Mom stepped onto her tiptoes to kiss my cheek, and I let her. “Lynn will be back soon,” she whispered. She moved so that she could look into my eyes. “I know Lynn, and Lynn loves you too much to stay gone forever. She’ll be back. Mark my words.”
I just nodded.
“It was good to see you, Mason,” Jamie said quietly.
I followed them to the door and held it open with my hip. “You too, Jamie. Thanks for working on the car. Let me know if I owe you anything.”
She nodded, her eyes holding mine as she passed by me in the doorway. Her fingertips dragged across my stomach. I sucked in a hard breath. She followed Mom to her car, and I closed the door, leaning hard against it.
Jamie had a way of bringing me to my knees. She wasn’t sophisticated and she didn’t work hard to be pretty. She was just Jamie. She carried the scars of her past, but they didn’t define her. Her quick wit and her sexy smile got me every time.
Suddenly, my door flew open and Jamie rushed across the room, flinging herself into my arms. I caught her against me and she crushed her lips to mine. “I told your mom I forgot my keys,” she muttered, lifting her lips only momentarily from mine. Her tongue slipped into my mouth and her hand lowered to grab my cock through my track pants.
I lifted my hands to her face and threaded my fingers into the hair at her temples, then I gave it a hard tug, pulling her head back. Her chin tilted up in the air, and a siren’s smile raised the corners of her lips.
“I missed you,” she said.
“I missed you too.” And I did. I’d go to hell for it, but I did. I missed her. I wanted her. It had been so long.
She stared into my eyes. “I haven’t talked to her,” she said so softly that I could barely hear her. “But we’ll find her. I promise.” Her gaze dropped to my mouth. “Kiss me one last time,” she said. “Then I have to go.”
I kissed her, my lips desperate while hers were soft.
“I know you’re hurting,” she said.
My gut twisted. “I need her back.”
“I know.” She stepped onto her tiptoes one last time and kissed me slowly. “I know you do.”
“It was really great to see you. I wish we had more time.”
She settled back on her heels. “I had better go.”
I nodded, letting her go slowly, reluctantly.
“I love you,” she said quietly.
I nodded again. “I love you too. I wish…”
I shook my head. I wished a lot of things. I wished my mom hadn’t been there. I wished the situation was different. I wished…
It seemed like my life was a series of wishes. And when Lynn was here, those wishes were fulfilled.
“I know,” she said. She wrapped her arms around my waist and hugged me quickly, and then she darted out the door. I ran a hand through my hair and sagged onto the sofa.
I wanted Lynn back. I needed for Lynn to come back.
9
“Mrs. Anderson,” I called out from behind the desk in my office.
“Yes?” she called back.
“Could you come in here?” I signed the last of the papers she’d left on my desk that morning and closed the folder.
“All done?” she asked as she bustled into the room. She stood on the other side of my desk with her hands clasped neatly in front of her.
“Yes,” I said with a weary sigh. I lifted my hands to my eyes and rubbed them.