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His mom had caught on pretty quickly to the fact that Leo was enamored with Jazz and surprisingly, she didn’t discourage his interest. She had, however, given him a very strict warning. It was one he remembered to this day.
“You’re a good boy, Leo. You’re going to be a fine man, but I’m warning you now. Don’t mess around with that girl until you’re ready to be her everything. Understand?”
Leo had puzzled over her words for quite a while, the meaning evading him until the night of her graduation party. Holding her close to him as they danced, everything became crystal clear.
Other than a handful of people who really cared, Jazz was alone in the world. She needed someone who was going to putherfirst. Luckily, back then he’d had enough sense to know that he wasn’t ready for all that entailed. He would have stupidly broken her heart if she’d given it to him and that was something he would never have been able to forgive himself for. He’d actually been thinking of looking her up before finding out she was Winter’s best friend; he just hadn’t gotten around to it yet.
Seeing her at the party yesterday was nothing less than divine intervention.
“What are you smiling about over there?” she asked, her voice curious.
“I was just remembering how much I love pink flamingos,” he teased.
“Very. Funny.” She turned to look out the window with a sniff.
Taking her hand, Leo raised it to his mouth and kissed the back of it, marveling at how soft her skin was. “C’mon, you have to admit it was a little funny.” When she stayed silent and refused to look over at him, he said something that he was sure would get a reaction out of her. “Think of it this way. It will be a great story to tell the grandkids in forty years.”
His words had the desired effect as he watched her sputter and flap her hands.
“First off, wow. And second, when would you ever want to tell your grandkids about that?! You don’t talk to them about the first time you hooked up with their grandma! Are wetryingto give them something to talk about in therapy?”
Leo chuckled. She was still mumbling under her breath when he reached out and took hold of her hand again. After last night, he’d quickly figured out that he needed to be physically connected to her as much as possible.
Not want.
Need.
There was just something inside him that calmed when their bodies made contact, whether it be having his leg next to hers while they were sitting or simply holding hands. She grounded him.
Chapter 16
Jazz peeked at Leo out of the corner of her eye, attempting to study him on the sly.
The man was an enigma, one she couldn’t stop thinking about.
He was funny, kind, hot, and he turned her on like no other. He was pretty much everything she’d been looking for in a partner. The only way he could score higher would be if he were an accountant or something similar instead of a firefighter.
She shook her head at the silly thought.
Jazz couldn’t see him being anything other than the hero he was. From the top of his head to the tips of his toes, Leo had the physique needed to do the job. He looked like he would be able to carry a person out of a burning building without even breaking a sweat. Two people, if necessary. There was no way that his body was going to be happy behind a desk with the only physical exertion being the mid-day walk to the water cooler.
No matter how much she wished it.
It was a good reminder why she needed to make sure they kept things in the benefits only category. That was a conversation they needed to have but she had no idea how to bring it up. In her experience, you started out casual and gradually increased until you were exclusive. Leo was doing the opposite.
“Leo?”
“Yeah, sugar?”
“What exactly are we doing here?” she began, hoping for a little clarification to help figure out if she was about to make a fool out of herself or not.
“Doing?” Leo repeated, glancing over at her after maneuvering through an intersection.
“Yeah,” she said with a nod. “What exactly is happening here?”
His brows wrinkled in confusion. “I assumed we would go to the house and then maybe talk and relax for a bit before grilling steaks for dinner. Why?”
She was shaking her head before he was even finished. “No, I mean what arewedoing?”
