AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Mhmm.” I roll my eyes at her skeptical eyebrow raise.
“Don’t look at me like that,” I say and hit her arm. “I’m not lying.”
“You might not be lying but you’re withholding,” she challenges.
I bite my lip, failing to conceal a smile. “Fine, I might have woken up in his arms this morning” –her squeals interrupt my sentence– “butnothing official has happened yet.”
“Tell meeverything. Is he in there waiting on you? I can wait in your house if you need to give him a morning kiss or two.” She wags her eyebrows, making me giggle.
“He was asleep when I spotted you through the blinds.”
“Jules?” Adrian’s voice calls out and I turn around. He’s standing in his doorway looking way too gorgeous in a pair of gray sweatpants and a white t-shirt. His hair is mussed in a way that makes me long to run my fingers through it.
“He’s got a nickname for you?” Caroline murmurs behind me.
“Hey, sorry if I worried you,” I tell him as he crosses the yard toward us. “Caroline flew in from California to check on me.”
I can feel Caroline’s eyes on me. She knows how rare it is for me to give details about where I used to live and my childhood. She’s likely surprised that I told him about her in the first place.
“Caroline, this is Adrian,” I say, ignoring her inquisitive stare.
“Nice to meet you. I’ve hearda lotabout you,” she says. I shoot her a glare but she just smirks.
“It’s nice to meet you as well.” Amusement dances in his eyes when he looks at me.
“Thanks for taking care of her. I’m still trying to convince my husband that we should quit our stable jobs, leave our immediate family behind and move here, but until then it’s nice to know that she has someone.”
“Anything for Jules,” he says, directing a heart-stopping grin my way.
This is too good to be true, maybe I hit my head harder than I thought yesterday and in a little while I’ll wake up in the hospital bed because this has all been a dream.Don’t get overexcited, I scold myself. This could just be him being a good friend. The way he held me this morning was more thanfriendly, but he was asleep. I told him I wanted to douse my bed in his cologne while half-asleep, so I can’t hold him to his actions.
“Mind if I steal her from you for a little while?” Caroline asks as if I’m not standing right here. “I’m only here for the next day before I have to fly back to work.”
That detail makes this moment bittersweet. The worst part of being best friends with someone who lives far away is knowing that you have to say goodbye at some point.
“Steal away,” he says. “I’ll watch Murphy for the rest of the day so y’all can have fun.”
“Are you sure?” I look up at him. “You’ve done so much for me already.”
“Murphy is an easy dog to take care of, and Sundays aren’t busy for me. Go enjoy the day. Just don’t overexert yourself.”
A grin stretches across my lips. “Thanks, Sunshine, you’re the best.”
“Like I said before, anything for you.”
His words don’t just sink beneath my skin, they burrow down into my heart and make a cozy little home there. I feel as though I might float away, I’m so happy. There’s still unanswered questions bouncing around my brain, but right now I’m choosing to live in the moment and enjoy this with him.
“I can’t believe you have to leave tomorrow,” I whine, leaning my head on Caroline’s shoulder. “Do you think if you just stayed here Josh would give in and move?”
We’re settling in for a movie night with my laptop on my bed. I’ve never been much of a TV person, so I didn’t bother buying one when I moved in here.
“He’d probably come and throw me over his shoulder to take me back home…” she trails off. “Maybe I should do that. It would be so hot.”
I lift my head off her shoulder and laugh. “You’d make him come all the way here for that?”
“To see him go all caveman protective?” She fans herself. “Yes, yes I would. Why do you think I cause so much trouble?”
We collapse into a fit of giggles.
