Page 85 of The Fire

Jamie would come back to bed and we’d finish. And if it was someone important at the door, we’d have another chance to finish tomorrow. And the next day. And the day after that. Little bubbles of excitement popped and fizzed in my stomach like champagne.

I was going to live in O’Leary. I was going to live with Jameson Burke. And we were finally, finally going to have that future I’d dreamed of.

We hadn’t talked about things yet, but that was just a formality after everything that had happened yesterday.

Jamie’s voice floated in from down the hall, loud and insistent. I grinned to myself. If my guy assaulted a gutter salesman, I’d totally bail him out… but maybe it’d be better if it didn’t come to that. I pulled on a pair of clean underwear and jeans, then grabbed one of Jamie’s shirts—an old yellow t-shirt that said “O’Leary Summer Picnic 2014” in a circle around a cartoon sun—because it was only fair to steal his clothes back. Then I padded barefoot down the hall to find some coffee.

The voices were coming from the kitchen, indicating that this wasn’t a stray salesman or missionary, and I sighed. I didn’t want to invade Jamie’s privacy, but the coffee was in that direction, and if I was going to be upright, I needed some.

“Look, it’s not a big deal, Jameson, I’m just returning your stuff.”

I hesitated outside the kitchen doorway and frowned, unable to place the voice.

“I’m not sure how you got this stuff to begin with.” Jamie sounded bewildered. “I didn’t give you any of these things, Brian.”

Brian. I inhaled sharply.

You have no reason to be jealous, I reminded myself.

I was the one in Jamie’s bed, after all. The one in his house, the one in his life, the one in his heart.

But I was starting to get what Jamie must’ve been feeling when he saw me with Gideon yesterday, because I knew if I walked into the kitchen right then, I’d grab the asshole by the elbow and bodily eject him from the house. Logic played no part in it.

“We were together a long time,” Brian continued. “I must have borrowed them and not remembered.”

“It wasn’t that long,” Jamie began. He stopped and blew out a breath. “You know what?Whatever. Thanks for returning them. I appreciate it.” His voice had an unmistakable edge ofand now you should leavethat somewhat appeased me.

“I, um, also brought you some of that coffee you like,” Brian said. “You know, the expensive Hawaiian kind.”

Jamie sighed. “I wish you hadn’t done that.”

“But it was on sale, and you said it wasorgasmic.”

What the fuck coffee was this?Why had I never heard of it? Why did I not know Jamie had a particular coffee he orgasmed over?

“I’ve never used that word in my life,” Jamie said wryly. “But I did like it a lot.” He hesitated. “Thank you. That was really sweet.”

“Because I'm a sweet sort of person. You could make me some,” Brian suggested. “We could talk.”

“Brian.” Jamie blew out a breath. “I think we’ve said all we need to say to each other.”

“Now, that’s not true,” Brian said. “Remember, we were friends before we were anything else.”

Jamie said nothing, and I found myself scowling. He and Brian had beenfriends?

“Which is why I was kind of upset that I had to hear about the damage to your house from Enrique Poole. You know I would have done the work for yougratis. And I would’ve finished it faster than Riq did too.”

“I’m not using a contractor,” Jamie said. “And it’s going fine. But thank you.”

“You? Are doing it yourself?” Brian was openly skeptical.

I waited for Jamie to explain that I’d been doing most of the work. That I’d been helping him, at least, but all he said was, “I’m capable of painting and… stuff.”

“Right. Remember a couple years ago when you tried to replace the outlet in your bedroom and ended up frying your whole electrical panel? And you were all, ‘But I swear I turned it off.’” He laughed, and to my horror Jamie laughed too.

“That was a long time ago,” Jamie said. “And painting is a lot easier than electrical anyway.”

“But drywalling? Do I even wanna see what it looks like?”