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He was coming home today.
Which explained why she stood on their front porch with a paintbrush in each hand trying to decide between In the Tropics or Skydive. Jesse came to stand behind her. He wrapped his arms around her nonexistent waist, rubbing circles on her belly, and dipped his head to kiss her neck.
“I don’t know. They look the same to me, babe.”
Of course they do.
She sighed and pointed to the color on the left. “In the Tropics is bluer…” Then she pointed to the right. “…and Skydive looks more green. Which is odd, considering its name.”
“They’re both teal.”
“Aqua.”
He chuckled and tapped the paintbrush in her left hand. “That one.”
A couple hours later, after the mess was cleaned up and they stood back to admire Jesse’s planters and their lovely aqua door, a groggy-looking Brendan waved to them from his porch next door. Only three of the homes on Park Place were occupied so far. Brendan moved into his corner house as soon as the gates were up and security was in place. Monica, Danielle, and baby Elliott took up residence in the house by the park on the same side of the street a couple weeks ago. She and Jesse just days ago. They were still living out of boxes.
Brendan jogged across the lawn to their porch. “Morning.”
He bro-hugged his cousin and kissed her cheek. Chloe giggled. “Is it still morning, Bren?”
“I didn’t have breakfast yet, so yeah.” He chuckled, then asked Jesse, “What time are you expecting Taylor?”
“Late this afternoon. Said he’d be home in time for dinner.”
Chloe was making a traditional Sunday roast with gravy and Yorkshire pudding because it was his favorite.
“Enjoy your reunion.” He winked and started a backward trek across the lawn. “I need to talk to him, but tell him we’ll catch up tomorrow.”
“I wonder what that’s about.”
“No idea.” Jesse put his arm around her shoulder. “C’mon, wifey. I’m gonna make us some pancakes.”
She swatted him as they carefully stepped past the door. “What is it with you and pancakes?”
“Babe, you know I love pancakes. They…”
“…should be in their own food group.” She giggled. “Yeah, I know.”
Pulling the roast from the oven, Chloe was thankful that at least their kitchen was done. It was almost six. She peeked out the front window, hoping to see the tour bus coming through the gate, but Park Place was empty. Why wasn’t he here yet? These last few hours seemed to be taking longer than the thirteen weeks he’d already been gone.
She and Jesse just missed him. Chloe was anxious for him to come home and to start their lives, have this baby, to hopefully put baby-mama drama behind them, and most of all for the press to just fucking leave her alone. It was better now that they were in the house—at least she could go outside without someone trying to get a photo. How many photos of her baby bump did they need anyway? How many “Who’s the Baby Daddy?” stories did they have to print and post before people got tired of reading them?
One of the gossip rags, the kind you see in the supermarket check-out line, even went so far as to interview Danny. He didn’t say anything bad about her, though, which she was certain disappointed them. He did throw them the bone that he’d broken off his engagement with Brittany and he was a free agent off the field, so there was that.
I feel you, Brit. Karma’s such a bitch, right?
Jesse came down the stairs, fresh out of the shower with his hair still damp and looking sexy as fuck in a pair of gray sweats and a long-sleeved black tee. Something about him in gray sweats always seemed to get her attention. He swept her into his arms and she squealed, but he didn’t let her go. If anything, he held her against him even tighter.
He took her face in his hands and kissed her long and slow and deep. She called it his movie-star kiss, because when he kissed her like that she imagined that’s how Ryan Gosling kissed Rachel McAdams in The Notebook. Her pure-hearted Jesse was a lot like Noah Calhoun. Fuck the haters. She knew how lucky she was to be loved by him.
“Taylor just texted. They should be here any minute.” He brushed her hair away from her face with his fingers and smiled. Then he kissed her forehead.
Taylor didn’t come home on the tour bus like she’d expected. One of those limo vans, like you ride in to the airport, pulled up to the curb. Bo got out first and helped the driver carry his bags to the porch.
“Hiya, Red. Jess.” He hugged her and kissed her cheek. “You’re beautiful, Mama!” He pointed to his house, directly across the street from Monica’s, and winked. “I’ll be right there if you need rescuing from the Neanderthals.”
No sooner did Bo turn around to walk down the steps, Taylor appeared coming around the back of the van with a leash in each hand.
