“Remember the day we met?”
“Of course. How could I forget? You walked up to the deck and stole my heart with your smile.”
He rolled his eyes. “Before that.”
“When I pegged you with my phone?” She rubbed his head. “I’m so sorry about that…sort of. If I hadn’t, we’d never have met.”
He smiled. “Right. Totally worth it.”
He reached behind him and handed her a clear glass box. She peered inside. It was hard to see in the dark apartment, but there was no mistaking the shape of the baseball, or Mickey Mantle’s autograph colored in with red Magic Marker.
“Jamie,” she whispered. She squinted, turned the glass in her hands so she could see each side. “How on earth…?”
“Let’s just say that that little boy likes Mickey Mantle’s clear signature a whole lot more than he liked the colored-in one.”
She couldn’t believe it. She’d given up so easily, and not only had he not given up, but he’d kept it a secret this whole time.
“I can’t believe you did this. Do you know how happy my father will be?” Her eyes welled with tears.
“I knew how happy it would make you to give it to him.” He brushed her wet hair from her shoulder.
“We’ll both give it to him. Thank you, Jamie. This is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.”
“Jessica? Are you in there?” Jenna’s whisper came through the front window.
Jessica covered her mouth with her hand, feeling guilty for taking so long and still reeling from Jamie’s thoughtful gift.
“Of course she is,” Bella said. “Where else would she be?”
“She probably went back to bed with Jamie,” Amy added.
Jamie gathered her in his arms and whispered, “I’m about to do something even nicer for you and pretend I’m asleep so you can go eat cookie dough naked with the girls, when what I really want to do is put that cookie dough all over you and nibble it off.”
He took her in his arms and crashed his mouth over hers, pressing her back to the couch.
“I think she’s sleeping,” Jenna whispered. “I see the edge of the couch. I see her feet. I think.”
Jamie tore his lips from hers and pressed his finger over her lips. Jessica opened her mouth and twirled her tongue around his finger, earning her a heated stare.
“Let me see,” Bella whispered. “Those aren’t feet. Oh wait, yes, they are. Wait.”
“It’s her and Jamie!” Jenna laughed. “Guess there’s no cookie dough for us tonight. Go, go, go.”
As their feet scampered down the steps, Jessica pushed away from Jamie and grabbed the cookie dough, then flung open the front door and hurled it over the deck, pegging Bella in the back.
“Ow! What the…?” Bella said. She and Jenna bent over and searched the ground, finally spotting the cookie dough.
Jenna snagged it and waved it over her head at Jessica. “Thanks, babe!” she yelled. “Go, go, go.” She shooed Jessica back inside.
Jessica shut the door feeling like she’d come home to the friends and the man she was meant to be with. Jamie closed the distance between them, sealing his lips over hers again.
“Sorry,” he said against her lips. “I suck at pretending.”
“Then don’t pretend.” She dropped her towel. “Think you can bring me more pleasure than that cookie dough would have?”
Please enjoy a preview of the next Sweet with Heat novel
Secrets at Seaside
Chapter One
“I JUST CAN’T believe that Jamie’s the first one to get married. I mean, Jamie? He never even wanted to get married.” Amy Maples was three sheets to the wind, sitting in a bar at the Ryder Resort in Boston. That was okay, she rationalized, because it was the night before her good friends Jessica Ayers and Jamie Reed’s wedding, and she and her friends were celebrating. Besides, now that Jessica and Jamie were getting married and her other three besties had gotten engaged, Amy was the only single woman of the group. Drunk was the only way she was going to make it through the weekend.
“But that was before he met Jessica and she rocked his world.” Jenna leaned across the table in the dimly lit bar and grabbed Amy’s hand.
Amy saw Jenna’s lips curve into a smile as she shifted her eyes to Tony Black, another friend they’d known forever, sitting with his arm around Amy, as per usual. Jenna raised her brows with a smile, implying something Amy knew wasn’t true. She rolled her eyes in response. Tony always sat with his arm around her, and it didn’t mean a thing, no matter how much she wished it did.