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“Thanks.” She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth as if she wanted to say something else. Her cheeks got pink and I wondered what on earth she was thinking about that would cause her to blush like that.

Jo let out a breath. “I should get going. You need to go to bed. It’s been a long day.” Getting to her feet, she put space between us that I didn’t like. If I wasn’t so tired, I would have reached out and dragged her back. Made her sit on the couch with me as we talked all night about anything but today. I’d make her laugh. She’d make me laugh. We’d laugh together until our stomachs hurt.

“Larison?”

I hadn’t realized I’d closed my eyes. I opened them to find Jo hovering near me.

“I’m good.” Blinking took so much energy.

“Do you need me to help you?” she asked.

“No. I’ll rally.” I would. I’d make it to my bed. I hoped. Or maybe I’d pass out on the couch. It had happened before and it was a very comfortable couch.

“Okay.” She didn’t seem sure, but she did step away. “Just, um, let me know if you need anything. No matter what time.” It was nice of her to offer, but I wasn’t going to message her in the middle of the night when I had bad dreams. That was definitely crossing the line.

“Thank you,” I said. That seemed to be the thing I couldn’t stop saying to her.

“Everything’s going to work out,” she said, just before she walked out the door, leaving me alone on the couch.

Chapter Thirteen

Jo

The next few days were busier than I anticipated. Larison split her time between getting things done at the bookshop and going over to her parents’ house to help. Lara and Allison had both told her that she didn’t need to come over as much, but Larison wouldn’t listen.

While she was handling all of that, I held down the fort with Juniper. I brought her over to see her grandparents and made sure that she ate and was entertained and every night I made dinner for Larison. She kept telling me to stop doing it, but I refused. Guess we were both bad at listening.

On Friday, I spent most of the day making several meals to go in the freezer for the weekend so she wouldn’t need to cook.

“Are you serious?” she said when she came home and found out what I’d done.

She obviously wasn’t sleeping much, and she’d even been a little short with Juniper. It was clear to anyone with eyes that she was doing too much and needed to stop and slow down. I hoped the weekend would give her that opportunity, but I wasn’t holding my breath. That was why I’d made the meals. IfI couldn’t force her to sleep, I could at least keep her and her daughter fed.

“Yes,” I said, pretty much ignoring her. “I had the time. Juniper helped.”

“Yeah, Mama, I made lasanna!” I’d corrected her on the pronunciation, but did it really matter? It was cute.

Larison glared at me and for the first time I wondered what it would be like to be on the other end of her wrath.

Then she sighed and rubbed her forehead. “Josephine.”

She drew my name out and I let out an extremely embarrassing noise as a response.

Fuck me. She couldnotsay my full name. It was far too much. Larison saying my full first name was pure sex in that husky voice of hers.

“Sorry,” she said quickly, and I watched as her cheeks turn pink. My face was redder, but at least we were both blushing.

“Mama, can we have lasanna?” Juniper said, smashing through the awkward barrier that had popped up a moment ago.

I was really grateful for that kid sometimes. She seemed to know when the best time to interrupt us was.

Larison cleared her throat and looked down at Juniper.

“Sure, baby. We can have lasanna.” So sweet to pronounce it that way.

It was absolutely time for me to go back to my own apartment and let them get back to their lives.

“Please let me know if you need anything this weekend. I’m not doing much.” Way to confirm to her that I didn’t have a very active social life. Whatever. She was too busy dealing with other things to worry about me.