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What He Deserves
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All Grown Up Find A Hobby
AudreyI heard the front door open. Mom and Clayton were already in bed, so it must be Annabelle coming home after her shift at the bar. I hadn’t realized that it was already that late, but when I looked at my phone, I saw that it definitely was. I sighed and flopped back on my bed. It was late, yet I still felt ages away from sleep.Annabelle crept into the room, taking pains to stay quiet. I appreciated the effort, but I wasn’t asleep. And I knew that I needed to apologize to her for earlier. There was nothing that I could do about the Jesse thing at the moment, but at least I could try to take one weight off my mind for the evening.I sat up. “Hey,” I said quietly.“Hey,” Annabelle said in response, her tone frosty. That, in itself, told me just how hurt she was about what I had said earlier.I looked down at my duvet. “I’m sorry for earlier,” I apologized. “I know you’re just looking out for me. And I don’t want to make excuses, but I’m just frustrated about all of this. I want to
All Grown Up Training Chance
JesseThe more time I spent training Chance on the opening procedures for the shop, the more sure I was that I was never going to trust the kid to open up on his own. Or at least, I would risk getting called in halfway through, as he somehow managed to screw something up or get confused on something simple like, oh, opening the register to count the float.“Come on, you’ve got this,” I coaxed. “I know you know how to do this when we’ve got customers.” The kid had been working there for over a month, after all. And even though he was a bit clueless, he seemed to mostly be doing fine.Until something new came up, something that he hadn’t dealt with before. Whether it was a person asking him where the paint chips were or opening procedures, any time something new was introduced to him, it was like his brain just totally shut down.Right now, he looked at me with pleading eyes, clearly hoping that I would just give him the answer. I tried not to sigh. “All right, now pretend that I’m a cu
All Grown Up It Would've Been You
JesseOnce everything was up and running for the day and I had Chance occupied with a messy drawer full of nuts, bolts, and other hardware bits to sort, I slipped into the back and pulled out my phone.I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about what Audrey had said the night before, about just enjoying the time that we had. That wasn’t what I wanted, not in the least. But at the same time, I would have had to be a fool to tell her no.Anyway, right now, that wasn’t what I was thinking about. Right now, I was wondering how she was doing, how her ankle was treating her. I gave her a call, holding my breath as I waited for her to answer. She did so almost immediately, and a smile broke out across my face.“Hey,” she said brightly. “You must have been able to feel my boredom from all the way over there.”I laughed. “How’s your ankle?” I asked her. At least if she was bored, it had to mean that she wasn’t dancing on it, right?“It’s been better, but it’s feeling okay,” Audrey said, and I co
All Grown Up All To Myself
AudreyI groaned internally as I heard Jesse knock on the front door. I was still in my bedroom, which meant that by the time I made it to the door, moving slowly and doing my best not to hurt my ankle anymore, Mom would have had plenty of time to reach the door and start interrogating him. He should have just texted me that he was here; I could have met him outside.But on the other hand, there was something about him meeting me at the door that made me smile. It was almost like we were going out on a date.I tried to remember that I had been the one to say, the day before, that we were just enjoying the time that we had. Tried to remember the fact that as soon as six months were up, if not sooner, I was headed right back to Paris where I belonged. It wasn’t a good idea to start thinking of this as dating. Even if that was what I sort of wanted when I let myself think about it.I didn’t know if we would last forever, but I did know, now, that I had feelings for Jesse. And not just in
All Grown Up Adorable
AudreyI raised an eyebrow at him. “Jesse Miller, did you just lie to my mom?” I asked teasingly. “And make a liar out of me as well? She’s bound to ask me how the movie was.” But I felt a shiver run up my back at the thought of him having me all to himself for an evening. I remembered the earlier comment that I had made, about how I could think of plenty of things we could do that wouldn’t require me being on my feet.I felt a momentary pang of loss at the thought of that now, though. I had just been joking earlier. Not that I didn’t want the night to end there, as it were. But I had been looking forward to going out with Jesse as well.I supposed I didn’t really deserve a date with him, though. That would be doing just what Annabelle had accused me of. I might not be taking advantage of him, per se. I liked him too much for that. But it would mean treating this like it was permanent, like I was back home for good. And I clearly wasn’t.“Wouldn’t be the first time either of us lied t
All Grown Up No Fixing It
JesseAs much as I wanted to take Audrey out and show her off, despite the fact that she and I weren’t dating, there was a deeper part of me that just wanted her all to myself, no distractions, for as long as we had. Luckily, with the fact that she had to stay off her feet, our options for going out were pretty limited anyway. I was a little afraid that she would call me out for being too forward by taking her straight home with me, but then again, she had been the one to hint at all the ways that she’d like to be kept off her feet tonight.Besides, we would eat better at my place than we could out in town, and I liked the idea of snuggling with her on the couch.She had been the one to say that she had missed me, but I had to admit that I was feeling it too. Like I just couldn’t get enough time with her. It was like my body was already reacting to her return to Paris, even though she was right here in Aberdeen for the next five months or so.It seemed like we were already saying good
All Grown Up The Life He Built
Jesse“That must have been rough,” Audrey said quietly, but where normally, the pity and the sympathy drove me crazy, there was something in the way that Audrey said it that made me feel somehow better. Like a weight had been lifted from my chest.“Me running the hardware store, I don’t even know if that’s something that he would have wanted,” I said. “We hadn’t really ever talked about it. But I just feel like I have to do it now. Like if I don’t, I’m turning my back on him.”Audrey was quiet, and I wondered what she was thinking. Would she try to convince me that there was no reason for me to stay here in Aberdeen, that I was just making excuses for why I couldn’t be with her?Except that, of course, she wouldn’t say anything like that. Just like I couldn’t bring myself to ask her not to go back to Paris, she would never be able to tell me to leave North Carolina and put aside my ghosts.Audrey put her hand over mine. “I’m really sorry you had to go through that,” she said softly. “
All Grown Up Placing Her in Bed
AudreyI tried to figure out the expression in Jesse’s eyes as he sat me down on the bed. There was an unmistakable tenderness there, and a certain level of amazement too. He slowly ran his hands down my sides, the touch gentle and soft. He kissed me as he worked to undress me, baring my breasts and then helping me out of my pants as well. I arched against him, feeling the drag of his soft flannel shirt against my naked skin. I sucked in a breath as he nibbled at my earlobe.He grinned against my skin, his fingers tracing lines of fire along the waistband of my panties. He rocked against me, and I could feel how hard he was already. My fingers fumbled with his belt, pausing as he nibbled at my neck, my train of thought gone out the window.He laughed and pulled back, helping me out as he stripped off his own clothing, letting it fall in a heap on the floor. Then he pulled me close again, pressing his lips insistently to mine, his tongue slipping easily inside my mouth as I moaned, hea
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