Best Friend Bride

What was wrong with her that she was exactly where she wanted to be—in his arms? She should be pushing away and disappearing into her bedroom. No pressure, no love, no nothing.

“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” he asked softly into her hair. “Bad day at work?”

“I wasn’t at work,” she shot back inanely, sniffling oh so attractively against his shoulder.

“Oh. Well, I wondered where you were when you weren’t here.”

“You weren’t here either,” she reminded him crossly. “So I went to dinner with Grace.”

He pulled back, the expression on his face both confused and slightly alarmed. “Did we have plans that I forgot about or something? Because if so, I’m sorry. I didn’t have anything on my calendar and my grandfather asked me to take him to the airport. I texted you.”

He had? And how desperate would it appear to pull out her phone to check? Which was totally dumb anyway. It was obvious he was telling her the truth, which he didn’t even have to do. God, she was such a mess. But after he’d disappeared this morning and then she’d come home to an empty house and...so what? He was here now, wasn’t he? She was making a mountain out of a molehill.

“It’s okay, we didn’t have plans. You called it. Bad day at work,” she said a bit more brightly as she latched on to his excuse that wasn’t even a lie. Sales had been good, sure, but Cupcaked meant more to her than just profits. “I tried out a new recipe and it was a complete failure.”

All smiles again, Jonas stroked her hair and then laid a sweet kiss on her temple. “I hate days like that. What can I do to fix it?”

About a hundred suggestions sprang to her mind all at once, and every last one could easily be considered X-rated. But she couldn’t bear to shift the current vibe into something more physical when Jonas was meeting a different kind of need, one she’d only nebulously identified at dinner. This was it in a nutshell—she wanted someone to be there for her, hold her and support her through the trials of life.

Why had she gotten so upset? Because Jonas hadn’t fallen prostrate at her feet with declarations of undying love? They were essentially still in the early stages of their relationship, regardless of the label on it. Being married didn’t automatically mean they were where Grace and her husband were. Maybe Viv and Jonas were taking a different route to get to the same destination and she was trying too hard.

Also known as the reason her last few relationships hadn’t worked out.

“You’re already fixing it,” she murmured as his fingers drifted to her neck and lightly massaged.

Oh, God, that was a gloriously unfulfilled need, too. After a long day on her feet, just sitting here with Jonas as he worked her tired muscles counted as one of the highest points of pleasure she’d experienced at his hands. Her eyelids drifted closed and she floated.

“Did I wake you up this morning?” he asked after a few minutes of bliss.

“No. I was actually surprised to find that you were gone.” Thank God he’d lulled her into a near coma. That admission had actually sounded a lot more casual than she would have expected, given how his absence had been lodged under skin like a saddle burr all day.

“That’s good.” He seemed a lot more relieved than the question warranted. “I’m not used to sleeping with someone and I was really worried that I’d mess with your schedule.”

What schedule? “We slept in the same bed at your parents’ house.”

“Yeah, but that was over the weekend when no one had to get up and go to work. This is different. It’s real life and I’m nothing if not conscious that you’re here solely because I asked you to be. You deserve to sleep well.”

Warmth gushed through her heart and made her feel entirely too sappy. What a thoroughly unexpected man she had married. “I did sleep well. Thank you for being concerned. But I think I slept so well because of how you treated me before I went to sleep. Not because you tiptoed well while getting dressed.”

He did treat her like a queen. That was the thing she’d apparently forgotten. They were friends who cared about each other. Maybe he might eventually fall in love with her, but he certainly wouldn’t if she kept being obsessive and reading into his every move.

Jonas chuckled. “Last night was pretty amazing. I wasn’t sure you thought so. I have to be honest and tell you that I was concerned I’d done something to make you angry and that’s why you weren’t here when I got home after taking my grandfather to the airport. I could have called him a car.”

“No!” Horrified, she swiveled around to face him, even though it meant his wonderful hands slipped from her shoulders. “We just talked about no pressure and I was—well, I just thought because you weren’t here...”

Ugh. How in the world was she supposed to explain that she’d gone out to dinner with Grace because of a hissy fit over something so ridiculous as Jonas not being here because he’d taken his grandfather to the airport? Maybe instead of using the excuse that she’d missed his text messages, she should tell him how she felt. Just flat out say, Jonas, I’m in love with you.

“We did talk about no pressure,” Jonas threw out in a rush. “And I’m definitely not trying to add any. I like our relationship where it is. I like you. It’s what makes the extra stuff so much better.”

Extra stuff. She absorbed that for a second. Extra stuff like deeper feelings he didn’t know he was going to uncover? Extra stuff like being there for each other?

“I value our friendship,” she said cautiously, weighing out how honest she could be. How honest she wanted to be given how she managed to screw up even the simplest of relationship interactions.

And just as she was about to open her mouth and confess that she appreciated the extra stuff, too, maybe even tell him that she had a plethora of extra stuff that she could hardly hold inside, he smoothed a hand over her hair and grinned. “I know. I’m being all touchy-feely and that’s not what we signed up for. Instead, let’s talk about Cupcaked.”

“Um...okay?” He’d literally switched gears so fast, she could scarcely keep up.

That was him being touchy-feely? Jonas wasn’t one to be gushy about his feelings and usually erred on the side of being reserved; she knew that from the year of lunches and coffee. Clearly, he was uncomfortable with the direction of the discussion. She definitely should not add a level of weirdness, not on top of her storming in here and having a minor meltdown.