Page 53 of The Hang Up
“I can see that,” she said at last, and he had a hunch she really could.
Something crackled in the air between them. Something warm and electric and delicious. A flash in her eyes told him she felt it, too. That it wasn’t just his imagination.
He was halfway to closing the distance between them before he even realized he’d moved. One minute he was sitting in his own quiet spot on the picnic blanket, minding his own business, and the next he was leaning close to kiss her.
Miriam had a dazed look in her eyes, and Jason wondered if he had the same expression. She was drifting toward him the same way he was moving toward her, almost as though they had magnets in their foreheads, drawing them together.
When his lips touched hers, it was the most natural thing in the world. He kissed her softly, taking his time, marveling at the softness of her mouth against his. This was nothing like the kiss in the cave, or like the passionate fuck on her dining room table.
This was something different altogether.
He knew she felt it, too, as her fingers stroked the back of his neck, gentle instead of insistent this time. Her kiss was gentler, too, and there was something so deliciously sweet it made his chest ache.
“Whoopsie!”
Jason jerked away and dropped his hand from the back of Miriam’s neck. He blinked at the edge of the woods where an older couple wearing matching cargo shorts stood grinning at them.
“Sorry to interrupt,” said the woman, smiling as she brushed her salt-and-pepper hair back from her face. She shot a nostalgic look at the man beside her, then touched the wedding band on her finger. “We remember exactly what it’s like trying to get a little alone time with a little one in the house,” she whispered with a knowing smile.
“Gotta get creative, that’s for sure,” the man chimed in, smiling at Jason. “Take it from me, son—keep on kissing your wife just like that and you’ll have lots of happy years ahead of you.”
“And a little brother or sister forhim.” The woman beamed at Henry. “How old?”
“Five,” Jason said automatically, not bothering to correct their notion that they’d interrupted a stolen romantic moment between a mom and dad watching over their sleeping child. “Henry turned five in February.”
“Such a cutie,” the woman said. “Looks just like his daddy.”
“That’s what I always say.” Miriam shot Jason a private smile to say playing along was an act of kindness for the older couple. “Lucky for me, I married into a good gene pool.”
The word “married” made Jason’s heart clench in his chest, and he couldn’t figure out if it was terror or fondness that gripped him.
But he was sure about one thing.
He was dangerously close to falling for Miriam Ashley.
CHAPTER10
“Uncle Jason, I’ve gotta dump some apple juice!”
Miriam glanced in the rearview mirror at Henry, who didn’t appear to be holding any sort of beverage. She looked at Jason in the driver’s seat. “Apple juice?” she murmured, reaching for her purse. “I think I might have some sparkling water left in my bag?—”
“No, that’s his word for relieving himself,” Jason said, turning off the highway on the exit that led toward their neighborhood. “We had to give him an alternative to announcing to everyone that he had to drain his penis.”
“I can see how that would be better,” Miriam said, glancing again in the rearview mirror. “How badly do you have to go, little man?”
“Bad!” Henry announced, crossing his legs. “Realbad.”
Jason glanced over at Miriam. “You mind if we take him home first? I know it’s just a couple of blocks from your place, but a couple of blocks can make all the difference with a five-year-old who’s still mastering the fine art of bladder control.”
“By all means,” Miriam said as she shot Henry a teasing look. “If you’re worried about your upholstery, I can just hold him by the ankles and hang him out the window.”
“Whoa!” Henry beamed. “That’d be cool!”
“Maybe next time,” Jason called. “We’re almost home, buddy. Think you can hold it ’til then?”
“Uh-huh.”
Miriam watched in the rearview mirror as the little boy took the suggestion quite literally, and was now gallantly “holding it.” She put a hand over her mouth to stifle her own laughter.
