The Best Thing

When he moved his face to Mo’s and kissed her too, I tried not to let my heart do anything.

I failed.

That pink mouth touching that soft face….

Yup. I was gone. This was over.

I had thought about it the entire drive home. I loved him, there was no arguing it. It worried me, sure. I wished that I didn’t, of course.

But I did.

And I was 90 percent sure he liked me a lot. Enough to get jealous over Noah. Enough for him to come spy on me.

To come here.

I didn’t need much more than that. It was something to work with. Not that I knew what the fuck I was doing or what the fuck we could do or even what the fuck was going to happen sooner than later when he had to get back to work.

But I wasn’t scared, and I sure wasn’t about to give up on something good because it wasn’t going to be easy, especially not when he didn’t seem to want to give up on me—us—either.

Fucking please.

I had this. I’d been made for this. It was all good.

So when Jonah’s eyes drifted over to me as he pulled away from our girl, I couldn’t help but not make total and complete eye contact with him.

And this fucker, who hadn’t even told me bye because he’d been so aggravated earlier, gave me a tiny and possibly apologetic smile.

I wanted to punch him in the stomach and kiss him at the same time. That sounded about right. Sounded great, actually.

“Hi,” he said in that soft voice that I was a total sucker for, even now, when I should probably be mad but wasn’t. Not even a little bit.

“Hey,” I told him, keeping my face straight. “Is Grandpa teaching you to make poison?”

Gramps snorted from behind.

“I’m showing Jonah”—the fact he even called him that surprised me, but I kept that to myself—“how to make Mo’s food.”

Jonah sucked in a breath. His eyes widening, and he temporarily forgot he was annoyed because he mouthed, Did he call me Jonah?

I nodded.

The adorable little jealous shit grinned.

I grinned too as I peeked into the pot to find there was beans and quinoa inside, just on the verge of becoming mush. Then I glanced at my grandpa with a face that said oh, he’s Jonah now? And the face he made back at me said yeah, so? I felt the smirk on my face and saw his own.

Honestly, right in that moment, I couldn’t remember ever being happier.

“I got you something,” I told Jonah.

His eyes lit up. “Yeah?”

I nodded. “It’s in the front pocket of my backpack. Get it.”

Giving me a suspicious look, he went behind me since I still had it on, and I heard the zipper open. There was a pause and a slight jerk as he stuck his hand inside and then… “Len!” He burst out laughing.

“You like it?”

Jonah groaned as he stepped around to the side and held up the can opener I’d bought him. “Thanks, love,” he chuckled before bringing it up against his chest with a grin. “I’ll never go hungry again.”

I grinned at him just as the old vampire let out his own groan.

“Your turn to make dinner tonight, Len. What are you making us?” Grandpa asked.

“Depends.” I glanced at my girl’s dad. “Where’s your mom and Natia?”

Those honey-colored eyes were bright and moving back and forth between the little monster in my arms and my own face. “On their way. They should be here soon, but you don’t need to worry about them. If you show me how, I can order a pizza.”

I slid him a look. “There’s enough. I’m just going to prep to have bowls for dinner. If they don’t want it, then order the pizza, but your sister didn’t cry about our veggie cheese-less pizza last night, and I saw your mom eat vegetables. They’ll probably like it.”

“You don’t—”

The doorbell rang, cutting him off.

“I’ll let them in,” Jonah said before giving me another tight, small smile and heading out the kitchen door after setting his can opener down on the island.

The door had barely begun to swing shut when I glanced at Grandpa and asked, “Are you doing anything Saturday night?”

“Allen is coming over with Lydia. We’re going to play cards. Why?”

Play cards. It was easy to forget this man who still played fucking basketball once or twice a week did something like play cards with his longtime friends. “Luna asked if I wanted to go to that bar by her job for her coworker’s birthday,” I explained. I didn’t insult him by immediately suggesting I’d contact a sitter. I knew better.

Grandpa didn’t let me down either with his words or his eye roll. “We can keep her.” He even shrugged. “You can never be too young to learn how to play poker.”

I snorted. “That sounds like the beginning of a gambling problem.”

He was still rolling his eyes when the sound of voices coming warned us that the door was about to be opened. Jonah came through first, holding it wide as his sister followed right after, with his mom trailing behind, saying “Why would you do that, Jonah?”

His gaze was on the floor as he replied with, “Can we talk about this later, please?”

“No,” Sarah answered immediately as she headed straight toward the three of us. She gave Mo a kiss on the cheek that my kid only slightly tried to dodge, shook my grandfather’s hand, and then gave me a nod before going straight back into it with her son like she didn’t give a single fuck that whatever they were talking about he was trying to keep private. “Why would he need to go through Garrett to speak to you? You have to harden up. You can’t ignore his calls anymore. Do you have any idea how upset he was with you after your injury? We had to plead with him to take you back.”

Had to plead with who? And what the hell were they talking about?

Jonah let the door close, and he finally looked up, making eye contact with me first before switching it over to his mom. “Mum, he makes more than enough money off me. Your pleading wasn’t necessary. And I will speak to him when I’m ready.”

His agent? Who else would make money off him?

Natia flashed her teeth at me as she came over and gave me a hug, gesturing with her hands for Mo. Someone had experience with them discussing shit. I nodded and handed her over, still listening.

Sarah was fully facing Jonah again; she even had her hands on her hips. “When you’re ready? Jonah, the season starts in two months. You have to make a decision now. If you wait too long, the rosters will be filled and then what?” Her back straightened, but somehow her head went forward and her voice got creepy quiet—I noticed Natia stopped walking and just stood where she was, looking too—and asked, “You are planning on playing this season?”

Jonah’s face got pink at the same time it all clicked.

They were talking about his plans for the future with rugby and how he really hadn’t made a decision yet on what he was going to do.

Because really, what were his plans? He hadn’t said a word to me. Then again, I hadn’t asked either because I didn’t want to know yet. Even though I should.

Jonah’s hand went to the back of his head, and he said quietly, “Can we discuss this later? I should get the bags you left in the boot. I’m sure Mo would love to see what you bought her.”