Getting Schooled (The Wright Brothers #1)(41)

She set to work cleaning our wine glasses in silence, and then left them on the dishrack on the counter. I followed her into the living room, where she turned off the record player and carefully slid the vinyl back into the protective sleeve.

“Is this your way of telling me it’s time for me to go?” I asked, sliding my hands into the pockets of my sweats.

Reese stopped what she was doing, her fingers frozen over the chrome handle of the glass cabinet. “So you can put two and two together, huh?” she snipped, then shook her head. “I’m not telling you anything, Jason. Do whatever common sense is telling you that you should do.”

Well damn.

She closed the cabinet, and then stalked over to the fireplace and bent down, getting ready to turn the gas off.

“Hold up,” I said, my stride unhurried as I walked over to her. I grabbed her by the hand, ignoring her slight resistance as I led her back to the couch.

“What are you doing?”

I smiled, then sat down, pulling her into my lap. “You said to do whatever common sense is telling me to, so I’m going to sit her for a few minutes, and I want you to sit with me. Aiight?”

She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t move either, so I relaxed into my position on the couch. After several minutes passed, Reese loosened up too, resting her head on my shoulder. Still, neither of us said anything. I actually started getting sleepy again, watching the soothing crackle of the fire as I made lazy circles on her back with my hand.

“I feel really stupid,” she said finally, mumbling the words into my neck. “I let my mind wander, today. While we were eating, and talking, and I started thinking… maybe this could be something. A not-just-a-convenient-booty-call something. And yes, I know how crazy that is, to already be thinking about that, but I got so excited, because it’s been forever since I really liked somebody. Really, really liked somebody. So there I was, thinking too hard. Doing too much.”

I frowned. “Okay, but those are just your thoughts. Make me understand the problem.”

“You’re leaving. That’s the problem.”

I could tell she regretted those words as soon as they came out of her mouth. She actually sucked in a breath, and started to climb out of my lap, but I looped an arm around her waist, keeping her there.

“And now you see the other side of “saying what’s on my mind”. If I’m not insulting you, I’m spilling awkward, inappropriate feelings. Wonderful, right?”

“Goddamn, when you bring out “high-strung” Reese, you really commit to it, huh?” Her eyes narrowed, and she opened her mouth, but I spoke again before she could. “Relax, girl. Shit,” I chuckled. “To be so observant, you sure did miss that I said I might go back to Cali. I’ve got reasons to stay here, too. My family is here. Auto manufacturing is growing in this area, so I could potentially build a career. And… there’s the possibility of a lot happening in the course of a year that might give me more reasons to stay.”

“I’m not asking you for anything, Jason. Just venting. Real, meaningful connections don’t come easy for me, and it’s scary to think about getting attached to somebody who might be moving thousands of miles away.”

I pushed out a heavy sigh.

“See?” she asked. “This is why I said “nothing” when you asked me what was wrong. Now you probably think I’m some crazy stalker chick or something.”

“No I don’t. I think you think too hard.” I repositioned her in my lap, so that she was straddling me, and tucked my arms around her waist. “Listen… I know what it’s like to lose somebody that you care about. It stays with you, in different ways. Not to mention that shit with ole boy, and your friend. People you trusted. I lost my mother, I’ve lost friends. When you make connections, you don’t want to let them go. I was in the military, princess. Your friends, mentors, lovers, whatever… you learn to live with the knowledge that they can be reassigned and sent halfway around the world, sent to war, whatever, at any time. You ain’t gotta defend those feelings. Not to me.”

If someone had tried to tell me a few months ago that I’d be tucking cynicism to the side to comfort a woman – this woman – I would have called them a liar. I wasn’t this dude. I didn’t do this type of shit. Except… apparently I was. And apparently, I did.

And it felt completely natural, in the most abnormal way.

For the first time since I left the military, here was someone that I could be myself with. I loved my brothers, my father, they were family. The guys from Sammy’s, the guys from the service center, they were all cool too. But somehow, I felt most at ease with a woman who had the unique power to completely infuriate me and turn me on at the same time. Somebody whose life experience was so far removed from mine that I was shocked to find out we even had anything in common. Reese would trade jabs with me without batting an eye, teased me about my prosthetic instead defining me by it. She got me.

So… fuck it.

The least I could do was put her mind at ease right now.

“Just chill, okay? Let’s see what happens.”

She quickly nodded. “Yeah. I want to do that. I mean… we’re only halfway through fall semester, so you’ll be here until after spring at least.”

“Right.”