Page 37 of The Coppersmith Farmhouse (Jamison Valley 1)
“Seriously, Jess. I’ve never slept next to anyone other than Rowen before. I won’t be able to like this.”
“Really?” he asked.
“Really what?”
“Never slept next to a man before?”
“Uh . . . no.”
Damn.
I had just opened the door for us to talk about my past relationships, something I was not ready to do. Obviously I wasn’t a virgin, having a four-year-old kid across the hall, but I didn’t think we were at that point yet where we shared the intimate details of our pasts.
And I really didn’t feel like talking about mine. The words “Nate Fletcher” tasted sour and made me sick.
“Good,” he muttered.
Well, that was surprising. I figured the sheriff would jump all over the chance to interrogate me. I was so relieved that he didn’t, I inhaled a deep breath and settled into his side.
It took me a few minutes, but the tension finally left my body. And when it did, I was shocked to find that sleeping on Jess was comfortable. Really comfortable.
I’d read about it in romance novels and seen it in movies but it had always seemed fake. I doubted that any woman could be comfortable squished into a man’s hard body. Sleeping like that wasn’t real, it was just a romantic notion.
I was glad to be proved wrong. This was nice.
Enjoying his warmth, I curled into Jess’s side and relaxed my head in the crook of his neck. One of my arms was underneath me while the other rested on his torso.
Jess’s scent filled my nose. I had gotten hints of it before, but now that I was lying on him, I could really breathe it in. It was amazing. Clean and fresh.
“What kind of soap do you use?” I asked.
“Not sure. Cheapest one they have at the store. Green apple, I think.”
“Hmm . . . I like it.”
Tomorrow I was adding green apple soap to my grocery list.
We lay there in the quiet darkness for a few minutes and I replayed the events from the day, managing to keep my body relaxed when I thought about being bitten.
“How did you know I was in the ER?” I asked.
I hadn’t called him on my way into town, and even though we’d spent a lot of time together these last two weeks, I didn’t think the general populace knew we were a new couple.
“Bryant was sitting in his cruiser outside town. Saw you come racing by. Decided to follow you instead of pull you over. When you hit the ER, he called me.”
“Oh,” I said.
If our relationship progressed to the point where we were together for major gift-giving holidays and birthdays, I needed to shop online or out of town. Jess had spies everywhere.
“Thanks for coming to the hospital and for being there for Rowen,” I said. “She was freaked. It was nice of you to take her so she didn’t have to sit in the ER with me. And thanks for being there for me too.”
“Not a hardship taking care of my girls,” he said into my hair.
That was the second time tonight he’d called us “my girls” and I liked it even more this time than I had the first. It was possessive, but sweet and caring. Like we were his treasures.
“I like it when you call us your girls,” I whispered, smiling against his chest.
“You are.”
