Page 19 of Texas Made
“Pizza and ice cream it is. You can keep the yogurt.”
He reached for her hand and pulled her to standing, then kissed her very thoroughly.
*
Since the pizzaneeded to cook, they decided to eat the ice cream first. Jaclyn pulled out a half gallon of mint chocolate chip ice cream. One of his favorites. She gave him a generous portion and herself a much smaller one and they sat at the kitchen table to eat it.
After she’d finished and he’d eaten most of his, Marshall realized Jaclyn looked…well, worried. “What’s wrong?” He finished his ice cream and Jaclyn took the bowls and spoons and dumped them in the sink.
“Nothing,” she said when she returned and sat down again. “I just—Never mind. It’s not important.”
“Bull. Tell me.”
She sighed. “It just occurred to me that we didn’t—we haven’t—we didn’t discuss what’s next.”
“What’s next?” he asked, baffled. “You mean after we eat pizza?”
“Not that. You know I’m leaving once my condo is ready.”
He nodded, still wondering where she was going with this.
“Oh, hell. I’m just going to say it. Is this a one-night stand?”
Not if he had anything to say about it. “Do you want it to be?”
“No. But I also know that this isn’t going to be a long-term thing.”
Now why did it bother him that she said that? He hadn’t been thinking long term. At least, not until she said she knew it wasn’t. “Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why do you know this isn’t long term?”
Jaclyn simply stared at him for a minute. “You live in Whiskey River and I live in Dallas. I don’t see either of us moving anytime soon. Do you?”
He stood and took her hands to pull her up beside him. Putting his arms around her, he said, “First of all, no, I don’t want this to be a one-night stand.” He kissed her, slipped his tongue inside her mouth, continued to kiss her until he felt her relax against him. “It doesn’t feel like that’s what you want either.”
“I told you it wasn’t.”
“Then let’s not worry about anything until it’s absolutely necessary. Can’t we just enjoy being together without labeling it or worrying about what’s going to happen in the future?”
“We can try. But I’m really good at worrying.”
“Hmm. We’ll have to work on that.”
“Good luck.”
He grinned. “Now you’ve given me a challenge.” He got up and picked her up, setting her on the table. “I like a challenge.” With one hand he tilted her head up to kiss her. He got busy unbuttoning her shirt with the other. He had it halfway unbuttoned with her breast in his hand when the timer went off.
“Sorry,” she said, laughing and pushing him away. “Pizza’s ready.”
He watched her as she walked to the oven. The shirt barely covered her ass. Her hair was tousled from his fingers and rolling around on the bed. She made his mouth water. “Maybe you should let it cool.”
She raised an eyebrow as she put the pizza on the stove top. “And what should we do while it cools?”
“I’ll give you three guesses and two of them don’t count.”
She walked over to him and hopped up on the table, undoing another button. “I think this is where we were.” She took his hand and placed it on her bare breast.
