The dining table is still laden with gifts. Thewelcome homesign still hangs on the wall.
The house smells mostly of Jase, though there are traces of his mom and sisters Taylor and Gwen as well as faint traces of Linc.
I go upstairs and wash my face as well as brush my teeth, using theherswashcloth and towel before I mosey down the hall to the open space by the tall second-floor window that overlooks the street. The space around it is definitely big enough for a wall of tall bookshelves and that plush, pink reading chair. And the ceiling is quite high, so a rolling ladder makes sense... except for my fear of heights and clumsiness. But it’ll look great, even if I never climb past the first rung.
There are four bedrooms up here and two in the basement along with a big rec room. It’s a big, old house with good bones. A nice yard. It’d be a good place to raise a family.
Am I really letting myself think seriously about this? I’ve spent hours upon hours thinking about this over the years, of course, but this is the first time I’m letting myself ponder it since it became apparent that Jase really is my future.
After grabbing a flannel from his closet, I peer out his bedroom window, which overlooks the back yard and the river. Beyond the riverbank, my eyes are drawn to a bonfire in the drum outside Roxy’s.
Oh… Jase and Linc are wrestling out there. Cade and Joel are watching. Jase must have gone straight there from my house. I don’t know where he got the shorts he’s wearing.
They’re pushing one another, feet wide apart.
Jase’s face is angry. Linc looks like he’s egging him on.
I clench the blind cord when Linc slaps Jase’s head before throwing his head back to laugh. Jase trips him and as Linc falls down Jase comes down on top of him with his elbow pointing to hit Linc’s gut.
“Sheesh!” I exclaim with a wince as I see Linc’s reaction to Jase’s elbow and weight. That looked painful.
Both are on their feet again and I watch Linc lift Jase up in the air and drop him. He lands so hard, I gasp, grabbing the window but stopping myself from throwing it open to shout at them. Luckily, Jase bounces back to his feet like he’s made of rubber.
Immediately, he pulls a maneuver that puts Linc on the ground and they roll around in a tangle of alpha limbs for a minute before Linc grabs Jase by one leg and an arm, flipping him over, but Jason hooks his other ankle around Linc’s neck. And now they’re rolling around some more.
Thirty or so seconds later when Jase headbutts Linc, it doesn’t look like their usual wrestling.
Linc is holding his head.
Jase’s chest is rising and falling like he’s either out of breath or about to absolutely lose it.
“Omigosh!” I manage before I snap the blinds closed.
They’re usually fun to watch when they wrestle, but this match doesn’t seem like much fun.
I poke a finger through to look one more time and am relieved to see Joel between them, looking like he’s giving Jase a talking-to. Linc and Cade disappear into the building.
I wait, watching Joel and Jase and Jase’s body language has my stomach dropping because misery is written all over him. He’s massaging the back of his neck, throwing his other hand out as if he’s ranting about something.
They go inside and I stare, in a daze, at their campfire for another couple minutes before Cade comes out with a bucket to douse the fire.
I kick off my shoes and change into one of Jase’s button-down shirts to sleep in, though instead of putting the t-shirt he wore today in the laundry basket where it belongs, I snuggle it. Miraculously, I sleep for a solid seven hours.
39
JASE
I pull up to the clinic and see my mother’s car out front.
The other council members, minus Grey, are here but they say he’s on his way.
Riley updates me on the Jared Stone situation. He and Cicely are coming to the clinic later on because Mitch Blakely is running a bunch of tests on Jared in both his forms.
“Where’s Blakely?” I ask, sniffing the air.
“He’s up in my mother’s apartment,” Tyson answers. “How are you doing?”
“About how you’d expect,” I tell him.