Page 35 of Embers of You (Amity #1)

Jameson

Everything has been going perfectly lately. Ever

since the day Sutton came over that ended with me fucking her in the seat of the tractor, things have shifted between us. We text every day, and I’ve seen her a handful of times. Every time we talk, she asks about Ma and it’s only made me fall for her even more.

I still don’t know what it is that brought her here, but she’s alluded to something being the catalyst, she just hasn’t revealed what exactly it is. I want to know, because I want to help her through whatever it is, but I’ll never push. She’ll tell me when she’s ready.

Ma’s been sleeping a lot and I want to be optimistic that it means her body is trying to heal and give her energy.

The reality is that I’m sure she’s slowing down as the disease progresses and I can’t even bear to think of the time she may have left.

Of course she continues to act like everything is okay and that she’s fine.

She tries to get my dad and I to talk, and pushes us together in situations more, but it never ends how she wants. He barely says anything to me and our relationship continues to be just as strained as always.

“Jameson, you’re up,” Dave calls out as soon as I enter the common area and I look at him, then everyone else, confused because I haven’t been involved in whatever they’re talking about.

“Up for what?”

“Embarrassing stories.”

“Why am I involved in this?” I just walked in here and now I’m regretting it.

“Good point, you just came down here, Parker you go.” Dave slaps the back of his hand against Parker’s shoulder.

“I’ve never been embarrassed.” He shrugs. “It’s a gift.”

I scoff.

“I bet Lily has some embarrassing stories about you, should we go over there and ask her?” Jo chimes in.

“She wishes. The worst she has is when her mom showed up the first time we…you know.”

“What do you mean she showed up?” I ask, already horrified at the thought of my parents ever catching me with a girl.

“We were in the middle of it, and someone was outside calling her name. I looked out the window and saw that her mom was there.”

“What did you do?” I’m not entirely sure I want to know, but I can’t help but wonder.

“Well, the window was open so we were pretty sure she heard us. Then she screamed at Lily to come outside and it kind of ruined the mood.”

Jo is the first to start laughing, and then one by one, we all join in at his expense. I feel bad for the girl he was with, but that’s quite the story for them to be able to tell.

“Your turn.” Parker nods toward me.

I shake my head. “No way. I can’t compete with that.”

“Hold on, that’s not fair.”

“That’s too bad for you then.” I shrug.

“Wait, what the fuck?”

I just chuckle and head out to work on some of the chores around the station while the rest of my coworkers play their weird little game.

I open the bay doors to get some air flow while I do inventory on the truck.

“Hey there,” a familiar voice calls out.

I turn around, seeing the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met.

And she’s finally giving me the time of day.

But the best part is that she’s smiling at me right now.

Something she’s done a lot more often lately.

Her eyes are bright, the green even more prominent in the sunlight while her brown hair swishes over her shoulders.

Without hesitation, I step toward her and wrap my arms around her body, pulling her into me and she goes easily, letting me drop my mouth to hers in a gentle kiss.

Her lips are soft against mine and I fight a groan, especially when her tongue teases the seam of mine and I’m about to push it further when she pulls back.

“Not that I’m going to complain about the surprise, but what’re you doing here?”

“I pulled up to work and saw you out here so thought I would stop by really quick.”

“Well, please feel free to do this any time.” I lean down to kiss her again, but our lips barely brush before the call sound goes off and I rest my forehead against hers.

“I think you have to go,” she teases.

“Guess so.” I don’t move away from her yet. I have a few more seconds to hold her in my arms and I’m not going to let go any earlier than I have to.

“Yo, Jameson! Gotta go, your girlfriend called.”

Sutton tenses in my arms, looking at me with furrowed brows. “Girlfriend?”

I shake my head. “Must be Margaret. Sorry, baby. I got a hot date, I’ll come by and see you later.”

She backs away from me, shaking her head. “Yeah, uh don’t worry about it.”

“Sutton.” I start to follow her, but I’m stopped by Dave clapping a hand on my shoulder.

“Come on, man, we gotta go.”

Sutton walks back over to the salon and I watch her enter the door as we drive away, though I’m annoyed we have to go out on this false alarm when she’s clearly upset.

Everything was fine and she shut down just as fast as she had in the past. I know when we get back I’m going to have to do some damage control.

Once we get to Margaret’s I’m annoyed and already know I won’t be playing as nice as I usually do when we go on these calls. She comes out in one of her elaborate robes, hair curled and makeup done. My coworkers can sense how annoyed I am, so Jo is the one that takes the lead this time.

“Hello, Margaret, how can we help you today?”

Her eyes lock on me, but I stand back as close to the truck as possible. When she speaks it seems like it’s only to me. “I’m worried that I have a gas leak.”

“Why do you think that?” Jo asks, but Margaret still won’t look at anyone else besides me.

“Because I can smell it, why do you think?” she snaps, side eyeing Jo.

“Alright, we’ll take a look. Do you have a carbon monoxide alarm?” Dave asks her.

“No, why would I have one of those? They’re ugly.” She grimaces.

“You don’t have an alarm because it’s…ugly?” Parker chimes in. “Do you have fire alarms?”

“If there’s a fire in my house, I’m going to know it,” she says deadpan and I just shake my head.

Parker won’t let it go. “What about if you’re sleeping or?—”

“Jameson, are you going to check if I have a gas leak or not?” she cuts him off.

“My team and I will check,” I tell her, emotionless.

We all head inside, and to the surprise of no one, there’s no gas leak. As we leave, she attempts to get me to stay as she usually does.

On our way back to the station everyone wants to stop and get lunch, though I want to get back and talk to Sutton. I’m unable to argue since everyone else is on the same page and I have no choice but to go along.

Once we finally get back, I walk over to the grooming salon to fix whatever I may have just messed up with Sutton. I’m instantly greeted by my best friend, the bird, as usual.

“ Hot guy, Jameson.”

“Hey there.”

I hear a muffled, “fuck,” and I would know my girl’s voice anywhere. I follow it, only to find her in the middle of grooming a large dog on the table in front of her.

“Not happy to see me?” I tease.

“How was seeing Margaret?” I hear the disdain in her tone and realize instantly she didn’t take that entire interaction as the joke it was intended to be.

“Hold on.” I step around to the other side of the table so I’m standing next to her. “You didn’t think we were serious about me having a date did you?”

She shrugs. “You’ve dated her before, haven’t you? It’s not like we’re serious. You’re free to do whatever you want.”

I narrow my eyes at her, and gently place my hand on top of hers so she pauses what she’s doing and guides her full attention to me.

“I’ve never dated Margaret. I don’t know what makes you think we aren’t serious, because I’ve been serious about you since the moment I laid my eyes on you in that parking lot.”

Her breath hitches and she finally looks up at me.

“She said you dated, though.” She doesn’t acknowledge the other part of what I said, which doesn’t surprise me.

“When have you met her?”

“She brought her dog in when I first moved here and made sure to…stake her claim on you.”

I rack my brain trying to figure out what she could mean, Margaret doesn’t have a dog. Then who she’s really talking about hits me.

“You’re talking about Mallory. Not Margaret.” I can’t help but chuckle softly at her mix up, but I can’t blame her.

“Oh.” Her cheeks flame and she tries to look away from me again, but I don’t let her, guiding her gaze back to mine with a finger under her chin instead.

“Margaret is an older woman who’s been a little obsessed with me. But even if it was Mallory on that call today, it wouldn’t have mattered. We dated forever ago and it was never anything serious to me. She didn’t mean a fraction of what you do to me.”

“I…I have to get back to work and finish this dog,” she says softly.

I nod. “Come by the station before you leave later.”

She smirks. “Maybe.”

I drop a quick kiss to her cheek, and start walking toward the door. “I mean it, Sutton. I need to see your gorgeous face one more time today to get me through the night.”

“You’re ridiculous,” she tells me.

“You like it.”

“Shut up, Vern.”

“You like it.”

I laugh while leaving and I swear I hear the bird call out, “ jizz,” but I don’t think I’m going to question that one.