We Wish You a HappilyEver After (Ever After, #5) - Elena Aitken Page 0,6

at least the third time since Jeremy had found her on her hands and knees, cleaning the broken mug that had slipped and shattered on the tile when the boiling water splashed onto her hand. “I swear, I can’t remember the last time I…well, to be honest, I actually can’t remember the last time I cooked a meal.”

She laughed when Jeremy raised an eyebrow at her.

“Just being honest.”

He shook his head with a chuckle that made his eyes crinkle in the corners. He dumped the rest of the broken pieces into the trash and wiped the spill before taking a new mug from the cupboard. She watched as he easily measured out hot cocoa and poured equal amounts of water into the mugs.

“You know your way around.”

“In general? Or in Roy’s kitchen?”

She shrugged. “Both.”

“I do a lot of cooking at the station.” He winked at her. “Not that making hot chocolate can be counted as cooking.”

It was absolutely crazy, but when Jeremy looked at her that way, her stomach fluttered wildly. Crazy because it hadn’t done that since she was sixteen. And even more crazy because she barely knew him. Not really.

“And my grandfather? You really do seem pretty comfortable here.” She’d been thinking about it ever since the other day when she’d lit the oven on fire. It wasn’t the first time Jeremy had been there. “You said something that gave me the impression that my little oven fire wasn’t the first time you’d been called out.”

Jeremy’s face changed. The easygoing lightness was replaced by a frown that darkened his features. “I actually wanted to talk to you about that.”

The butterflies in Bella’s stomach died abruptly, turning into heavy stones. Jeremy wiped his hands on a towel and tossed it over his shoulder in a casual way that Bella would have, under any other circumstance, found incredibly sexy.

“About what?” she heard herself ask and immediately felt stupid. She knew exactly what Jeremy wanted to talk to her about. She’d noticed it herself in the few days she’d been there. But somehow knowing something bad was different than knowing you were going to hear it from someone else. It seemed worse somehow. More real.

Jeremy gestured to a chair at the table but she shook her head. It would be easier to get it over with.

He nodded in understanding and pressed his lips together. Despite herself, and the heavy conversation she knew they were about to have, dirty images involving herself and those lips flashed through her mind. She shook her head in an effort to clear it. If he’d noticed her lapse in concentration, he didn’t mention it.

“We’re worried about Roy,” Jeremy said without any preamble. “The other day was the second time this week that I’ve answered a call.”

“To be fair…”

He smiled a little. “It was your fault,” he finished for her. “I get that. But it doesn’t take away the fact that the number of concerning episodes is increasing. We think maybe it’s time to consider moving your grandfather into a—”

“Don’t say it.”

“Bella.” Jeremy reached out and squeezed her forearm the way he’d done the other day, and her body reacted the same way it had then, in a full-body vibration. What was it about this man?

She took a step back, not wanting it, but needing the space between them. “What do you mean we?”

He looked confused for a moment.

“You said that we are concerned,” she explained. “Who is we?”

Jeremy nodded and once again pressed his lips together. “Natalie and I.”

A girlfriend.

Shit.

A wife.

Of course Jeremy would be taken. He was gorgeous and a firefighter, and he obviously had a heart of gold if he was so concerned about her grandfather. Why wouldn’t he be snapped up?

But why did it matter? Especially right now.

Still. The thought of some other woman. Some Natalie having discussions about Papa with Jeremy upset her in a completely unreasonable way. She scrubbed her hands over her face and tried to smooth her ponytail. A pointless task with her wild curls. She straightened her shoulders, and did the only thing she knew how to do in the situation. She got defensive.

Jeremy knew the conversation would be hard. After all, how many grandchildren who adored their grandparent wanted to hear that they were becoming a danger to themselves?

But, for a moment, he thought it might actually go easier than he’d assumed. Bella had even seemed to be on the same page with him, maybe already thinking what he was. That would have made things easier.

But then

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