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“Don’t cry, sugar.” Using his thumbs to wipe away the tears dripping down her cheeks, Leo took a deep breath. “I’m the one who’s sorry.”
When her breath caught at his words, he gave her a small smile. “I was a dick.”
Jazz shook her head, ready to argue with him, when he leaned down and kissed her quickly.
“Don’t argue, just listen. I know how your parents are. I guess part of me had hoped that maybe things had changed, at least for your benefit.” He cuddled her close as he talked, soaking up the contact he’d missed the night before.
She shook her head against him. “It’s my fault. I’m an adult. I should have stood up to them years ago and I didn’t,” Jazz whispered, the words sounding raw as if it pained her. “Before you, there wasn’t anything I felt was worth fighting them over. Well, except for nursing school, and you’ve seen how easy that’s been. Things are going to change though. I told my mom everything, along with the fact that I don’t care if they approve or not. I’m going to start living for me and me alone.”
Leo rubbed his hands up and down her back as she spoke, the contact soothing them both. “We’re good?”
“Yes,” she nodded, looking up at him with eyes that melted his heart.
“Good.” He leaned down and gave her a quick peck. “Now, want to tell my why Butler was touching you?”
“He’s my buddy,” she answered with a shrug. “And he wasn’ttouching me, he was patting my hand.”
Leo studied her for a moment. Jazz was completely oblivious to how tempting she was to the entire male population, her buddy included.
“Sugar, I don’t want to sound like an ass, but you don’t look too good this morning. Are you feeling all right?” he asked, changing the subject to something he hoped was less likely to cause another spat between them.
“Are you saying I look like shit?” she asked, blinking up at him.
Leo panicked for a few seconds, realizing that what he said came out completely wrong. He was running through what to say when he caught a familiar twinkle in her eyes.
His woman was fucking with him.
Chuckling, he pulled her close again, burying his nose in her sweet-smelling hair. “I missed you.”
Hugging him just as tightly back, she nodded against his chest. “Me too.”
“Ready to go back in?”
“Yeah,” she said with a lopsided smile. “You?”
He nodded. “What did you two get up to last night?” he asked, leading her back into the café where their friends were waiting.
The pair edged around the chair that Will had pulled up to the end of the booth and took their places on the empty bench.
“Why don’t you give the guys a rundown of what happened last night, Win?” Jazz suggested before digging into her plate.
“Which part? The part where we ate our weight in utter crap, or the part where your mom went super crazy on you?” Winter asked as she sipped her coffee.
“Ugh, let’s skip talking about Victoria, please,” his girl muttered, her mouth full of food.
“We had a girl’s night,” Winter said with a shrug.
Leo looked around the table for clarification as to what that entailed.
“Don’t look at me. I only get invited to the cleanup, not the actual girl’s night.” Butler told him, holding up his hands. “They could have naked pillow fights and I wouldn’t know—” he stopped and turned to the ladies. “Wait, do you guys have naked pillow fights?”
Will tossed his balled-up napkin at Butler while Leo glared.
“Are you trying to get your ass kicked?” he growled.
“It was just a question,” the other man defended. “I didn’t ask if I could join.”
Chapter 23
