“Jacob Queen? Seriously?” Beckett asked.
I closed my eyes and resisted the urge to scream. “He’s my...friend. We’re trying to be anyway. He’s my neighbor, and we still have a lot in common because of his parents. That’s not going to change.” I saw something shift in Beckett’s expression. I didn’t know if it was pity or worry—maybe a mixture of both. I didn’t care. I didn’t have the energy anymore. “Again, I love you all. Now, I’m going home. Have a great night.”
“You’re welcome to leave, but we’re going to grill you later,” Brenna said, while Eliza nodded.
I scrunched up my nose at them. “Please, don’t. Nothing happened. You all saw, it was only dancing.”
“Sexy dancing,” Eliza said, and I flipped her off.
“Not very ladylike,” Brenna said, so I flipped her off using my other hand.
We all laughed, while Paige clapped her hands behind the girls. “Wow, this is going to be interesting.”
“It’s not. And I can’t deal with all of you right now. Now, darlings, get out of my way.”
Thankfully, they did. I made my way out of the bar, got into my car, then drove home, doing my best not to think about Jacob Queen. That, of course, meant that’s all I did. I couldn’t stop thinking about him. About how it felt with his hand on my back, the way he looked at me. What the hell was going on with that man? Was he trying to be my friend but not doing a very good job of it?
I had to be imagining the heat and whatever the hell attraction was flaring between us. Because thinking about him in that way would be wrong.
Very, very wrong. And yet, I was terrified that maybe it wasn’t. Perhaps I wasn’t allowing myself to think anything else.
I pulled into my driveway and noticed Jacob’s light on. Thankfully, it didn’t seem like he noticed me or wanted to come outside. Not that I thought he would. Because, after all, it had only been a distraction.
I needed to stop overthinking.
I got out of the car just as another vehicle pulled into the driveway of the house next to me. Hotch got out and waved as he walked toward his front door. I waved back, wondering why I couldn’t like a nice man like him. Why did I have to start having weird feelings about a man I didn’t even know. A man I shouldn’t want.
I was going inside to take a bath, and then I would go to bed, alone, to get ready for the workday. Because that’s what I needed to focus on. Work and family. Not a man I knew I would dream about once again.
The one person I knew I shouldn’t.
Chapter 8
Jacob
I groaned as I looked over my paperwork and leaned back against my couch to take a sip of coffee. I needed a couple of hours off to get a few household chores done, and work on my yard, things that any new homeowner should focus on.
Yet I knew I wouldn’t be able to do any of that until I focused on what was right in front of me. A woman had given up most of her life and time to take care of her dying mother, and once her mother finally passed after a long battle with cancer, the woman’s siblings had come out of nowhere and demanded more money from the will. I was defending the woman, who had lost her mother, hadn’t had time to grieve, and was dealing with three siblings who were possibly some of the worst people on the planet.
They hadn’t even bothered to visit their dying mother until it looked as if things were going to take a turn for the worst. They had gone for posterity’s sake, not because they were losing the woman who had taken care of them. I had seen that much from meeting them.
I would be the shark my client needed, but it was a lot of stress for her. Therefore, I was doing my best to make sure she won. And since I was down two staff members, I was doing more work than usual on top of relocating.
But we would win this, damn it, I just had to learn that things worked a little bit differently up in Fort Collins than they did in Denver. Who knew an hour or so could change so much? I closed my laptop and stacked the files on top of it, telling myself I would only take a little break. I drained the last of my coffee, wincing as it had gone cold at least thirty minutes ago, and stood up to stretch my back.
Today was technically my day off, not something I usually allowed myself, but my staff had pushed me out the doors the night before and told me not to come back until Monday. Considering I had already threatened to do the same to them, I wasn’t sure I liked that we were mothering each other. Though maybe that’s what we needed.
I put my work away and went to get myself some water since I’d already had two cups of coffee. Considering it was the weekend, I should probably limit my caffeine intake. Maybe. I looked down at my phone and immediately called my parents because I could. I could go over there right now and check on them, and it wouldn’t take me over an hour in traffic to get there. There were reasons I’d moved here, and that was only one of them.
“Hey there,” my dad said. “Mom’s sleeping.”
I paused, not liking the tone of his voice. “You okay?” I asked. I didn’t ask if Mom was all right. My father would tell me either way. And first, someone needed to take care of Dad.
“It was a long night, but the nurse is here, doing what she can. Your mom is fine now. She’s resting, and we had a good morning. It was just a long night.”
I held back a curse and swallowed the lump in my throat. “Good. That’s good. Well, not about last night, but this morning. Did you get any sleep?”
I swore I could hear the smile in my father’s voice as he answered. “You know I didn’t. But I’m about to take a nap and possibly do some yardwork later.”
That made me smile even as I pushed away the fear. There wasn’t anything I could do but be there for them both. “I was about to do the same. And I should probably clean and vacuum or something.”
“Don’t you have one of those robot vacuums?”
“I do. Best invention ever.”
My dad sighed. “Wish we could have one, but I can’t have it tangling up in cords.”
“You’re using the cleaning service I hired?”
“We are. And I’m forever grateful for you providing that. While I still have the dexterity to get on my hands and knees and clean the tile, I’m glad I don’t have to.”
“You say the word, and I’ll start sending that food service there, too. They send meals already cooked, right to your door.”
“Maybe. Right now, we’re finding our normal, and I don’t think your mom or I are ready for that yet.”
“Understood. I would offer to cook for you, but we all know that would only hurt somebody in the end.” My dad laughed, and it was the most incredible sound in the world because it sounded real, not tired or forced—just my dad.
“I have no idea how you ended up such a poor cook. Your mother and I both do a decent job in the kitchen, and yet you can’t boil an egg.”
“I only blackened a pot once while boiling an egg.”
“And it was a nice pot. Never did get it clean again.”
I laughed and talked to my father for a few more minutes, reminiscing about the good times we’d had, something that we needed to do more often. These days, it seemed I only wallowed in the bad parts—Jonah, Susan, and now Mom. There needed to be good parts, too. If not, it would only get harder and harder to make it through each day.