on this Sunday afternoon, watching the Paragons compete against Miami. Callie and Jessa pop in and out of the room, but mostly they spend the afternoon playing by the pool.
My brothers know I’m in deep for my roommate and I don’t even care to hide it. It’s getting harder and harder to act all macho. When she’s around, I’m a muscled pile of goo.
I force my attention to the game. The boys might actually have a shot at winning today. Watching my team on the field without me was hard when I wasn’t sure if I’d ever be able to play football again. But now, with my future and career suddenly back in motion, I can breathe a whole lot easier. It’s only a matter of time until I’m back out there living my dream.
While Iowa’s defense is on the field, my eyes drift back to the kitchen for another peek at my girl. My mom catches me staring before I can look away.
Ma puffs up so full with giddy happiness, I swear she’s about to explode. I give her a guilty smile. She does this weird thing with her face before exploding into a wide grin.
Wow. What was that? Did my mother just try to wink at me?
Cannon belts out a laugh, confirming what I think I saw.
Ever since she busted us during our hot and heavy workout session, Ma’s been in a frenzy over the idea of me and Iris together. So she’s downright pleased to see our budding relationship playing out now. When I passed her in the hallway earlier, she yanked on my ear and discreetly promised to put in a good word with Iris for me.
Christ, she’s going to screw this up for me before I even