James (Resisting Love #3)(15)

“Thank you,” I say sincerely, slightly surprised at his thoughtfulness and the fact that he remembers.

“Take a seat, food is almost ready,” he says. I take a seat next to Jye. A few minutes pass before he serves Jye and me, carefully cutting up Jye’s food for him. My heart melts. This man was made to be a father.

“Thank you,” I repeat.

“Ta!” Jye says, his way of saying thank you.

“You are both very welcome,” James says as he serves his own food.

“What are your plans for the day?” I ask him.

“I was hoping we could all do something together,” James says as he takes a bite of his toast.

“Sounds good,” I murmur, moaning around a bite of crispy bacon.

“Is there anything you love more than food, besides Jye?” James jokes.

I think on it. “Not really.”

“I may use this to my advantage,” he muses out loud.

“Ha! You can try,” I say with a giggle. We finish our breakfast and then I give Jye a bath and dress him for the day. James jumps in next and returns freshly showered. Something occurs to me. “Where did you get a change of clothes from?”

“I dropped home and packed a bag before I picked Jye up,” he says casually, like it’s a regular occurrence. I sigh, at a complete loss for words.

“Okay, where would you like to go today?” James asks.

“How about the indoor play centre? Jye loves it there, and they also have a nice café,” I mention.

“You just ate!” he chuckles.

“What’s your point?” I ask him. He just smiles and walks towards me, kissing me softly on my cheek.

“I love having you back in my life, Sasha,” he admits in a gentle tone, before walking away and picking Jye up into his arms. I swallow heavily, my eyes still locked onto his when he says, “You ready to go?”

“I’m ready,” I tell him, a double meaning to my words. I’m ready to revisit everything between James and me.

I’m ready to listen.

***

Jye is playing in the ball pit and James and I are standing by it, watching him.

“I never cheated on you,” he blurts out with no preamble.

“I saw you with another woman, you wouldn’t explain why. Then the infamous ‘no one’ line, oh and then you never explained what happened afterwards.”

“I tried to ring you to explain! You never answered. I came to your house, you refused to see me. You cut me out,” he says.

“Do you blame me? How would you feel if the roles were reversed?” I ask him. The instant clench of his jaw is answer enough.

“Remember when you asked me what I did for a living, and I told you I played in the stock market, but I also worked for an organization?” he asks.

“Yes. I thought it was pretty vague,” I admit.

“Right. I couldn’t explain it to you at the time. I still can’t explain it all to you because of confidentiality. You saw me with her, but I wasn’t allowed to talk about it. So I couldn’t give you the explanation you deserved at the time. I thought I'd wait until it was over and then I could tell you, but by then you wanted nothing to do with me. It was almost as if you hated me,” he says.

“I don’t understand, James.” He's about to open his mouth when his phone rings.

“Tatiana, I’m kind of in the middle of something.”

“Shit, okay.” He hangs up the phone and I know exactly what he's going to say.

“I’m sorry, babe, its work. I gotta head out, but I’ll come by tonight and we will finish this, okay,” he explains, his eyes begging with mine.

“Fine, we’ll catch a cab home,” I say stubbornly.

“No, I’ll get Kade to come and get you,” he says, his tone stern.

“Don’t bother!” I retort sharply.

“Look, I’m sorry but I have to go. Not that I want to, but I have to,” he says, looking frustrated.

“You have to what? Run whenever your girlfriend calls? Nice to see you have your priorities straight,” I say bitterly. I almost regret the low blow when I see the look on his face.

James narrows those baby blues one me, his posture rigid. “She's not my girlfriend. I’m going to work, Sasha. We'll talk about this later, okay?”

He kisses both Jye and me, apologizing again. When Tatiana calls, he runs. I know there's more to it than that, but clearly I don’t know what it is yet. I’m not gonna lie, I’m pretty pissed off by this point.

Jye plays for another hour, when suddenly Kade arrives.

“Hey, Sasha,” he greets, his eyes brightening when he sees Jye.

“Hey, little man! He looks just like James did when he was a kid, it’s eerie,” Kade says.

“You didn’t have to come, Kade. We were gonna take a cab,” I tell him.

“No way, James would've killed me. Besides, it's no problem, I love seeing Jye,” he says kindly.

“You can drop by anytime and see him, you know.”

“Really? I’d love that. I’ll bring Grace next time. If she knew I was here without her, I’d never hear the end of it,” he says with a chuckle.

“Thank you,” I tell him hoarsely.