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Guilty
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All Grown Up Sister Knows
JesseTo say that Friday afternoon was slow was an understatement. There hadn’t been anyone in the hardware store in the two hours since lunchtime, and we had long since finished going over inventory and all the other side tasks that I kept for days like this.I had sent Chance home when it became clear that if the floors took another polishing, we were going to need ice skates to get around the place. Now, it was just Joe and me. He was scrolling through something on his phone, but I could tell that he was just as bored as I was.I straightened up off the counter. “All right,” I said, finally making the decision. “Let’s get out of here for the day.”Joe raised an eyebrow at me. “Are you suggesting that we close early?” he asked, pretending to be horrified.I rolled my eyes. “Yes,” I said. “There’s no one here right now, and I doubt anyone is going to have anything too pressing that they need between now and tomorrow morning. It’s one of the first really nice days of the summer. Let’s
All Grown Up Come Over
JesseI frowned. “I know it’s important to her,” I said. What the heck was Annabelle talking about? Maybe Audrey had mentioned something about our date the other night and the pizza. Maybe this was her way of reminding me gently that her sister had a strict diet normally, so that I wouldn’t take her out on a date like that again.But if that was all this was about, why wasn’t Audrey telling it to me herself? She had never been the kind of person to pussyfoot around things, getting other people to have the conversations that she didn’t want to have. That just wasn’t like her.Annabelle shook her head, though. “It’s not just important to her,” she said, enunciating carefully so that there was no mistaking what she was saying. “Jesse, dance is everything to her. And she isn’t ever going to be happy staying here in Aberdeen. She wants to go back to Paris the first chance she gets.”“I know that,” I said defensively. “She told me she’s here for six months because her director wants her to
All Grown Up Stringing Him Along
AudreyI was surprised to hear Annabelle come in that evening while I was getting ready to go over to Jesse’s house. “What are you doing here?” I asked her as she came into the bedroom. “I thought you were working at the bar all afternoon and evening.”“Micah called in sick, so my manager sent me home for a couple hours so that I can work the late shift instead,” Annabelle said, rolling her eyes. “I hate when they do that, but oh well. It’s better money working late anyway. Everyone’s already tipsy by the time you start serving them. Makes for better tips.”I laughed. “Yeah, fair enough,” I said. “Guess things are a little busier as the night goes on too, huh?”“Definitely,” Annabelle confirmed, nodding her head. “Especially on a Friday night. The rush usually comes around ten or so.” She flopped down on her bed, looking over at me. “You look nice.” Then, she groaned. “You’re going out with Jesse, aren’t you?”I frowned in the mirror at her. “Yeah, I am,” I said, wondering why she was
All Grown Up His Place
JesseI grinned at Audrey when I opened the door. She looked smoking hot in a white blouse and short, flared black skirt that showed off her long, supple legs. God. I was tempted to drag her inside and press her against the wall right then and there. Fortunately for the sake of our dinner, the oven timer started beeping just then.I swore and pushed the door open a little wider. “Come on in and make yourself at home,” I told her. “I just have a few last minute things to do.” She grinned, but I only saw it in passing as I hurried off to make sure that nothing was burning. I wanted everything to be perfect tonight.I was kind of nervous cooking for Audrey. I had never cooked for anyone before. I had definitely never cooked for anyone whom I had such a crazy cocktail of emotions for. It was nerve-wracking, but it was also exciting. I liked that I was going to share this first with her.Was I getting in over my head? I found myself thinking back to Annabelle’s warnings from th
All Grown Up When I Grow Up
Jesse“Not all of them,” I admitted. “But probably ninety-five percent of them? Why?”Audrey shook her head. “You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you? They never could get you to read anything when we were still in school.”I grinned crookedly at her. “And you were expecting me to be just an idiot hardware guy, weren’t you?” I asked teasingly.“It’s not that,” Audrey said. She paused, staring quietly down at the table for a moment. “It’s just, you really aren’t the same old Jesse, are you?”“Are you the same old Audrey?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at her. “Weren’t you the one who was telling me that you don’t feel like you fit in here anymore because you’ve changed so much and no one else has?” I tried to say the words lightly, teasingly, but I could tell from Audrey’s startled expression that she hadn’t thought of things that way.She shook her head. “I guess you’re right. Sorry, I just don’t think about all the things that are different until…” She trailed off and shrugged, takin
All Grown Up Impatient
AudreyI wrapped my arms around Jesse’s waist as he pressed me back against the counter, kissing me heatedly. It was exactly where I had felt the whole evening building to. At the same time, there was something surprising about it. Maybe because this relationship with Jesse was still so new. Maybe because I still couldn’t believe that somehow, we were finally here.I had never really thought that he would think of me as anything other than his good friend. I had never really thought that he could like me the way that I liked him.There had been something so comfortable about tonight, though. Being there in his house, sharing a meal that he had cooked, laughing about how different we were from the kids that we had once been? It made me wonder why I had been so desperate to get the hell out of Aberdeen. It made me think about what I had said to the director, about the pace of life being slower here. I found myself wondering if that was really such a bad thing.I trembled as Jesse’s hand
All Grown Up Falling For Her
JesseI usually never minded going back to work on Monday morning. Where most people dreaded that day, it was normally just another day for me. The hardware store wasn’t open as late over the weekends, but it was still open. This weekend, however, I had called Joe on Saturday morning and told him that I was taking a rare weekend off.I knew I was being too transparent. He had to know exactly what I was up to, but at the time, curled up on the couch with Audrey in my arms, I didn’t care. Let him suspect. I wanted to spend the whole day with Audrey. The whole weekend with her. Joe might tease me, but it would be worth it.We might not have much time. At some point, I knew I was going to have to talk to Audrey about what Annabelle had said about her heading back to Paris sooner rather than later. As much as I didn’t want to think about that, it kept weighing on my mind. Would this be the last day that I got to see Audrey? Would next weekend be the end of us?I wanted to spend every momen
All Grown Up A Month Gone
AudreyAnnabelle grinned at me as I walked into the kitchen for breakfast, still wiping sleep from my eyes. “Morning, sleepyhead,” she said, putting a plate down at my place. I smiled at the healthy breakfast that she had made for me.“Thanks,” I said. “All of my favorites.” It was sort of a joke between us. On the days that Annabelle was home, she’d started taking over more of the cooking from Mom, making sure that she cooked meals that were both appetizing for Mom and her as well as healthy for me. That way, I didn’t have to eat on my own all the time. I appreciated it more than I could say.It was starting to feel like I had a place here in Aberdeen after all. I didn’t know what to feel about that.“Can you believe that you’ve already been here for a month?” Annabelle asked as she sat across from me at the table.“I know, right?” I shook my head. When I had first arrived here, I wouldn’t have thought that I would make it a month in Aberdeen, or if I did, I would have expected to ha
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