Page 43 of Undeniable You

It was hard to concentrate on making breakfast when I was running through so many possible scenarios in my head, including one where Jo admits that actually she has a (benign) brain tumor and everything she said last night was a result of that and she doesn’t actually feel any kind of way about me and also she’s quitting.

Juniper bounced around me, excited about Sophie coming over. My stomach was empty but unsettled so I choked down as much as I could so I wouldn’t be starving when I went to talk to Jo.

Sophie arrived with hugs and presents. No matter how many times I told her not to keep buying my daughter presents every time she saw her, Sophie always ignored me.

“That’s what aunties are for,” she’d say, grinning at me.

Once I’d cleaned up from breakfast, Sophie said she was taking Juniper to the park. I tried not to hover while they got ready and left.

Are you home? We need to talk.I sent the message with shaking fingers.

No matter what was said, things between me and Jo were going to be different going forward and I didn’t know if I was prepared for that. Things had been so good, and I didn’t want them to change.

Jo didn’t respond for a long time as I leaned against the kitchen counter and chewed on one of my fingernails.

I don’t know if that’s a good idea.

It didn’t matter if it was good or not, it had to happen. Her words couldn’t be unsaid.

We’ve got to figure things out. I promise that I don’t want you to stop being Juni’s nanny. No matter what happens.

I didn’t know how many times I’d have to say it before she’d understand it. I’d say it every day if I had to.

Please let me come over so we can talk. Sophie took Juni to the park.

I waited again for a response and made a decision. Even if she said that we shouldn’t talk, I was going to show up at her place anyway. We had to figure this out.

Nothing. No response. I got nothing for ten minutes (I watched them tick by on the clock on my phone) and finally grabbed my keys and my bag and decided to do something really impulsive for the second time in my life.

Chapter Seventeen

Jo

I’d barely slept and now Larison was ready to face this head on and I just did not want to do that. If we talked then everything was going to change and the idea of that made me want to throw up.

Even if we talked and said “hey, we like each other, but let’s not let it affect everything” itwould, and we’d have to deal with that.

I’d quit my job before she fired me. It would be awful, but I’d do it. For her.

There was no halfway with Larison. Not for me. Now that these feelings had developed, there was no putting them back in the box or turning them off.

Fuck. What a mess. What a complicated and twisted mess. I’d known the second I saw her in the café that she was going to change my life. A woman that gorgeous couldn’t help but cause absolute chaos and mayhem.

Should have listened to my intuition, but I’d been too desperate for a job, and also horny.

Fucked over by my own libido.

I should find something to distract myself, but all I could do was pace around my apartment and try to ignore my upset stomach.

I hadn’t answered Larison’s messages because I didn’t know what to say. She wanted to talk, and I didn’t, so I stopped answering.

I knew that if I told Reid what was going on, she would tell me to get my head out of my ass and talk to Larison, which was exactly why I hadn’t reached out to Reid.

A knock on my door made me nearly jump out of my skin.

There was only one person it could be.

Someone must have let her into the building and now there was no way for me to pretend I wasn’t home.